04-19-2014, 01:31 PM
Michael Bloomberg and Shannon Watts Take on the NRA - Officially
![[Image: BLOOMBERG-Watts-nyt.jpg]](http://www.guns.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/BLOOMBERG-Watts-nyt.jpg)
Snip:
To unify the efforts of this diverse coalition of Americans, we are launching Everytown for Gun Safety in America, a new umbrella organization that will be the largest and best-organized counterweight to the gun lobby that has ever been created. Everytown for Gun Safety will expand on the work of two existing organizations -- Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America -- and take the fight for gun violence prevention policies to every community in the country.
Everytown for Gun Safety will continue pushing for better background check laws in Congress and state houses. But we will also broaden our focus to include other issues that are important to Americans, like safe storage education campaigns to help keep kids from being killed by unlocked or dangerously stored guns. And new laws to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers. And efforts to help reduce the nearly 19,400 suicides that happen every year with guns.
In each area, we will make progress by doing something that no gun group, other than the National Rifle Association, has ever done: inform and mobilize voters. The reason the NRA has political influence -- in addition to its campaign contributions -- is that it has scared elected officials into believing that voters will oppose them unless they follow the NRA's Washington leadership, which has grown increasingly extreme and increasingly out of touch with its own members.
In fact, the NRA's reputation for political strength is wildly blown out of proportion and the election results from three statewide contests in Virginia this past November reflect that reality. Candidates who spoke out in support of common sense gun violence prevention policies were elected as governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general. In the attorney general's race, his campaign manager said that the candidate's support for sensible stances on gun issues was a major factor in his victory.
Nonetheless, the perception of an unbeatable gun lobby still lingers and part of our mission will be showing candidates and elected officials that the vast majority of Americans and gun owners support common sense gun policies that respect the Second Amendment and save lives.
To mobilize voters who are committed to backing candidates that support common sense gun policies, Everytown for Gun Safety is launching a Gun Sense Voter campaign. Before the 2014 midterms, we aim to get at least 1 million Americans to pledge to vote for state and federal candidates based on where they stand on gun safety. We'll keep voters informed by tracking candidates' positions and determining which of them support gun safety and which do not.
There is no doubt that we have a big hill to climb. Well-funded, entrenched special interests are always difficult to defeat. And for years, the gun lobby has largely had the field to itself. No longer.
Everytown for Gun Safety and its growing grassroots network will be gunning for change that both protects our country and respects our Constitution.
Full piece: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/17/opinio...?hpt=hp_t5
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I support the goals of this effort -- I had thought/hoped much of its mission would be taken on by Washington after the Newtown shootings. Not so.
If its stated aims are true, Everytown for Gun Safety doesn't appear to be a campaign to ban guns or infringe upon the right to bear arms. Instead, it appears to be an effort to address the problems associated with policies highly influenced by a huge special interest group holding politicians by the balls, with disregard for common sense and the public's best interests, in some cases. Will be interesting to see where this goes.
Snip:
To unify the efforts of this diverse coalition of Americans, we are launching Everytown for Gun Safety in America, a new umbrella organization that will be the largest and best-organized counterweight to the gun lobby that has ever been created. Everytown for Gun Safety will expand on the work of two existing organizations -- Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America -- and take the fight for gun violence prevention policies to every community in the country.
Everytown for Gun Safety will continue pushing for better background check laws in Congress and state houses. But we will also broaden our focus to include other issues that are important to Americans, like safe storage education campaigns to help keep kids from being killed by unlocked or dangerously stored guns. And new laws to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers. And efforts to help reduce the nearly 19,400 suicides that happen every year with guns.
In each area, we will make progress by doing something that no gun group, other than the National Rifle Association, has ever done: inform and mobilize voters. The reason the NRA has political influence -- in addition to its campaign contributions -- is that it has scared elected officials into believing that voters will oppose them unless they follow the NRA's Washington leadership, which has grown increasingly extreme and increasingly out of touch with its own members.
In fact, the NRA's reputation for political strength is wildly blown out of proportion and the election results from three statewide contests in Virginia this past November reflect that reality. Candidates who spoke out in support of common sense gun violence prevention policies were elected as governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general. In the attorney general's race, his campaign manager said that the candidate's support for sensible stances on gun issues was a major factor in his victory.
Nonetheless, the perception of an unbeatable gun lobby still lingers and part of our mission will be showing candidates and elected officials that the vast majority of Americans and gun owners support common sense gun policies that respect the Second Amendment and save lives.
To mobilize voters who are committed to backing candidates that support common sense gun policies, Everytown for Gun Safety is launching a Gun Sense Voter campaign. Before the 2014 midterms, we aim to get at least 1 million Americans to pledge to vote for state and federal candidates based on where they stand on gun safety. We'll keep voters informed by tracking candidates' positions and determining which of them support gun safety and which do not.
There is no doubt that we have a big hill to climb. Well-funded, entrenched special interests are always difficult to defeat. And for years, the gun lobby has largely had the field to itself. No longer.
Everytown for Gun Safety and its growing grassroots network will be gunning for change that both protects our country and respects our Constitution.
Full piece: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/17/opinio...?hpt=hp_t5
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
I support the goals of this effort -- I had thought/hoped much of its mission would be taken on by Washington after the Newtown shootings. Not so.
If its stated aims are true, Everytown for Gun Safety doesn't appear to be a campaign to ban guns or infringe upon the right to bear arms. Instead, it appears to be an effort to address the problems associated with policies highly influenced by a huge special interest group holding politicians by the balls, with disregard for common sense and the public's best interests, in some cases. Will be interesting to see where this goes.