Category: Anti-Gun Folks

The women behind Moms Demand Action don’t believe that you’re allowed to have a voice at all. See, they are encouraged to lobby and engage in activism. But, if a pro-gun person does it, it’s classified as a case of bullying. There is no disagreement allowed in their world. Everyone must always agree, or they must be treated and punished as bullies for daring to express an alternative view.

… before the truth can even get its pants on. I have mixed feelings about the parody ad copy someone is circulating and is being taken as real Brady Campaign copy. I won’t help to spread it or promote it by showing it here, but I’ll probably surprise some people by saying under the right circumstances, something similar to this could be an extremely effective tactic. Maybe because it was obvious to me when I first saw it that it was parody, I actually don’t think such a tactic is necessarily damaging to the cause.

Nonetheless, even as parodies go pretty outrageous rather than something that tickles the funny bone. There’s enough grain of truth to it that makes people wonder if maybe it is real, and it plays on a lot of our beliefs about the other side. Comments made during the debate over gun control in Colorado only make it seem more likely it’s real. Think about the factors:

• It’s outrageous, so it spreads.
• Even for people who recognize it’s parody, it turns the issue around and makes people think about it from our point of view.
• For people who don’t get its parody, it engages them with the issue. They may find it’s false, but then why did they believe it?
• The media can debunk it, but by doing that they just draw attention to our own message.

I’m not saying this is great, and  there ought to be more of this. Because we’re currently doing well in the debate, I think the straight and narrow is the best path forward; we just don’t need to use deception to win. I’m concerned, though, that we think about tactics in terms of their effectiveness, and not be too concerned about whether a tactic is fair to the other side. That we took the ethical high ground will be of little comfort when the knock comes at the door.

We’re faced with opponents who have no qualms at all about using deception to advance their cause. I think we need to be committed to winning above most other considerations. I agree with Miguel that we don’t need to be using tactics like this in the current environment, but I’ll take a dirty win over a clean loss.

It turns out that people who aren’t fans of guns are even getting tired of Piers Morgan’s gun control tirades. The New Republic does an entire piece on what a fake he is on this issue and how he’s trying to re-write his history when he really didn’t care about such topics. Piling on, the reporter also adds a compilation of the five most obnoxious moments on the Piers Morgan show of the last year.

I think his ratings show that others in the media aren’t the only ones tiring of his antics. I’m amazed that CNN has allowed him to keep dragging their brand down as long as they have.

The LA Times is trying to shame Governor Brown for vetoing a bill that would have banned all semi-automatic rifles with a detachable magazine. Let that sink in real good. The anti-gun media and activists (which is to repeat myself) believe it’s just fine to ban just about all semi-automatic rifles. And are willing to shame politicians who don’t agree. But remember, they are just after common-sense gun laws.

Because of Brown’s veto, these especially lethal firearms are still available for purchase in California. And they’ll continue to be used by wackos in horrific shootings.

Because surely, there has never been a deadly shooting that didn’t involve semi-automatic firearms. And the media will still refuse to accept their role in making these weapons “the weapons of choice for mass killers.” The fact is that the media constantly parroting this nonsense makes it a self-fulfilling prophecy. But perhaps that helps, rather than hinders, the cause for which they agitate for.

Started by Mark Kelly:

“We’re for gun rights,” said James Barnett, a retired rear admiral.

Instead, Veterans for Responsible Solutions wants commonsense actions like universal background checks, Kelly said.

These are background checks an overwhelming majority of Americans have said they support, polls show.

And what happens when we pass these background checks, and the needle on crime rates doesn’t move any? We have “universal background checks” in Pennsylvania for handguns, and that doesn’t exactly stop them from pushing gun control here. Their next big push is going to be to extend that to long guns, despite the fact they are positively rare in crimes. Beyond that, they want to ration how often you can exercise you right, and make it possible for local towns and cities to infringe on it at will.