It’s been 20 years since the Brady Passed, and the Washington Post wrote an article about it that had some interesting tidbits:
5. Opinions of the National Rifle Association are
about the same as they were 20 years ago.
December 2012, Gallup
In a 1993 Gallup survey, 55 percent of the country had a favorable opinion of the NRA.
At the end of 2012, 54 percent of Americans had a favorable opinion of them.
Source
True enough, but what they forgot to mention is how much our NRA has grown since those days, to 5 million members (May 2013)!
1. When gun policy gets passed, it’s usually about loosening gun restrictions, not tightening them.
The New York Times did a study in December 2013 analyzing gun policy since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School the previous year, a year when 71 other children were killed by gun violence. Around the country, 1,500 state gun bills were proposed, 109 became law, and 70 of those new laws loosened existing gun legislation. According to a Gallup poll from January 30, 2014, 55 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with existing gun policy.
Except in places like California, New York and Connecticut.
2. 242 members of the House had an “A rating” from the National Rifle Association in December 2012.
And if they want to keep getting elected, they better do what we want, because what the NRA wants is what the pro-gun majority wants.
4. In 1998, gun violence was seen as the most pressing issue in the country, according to a Gallup survey.
In October 2013, 1 percent of respondents saw violence and crime as the most pressing issue in the country.
If you keep shouting fire, eventually people stop taking you seriously. Besides, why should we care if two gang bangers shoot each other? We get guns to protect ourselves and sometimes to save a stranger, but there’s little we can do in gang-infested neighborhoods where the law-abiding choose to be unarmed, choose not to snitch, choose not to call 911 when they see a crime being committed. Spike Lee for example complains of how Brooklyn is being gentrified, how they now pick up the garbage more often, how the hipsters should respect the culture of the place. Of course, Lee doesn’t live in Brooklyn anymore, he lives in a $34 million dollar apartment in Manhattan, yet those comments show precisely why the ghetto is worst than any white neighborhood.
6. In the 1993-1994 election cycle, the NRA spent $2.3 million.
In the 2011-2012 election cycle, they spent $24.8 million.
And if we had 10 million members, maybe we could spend $44 million. Besides, if the adversary thinks we spend a lot he should see what the unions, oil companies, insurance agencies, and everyone else is spending. Freedom is not free, indeed.
7. New gun-control groups are starting to spend big money, too.
Gabby Giffords, who was shot at a constituent meeting in Arizona in 2011, started Americans for Responsible Solutions, a gun-control focused 501(c)4. The group raised nearly $12.5 million this year. Michael Bloomberg started Mayors Against Illegal Guns in 2006. The organization has spent nearly $2 million lobbying since its formation. According to the National Journal, “gun-control groups spent five times as much on federal lobbying in 2013 as they did the year before, but the NRA and others still outpaced them by more than 7-to-1.”
Pathetic, for people that have Bloomberg on their side you’d think they’d be able to raise twice that much. Yet this only proves one thing, gun banners lack commitment. The average Joe who hates guns isn’t willing to spend $35 a year to join any gun-hating organizations, and thank goodness for that.
8. In 1993, 34 percent of Americans thought it was more important to protect the right to own guns than control gun ownership.
Pew Research Center, December 2013
In 2013, 48 percent of Americans thought that.
I’ll be happy when that number grows to 70%, and it can happen! The visibility of the open carry movement, the power of social media, and the reawakening of the self-reliant spirit could take us in that direction.
I know it’s easy to focus on the bad news, Obama’s election and reelection have been real downers, but make no mistake, we are winning.