Every year or two, some dark money group or billionaire (but I repeat myself) tries to spin up a new anti-gun operation. That’s because the existing ones have a devilishly hard time convincing thinking people to surrender their God-given constitutional rights. Of course, these AstroTurf orgs typically faceplant after a few months or maybe a year or two when the money finally runs out.
Remember inspiring “grass roots” efforts like the Veterans Coalition for Common Sense? How about March For Our Lives? Old-timers might remember Americans for Gun Safety. Or Gun Owners for Safety. How about VoteVets? In the Buckeye state, it was Ohioans for Gun Safety. Washington State has the Alliance for Gun Responsibility. There are dozens of examples.
The latest of these AstroTurf operations is Project Unloaded. Their mission statement says it all, “The mission of Project Unloaded is to create a new cultural narrative that guns make us less safe.”
It probably won’t surprise you to learn that Project Unloaded’s executive director is anti-gun Joyce Foundation veteran Nina Vinik. She was also one of the shadowy people pulling the strings behind March For Our Lives, using those fun, telegenic Parkland moppets to push gun control after the Florida school shooting.
Oh, and bringing some anti-gun academic gravitas to the new effort, UC Davis’s Dr. Garen Wintemute is on PU’s steering committee.
Note that Project Unloaded’s mission isn’t to publicize facts, data, or research about the role of firearms or “gun violence” in society. It’s also not to convince people of the righteousness of their cause. Instead, their mission is to create a narrative out of the ether. In this case, the snake oil they’re peddling is that the mere existence of guns makes us less safe.
It’s almost as if Project Unloaded is catering to criminals and lunatics. Because for the vast majority of decent, law-abiding Americans, firearms protect individuals and families. Guns protect homes and they protect children, too. In fact people use guns to defend themselves over 1.6 million times a year.
If PU’s leaders believe that fewer guns make us safer, one wonders if they also believe that defunding the police and putting fewer cops on the street will reduce crime. We’re seeing — in real time — exactly how well that’s working out in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis and every other jurisdiction where it’s been tried.
So how does Project Unloaded think they’re going to accomplish their mission of convincing Americans to give up their guns? By shaping the future . . .
Research shows that teens and young adults are forming opinions and making decisions about guns. Through creative and cultural campaigns, Project Unloaded establishes safe spaces for open conversations about guns and provides accurate information about gun safety to inspire the next generation to choose on their own terms not to own a gun.
SNUG is the first of many campaigns by Project Unloaded.
SNUG? Get this . . .
PU’s marketing plan is pure genius. Right up there with Starbucks’ ‘Race Together’ campaign or Apple forcing U2 songs onto users’ iPhones.
We’ll see how well they’re able to sell their snake oil to an increasingly informed younger generation. After all, even the dim bulbs are aware of the increased violent crime around them, especially in urban centers.
That’s some real sticky marketing, no? Brilliant.
Younger people might blissfully ignore crime until the bad guys get close enough to them that these young people decide they too want to join millions of other non-gun owners in buying their first gun to help keep them safer. Just like generations before them.
It always boils down a simple truth: the only thing that stops bad people with evil in their hearts is a good guy with a gun. That’s a conclusion literally millions of Americans have come to in the last two years.
No amount of SNUG bravo sierra from PU can compete with that fact.
