“I asked. She wouldn’t say. I didn’t press.” That’s reporter Lydia Nuzum’s reply to “Why didn’t you ask the head of the West Virginia Chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America (MDA) how many members they have?” I made the enquiry after reading Nuzum’s W.Va. chapter of anti-gun moms’ group still going one year later. It’s based on an interview with MDA’s WV “leader” Dee Price Childers [above]. While the West Virginia Gazette reporter didn’t have a grasp of (or interest in) the size of the State MDA chapter she was more than happy to accept MDA founder Shannon Watts’ claim of national membership . . .
“The organization, which has more than 125,000 members nationwide has worked toward enacting legislation that would require background checks for those purchasing guns or ammunition.”
MDA wants background checks for ammo purchases (an idea shelved but not abandoned by New York’s SAFE Act)? Who knew? More to the point, how many of MDA’s 125k members live in West Virginia? What constitutes an MDA “member” anyway? Nuzum didn’t have a clue. So I called Ms. Childers.
“So much of it is an online thing for us,” Childers told me. OK, sure. If you include “on-line members” how many do you have? “I don’t have a number,” she replied.
I politely pressed the point, asking her for a rough estimate of her group’s support in The Mountain State. “I can’t really say. I have to wait until the dust settles [from the response to her recent letter to the editor]. Call me again in two weeks.” Ten members? “Oh no, more than that.” Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? “Closer to a dozen.”
Huh. That’s a lot of positive press coverage for 12 people. Especially when you consider the fact that the National Rifle Association claims tens of thousands of dues-paying West Virginia members.
Of course, it’s not all about numbers; fringe, not-to-say extremist groups deserve media attention too. But it should be noted that none of Ms. Childers’ West Virginia “members” pay any dues to Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. According to Childers, her supporters might make a contribution to the national organization, but that’s not a requirement to be counted as an MDA member.
“We’re putting together a feet-on-the-ground program,” Ms. Childers told TTAG. If the turnout for past MDA rallies are any indication that’s going to be a very heavy lift. If the past media coverage of past MDA demos is any indication, reporters will provide cover for this “enthusiasm gap” by studiously avoiding wide-angle shots. But print and TV journalists really should relay attendance numbers. It’s simple common sense.
so much for a certain W.Va reporter winning a Pulitzer for a hard-hitting in-depth piece on the scourge of gun owners . . . . .
but in other news . . . . Mother Jones announced today that it has hired a W. Va correspondent to help round out their critical news coverage in the coal state. Their new correspondent, Lydia Nuzum, will be located inside Sen. Joe Manchin’s W. Va district offices. Said Sen Manchin, “Boy, this will really make it easier for me to give out interviews with Lydia across the hallway and all . . . .”
like the Obama care people, I bet they have a pretty loose definition of members.
Keep that shit out of beautiful WV. That must be the only 12 people against guns in the entire state
Including Joe Manchin
Maybe 12 if you include people from Chicago passing through on the highway
I’m impressed that she went so far as to say “closer to a dozen.”
Certainly Bloomberg’s people will dispatch an operative to remedy Ms. Childers’ lack of preparation for deflecting any questions that might deflate the MAIG – MDA message or expose it for the theater it is.
“This one goes to eleven”
– Nigel Tufnel
Because eleven is one higher than ten. Awesome flick
I posted it in the “we are all Claire’s mother article” I’m wondering if they’re getting their 130kmembers figure from the 132k facebook likes. Its rare that we see them with more than a dozen members at any given time.
My theory is that:
~33% are gun-activities keeping an eye on MDA
~33% are news organizations
~33% are gun control activists who like any facebook page that is anti gun
~1-2% who are genuine, actual members of MDA
1 of them is Dirk keeping an eye on his woman
To be fair, the MSM doesn’t usually report the ACTUAL number of supporters at pro-gun rallies albeit for a completely different reason.
Why should we expect them to tell the truth about this after watching them vehemently deny the truth about the other?
Somebody on TTAG said it in Russian the other day — I’ll repeat it in English.
There’s no news in the truth and no truth in the news.
And that is the truth.
Too bad Lydia Nuzum is not one of those “illegitimate” journalists DiFi is going after….
Can someone please give these moms some action! They have been demanding it for a long time now. Will someone – anyone – give it to them? Santa you reading this?
Shannon can sit on my lap and we can discuss how naughty she needs to be to get in Santa’s little black book.
Nice
Reporting in from the Mountain State. Our local journalism sucks in all forms. The strain of liberalism is creeping in from the eastern panhandle due to the DC commuters. Charleston (my home area) is being influenced by the capitol city government. I will bet that her numbers stay small but they will get the lion share of attention. The West Virginia Citizens Defense League has a good grass roots head start. This also means I gotta quit messing around and join them. I wonder if Childers is a transplant from another state? She must not know our state motto Montani Semper Liberi…Mountaineers are always Free.
WVCDL is one of the greatest NPOs in the state. I donate to them every year. They really do work hard to protect our rights and even expand our rights.
+1
the title of this article made me blow soda all over the table at subway. thanks assholes.
It’s Subway. It’s not like the tables weren’t sticky already.
They don’t need members. They have money and the McMedia loves them.
West Virginia Citizens Defense League can field more members than that in any small town in “West By God” than they say they have in the entire State.
“Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.”
Rule #1, Saul D. Alinsky, Rules for Radicals
“We’re putting together a feet-on-the-ground program”
I think she meant Pants-on-the-Ground.
MDA doesn’t require dues because children can’t pay dues. Churches operate on an each-one-bring-one basis, MDA operates on an each-one-bring-four, the four being children. They depend on the pitter-patter of little feet for their “feet-on-the-ground program”. Ms. Childers is a rather funny name in the context of MDA since she probably doesn’t have any children, yet has “child” in her name.
Hard to believe they want to compare an organization numbered mostly by children, dead people, or imaginary people with an organization that dwarfs them with actual dues-paying adult members, let alone it’s not the only pro-gun organization.
TTAG has got to be Mom’s Demand Action’s greatest asset. I read a lot more about that group here than anywhere in the MSM. I suspect that if we stopped writing a new post every time Shannon burped, this group would fade into further obscurity. I thought we took a poll on this topic a month or two ago and agreed to ease back on the coverage of these nut jobs. The only reason that I can see that TTAG continues coverage is for the page views it brings from angry gun rights people.
That, and to elicit Dirk’s comments. Which. Are. Priceless.
If every one of their youtube subscribers is a member, then they have less than 500 members.
I thought I was going to find a post with pics of sexy MDA members whose phone numbers we were demanding, and I clicked instantly. But this, this is not that. I am disappointed.
What protection is gained for children by passing a law requiring background checks on ammo? These moms are wasting so much time,and the children they care about are no better off.
but Shannon bought a dog and got an alarm system at her corporate HQ, I mean house, so there
Do not mock the Temple of Doom. You are now unwelcome in NYC. Until 1 January anyway.
“Closer to a dozen.”
So that would make it a coven. That explains a lot.
The thing that really gets me is that more children are killed by drunk drivers every year than by firearms. Dead is dead. It doesn’t matter how you got that way so why not work on the item that would yield the most results? Many have and I hope they do figure out a way to keep people from driving while intoxicated. But when it comes back around to guns – the number of actual legal owners of guns who caused a child’s death is very, very small. Of course it is a tragedy when any one is killed, especially a child. But there are somewhere around 311 million people in the U.S. And at least 85 million are gun owners. If even 5000 incidents involving legal gun owners occurred (which I’m not saying they do but if they did) that would be a whopping .00005% of legal gun owners. And, let’s say that 50,000 murders were done by non-legal gun owners. That would be .00016% of the total population. Of course it sucks to be one of those .00016% or .00005% but really? There isn’t as big of a problem as anyone makes it out to be. Ridiculous.
I would venture to say that “when the dust settles” (i.e. when push comes to shove) Moms Demanding Illegal Action from Mayors has less than 500 people nationwide that would be willing to contribute time and money toward the organization. They had a perfect storm for demanding disarmament after Sandy Hook and they failed abysmally. It wasn’t just a loss by a few close votes. The overwhelming majority of Americans consider the likes of Watts and Bloomberg to be among the most vile, disgusting political hacks of this generation. Within two years, this organization will cease to exist.
I did this a couple of months ago, October 2013 via FB search of individual MDA state page likes. All had the official MDA logo as their profile pic.
AL-46
AK-271
AZ-1278
AR-167
CA-2482/413/566 (various location pages)
CO-928
CT-1163
DE-52
FL-855
GA-687
HI-40
ID-176
IL-3018
IN-736
IA-284
KS-61
KY-264
LA-42
ME-207
MA-1507
MD-343
MI-1043
MN-600
MS-39
MO-573
MT-486
NE-40
NV-690
NH-573
NJ-984
NM-188
NY-2487/1132 (various location pages)
NC-892
ND-197
OH-2731
OK-392
OR-4/1226 (various location pages)
PA-986
RI-445
SC-350
SD-36
TN-417
TX-1412
UT-149
VT-245
VA-1668
WA-827
WV-143
WI-493
Wy-41
D.C.-1589
PAC Islands-20
Dads for MDA-1058
Total:40121
MDA Main Page: 114,949
As Doc 03911 has pointed out, the MDA claims 125K “members”, however that number in reality is the number of “likes” on their facebook page. This is hardly an expression of membership.