The Brady Campaign and Everytown for Gun Safey would tell you that Americans yearn for more gun control laws. They positively demand it. Yet when it comes to political advertising this year, too often the big civilian disarmament groups don’t even mention gun control in their ads seeking to prop up vulnerable Democrat candidates. Why is that, do you think?
For example, in Virginia, the struggling Brady Campaign, through Brady PAC, teamed up with the Virginia “House Majority PAC” to spend money on a radio ad attacking Republican Nick Freitas, who’s running against incumbent Rep. Abigail Spanberger. But the radio spot doesn’t talk about background checks or “assault weapons” bans, it talks about health insurance coverage. No mention of firearms at all.
Why would the Brady Bunch bypass the mention of guns or gun control in their attack ads? After all, they claim gun violence is a national emergency. And they started life as Gun Control, Inc. back in the day.
After all NPR, for instance, claims as many as 89% of Americans support one or more gun control initiatives.
Not to be outdone with fantastically (fake) claims, Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown published this just two short years ago:
Today, Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund released new polling, which finds that NRA support is a political liability for candidates heading into next week’s midterm election. Significantly, 67 percent of voters prefer a candidate who does not take money from the gun lobby, whereas voters indicate they will reward candidates who support gun violence prevention policies. Notably, the survey was conducted before the mass shooting at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, in which eleven people were shot and killed.
On behalf of Everytown for Gun Safety, Hart Research Associates conducted a national survey among 1,200 likely voters with a focus on the issue of gun policies and its impact on voters’ choices in this year’s elections. The survey was conducted online from October 20 to 24, 2018. A polling memo can be found here.
“This poll is just the latest proof that Americans have finally had enough of the divisive rhetoric and dangerous policies being peddled by the NRA and all of the politicians who have done its bidding for far too long,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “Voters are tired of empty words and inaction, and next week this poll suggests they will elect leaders willing to stand up to the gun lobby and do something to prevent tragedies like the Pittsburgh shooting from claiming more American lives.”
“There’s a reason I founded an organization aimed at empowering mothers to take on the NRA in the wake of the the Sandy Hook School shooting: as a mom of five, I knew that there’s no more important issue than our families’ safety,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. “Our goal has always been to make gun safety a top voting priority for American women, and this poll proves that that’s happening. This year, when women go to the polls, we’ll vote to send a strong message to elected officials: Protect our families or lose your job.”
If the NRA is such a political liability, then why is Everytown also avoiding the topic of “gun control” in their ads in multiple states. From the Stephen Gutowski at the Washington Free Beacon:
The nation’s largest gun-control group dodged guns entirely in a new swing state ad campaign that abandons the group’s core issue to focus on health care.
Documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, supported in large part by donations from billionaire Michael Bloomberg, is funding ads that assail Republicans on health care rather than gun control. The ads target state-level politicians in Pennsylvania, Iowa, North Carolina, Arizona, and Minnesota. The postcard-style ads, copies of which are posted to the back end of the group’s website, have nearly identical wording.
In an ad against state representative Andrew Lewis (R.), the group accused him of helping to “take health care away from Pennsylvanians” but makes no mention of guns.
Why would they not mention the allegedly popular and politically potent gun control narrative in their ads? Oh wait, there’s more!
Everytown has largely avoided Second Amendment issues when trying to woo voters in swing states. The group minimized gun control in attack ads aimed at Republican senators running for reelection in Iowa and North Carolina earlier this month. The decision indicates Everytown has determined issues like health care and energy production are more persuasive to swing-state voters—many of whom may have recently become gun owners—according to J. Miles Coleman, associate editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
Could it be that despite all their blather about the supposed popularity of gun control, deep down inside where the rubber meets the road, the Civilian Disarmament Industrial Complex knows that Americans don’t support gun control. Especially now, with 6.2 million new gun owners so far this year and TV screens full of almost nightly civil unrest, riots and looting.
The fact is, most Americans embrace the safety and empowerment that comes from firearm ownership. After all, Americans aren’t stupid. They know that no matter what happens, they are their own first responders.