Opposition Research

Was leafing through the anti-gun feed and decided to do a few hip-shots on some of their silly rallying points:

Mexican Cartels Are Buying Ammo in the US!! The only angle I can see the antis pressing this is to further restrict the sale of ammo. Remember these are “Common Sense Laws”. BTW imagine that Fast and Furious didn’t exist and the Cartels weren’t sold guns by the BATFE and the FBI specifically so they’d turn up in Mexican raids and would be used to push a renewed “Assault Weapons” Ban. Like say I was to give you a case of .45 Mars Long, what would you do with it? Unless you can find a buyer, not a whole lot. Guns make it most useful, and how the Mexican Cartels got said guns is the dirty little secret of the “Progressives”.

This is an older meme from the antis, but it shows they really aren’t thinking much: “Nationally, about a third of households own guns, according to the Brady Campaign/Center to Prevent Gun Violence. National studies find that in 40 percent of households with children younger than 18, the guns are not locked up.” That’s a big number….and the number of dead and injured kids by guns is very small. That sounds almost like you’re manufacturing a problem to push “Common Sense Gun Laws” that restrict freedom for no reason.

Last is this ball of Fail where some group interviews Josh Horwitz about his fundraising:

FundRaising Success: How does the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence fund its mission?
Josh Horwitz: The Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence and our (501)(c)(4) sister organization, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, raise funds from a variety of sources. We support our mission to secure freedom from gun violence through individual and major-gift solicitation, foundation grants, direct mail, and e-mail solicitation. Most of our funds are raised through tax-deductible individual giving and grants to the Ed Fund.

Read: We get our bread from the Joyce Foundation almost exclusively.

FS: Can you share a recent fundraising success? Why was it successful?
JH: This year we have begun to focus more on some of the loyal donors to our direct-mail program, reaching out to them personally for face-to-face meetings or phone calls to keep them better informed and to solicit project funding in addition to annual gifts. This is an ongoing, longer-term strategy, but we have had some significant success in inspiring longtime direct-mail donors to increase their giving through this more individualized approach. Personal attention to donors and connecting with prospective donors in person or on the phone has been the key.

Read: We have no grass roots support. I give to several pro-gun political action groups, and besides the basic mailers and blanket outreach contact, I don’t have any direct relationship with these groups, because there are hundreds of thousands of people like me, and they just cant reach out to all of us. Meanwhile on their side they have a few pointy-headed intellectuals, and Limousine Liberals, but mostly we’re talking the Joyce Foundation.

Another fundraising difficulty is the obvious resource disparity between the gun violence prevention movement and the industry-funded gun lobby. We have our work cut out for us, so we always strive to effectively communicate how we leverage the resources we do have and make people feel confident in investing in our work.

Proof? Nah, but it sounds nice! Its the evil gun industry, not the massive popular support of guns, self defense, and the shooting sports, and the growing membership of pro gun groups.

I’m glad I switched sides, to be them would be VERY depressing.