Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign. (Photo: Brady Campaign)
In a CNN op-ed, Dan Gross, the president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, argued that we’ve reached the “tipping point” in the debate over laws that restrict one’s Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
Gross believes that “change is in the air” and gives various reasons to substantiate his argument. For the sake of brevity and clarity, I’ve recapitulated his article in a “five reasons” format.
1. Pop Culture Echo Chamber
Gross believes that increasingly actors, singers, artists and other pop culture icons are jumping on the gun-grabbing bandwagon. He cited a recent SNL skit as well as a “Blacklish” television episode that looked at the issue through a comedic lens; and mentioned a Kim Kardashian appeal for universal background checks on Twitter.
“As with smoking, drinking and driving and same-sex marriage, the sentiments of the American public are being reflected in media and culture beyond victims and advocates,” wrote Gross.
2. Presidential Debate
At the Democratic debate last week it was rather evident that candidates weren’t shying away from gun control, notes Gross.
“Long considered a “third rail” issue, major presidential candidates are actually running on it,” argued Gross. “In last week’s Democratic debate, candidates were falling over each other to demonstrate the strength of their stance for sensible gun laws. They were actually bragging about their negative NRA ratings.”
3. Public Polls
Public polls consistently show widespread support for universal background checks.
“An astounding 93% of the American public, including 90% of Republican voters, more than 80% of gun owners and more than 70% of NRA households support expanding Brady background checks to all gun sales,” wrote Gross.
4. State-Level Gun Control
Gross touted the success of draconian gun measures enacted at the state level following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
“In fact, since 20 children and six teachers were killed at Sandy Hook, six states — Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Oregon and Washington — have expanded Brady background checks to all gun sales,” wrote Gross.
5. Ballot Initiatives
The future of the gun-control movement, according to Gross, is ballot initiatives.
“Ballot initiatives, where citizens can vote directly on a new law, illuminate a true path forward,” explained Gross. “Turns out it’s a lot easier for the gun lobby to bully a small number of politicians than to bully millions of voters.”
“After we win in Maine and Nevada, there are 14 more states that have the ballot initiative process that don’t have expanded background checks,” he continued.
Conclusion
Gross concludes by saying that “to see all this clear evidence that our mission is turning into a true movement, into a collective outcry of “enough,” and that the tipping point for the gun issue, finally, is here.”
My thoughts
Most of what Gross says is quite accurate. Hollywood is becoming increasingly involved in the gun debate, Democratic candidates are for the first time in a long time proud of their anti-gun policy positions, polls are showing public support for background checks, certain states have passed onerous gun laws, and background checks are popping up on ballots across the country.
That said, the war is far from over. I think, if anything, their progress will only harden the resolve of gun owners to stand and fight. We saw what happened when president Obama was elected, and then re-elected. Through grassroots efforts, donations to gun rights groups, public rallies and demonstrations, letters to Congress and the ATF, the gun community showed up in full force to retard the efforts of the Obama administration and for the most part we succeeded. Did we win every battle? No. But did we win more than we lost? Absolutely. Last time I checked, we’re still winning the war. And moving forward, if we continue to do what we’ve always done, remain politically active and engaged, we’ll keep winning the war.
(Heck, and even if we lose the war, we got the guns and they’ll have to come take em. They’ll need more than tweets from Kim Kardashian to get that job done).
Don’t believe anything the Brady bunch speaks. It’s nothing but a bunch of liberals lying to the public to further their agenda. The Brady Campaign agenda is the same as the Democrats agenda and that is to disarm America. The expansion of background checks and all the other common sense nonsense these liberals spout are lies. No criminal I know of goes to gun shows or gun shops and buy guns. They STEAL them folks. They break in to your house, my house and steal guns. No background check will stop a criminal from stealing. Common sense gun control is nothing but a Trojan horse. The real agenda lies behind the lies.
i got a pardon for 3rd degree assault domestic, what do you think my chances are to show up at the gun store and buy me a rifle?
I do believe that a large majority of Americans believe in background checks before firearms purchase, and in essence we have been living with this through the NICS system since the original Brady law on purchases on firearms produced since 1899. I live in Upstate New York, and until the “SAFE” act it really has not been a huge problem, and we have “universal” checks, which I presume to mean sales at gunshows, auctions etc. It is no more than filling out the form, providing photo ID, and waiting a few minutes. Even mail order or online auctions are not a hassle, just find a local FFL and make arrangements for the gun to be shipped to him. It is a small hassle, and an extra cost, but it is small sacrifice if it will take away some of the illogical arguments that may end up fueling much worse restrictions. Then maybe the argument could focus on getting the criminals and mentally incompetent and their illegal guns off the street. If you calmly analyze what a small inconvenience it is to through NICS, and take away the main argument used by the antigun people (I do believe that a large majority of Americans do support background checks), maybe we can get rid of the excesses such as the “SAFE” act which requires even ammunition to go through FFLs, so those of us with rare antique guns can’t just search online. BTW, I have been a firearms enthusiast, for almost 60 years, have a very extensive collection of modern and antique firearms, and have enjoyed sport shooting and hunting for many decades, so I want to see responsible gun ownership and use remain as free as possible. I just think that we need to avoid knee-jerk reactions and name calling, and use respectful arguments and verified statistics to avoid being as irrational as the anti gun people.
No. You are obviously a shill. Please go away.
As our current president’s former chief of staff, and now Chicago’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel once said, “…never let a good crisis go to waste…”, and that’s what is happening. Gun and ammo sales have never been higher under any president than this current openly anti-Second Amendment president. But why is he so anti-Second Amendment and anti-Consitutional? I would argue anti-American as well as his policies well show. My opinion is that he is a “One World Government” and “New World Order” kind of person as his statements, and again, his recorded actions show. But what is standing in the way of One World Government? These United States of America, We The People, well armed. As other counties such as Australia are disarmed and violent crimes in those nations balloons to 300% increases, these United States of America are the last thing standing in the way of, blocking One World Government. It is the job of this current president to make that happen, and piece by piece he is nearing his goal. He may not get as far as disarming us though, and if he doesn’t, Hillary sees that accomplishment as hers. When these United States of America fall, the entire world falls into line.
Want to stop it? Start by home schooling your children. Take them back, stop their mental abuse, brain washing, and at least indoctrination by adults that most of us know nothing about before we ship them off to them for eight hours per day. Save our nation, and do it by taking our children back from the clutches of some very evil people with ill intent and agenda for our nation. The three R’s (Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic) went right out the window, replaced with two mommies or two daddies are good, guns and God are bad. May God bless these United States of America, and do your part to save our nation by taking YOUR children back. Home school them. That’s where the help and healing of our nation starts, by ending the harm instilled in their young, impressionable minds.
Please tell me…..Since when does anyone with any sort of common sense care what comes out a bunch of over paid “I pretend to make a living” Hollywood’s Mouth Pieces? Hollywood does not and never has had any major political influence over the “Real World”, political or otherwise. They make fun Press for the tabloid “News Magazines” that have taken over the Telecoms. In the Real World they are meaningless Mouth Pieces and that’s all they are.. It would be very interesting to know how and where the “Stats’ you quote were generated. They sound made up. Gun Control is the new “Fad” issue and it’s being used by pandering Politico’s and Tabloid “News” Hacks as a Hot Button Topic because it’s easy scoring political meat. Organizations like the NRA never had it so good.
Unfortunately, he who controls the narrative controls the outcome. And the sway of celebrity cannot be ignored. We ignore the Hollywood numb nutted cabal at our peril. Just like the completely erroneous stats spewed by politicians will become fact inside the gun control narrative, uneducated, incorrect statements made by Hollywood dunce nuggets will also live on.
These gun control groups need to go to street gangs in the country’s inner cities and ask them to give up their guns. THAT is the center of gun violence in this country. Chicago has an estimated 150,000 gang members – If they were a city, they’d be the 136th out of 600 largest cities in the country! And that’s just Chicago. And according to some law enforcement estimates, gangs account for as much as 70% of homicides in the country.
No, disarm the thugs, Brady Campaign, Bloomberg, etc., before you even try to talk to the rest of us.
Here are some facts about the wonderful results of Australia’s gun confiscation program.
I found this and thought it would be enlightening to re-print it.
* Australia-wide, homicides are up 3.2%
* Australia-wide, assaults are up 8.6%
* Australia-wide, armed-robberies are up 44% (yes, FORTY-FOUR PERCENT)
* In the state of Victoria, homicides-with-firearms are up 300%
* Figures over the previous 25 years show a steady decrease in homicides-with-firearms (changed dramatically in the past 12 months)
* Figures over the previous 25 years show a steady decrease in armed-robbery-with-firearms (changed dramatically in the past 12 months)
* There has been a dramatic increase in break-ins-and-assaults-of-the-elderly.
Only Criminals will have guns. Look at Europe and what’s going on there.
“An astounding 93% of the American public, including 90% of Republican voters, more than 80% of gun owners and more than 70% of NRA households support expanding Brady background checks to all gun sales,” wrote Gross.
As CJ has already said, this is not true. In would call it a “Gross” lie
thats an out and out lie, brady just want to brainwash people
It’s pretty clear that Hillary’s belief that she can circumvent the second amendment is unconstitutional on its face. It would be enjoined and declared unconstitutional in five minutes. She’s pandering to out of control anti-gun nuts, when the nation has clearly said they don’t want any more gun control. The problem with Washington is once you get there, you are captured by the system. The system says no more gun control and they won’t pass any of Hillary’s legislation that will turn the whole country into a California.
Besides, presidential elections seem to follow a pattern as long as I have been alive. Our presidents alternate between parties. The chances the next president will be a democrat, much less Hillary, is just about nil.
“An astounding 93% of the American public, including 90% of Republican voters, more than 80% of gun owners and more than 70% of NRA households support expanding Brady background checks to all gun sales,” wrote Gross.
Where, oh, where are they digging up these stats? 93% of the American public? 80% gun owners? 70% of NRA households? Pray tell, what were the questions, and who did they poll? I never got a phone call. These are very misleading stats and Gross should be ashamed of himself for using them. Oh, one more question…could someone please tell me what ‘Universal Background Checks’ mean? I haven’t heard it clearly defined…
Usually, a small cross section of people is polled and a number is extrapolated from that sample. Besides the usual small number of people sampled, I have seen that the people targeted can be more from group that will yield the desired poll results (ie from Democrats or Democratic leaning SMSA’s). However, since I have not seen the polling metrics, I am merely pointing out what I have seen from other polls.
For instance, when we look at USA map of registered Republicans and Democrats, we see that the larger/largest cities are/lean blue (Dems), where the smaller cities and rural areas are/lean Republican. If one wanted to “skew the poll” to Democrat views, one could choose to poll the largest cities.
Exactly. You can never trust statistics unless you’ve taken the time to find out, with certainty, where the data originated, and that the numbers are presented in their proper context. I’m skeptical of all gun statistics, no matter where they come from, even if they validate my own beliefs (especially if they validate my own beliefs).
“Figures lie and liars figure”. During the first Democratic debate Hillary stated that 90 people a day die due to firearms! I thought this an astounding number so I did a bit of research. Turns out the number is somewhat accurate. The fact she left out is that over half of all US gun deaths are SUICIDE! Never mentioned in the firearm debates are the following: average annual deaths due to auto accident — 25,000 – 30,000; average annual deaths due to tobacco related illness (primarily cancers) — 50,000. How many billions of dollars are spent by the federal and state governments addressing the health issues created by a product containing a federal government mandated health warning? How many children face future health or life shortening issues due to second hand smoke? Why no political discussion regarding tobacco related illness/death? I suspect the tobacco lobby and the tax revenue from tobacco sales.
It is gut-wrenching how backwards and socialistic our country has become lately. Truly Sickening. But we freedom loving Americans cannot give up. We cannot simply give up and become SUBJECTS. We must fight and be CITIZENS!
You know, its ironic…and sad….all the struggles our country has gone through over the years to GIVE people more rights and freedoms……some people even giving their lives, even willingly, in some efforts. Freedom from slavery and to vote….how difficult these struggles were……to GIVE more freedoms. And yet, now it seems so easy that we could have a freedoms taken away….without near the fight that it took to GIVE people more freedoms. Oh…My mistake…..I said freedom from slavery……but that’s exactly where we are headed……back to slavery……if we cannot defend ourselves, if our freedoms are taken away, WE ARE SLAVES. Wait…..didn’t we fight that war already..???? Hmmm,,,how Ironic…..seems we are coming full circle….?