Or at least so they say:
Watts talked about how Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America (MDAGSA) uses digital technology and social media to build its movement.
“When you talk about digital organising, who better to do that than moms? We are a major social media presence,” she said. “For us, email, Twitter, Facebook has become a major way to organise.”
MDAGSA’s first digital campaign pitted the organisation against Starbucks, pushing the company to change its policy against guns being allowed in its stores.
The campaign included Skip Starbucks Saturdays, encouraging mothers to make coffee at home then take photos of themselves drinking it outside Starbucks outlets, sharing them on social media. They were also asked to share photos of people carrying guns in Starbucks.
“This was happening, and we made that public. It really just took three months, and Starbucks changed their policies, saying guns were no longer welcome in their stores,” she said.
A month ago, MDAGSA started a new campaign asking Facebook and Instagram to crack down on people using the social networks to promote their willingness to sell guns or help people evade the law.
The campaign included spoofing Facebook’s “Look Back” videos to highlight groups on the social network advertising guns for sale, as well as personal status updates boasting about not requiring background checks. The video has been watched more than 400,000 times, and it sparked action quickly.
“Last week, Facebook and Instagram announced nine new policies that they were putting in place in response to our campaign,” she said. “We are going to continue this. We are only 15 months old, and we have had major wins. But obviously there is a lot more work to do.”
She suggested that the traditional NRA strategy of stimulating fear among its members that their guns will be taken away by the government can be matched by mothers’ fear that their children will be taken away – i.e. killed in shootings.
“At the end of the day that emotion is what will enable us to go toe-to-toe with he gun lobby, and achieve change quickly,” she said. Social media will continue to be a key way MDAGSA’s members express this emotion.
Wow that’s pretty impressive from one motivated Mom! We’re DOOMED! Well we’re doomed if it was at all true. Shannon Watts is not just an ordinary Mom, she’s a high-paid PR consultant, and none of her “Victories” are true. Starbucks will still serve you coffee if you’re armed, even if you are openly armed, they just might ask you to NOT be openly armed in the name of politeness. Facebook simply said “Go ahead and keep selling your guns, just don’t break any laws, and we don’t like the phrase ‘no background required’, so even if you have no means to conduct a background check, and one ISN’T required, don’t say those words”.
Hell the Brady Campaign calls Watts’ “victory” a defeat.
Further have a look at this picture from the above article:
The gun-control panel at SXSW. Photograph: Stuart Dredge/The Guardian (Thanks for the PR guys! -ed)
That’s Thirteen (13!!!) heads in that picture, almost none of them in the front row (maybe because they came in late, or might want to slip out early). Now let’s talk for a second about convention panels. My #1 experience is via a small Anime Convention in Maine, its hardly South By Southwest, and we occasionally have panels this small. They’re also booked for small rooms, and are generally subjects that are of limited interest. I’ve actually sat on panel boards to audiences of over 100, and I’m a friggin’ nobody.
What the anti-gun groups appear to be doing right now is the “Big Lie“. In some cases it seems to work. Hell look at Lady GaGa’s career! She was the #1 artist in the world, and was selling out Arenas, and now she’s struggling to sell her latest album, one can assume with this that most of the people packing those Arenas weren’t die-hard fans, otherwise she’d still be on top.
Still even in politics this flash-in-the-pan “popularity” CAN work, there are so many laws that have passes, but have since become unpopular, but haven’t been repealed. If this is successfully wielded against us, it could very much hurt us. Hell look at Colorado’s magazine ban, or the New York SAFE act. Both are terribly unpopular, but they are still law for the foreseeable future. They can be repealed, but it takes a very non-trivial effort to do that, and it takes considerably LESS effort to let an unpopular law ride.
Still Watts, and the other anti-gun groups are trying it. How often do you read that “90% of Gun Owners Support more restrictions”?
Still if we did, why do they keep getting defeated, and why is Ms. Watts trumpeting obviously hollow victories?
As I’ve been saying to anti-gun people, if anything you say is true, DO IT! There’s obviously nothing stopping you!
In reality they are sitting at the table with a pile of Michael Bloomberg-funded poker chips, and a hand filled with garbage, and they’re betting big in hopes we’ll cave to their bluff.
Call that bluff!
