Currently Browsing: Anti-Gun Folks
May 7, 2012
Posted by Sebastian in Anti-Gun Folks | 5 comments
Looks like Coalition to Stop Gun Ownership Communication Director Ladd Everitt is continuing his very best Baghdad Bob impersonation, this time denying to the Daily Caller that Fast and Furious has had all that much impact on people’s lives.
Coalition spokesman Ladd Everitt argued that there was no evidence for The Daily Caller to report that “[t]here are hundreds of Mexican citizens who were murdered with weapons the Obama administration gave to cartels through Fast and Furious and two American law enforcement officers — Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata — were killed with Fast and Furious guns.”
Everitt argued that he didn’t think there is “actual trace and ballistics evidence to prove that conclusively.”
So we can count on the National Coalition to Ban Handguns to drop its support for ballistics databases then? I mean, since it doesn’t work and all. But this is further proof that their phony baloney concern for gun violence is nothing but a ruse. I never thought I’d see the day when “gun violence prevention” groups covered for an administration aiding and abetting illegal smuggling of firearms. I always knew they were dishonest, but I did not believe they would stoop that low.
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Apr 23, 2012
Posted by Sebastian in Anti-Gun Folks | 11 comments
NRA becomes toxic when exposed to light, says Dan Gross:
In the weeks since George Zimmerman’s killing of Trayvon Martin, corporate America has been force fed a crash survey of public opinion on gun policy. Some of America’s most popular –and message-savvy — companies announced their swift verdict when they, and then ALEC, withdrew support for the National Rifle Association’s paranoid, violent agenda.
You’d think with Gross’s background, he’d know that corporate PR departments generally eschew any kind of controversy. The reason they put the screws to ALEC is because they were looking to ALEC to defend their economic interests, and didn’t want to be associated with ancillary issues like gun rights or voting rights. Sean makes a very cogent argument that the real target of this was the Voter ID law. In this case, the astroturf campaign run by Soros seized upon the Trayvon Martin shooting as a means to defang ALEC, and ALEC, being largely funded by corporate interests, obliged.
But nothing in Gross’s wild eyed ramblings changes the fact that a movement that has people power does not require the use of ALEC. They believe the tide is turning in their favor. I think that entirely depends on us. It is time to awaken the sleeping giant. Tell your shooting buddies to get ready, because over the next several months, everything we worked for the past two decades is going to be under fierce attack, and it will all be on the line. All of it. But if we go into 2013 having beaten them, they’ll be finished. This is our opportunity.
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Apr 20, 2012
Posted by Sebastian in Anti-Gun Folks | 0 comments
He says he had an “unusual cultural advantage,” in targeting gun rights, being from Arkansas. Al Gore should have too, and that didn’t work out too well for him given he lost his own state of Tennessee. His unusual cultural advantage was that he ran against Bob Dole for re-election, who had stuck it to gun owners by refusing to bring up a repeal of the Assault Weapons Ban in the Senate.
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Apr 19, 2012
Posted by Sebastian in Anti-Gun Folks | 2 comments
He’s been showing up to protests, and doing a lot of independent work in the gun rights violence prevention movement. He must be looking to get hired by someone. But by who? CSGV is going to be lucky to meet payroll for the employees they already have. Brady is similarly headed into the abyss, and besides, they just hired Dan Gross who will turn things around by turning on the crazy. CeaseFirePA? That’s Max’s show now. That only leaves Bloomberg, and what does Joe Grace have to offer to Bloomberg?
Grace was Communications Director for the City of Philadelphia under Mayor Street, and then went to work for CeaseFire Pennsylvania. After that he unsuccessfully ran for Philadelphia City Council. If anyone knows of a good senior political communications job in Dem-Progressive politics, let us know in the comments. It’s very important for us to help out-of-work anti-gunners (or even in-work anti-gunners, who are just looking for a career change) find work in other fields. We really do care!
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Apr 19, 2012
Posted by Sebastian in Anti-Gun Folks | 4 comments
This was entirely expected, for one of the anti-gun Senators to put a hold on the reciprocity bills. It was always going to take 60 votes to get this passed, as it did last time it was up. Do we have sixty votes? Hard to say. Last time it failed by two, if I recall, but Schumer had some more votes in his pocket if he had needed them. It should be noted that this hold is on both S.2188, which is the bipartisan bill, and S.2213, which is only being sponsored by Republicans. I still stand by my prediction that without both parties coming together around one bill, that this won’t happen.
Worth noting that Senator Pat Toomey has signed on as a co-sponsor to S.2213, but that Senator Bob Casey Jr. has not signed on to either, despite claims of being pro-gun. Also worth noting that Senator Casey allegedly had a deal cut with Schumer to vote no on the bill if needed.
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Apr 18, 2012
Posted by Sebastian in Anti-Gun Folks | 14 comments
Even Sarah Brady, who gets the inside-the-beltway culture as much as the next person, is becoming unhinged lately. Check out this retweet from her:
Not content just to beat up on NRA, she has some interesting observations on Governor McDonnell of Virginia:
I said the same thing about a girl named Cindy in the first grade. But apparently Governor McDonnell isn’t the only one:
And what did she have to say about Rick Santorum’s announcement that he bought his sick little girl an NRA life membership?
I just want to thank Mrs. Brady for helping contribute to firing our people up this November. There’s always a risk that people forget guns are an issue when they are more worried about economic and fiscal issues. But lately the media and our opponents have been doing a bang up job of reminding NRA members that they are still hated and reviled, and nothing motivates our folks out to the polls more than that. If Sarah Brady has a hard time believing that:
You didn’t get to vote for him because NRA became deeply involved in the coalition to deliver Mike Castle’s political head on a shiny silver platter that primary*, and we succeeded. Next target is Dick Lugar of Indiana this May 8th. Will we succeed? That’s going to depend largely on members turning out. But I do appreciate the help from our opponents.
* Those on the left should take note that I said political head. I spelled it out for you so that you do not mindlessly think we beheaded the former Congressman. I can assure you that the Congressman is alive and doing well, just in case you were worried.
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Apr 15, 2012
Posted by Sebastian in Anti-Gun Folks | 14 comments
It’s becoming more clear to me that the former major gun control group, the Brady Campaign, are increasingly surrendering on influencing policy, and have adopted a new tactic of embracing radicalism, likely in an attempt to solicit more donors so they can all keep their jobs. Just take a look at Dan Gross’ statement from Brady:
Mitt Romney has already established a clear reputation for flip-flopping and pandering to win votes, and that is just what he is doing by speaking at the NRA convention. This time he is going too far. He is proudly aligning himself with a lobby that is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans every year, a lobby that uses a mentality of fear and paranoia, tinged with just the right amount of racism, to promote its sole agenda of selling more guns, with no concern for who buys those or how they are used.
So we’re racists and murderers now, according to the Brady Campaign. That, folks, isn’t meant to speak to politicians, the media, or other such people who can legitimately influence policy. That’s meant to speak to the mouth foamers and convince them to open their wallets. Not to be outdone, the Coalition to Stop Gun Ownership one decides they need to up the ante. In the realm of crazy, they will not be outdone by the pikers at the Brady Campaign.
Naturally I challenged such a ridiculous assertion, but they felt the need to keep digging:
So I follow their link, and it starts out with a bunch of statements from Carol Bambery that are unsupported by live links, and then moves on quickly to the white supremacist statements of… Ken Blackwell.
Now I have my disagreements with Blackwell. He’s a strong social conservative and on social issues I tend to run pretty liberal. But calling Ken Blackwell a White Supremacist is up there with the best tin foil hat rhetoric I’ve run across.
And finally, the coup de grace:
Yes, folks, this George Wallace who famously said “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” This is not a message aimed at a rational audience. This is a message aimed at people who are mentally off kilter, or highly ignorant, and who I’m sure CSGV are hoping are ignorant enough to actually donate them money, or you know, show up a protest. I know from my own activist experience that the off kilter and ignorant are unreliable and often counterproductive to have on your side. This is a losing strategy for them. To be relevant you need people who live in a reality, not mouth foamers. Mouth foamers will just destroy your credibility. We should be happy our opponents seem to have lost touch with reality as we know it. We are winning. MAIG is the only remaining serious threat.
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Apr 14, 2012
Posted by Bitter in Anti-Gun Folks | 2 comments
I’m really not sure how this kind of logic works, but try to follow along as CNN’s Piers Morgan explains why it’s particularly relevant we listen to a New Jersey mayor on a shooting in Florida:
On Thursday, the 42-year-old saved a neighbor from a burning building, carrying a young woman to safety through flames, and receiving smoke inhalation and second degree burns on his hands in the process.
The recent rescue has thrust Booker into the national spotlight, allowing him the platform to comment on a variety of issues, including gun control in relation to Martin and the “Stand Your Ground” law:
Because he ran into a burning building and is getting press attention for it, this makes him even more qualified to talk about gun laws – I don’t even know how those issues even begin to connect.
Booker uses the question to push for gun control like going after FFLs and gun shows – neither issue which has anything to do with the Florida situation.
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