Roll Call: Giffords PAC Airs New TV Ad Against Comstock in Virginia

Roll Call reports this morning that the anti-rights Political Action Committee (PAC) of former congresswoman Gabby Giffords is dropping a second TV ad against Virgnia's 10th District representative Barbara Comstock:

The spot, debuting Wednesday and obtained first by Roll Call, opens with footage of a parent playing with a small child.

“Congress should be doing everything it can to protect families from gun violence,” the narrator says. “But time and again, Congresswoman Barbara Comstock has sided with the NRA over us.”

The ad is part of Giffords PAC’s $1 million investment in the suburban D.C.-based 10th District, which is near the NRA’s national headquarters. It will air on cable across the district, with heavy play in Loudon and Fairfax counties.

The 10th District is thought to be the best "pick-up" opportunity for the Democrats as both Hillary Clinton and Governor Ralph Northam carried the district by double digits.  Every gun owner in the 10th District needs to contact the Comstock campaign and to see how you can help with less than 50 days until the election.

Gun Ban Lobby Retooling Messaging, Again

Politico had this article earlier in the week titled Dems urged to retool their guns message that details how the group Americans for Responsible Solutions, led by former Rep. Gabby Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, is pushing to rebrand their messaging.  While they may be trying to change their PR, it is still all about enacting more restrictions on our rights.  Politico reported this is all based on poll and focus-group data with the hope that it will take hold among a public that has long accepted gun ownership:

For example, groups seeking tighter gun laws have been trying to get away from the “gun control” label since well before ARS started testing for a new messaging strategy last year. Better options, they say, are “gun violence prevention” and “preventing gun tragedies.”

"We've stepped away from a debate about guns that was sort of postured pro-gun or against-gun,” said Peter Ambler, the PAC’s executive director, “into one that’s centered around data-tested ideas like the background checks that we know increased public safety and save lives, but don't sort of disapprove of the individual gun owner and don't disapprove of the responsible use of firearms in society.”

And while Hillary Clinton promised to “keep taking on the NRA” in October, she should maybe stop, according to ARS’ findings, and instead take on the “gun lobby.”

“The NRA has great favorabilities in a lot of places,” said Global Strategy Group Jeff Pollock, pointing to the 144-year-old organization’s popular — and apolitical — hunting and safety training programs.

They have a new playbook too:

ARS invested heavily in developing the new message, hiring Greenberg Quinlan Rosner to run several polls, Global Strategy Group to host online discussion boards and Anzalone Liszt Grove to hold five focus groups around the country with gun-owning women, millennials and minority voters.

The strongest message in favor of stronger gun laws, Walker said, is “with freedom comes responsibility.”

That language mirrors that of gun rights groups, by design. The NRA calls itself “freedom’s safest place,” for example.

“Essentially, we co-opted their language,” Walker said. Similarly, another point stresses that “as adults, we have a responsibility to make our country a safer place to live.”

ARS’ strategy also subtly suggests that its allies are overplaying some strategies. “Relying on victims’ and survivors’ stories alone can amplify feelings of hopelessness,” its strategy booklet cautions.  

“Mothers have also been powerful advocates for stronger gun laws, but we need to show through our messengers that they are not the only ones who want to reduce gun violence,” it advises, before suggesting bringing in more men, gun owners, hunters and experts like ER doctors and police.

It appears from the article that they may have finally figured out that the power of the NRA is not money, but the activists who contact their legislators.  I especially liked this line:

“Their money isn’t that big,” Pollock said. “It’s not what they do. Their power rests in their stupid postcards and their ability to terrorize members on the Hill and have them panicked about their rating.”

Politico also pointed out that that what goes unsaid is the gun ban lobby far out spends the NRA.

The article finishes up with some interesting data that confirms previous reporting on the views of so-called "millennials" and the issue of gun ownership:

ARS also developed specific messages to turn out parts of the original Obama coalition of blacks, Hispanics, women and millennials. The latter might actually be the most difficult to persuade. ARS’ pollsters found that millennials' views on guns track more with the party ID than their age, and other studies have found that younger voters are especially open to gun rights, seeing them in the same vein of personal liberty as gay rights.

Jenn Jacques who writes at BearingArms.com appeared on NRANews.com's Cam and Company yesterday and said that the gun ban groups may try to change their messaging to talk about freedom and safety, it's really still just about control.

Gabrielle Giffords, Mark Kelly To Announce "Virginia Coalition for Common Sense"

The Washington Post reports that former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly will be in Virginia today to introduce the creation of a group called Virginia Coalition for Common Sense made up of law enforcement, the faith community, domestic violence prevention, and mental health communities to push for mandatory background checks at gun shows.  Just last month, Governor Terry McAuliffe signed into law a bill that expands recognition and reciprocity for Virginia's concealed handgun permits, creates the ability for private sellers to use the State Police to run voluntary background checks on perspective buyers at gun shows, and tightened restrictions on gun ownership for those under a court ordered domestic violence protective order.

The couple were in Delaware yesterday announcing the "Delaware Coalition for Common Sense" where according to WDEL News Talk Radio, they pushed for "processes for relatives and law enforcement to temporarily prevent people suffering a 'mental health crisis' from accessing guns" and "closing what Kelly deemed the 'Charleston Loophole,' a provision in federal law that automatically allows a gun dealer to complete a firearm sale if a background check takes longer than three business days without a ruling."  Look for similar measures to be pushed when they announce their Virginia Coalition.

The Post noted while Bloomberg's Everytown for Gun Safety "strongly rebuked" McAuliffe for making the concealed carry deal with GOP legislators, Giffords group stayed mum.  It was not mentioned whether McAuliffe or any in his administration would be at the unveiling today but former Obama U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia Tim Heaphy along with a former staffer for former U.S. Senator Jim Webb will be part of the coalition.

Gun Ban Groups Keep Distance from ATF Bullet Ban Proposal

The Hill reports that two gun ban groups, Everytown for Gun Safety and Gabby Giffords' Americans for Responsible Solutions, deny having any part in the ATF proposal to ban 5.56 M855 ball ammunition commonly used AR-15 rifles:

"We have sent dozens of recommendations to the administration on what they can do to prevent gun violence — this ammo proposal has never been one of them," Lamb told The Hill.

Meanwhile, the gun safety group linked to Giffords, Americans for Responsible Solutions, also said it is not interested in any such bullet ban.

"We are focused on keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people and protecting the rights of responsible, law-abiding gun owners, not banning bullets or other forms of hardware," spokesman Mark Prentice told The Hill.

ATF's facade of transparency began to crumble over the weekend when reports surfaced that the agency had already removed the exemption for the ammunition from their new regulation guidebook.  They have since claimed it was a publishing error.  In the end, the weight of the over 80,000 comments submitted and the questions related to the missing exemption in the new guidebook was more than the agency could handle. 

Gabby Giffords Struggles to Gain Traction for Gun Control in Mid-term Election

Breitbart has the story here.  It seems while the former congresswoman is doing her best to make her push for gun control a central issue in the mid-term elections, she is having trouble getting candidates in tight races to join her:

In part by design, but also in recognition of the country's political landscape, not a single candidate in this year's midterm elections for statewide or federal office appeared with Giffords as she made her way from Maine to Washington state over 10 days.

Giffords has focused her activity on nine states, including Washington which has an initiative on the ballot that would make the act of an instructor handing a firearm to a student a crime without a background check. All you need to know about just how uphill her challenge is, is this quote:

"If this happened in March or December or any other time, we'd have asked other politicians to join," said Marti Anderson, an Iowa state lawmaker who helped organize a Giffords event in Des Moines. "But it's risky 15 days before an election."

While gun control ranks near the bottom of concerns for most voters this election, there are a few exceptions.  Colorado and Connecticut, where major restrictions on the rights of gun owners were rammed through each legislature in response to the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, have pro-rights activists energized to defeat both governors.

Groups like the one Giffords heads, and the multiple organizations Bloomberg funds have gobs of money but they don't have what the pro-rights community have; grassroots.  Money is important but people vote.  We are less than a week out for the election.  Now is the time to double down on efforts to help those candidates who support us.

The Guardian Asks If "Gun Lobby" Can Be Beat Through Social Media

The Guardian asks that question in this article.

Gun control campaigners are making greater use of social media to organise their supporters across the US, in an effort to digitally disrupt better-funded pro-gun lobbying groups like the NRA.

Three groups – Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Americans for Responsible Solutions, and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America – came together at the SXSW conference in Austin to discuss their digital strategies.

The first two of those groups may have well-known figureheads – politicians Michael Bloomberg and Gabrielle Giffords respectively – but they are also working hard to spark grassroots online campaigns for supporters to press for changes to state and federal gun laws.

“The problem here is that there are more guns in the United States than there are people. That’s not necessarily a problem in itself, but our laws are letting far too many of those guns fall into the wrong hands,” said Glaze, setting the scene for the groups’ digital efforts.

If you are looking for grassroots support, looking strictly at the numbers, Moms Demand Action has 153,000 followers on Facebook.  Mayors Against Illegal Guns has 21,000.  The NRA destroys both of them with 3.2 million followers on Facebook.  Twitter numbers are lower for NRA but they are still about 10 times higher that the numbers for both Moms Demand Action and Demand Action (the only reference I could find on Twitter to MAIG).  But numbers don't necessarily mean you know how to use social media.  It just means you are good and promotion and getting people to click a "Like" or "Follow" button on a web page.  It seems that NRA has improved their use of the medium. 

As far as effect grassroots activity, NRA members filled a meeting room for the NRA-ILA Grassroots Seminar at the NRA Annual Meeting in Houston and heard NRA-ILA staff and fellow NRA members talk about the effective use use of social media and how to make a difference during the legislative process and campaigns.  By the looks of this crowd of gun banners at the SXSW conference in Austin last month, it appears they have a ways to go.