5 Ways Gun Safety Advocates Are Using The NRA’s Playbook Against It [View all]
One year after Congress failed to pass a background check bill that 90 percent of Americans supported, groups to combat the National Rifle Association are ratcheting up their financial investment, and pledging to take the gun lobby head on like never before.
Because of Washingtons failure, we are beginning the next phase in the fight, said John Feinblatt, president of the newly launched Everytown for Gun Safety funded with $50 million from Michael R. Bloomberg. Added an Everytown press release: This means continuing to press for change in Washington and moving beyond Congress to bring the fight for common-sense gun policies to state capitols, corporate boards, and state and federal elections fields of play formerly occupied almost solely by the gun lobby.
And a year after former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords declared, Mark my words: if we cannot make our communities safer with the Congress we have now, we will use every means available to make sure we have a different Congress, one that puts communities interests ahead of the gun lobbys, her political action committee is fundraising at a rate of $2.5 million in just three months.
The gun violence prevention movement won some major state battles over the past year, but so, too, has the gun lobby, which remains a menacing check on forward movement. As the next generation of gun safety activists aims increasingly to battle their opponents head on, here are some key tactics from the NRAs playbook that they are just starting to take up:
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/04/17/3427522/five-ways-gun-violence-advocates-are-taking-up-the-nra-playbook/