On Tuesday, 17 gun-control groups were included in a press release endorsing Hillary Clinton for president. However, you can see right through more than half of them.
The endorsement was released by the Newtown Action Alliance and the States United to Prevent Gun Violence Action Fund. After acknowledging “support for the Second Amendment,” it advocated for every gun-control measure currently in fashion—laws that would, among other things:- Allow gun makers to be sued for criminal gun violence;
- Allow gun sellers to be sued for criminal use of any gun they sell;
- Deny citizens their constitutional rights without due process; and
- Ban and confiscate millions of legally owned semi-automatic firearms.
The idea that one can support an individual right to keep and bear arms—while at the same time suing gun makers and sellers into bankruptcy, taking away constitutional rights by executive fiat, banning the sale of the most popular firearms in America and confiscating tens of millions of legally owned firearms—is ludicrous. Believing that this constitutes “support for the Second Amendment” requires a denial of reality that no reasonable person can countenance.
These 17 groups described themselves as “grassroots” and their proposals as “common-sense.” However, when Gallup reports that only one-third of Americans support an “assault weapons” ban (a record low), one has to ask: How deep are their roots? How common is their sense? Are they really … real?Northwest Corner Committee For Gun Violence Prevention also seems to have hosted a vigil in 2014 … Attendees were asked to bring their own candle.
Let’s find out who is real, and who might be Bigfoot.- Art=Ammo Artists Against Gun Violence. You might not recognize them; they lay down on streets and sidewalks and draw chalk outlines around their bodies. “We silenced Times Square.” Good for you. NRA has trained more 55,000 firearms instructors.
- The ENOUGH Campaign. It’s hard to tell just what this campaign actually does. Its last annual report is dated 2013, and it was only seven pages long, four of which contain no information. The group claims credit for organizing a vigil in Stamford, Conn.—“one of 269 such events … organized by the Newtown Action Alliance.” Oh.
- The Children’s Firearms Safety Alliance. This group’s home page repeats the Brady Campaign’s current “Toddler” campaign, and its archives only go back three months. By contrast, NRA held its 145th Annual Meetings in 2016.
- Colorado Ceasefire. This organization is particularly hard to nail down; its main claim to fame seems to be the 2013 gun-control efforts financed by Michael Bloomberg. The group’s website identifies no staff members. Its education branch, formed in 2015, is “still in its infancy.” However, NRA’s Eddie Eagle® GunSafe program has been taught to more than 28 million children to date, and is now available for free online.
- The Connecticut Effect has no webpage, just a Facebook page that reposts material from other anti-gun sources. While its mission is to “minimize gun violence nationwide,” only 326 people like it (5,050,637 like the NRA’s page).
- The Greenwich Council Against Gun Violence also has a Facebook page, but lists no director or staff. Like The Connecticut Effect, it reposts gun-control articles from other sources (NRANews began broadcasting original content 12 years ago).
- Gun Control Today gets credit for being the most honestly named organization on the list. However, it is pathetically tiny: Only 36 people like its Facebook page, which contains travelogue snapshots of New York. Some show a single woman holding a “This Grandmother is for Gun Control” sign.
- New Castle Promise is even smaller, as it has no webpage or Facebook presence at all. It’s possible that the press release got the name wrong, but a search for “Newcastle Promise” also failed to turn up any results.
- Northwest Corner Committee For Gun Violence Prevention seems to have hosted a vigil in 2014, according to a brief announcement on Connecticut Against Gun Violence.org—the only item returned by a search for the group. Attendees were asked to bring their own candle.
- Reston Herndon Alliance to End Gun Violence last made a Facebook post on June 1, when the group asked participants to wear orange. A grand total of six people like the group’s page.
Now, there’s no shame in starting a Facebook page for a cause that only garners six likes. However, to include them in a list of 17 gun-control organizations endorsing a national candidate is beyond misleading—by any standard.There’s no shame in starting a Facebook page for a cause that only garners six likes. However, to include them in a list of 17 gun-control organizations endorsing a national candidate is beyond misleading.
Moreover, to front such paper tigers as credible endorsers of Hillary Clinton destroys trust in all parties involved. Yet this is the game plan for gun control: Always claim to be bigger than you are, no matter how ridiculous it seems—just like including churches, lobbyists and labor unions to pad a list of 141 “medical groups,” or announcing “expected” attendance at events before they actually occur.
Similarly, Hillary claims that 90 percent of the public is for gun control (as if 90 percent of us could actually agree on anything). Note to Hillary: You may believe the Supreme Court was wrong in Heller, but 73 percent of Americans disagree with you. Aren’t some of these the same people? Or would you have us believe that 163 percent of Americans are weighing in on this issue?
Remember how, despite calls for massive protests, only 40 people attended a day of anti-gun activities during the 2016 NRA Annual Meetings? Only one lonely protestor appeared at the Kentucky Expo Center, lost amidst nearly 80,000 NRA members.
Are there any roots to this grass, or is it all on the surface? Why, to paraphrase Admiral Nimitz, isn’t their common sense more … common?
Or, in the spirit of the season, is it all just smoke and mirrors?
