By AWR Hawkins
Washington DC – -(Ammoland.com)- On December 19 2014, PBS used deception to defend the gun control movement by claiming that although “the gun-rights lobby … holds an edge” two years after Sandy Hook, the gun control lobby is gaining ground because of Moms Demand Action, Everytown for Gun Control, and financial supporters like Bloomberg.
PBS did not mention that Moms Demand Action’s last gun ban campaigns–conducted against Kroger, Fred Meyer, and Harris Teeter–failed. Nor did they mention that Everytown’s contributions to the gun effort–their research and reports on school shootings–include non-school shootings, shootings that didn’t happen, and accidental discharges of legally possessed firearms. They also left out the myriad of losses Bloomberg has been handed during the course of 2013 and 2014–from the Colorado recalls in September 2013 to the pro-gun Virginia delegate landslide in November 2013 to the reelection of Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke in August 2014, among others.
What PBS did mention is that gun control advocates are “starting to gain some momentum.” This is evident from the fact that “they’re spending more money than they have in the last decade,” and “they’ve expanded their grassroots game.” They cited gun control proponents’ attempts to “[change] the way they talk about [gun control]” and recent “legislative victories in several states.”
Meanwhile, I previously reported that Texas is getting closer to overturning a 140-year ban on the open carry of handguns. And in the two years since Sandy Hook, Oklahoma has added open carry, as have Mississippi and Missouri. Other states, like Georgia and Idaho, have greatly expanded the locations in which guns can be carried for self-defense. Illinois became the 50th state to allow concealed carry; they even have concealed carry in Chicago. Florida expanded its Stand Your Ground law to allow the firing of warning shots, and numerous college and university campuses in Florida changed their policies to allow guns in cars on campus for self-defense.
At the federal level, pro-gun candidates ran roughshod over gun control challengers on November 4 2014; this included a victory by pro-gun Republican Martha McSally, who won gun control proponent Gabby Giffords’ former seat in Arizona.
And the resounding defeat of Senator Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) 2013 gun control push still resonates.
But PBS said the gun control movement is getting ready to make its move. And part of that move includes abandoning the word “gun control” for a less-loaded term.
They quoted Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence, saying, “This framing of pro-gun versus anti-gun, or pro-restriction versus Second Amendment rights, is not a healthy way of looking at this issue if the goal is to save lives.” He asserted that they need to find a new way to frame their agenda so it does not look like an outright attack on the right to keep and bear arms.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins.
About:
AWR Hawkins writes for all the BIG sites, for Pajamas Media, for RedCounty.com, for Townhall.com and now AmmoLand Shooting Sports News.
His southern drawl is frequently heard discussing his take on current events on radio shows like America’s Morning News, the G. Gordon Liddy Show, the Ken Pittman Show, and the NRA’s Cam & Company, among others. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal (summer 2010), and he holds a PhD in military history from Texas Tech University.
If you have questions or comments, email him at awr@awrhawkins.com. You can find him on facebook at www.facebook.com/awr.hawkins.