The Age of Miracles has not passed! The Huffington Post’s gun rights kapo has penned an article that points out that Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America (MDA) is like those Hollywood Western towns: an empty facade meant to stir emotion and . . . that’s it. In fact, one wonders why the HuffPo published “Mike the Gun Guy’s” post The Confrontational Gun Control Strategy That Just Might Work. It does more to ding MDA than a hundred TTAG exposés. Well d’uh. The proggy website is read by “progressives” who’d no more consider a TTAG analysis than buy Busch beer. I think I know HuffPo’s reasoning . . .
The rest of the piece is obviously, certifiably bonkers. Which tells readers that the previous MDA diss was something along the lines of an Onion article. Check it:
If Moms wants to have a real impact on the argument over guns, why don’t they talk to gun owners and stop wasting their energy on convincing people who don’t need to be convinced? And you don’t talk to gun people by throwing up a website or a Facebook page and ‘invite’ them to post a comment or engage in a chat. Maybe that strategy works when you’re selling a product, but it’s rank arrogance to confuse marketing a product with marketing an idea.
Every weekend there are dozens of gun shows all over the United States. Each of these shows, on average, counts 10,000 admissions. So do the math: if you went to one gun show every weekend, set up a booth, gave out a flyer and shot your mouth off, by the end of the year you would have talked to 500,000 gun guys (and gals). And don’t think for one second that nobody would talk to you. Gun folks love to talk — that’s why they go to those shows.
I’d love to walk into a gun show or some other gun-friendly place and see the Moms promoting their point of view. Would they get an argument from gun folks? Sure. Would the argument sometimes get nasty or offensive? It might. But if Moms believes they will make a difference by not going out and talking to the other side, they’re barking up the wrong tree.
And if Mike the Gun Guy thinks Moms Demand Action is in any way interested in the the truth about guns, genuine debate or limiting violent crime, he’s barking mad. The fact that MDA bans dissent (and dissenters) from their website, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter accounts ought to have been his first clue.
So I guess Mikey’s just as deluded as MDA. Which explains his fantasy dream that they’ll engage gun guys in something resembling a fair fight. And the fact that he writes for the Huffington Post.
HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!
Well said.
Seconded.
Go to gun shows? MDA is afraid when people with guns are across the street! Assuming they could quell their inner terror long enough, I can see those moms now, lined up passing out pamphlets, wearing their ear protection…
In the back stall of the Ladies Room. With the lights out.
I would expect them to pass out… just pass out.
Ok what drugs was this guy using?? I mean that really..
They won’t engage in this strategy because they’re, rightfully, afraid that we’d convince them. Once the moms manning those booths saw we weren’t a bunch of frothing at the mouth lunatics, they might have to reconsider their core philosophy.
MDA would rapidly start to lose volunteers as they, one-by-one, saw the light and became converted. There is nothing like a gun show to see liberty in action.
Heaven forbid they should actually have to think for themselves! Perish the thought.
Ayup. Going to a gun show as a “slumming” activity was the start of my conversion. As to whether talking to gun people at gun shows leads to “seeing the light,” don’t count on it — my experience has been they bring out a good number of blowhards who don’t like being disagreed with (and who also think $599 for a used Glock is a good deal). They’re not the majority, but they’re there.
Shannon is not arrogant. She is naive. She is silly. She is delusional. She is smug, and condescending, rude, and impatient with those who dare question her batting eyes, flip of hair, and who otherwise fail to respond to her siren song, and . . . . . well, phuk it. SHE IS ARROGANT!!! $20 says she won’t engage in real debate.
of course, we could have the debate at MDA world corporate HQ in Zionsville over tea and cookies. . . . . maybe John can pick up a bottle of wine on his way home from the art gallery.
Personally, I’d like a debate on a sidewalk in the middle of South Central LA at 2 in the morning, or Engelwood, Lancaster, CA, NYC, etc. Any basic inner city urban sh!thole in the middle of the night. I’ll quietly pack my Glock 23 or 35 with a bunch of spare mags, and invite some of my non-LEO friends with CCWs. Shannon is welcome to bring as many hot unarmed moms as she wants. Heck, bring your children. I’d love to sit in a terrible neighborhood infested with dirtbags and discuss the 2nd Amendment.
can I bring a camera to take pics of the ultimate city block “train”? that would go for big bucks on the internet “Suburban Mom Invites the Fellas Over for Milk and Cookies”
Not sure I’d agree with the naive comment. She’s a PR shill and knows the winning is capturing hearts and minds. She might not be the most proficient in it, but bloomie money can buy people that are. Arrogance? Sure. It’s about power and future marketability. When all is said and done, her rsume will most likely look pretty sweet as a “moral leader of Mothers in protecting their children.”
The next career step will be diapers and baby food market because “Shannon is looking out for you” ™ as her audience are people who are starving for inclusion in any mutually verbally supportive group (being folks whose Mommies and Daddies didn’t hug them enough and their psych’s use that to fund their retirement). They will follow her to other markets.
Like a whore in church…
This ^^^
It would be analogous to a whore in church trying to persuade churchgoers to become prostitutes.
+ 1,000,000!
I don’t think many of you realize what a PR nightmare that would be for the gun rights movement. The people and products that frequent gun shows around me might not stand up well under the media microscope. I cringe at the thought of video documenting that interaction. Come to an NRA Highpower or F-class competition and the result would be different. The doctors, lawyers, teachers, and well spoken special forces guys that take part in our competition is what the movement needs, not most of the lowlifes that come to gun shows looking to buy cheap chinese crap.
I bought a collapsible baton last wknd at a gun show . . . . 🙂
She probably prefers the permanently expanded version.
Umm, what gun shows are you going to? None that I’ve ever been to match your description
Gun shows have all sorts of folks. Lets face it, there are some weird a$$ people at gun shows. Nutcase vets, rabid preppers, goofy fat guys, business professionals, etc. All sorts. The media won’t show the articulate and educated gun owners. They’ll locate the most asinine individual they can find and give him all the camera time he wants – and it won’t look pretty.
Most likely, he will be decked out in Woodland cammies, but wearing sneakers.
This is why the venue is so important. Choose wisely.
You have a very good point. Sort of like not letting the crazy uncle out of his bedroom until the more sensitive guests have departed. Some of those images can stick for a long time. I still remember televised coverage of a demonstration from Houston (I think) when the “students” in Iran mobbed the American embassy and took the staff hostage. A construction worker squirreled his way into an interview with a major TV station and promptly explained why he was holding a toilet paper roll on a wooden stick: “Here I sit, my a$$hole a strainin’, about to give birth to another Iranian!”
Some images are forever… Sooner or later, we have to win the contest for support from the millions of ambivalent voters out there.
This is true. And perhaps why Mike at Huffpo suggested it. Just like how Nat Geo picks the goofiest loose screws to profile on Doomsday Preppers at the same time FEMA has been promulgating common-sense preparedness for years…Ready.gov is up to two months of food and water for some scenarios. Thats a farcry from 72 hours pre-Katrina…
The point being TTAGs brand is unique- diverse smart articulate funny and some reaaly deep and insightful stuff at times. Thats rare and not to be found at PuffHo’s, CNN or MSNBC which is why the true believers become so enraged and befuddled when confronted by The Truth About Guns.
Good idea HK. How would a news org go about getting that invite? Have any in your group reached out to local or national media? Coud be a good topic for an NPR segment…
You got it wrong…. the allow dissent. But only people who disagree with them because they think MDA is not going far enough!
The problem is the message is not the reality. The people they sent to the shows would learn that and quickly would become one of us…
Or at least not one of them. There is a large segment of the populace who have no interest or personal investment in guns but either recognize the faults in proposed regulation or the value of armed citizens. You might swing them one way with careful application of of fear but when that facade fails you lose them.
MDA. MDA? Isn’t that the Muscular Dystrophy Association? Maybe the Moms should change their name and initials. Every time I see MDA I think of Jerry Lewis.
You’re not that far off.
Bring in the clowns…
“And you don’t talk to gun people by throwing up a website or a Facebook
page and ‘invite’ them to post a comment or engage in a chat.”
Since when does Shannon Watts and her ilk actually allow any comments?
As a man of simple taste, I appreciate the shout out for Busch. It pairs well with a sharp cheddar and slim jims.
despite her attempt to seem cultured and well-mannered (hey, she slept her way to bagging the big dog at her former employer . . . just saying), Shannon’s STL area roots were piqued with the Busch reference indeed.
I doubt she was sleeping – she’s a better actress than that.
All she had to do was wake up briefly, moan “oh, you’re so big!” and then go back to sleep.
true – she have any of John’s children, despite her still being of child bearing age when they got married 4 yrs ago.
And that’s exactly why they WON’T do it. They don’t want a discussion or an argument. They want their opinion to win unopposed. They regularly attempt to SILENCE people who disagree with them and do everything in their power to avoid direct confrontation with logic, facts or anyone with a reasoned viewpoint that disagrees with their own.
Gun shows are a good place for single moms looking for action to find good, single guys. Whether said guys will give them action, well, that’s to be determined.
I normally hunt for single moms in the produce section of Publix, but I wouldn’t mind running into more of them at gun shows.
I picked up my MILF at the local public library.
You will never see anything like MDA at a gun show. The likes of Mrs. Watts and Bloomberg know better than to directly expose their flock to actual gun owners. To do so would mean loosing membership, as many of the gun-control followers would quickly realize that everything they’ve been spoon fed by MDA, MAIG, etc is false.
Shannon’s just a PR prostitute that performs particular acts for a particular fee. She doesn’t believe in anything but the color of money and the glory of the propaganda profession. Make that point every time you mention her.
The ethics of every professionalized field practiced in the US today has been reduced to Gunslinger. They start out preaching ethics, but the next thing you know they’re lobbying for special legislative protection and claiming that ethics requires them to make a lot more money because it’s easier to be honest if you’re rich. Then they get rich and we find it only makes them focus more on money and the sale. Next, they start claiming they aren’t responsible for the evil intentions or behavior of their client, because they’re just doing their job, which is the modern version of “just following orders.” That goes for the LEO enforcing a law he believes is wrong on his way to meeting a quota. That goes for a lawyer making an argument he knows to be false. That goes for a surgeon charging twice market price if he thinks he can take an uninsured woman’s house without bad publicity.
You’d think this would be a plus for our side if we were actually the “Wild West” advocates they claim we are. Somebody should be running a Cowboy Action Shooting camp catering solely to the corporate elite… “The True Professional: How to Buy Off the Governor, Eliminate Your Rival, and Take Home the Loot, Tombstone Edition.”
Why doesn’t HE go to the gun shows and hand out flyers?
Because he probably owes them money for advertising he received yet didn’t pay for (as he did for Ammoland).
MDA is not interested in anything that has to do with anything except throwing ALL guns in the ocean…..PERIOD! They can propagate all day long but they do not want discussion,they know NOTHING of crime or gun statistics( except for the BS the Anti’s literally fabricate). The just want All Guns off the face of the Earth and that is it.None of any of these Ass-Wholes MAIG,MDA,Brady etc. respect or accept the Constitution os the United States,The President,on his own accord and agenda ,without Congressional consent or Constituant endorsement(as is typical for liberals) signs theUN treaty on Gun Control in direct conflict to our Constitution! Clueless wonders all of them!
Let these ignoramuses spout all they want,They ,not we ,are in Direct Conflict of Federal Law.
As for me,No Common Ground,No Discussion,as ” Give em an inch,they’ll take a mile” rule applies with this Sick Faction of America who has NOT LEARNED THEIR LESSON of History of what happens to an unarmed Citizenry .
Their Approch to crime by waving the Bloody Shirt is to punish anyone who owns firearms versus the Real Problem of CRIME and MURDER.I don’t believe it is as much mental illness as it is just plain repeat offenders being let out of jail so they can make room for gun owners who have 8 rounds vs 7 rounds in their magazine.
If they were REALLY interested in stopping GunViolence they would talk with Gun Violence offenders in Prison and find out Where they got guns( on the street,NOT gun shows or background check places) and how they would have been reluctant to perpetrate an ARMED neighborhood vs California,New York ,Wash DC ,and Chicago.
BUT that would mean they would have to use their BRAINS ,so I guess THAT’s OUT!
I’ve only read the portion of his article excerpted here, so I can’t comment on the rest or how he comes off in the rest. This idea of calling these people out for not engaging firearms owners directly in debate is not unsound.
No, I don’t expect them to do it, either. What would be nice, is if even fewer people gave Mom et.al. the time of day for more people realizing that they ate not at all serious about their supposed goals.The more people who see that Moms et.al. are one-way street bullies uninterested in anything but civialian disarmament and self-agrandizement, for refusing to engage firearms owners openly and honestly, the better.
I note that HuffPo still hasn’t managed to turn a profit. Ever. I still expect them to add a gun supplement eventually, “Five Great New Combat .45’s!” Anything to get out of the red.
At some poing the math becomes obvious. HuffPo is rumored to be in play again except no one cares. Like NYT – all the smart writing and editorial talent has already left or is in talks. PuffHo is looking more like Newsweak….lucky to be bot for a buck. Or maybe by some Chinese billionaire looking for an ego monument. Wait …that was the Gray Lady going down …sorry Arianna.
I can see it now, an MDA “Mom” passes by a booth with semi-automatic AK’s or something more “exotic” like a Tavor or Steyr AUG or maybe even on of those .22lr HK look-a-likes and freaks out thinking it’s fully automatic.
“Excuse me, but is that an automatic? The black one. With the big butt. That’s illegal.”
Their members will most likely tweet about witnessing illegal sale of firearms, no background checks, and people making lewd, intolerant comments too them.
Politicians long ago learned that its unproductive to ask members of the opposite party to change their minds and vote for you. Instead, what they do is identify people pre-disposed to see things their way and make sure they turn out.
PS: these people live in their fantasy worlds where FakeBook “likes” matter. What real man (or woman) for that matter wastes time in FB? Two years ago it was PTA mommies preening and teens were moving on to the next thing.
Take TTAG’s lead folks! Post the actual Huffpo article to your FB status update and rip the logic apart. What sort of conversation could a Mom demanding Action have with you that would convince you to gleefully relinquish your natural, civil and Constitutional Rights, anyway?
That’s not MDA’s goal. They wish to change the country’s perception that gun owners are good people. Video taping interviews with idiots at gun shows furthers that goal. It’s rather brilliant.
My mom talks to gun guys and gals at gun shows all the time and the response has been great, never nasty or confrontational. Best of all its resulted in her FFL shop making record sales of handguns and long guns. Maybe H’po is on to something.
I scroll down comment after comment and give up because I am seeing only blowhard comments. Perhaps I missed the one that had it nailed. These “moms” are not going to bother debating anyone. “Moms” is the key and your Senator is not going be seen ever giving a “mom” anything other than his full respect and attention. If he were to question a “mom’s” motives his re-election bid is gone. Skip the “moms” tell your Senators that you are wise to this and they should be too. As I have posted before my little poem should say it all:
See the money MADD rakes in?
That’s a group I wish I was in!
I am a mom and a mom I am
That is what it stands for in MADD the “M”!
So I can get my cause and rake it in!
I can lie and twist the truth and make up stats,
Guns I will attack and say that’s that
That that is the cause no I don’t stutter
I am a sacred cow to many just call me mudder.