Mike “the Gun Guy” Weisser is nothing if not an ideas man. What The Movement For Gun Violence Prevention Is Missing is the anti-gun kapo’s advice for popularizing gun control. One idea: call it GVP. Like the NRA! Another idea: make it fun. Like the NRA! Apparently all those NRA affiliations and come-ons — calls, emails and direct mail shots — are a good thing, not a bad thing.
Over the last five days I received six email communications from the NRA, including three messages offering to sell me clothing, backpacks and all kinds of other consumer crap.
During that same five-day period I received only three emails from the GVP folks, and every message consisted of asking me to donate money to the cause. Several of the NRA emails were also straight out of the organization’s fundraising kit, but overall the NRA messaging did one thing that the GVP messaging didn’t do – it conveyed the idea that being involved with the NRA is not only important but also fun.
The idea that you can have a good time by being a member of America’s “oldest civil rights organization” is an important aspect of the pro-gun messaging strategy that I’m not sure the GVP community understands . . .
Later today I’m going to drive over to Marlborough where the semi-annual gun show is going on, and the reason I’m going to the show is the same reason that millions of people attend gun shows all over the country every weekend – the shows are fun. I can wander around, play with lots of guns, eat a hot dog and wash it down with a full-calorie drink and buy a Make America Great Again baseball cap for under five bucks.
Spending money on some useless junk may not be the preferred method for raising political awareness within the GVP, but it sure works for the NRA.
It sounds simplistic and, considering the source, it probably is. And I own exactly zero examples of NRA chazerai. But someone’s buying this stuff. So . . .
Did MTGG get it right? Does the NRA win because it makes guns fun?