Moms Demand Pathetic Excuse for Demonstration in Nashville

All of my favorite blogs have posts about the Moms Demand Action so-called demonstration on Saturday during the NRA Annual Meeting.  My entire family went to Nashville so we took some time away from the Music City Center Saturday afternoon to take a walk down Broadway and get some ice cream at Mike's Ice Cream.  We must have missed the "protest" because we had walked all the way down to the river where it was held and there were no protesters at the time we were there but we passed four people with red Moms Demand t-shirts on our way back up Broadway. One of them had an arm full of t-shirts. Needless to say, according to folks who did see the dismal turnout, the crowd was much less than the 400 Moms Demand predicted.  My favorite photo though had to be the one that explained how Moms Demand made it look like there were more people than there actually were:

Bob Owens of Bearing Arms had this photo from the walking bridge above in comparison to one hallway at the Music City Center.

One photo is the entire @MomsDemand rally. The other is one hallway at #NRAAM2015 on a slow Friday morning. Hmmmm... pic.twitter.com/UZFNSE972F
— Bob Owens (@bob_owens) April 12, 2015

Bob also had this prediction:

PREDICTION: @MikeBloomberg is results oriented. @shannonrwatts is becoming a liability. She and @MomsDemand will be defunded within 2 years.
— Bob Owens (@bob_owens) April 12, 2015

Leftist Group Waving the White Flag on Banning Assault Weapons

The Wall Street Journal Washington Wire reports that the Center for American Progress (CAP) is "waving a white flag" on banning assault weapons in a study out today titled “Assault Weapons Revisited:”

“The answer is not that assault weapons aren’t dangerous and people having access to them is a good thing,” Mr. Gerney said in an interview this week. “There are other things that we can do to lessen the risks of assault weapons short of banning them. … When you’re making policy, it’s always a mix of what’s going to have a biggest positive impact and what is practical and politically possible.”

CAP says the appropriate focus should be background checks and licensing firearms.  And the Journal notes that even though President Obama pushed for renewal of the so-called "assault weapons" that was a threat used to push for a compromise on expanding background checks:

Instead, CAP makes an argument for six policy prescriptions that are equally unlikely to receive a hearing in a Congress with zero appetite for any gun restrictions: implement background checks for all gun sales, force dealers to report to the federal government multiple sales of long guns, expand the prohibition on interstate handgun sales to include shotguns and rifles, forbid the use or possession of machine guns by people younger than 16, and require licenses and permits to possess an assault rifle or manufacture guns using 3D printers.

We've already seen some of these proposals in Virginia.  There was a bill introduced in the last session of the General Assembly to ban out of state sale of long guns.

NRA and Moms

Fastcompany.com has this article about NRA's marketing and suggests they are targeting moms as a response to the supposed success of Moms Demand Action:

The National Rifle Association doesn't make its demographic makeup public, although you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who wouldn't concede it is overwhelmingly white, conservative, and male. (Gun ownership data published by Pew Research seems to support this.) But lately, it seems like the NRA's leadership is especially interested in courting a new and very vocal demographic with considerable household influence: moms.

I don't know that NRA is specifically targeting moms, but with female gun ownership at all time highs, it only makes sense that the NRA would reach out to women.

That same article included a graphic from Dave Kopel's new piece in America's First Freedom about Shannon Watts, the head of Moms Demand Action. Apparently, Fastcompany.com didn't like that Kopel exposed the facts about Shannon Watts' background because they referred to the article as a "hit piece."  Apparently, Shannon Watts isn't very happy with how the NRA depicted her in that graphic either.

It's probably no accident that this attention to NRA's marketing comes on the heels of NRA unveiling a new membership campaign which features a number of women, one of which is below.

Shannon Watts, Bloomberg, Use Virginia as Proof They Will Win

It's become a standard talking point for Mike Bloomberg and the people associated with his various offshoot organizations and it continued with this interview by David Gregory of NBC's Meet the Press:

We’ve shown that we can make a difference in the voting booth too: Joe Baca in California. Robin Kelly in Nevada. And just look at the triple crown in the most recent elections in Virginia, also home to the NRA. Terry McAuliffe, the Lt. Governor and the Attorney General all won by making fixing Virginia’s gun laws a campaign issue. And they won because of – not in spite of – this position.

According to Bloomberg et al, gun control is why McAuliffe and his running mates won in Virginia in 2013.  The inconvenient truth is that Cuccinelli's campaign was the worst run since the 2001 Mark Earley campaign and McAuliffe avoided talking about gun control until many polls showed him with a 10 point lead. The GOP Lt. Governor candidate while a solid conservative had made some comments that were easily taken out of context, causing him to lose by more about twenty points, which likely dragged down GOP Attorney General candidate Mark Obenshain to defeat by about 907 votes.  The talking point works for those who don't know about or follow Virginia politics but there were a lot of reasons that McAuliffe defeated Ken Cuccinelli and being a proponent of gun control was the least of them. 

The fact is McAuliffe did not actively support or lobby for any of the gun control measures introduced during the General Assembly.  He has resorted to amending a total of two pieces of legislation that easily passed both houses of the legislature by attaching gun control measures to them. He was defeated on one before the end of the session and the second bill awaits action on Wednesday of this week during the reconvened session.  It is likely to fail as well.

Bloomberg Plans to Spend $50 Million to Create "Grassroots" Support for Gun Control

The New York Times has this story on how Michael Bloomberg is going to spend $50 million creating an "umbrella group" to create grassroots support for gun control:

Michael R. Bloomberg, making his first major political investment since leaving office, plans to spend $50 million this year building a nationwide grass-roots network to motivate voters who feel strongly about curbing gun violence, an organization he hopes can eventually outmuscle the National Rifle Association.

Looking to model his approach after Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Times reports that Bloomberg is going to get away from the usual TV advertising campaigns that have long been a staple of the gun ban groups and plans to:

...put a large portion of his resources into the often-unseen field operations that have been effective for groups like the N.R.A. in driving single-issue, like-minded voters to the polls.

He's basically personally taking over Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and Shannon Watts' Moms Demand Action, putting them into a new group called Everytown for Gun Safety.  Never mind that none of these groups have anything to do with teaching gun safety, and everything to do with banning firearms they don't like.

Democrats who want to retain control of the U.S. Senate have been less than thrilled with Bloomberg's efforts of late since he has targeted "Red State" Democrats as well as Republicans who did not support his positions.  Trying to put forth a bipartisan persona, he is also creating an advisory board that include individuals associated with both parties.

Underscoring his desire to work with both parties, Mr. Bloomberg is bringing on a new advisory board with prominent Republican and Democratic figures. Tom Ridge, the former Pennsylvania governor and Homeland Security secretary under President George W. Bush; Eli Broad, the philanthropist; Warren Buffett, the investor; and Michael G. Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under both Mr. Bush and President Obama, will all be board members.

The difference between the NRA and gun ban groups is the NRA has actual members who have some skin in the game - protecting their rights.  They own firearms and want to continue to be able to do so.  That's why even though the paid membership of the NRA is only about 5 million out of an estimated 110 million gun owners, a lot more than 5 million people associate their views with that of the NRA.  I'm not really sure there is this groundswell in a segment of the public to do for the gun ban lobby what gun owners are willing to do to protect their rights like volunteering to help like minded politicians and get out an vote for that issue, sometimes at the expense of other issues they support.

Moms Demand Misleads in Push to Criminalize Private Sales

If you saw this Moms Demand Action graphic as a stand alone item, you would think that the Virginia Tech shooter did not undergo background checks before he purchased his firearms.

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The Facebook post on their page however explains what happened a little differently.

Even that explanation is misleading.  Virginia law at the time was not clear related to what information had to be added to state databases related to mental health.  And, since the 2007 shooting, Virginia has changed the law and leads the nation in reporting mental health information for the purposes of background checks.  So, maybe Shannon Watts should find another talking point because the Virginia Tech angle is getting a bit worn.