Later today, the National Rifle Association (NRA) will push back against the gun control industry’s calls for an assault weapons and “high capacity” ammunition magazine ban, as well as background checks for all private firearms sales. No doubt the NRA will call for the elimination of so-called “gun-free zones”: schools, churches, places of employment and anywhere else where a concealed carry permit holder is prohibited from exercising their Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. The NRA will also announce some sort of training program for teachers. They will go on the offensive. Then what? The left-leaning mainstream media is nothing if not predictable. The howls of righteous indignation will be deafening. Or not. Because things ain’t what they used to be . . .
Lest we forget, the ten-year Federal Assault Weapons Ban (AWB) was passed and signed by President Bill Clinton on September 13, 1994. Also of note: Google was born on Sept. 7, 1998.
In the run-up to the last (one hopes) AWB, the mainstream media WAS the media. The white, college-educated, left-leaning execs controlling the three (count ’em three) TV networks owned America’s eyeballs, with liberal local papers playing the role of the Greek Chorus to the New York Times’ Zeus.
To fight the AWB, the NRA issued press releases, called/visited the politicians they’d help elect and sent out newsletters. It was not what you’d call a fair fight. The media gatekeepers did what gatekeepers do: they ignored, misrepresented or subverted the NRA’s assertion that the bill was unconstitutional.
The House of Representatives passed the bill containing the AWB (the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act) by a margin of 235 – 195. Not a squeaker, but not a slam dunk either.
Again, this was before the Internet. The Internet changes everything.
Media magnates can no longer control the message—although God knows they’re still trying. Every day, every second, tens of thousands of gun rights advocates are hammering their keyboards, countering the thousands of pro-gun control articles seeping out of every pore of the legacy media.
Now, today, the NRA has instant, direct access to millions of Americans. People who miss today’s press conference will be able to click onto the NRA’s sites and check out the gun rights group’s unfiltered response to the President’s calls for a new AWB. They can come here—or to any number of other gun blogs—to get the truth about guns. As they do, now, in their millions.
The NRA now has highly effective fellow skirmishers: the Gun Owners of America, the Second Amendment Foundation and hundreds of grass roots groups. Not to feed the media beast (much) American gun owners are an army. They have the tools at their disposal to organize, lobby and defeat politicians who seek to diminish, restrict and yes eliminate our Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms.
What next? A wave. A wave of gun rights activism like none before. It’s already happening; this obvious threat to their firearms freedom has roused the previously sleeping silent majority of American gun owners. At the moment, they’re voting with their wallets; emptying gun stores. Soon, they will be emailing and protesting, both online and in the “real world.”
If the gun control industry thinks that the Sandy Hook slaughter is all the excuse they need to restrict American gun rights, they are sadly mistaken. The tragedy has motivated an enormous base of American gun owners to do what it takes to protect themselves, their children and their rights.
Gun control advocates like to paint the NRA and their supporters as a bunch of bullies. They would have the public believe that gun rights advocates base their efforts on the principle that might makes right. It doesn’t. But right makes might. As the gun control lobby will soon see.