Signs of Anti-Gunner Weakness as NRA Meeting Shines

While the NRA displays its strength at its Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, Michael Bloomberg is proving the old adage "there are just some things that money cannot buy." The self-anointed gun control Super Nanny's latest anti-gun groups--Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety--are having even worse luck than his first one, Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG).

As we have noted elsewhere in this alert, Bloomberg's new $50 million "grassroots" effort is off to a shaky start with its social media campaign. Now, the New York Times reports that former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, an "assault weapon" ban supporter, "has unexpectedly resigned from the board of Michael R. Bloomberg's new gun control effort, citing his discomfort with some of the political work the group has been planning."

Ridge's resignation recalls the same sort of embarrassing and high-profile defections that likely contributed to Bloomberg's decision to rebrand MAIG, his former gun control flagship, in the first place.  Now, with the new umbrella group barely a week old, history is repeating itself.

Indeed, "Moms" and "Everytown" continue to fall well short of Bloomberg's goal of making gun control appear mainstream.  The groups have so far focused their efforts on press releases and a television commercial accusing the NRA of trying to "subvert public safety" through its legislative advocacy.  This is ironic, as while Bloomberg and his cohorts impugn the NRA, it remains not only the leading advocate of the Second Amendment, but the leading provider of gun safety training and education. Although Bloomberg styles his new gun control cabal as a "gun safety" organization, it has done nothing to achieve those ends.  Nothing, that is, unless you count producing yet another commercial that aims to scare people away from gun ownership altogether by portraying a game of hide and seek that ends with a young girl shooting her brother.

Meanwhile, out on the fringe where he is most comfortable, Josh Sugarmann (a/k/a the Violence Policy Center) doesn't even try to appear mainstream, using the occasion of the NRA Annual Meeting to bash capitalism in a commentary on the Huffington Post. Quite the capitalist himself, Sugarmann earns a six-figure salary from funds provided by the Joyce Foundation and other left-wing interests, for making such newsworthy statements as "Gun manufacturers are the official sponsors of numerous events at the (NRA) annual meeting."

While Bloomberg, Sugarmann, and their wealthy conspirators obligingly amuse us with their typical antics, make no mistake that they remain steadfastly focused on the eradication of your rights.  Their continued failure and the NRA's continued success -- both at the polls and in the court of public opinion -- depend on you.