[url]www.nytimes.com/2001/03/11/weekinreview/11DAO.html?pagewanted=print[/url]

You may have to register to get this, somehow I can't get it to paste here, even after reformatting it.

Let see if it will post when I try it, here it goes!



March 11, 2001

New Gun Control Politics: A Whimper, Not a Bang

By JAMES DAO

       ASHINGTON -- In the days following shootings at schools in California and Pennsylvania last week, the new reality of gun
       control politics became starkly clear. Unlike in 1999, when Democrats reacted almost immediately to the massacre at
       Columbine High School in Colorado with demands for tough new gun restrictions, there were few calls to action. Senator
Charles E. Schumer of New York, one of Washington's most aggressive gun control proponents, simply suggested a voluntary "code
of ethics" for gun owners and their families.

It was a strikingly muted response from a movement that, less than a year ago, thought it had finally reached the gates of political
power. "You are the future now," declared Sarah Brady of Handgun Control, Inc., to the hundreds of thousands at the Million Mom
March. "We must either change the minds of lawmakers on these issues or, for God's sake, this November let's change the
lawmakers."

But the laws didn't change, and neither did many of the lawmakers. Instead, a strongly anti-gun control governor was elected
president. The euphoria of last year's march is a distant memory (one of its offshoots, the Million Mom organization, laid off 30 of its
35 employees on Friday) and the gun control movement, despite far-ranging efforts to match the National Rifle Association in raw
political power, seems to have fallen farther behind.

"I don't think views have changed in the Democratic Party on this issue," said Laura Nichols, spokeswoman for Representative
Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, the minority leader. "But the political reality has changed dramatically."

What happened? Obviously, the election of President Bush, a long-time ally of the N.R.A., put a towering obstacle to gun control
legislation in the White House. As governor of Texas, he signed laws making it legal to carry concealed weapons and difficult for cities
to sue gun manufacturers.

But many centrist and conservative Democrats have also concluded that gun control has become their party's albatross, costing it
crucial votes among white, male, rural voters in key states across the South and Midwest. And their concerns have touched off a
roiling debate within the party over whether to play down or even discard the issue.

"Gun control," lamented Steve Cobble, director of Campaign for a Progressive Future, a liberal political action committee, "has
become the shorthand for why Democrats don't do well."

Even President Clinton, a staunch advocate of gun control, offered what for gun control advocates was surely a dispiriting
post-election assessment of the rifle association's strength. "They probably had more to do than anyone else in the fact we didn't win
the House this time, and they hurt Al Gore," he said.

Not surprisingly, the rifle association has been taking major credit for electing Mr. Bush. "With a new presidential administration in our
nation's capital, we'll be actively working to root out gun-hating bureaucrats deep in the heart of the federal government, especially in
the Treasury and Justice departments," a recent N.R.A. fundraising letter says.

The N.R.A. certainly had its successes, pouring enough money into major races to help prevent Democrats from retaking control of
the House. And it claims, and many Democrats agree, that gun contro

Yet there is ample evidence that the rifle association was less successful in last year's election than its supporters claim, despite far
outspending its opponents. Of the seven Senate races where the N.R.A. spent the most money, five of its candidates lost, including
Spencer Abraham in Michigan, John D. Ashcroft in Missouri, Rod Grams in Minnesota, Bill McCollum in Florida and Slade Gorton in
Washington, according to a Democratic analysis. All five were N.R.A. allies and all were replaced by advocates of gun control.

In Colorado and Oregon, ballot measures to require buyers to undergo a background check before making purchases at gun shows
passed overwhelmingly, though the N.R.A. spent $1.7 million trying to kill them. And while the rifle association devoted significant
resources — including the time of its president, Charlton Heston — to beating Mr. Gore in Pennsylvania and Michigan, the vice
president won both states.

"The N.R.A. definitely has won the perception war," Mr. Cobble asserted. "But they lost the election."

Polls show that a majority of Americans continue to support gun control. In January, 59 percent of the respondents in an ABC
News/Washington Post survey said they favored stricter gun control laws. But that support had slipped from 67 percent in a poll taken
right after the Columbine shootings.

The Democrats remain skittish, even after a 15- year-old boy was charged with killing two classmates and wounding 13 other people
at Santana High School in Santee, Calif., last week and an eighth-grade girl was charged with wounding a schoolmate at Bishop
Neumann High School near Williamsport, Pa.

Accepted wisdom in Washington holds that opponents of gun control are the most motivated single-issue voting bloc in the country.
And the 4 million member rifle association remains years ahead of its rivals in the techniques of mobilizing those voters. "Until we're as
organized as the N.R.A., we're not going to get anything done," said Representative Carolyn McCarthy, a New York Democrat who is
a leading gun control proponent.

It is far from clear that the movement is making strides toward building the kind of national network of lobbyists, political operatives
and organizers that the rifle association has in every state. The Million Mom March, which turned into a gun-control organization
based in San Francisco, tried to focus on state legislatures, opening 230 chapters in 46 states. But it grew too fast to pay for all those
efforts.

""We're 10 months old," said Andrew McGuire, the group's executive director, just before he was laid off. "The N.R.A. is over 100
years old."

Ideological shifts among some gun control groups also threaten to fracture the movement. Mr. Schumer and other gun control
proponents on Capitol Hill have joined with groups like Americans for Gun Safety in calling for a less confrontational, more bipartisan
— and perhaps more incremental — approach. "Both parties, and certainly Democrats, are looking for a new approach to the issue to
break the polarization," said Jonathan Cowan, president of Americans for Gun Safety. "It's time for a third way."

Mr. Cowan, like Mr. Schumer, says the new strategy is dictated by the hard reality of a Republican White House. Handgun Control is
discussing changing its name to something that sounds less threatening to law-abiding gun owners.

Some gun control advocates demur. "Everyone thinks we can get to this middle ground, but you c

This means that the next MK ULTRA operation will have to get a very high body count on high profile targets (like actors). This will drive the sheeple to accept just about anything including martial law.

Notice how the MMM became an anti-self defense organization.

Notice how they had to lay off over 85% of their force.

Now is the time to torment them with an email barrage.

Here is the web address:  millionmommarch.com/chapters/national/index.cfm

Might I suggest something very stereotypical, demeaning and infuriating, such as:

Dear meddling mommies;
Sorry your 15 minutes of fame have expired already.  Of course, it was obvious to some of us that it wouldn't work, since politicking is a man's job, anyways.  I mean, it's not like Schumer et. al. didn't appreciate your taking time away from cooking and cleaning for a little while, but seriously, we need you back in the kitchen like a good little woman.

I guess I'm trying to say that play time is over, let the men back at the men's work, and thanks anyways, but you've had your fun.  Now go cook dinner and get my slippers.

Notice how the MMM became an anti-self defense organization.

Notice how they had to lay off over 85% of their force.

Now is the time to torment them with an email barrage.

Here is the web address:  millionmommarch.com/chapters/national/index.cfm

Might I suggest something very stereotypical, demeaning and infuriating, such as:

Dear meddling mommies;
Sorry your 15 minutes of fame have expired already.  Of course, it was obvious to some of us that it wouldn't work, since politicking is a man's job, anyways.  I mean, it's not like Schumer et. al. didn't appreciate your taking time away from cooking and cleaning for a little while, but seriously, we need you back in the kitchen like a good little woman.

I guess I'm trying to say that play time is over, let the men back at the men's work, and thanks anyways, but you've had your fun.  Now go cook dinner and get my slippers.

Don't count on this being a "Sign of the Times".

I imagine that they are just developing a new strategy.

This isn't over...

Of course it isn't "over".  But it is very enjoyable to see a bunch of griping and complaining in the enemy camp. If only those of us on the other side could unite and finish them off.

As the saying goes, it ain't over until it is over and it ain't over yet..

They will never give up. To them a weapon is an evil thingie.. People having weapons scares them, people that are afraid are irrational.

Nomex on.  This is why every gun owner should join the NRA.  You may not always agree with their position or methodology, but they are realistically the only game in town.  They still strike fear in the heart of politicians because of their ability to mobilize a powerful voting block.  Ask Anne Richards or Jim Florio what happens when you really anger the gun lobby.  With only 4 million members they are a force to be reckoned with.  Imagine a membership of 8 or 10 million or greater.  With that kind of membership gun control could literally be destroyed.  In a recent poll DC politicans were asked who the most powerful and effective lobbyists in Washinton were.  The top two answers were the NRA and the Israelis.

This is just a ploy by the democraps and antigun crowd. If they can get some of they're base voters back , it will get them back in power. Don't believe for a second that the democraps won't start the ban laws right back up when they are back in power.

[i]"You are the future now," declared Sarah Brady of Handgun Control, Inc., to the [b]hundreds of thousands at the Million Mom
March.[/b] [/i]

Here's an example of why gun control is failing. If they indeed had hundreds of thousands there, they would have been a force to contend with.

But, there were only 75,000 at the MMM. They lied, and outright lying makes one suspicious of your motives, and will push people to a neutral or opposing position

Still, the media continues to report that number in the hundreds of thousands, and even as high as 750,000. This will only fool the most igorant, and it won't fool the politicians. They know the real turnout, so they know the level of support they would likely get if they supported gun control issues.

The MMM is washed up. It is history. We even had them outnumbered, 20 to 1 in Bethlehem,PA last Fall, at their own event. Rosie O'Donut was supposed to show up there, and they still only had about 75 in attendance. Needless to say, Rosie never arrived.

But,like any other commie cause, it will spring back up, maybe under another name, with a slightly different agenda. We just have to shine a bright light on it to kill it, just like you kill any other fungus.

Clearly, they are just re-grouping and formulating a different strategy.  With the Houses of Congress hanging in the balance and our president not being committed to either side, now is NOT the time for us to rest.

At the very least we need to:
1.) Join a gun rights organization.  There's  strength in numbers.
2.) Donate money to gun rights organizations.
3.) Write and call your representatives.
4.) Write your local papers and media outlets.
5.) Support your local gunshop and range.
6.) Represent yourself and other gun owners as responsible, law-abiding citizens.  Remember, anything negative about guns and their owners makes it to the evening news.

Sorry about preaching to the choir, but this stuff must start "at home".

I agree that you need to join the NRA, but you need to get ACTIVE locally. I worked with the grassroots people to help deny Florio his second  term and if it weren't for gun owners, in the trenches doing real work, we would have failed miserably. NRA uses lawyers, but the local groups need PEOPLE to work sport shows, hand out fliers and most of all, RE-educate our neighbors from the brainwashing they receive daily.

See ya on the Mountain.

"FLORIO FREE IN 93!" way to to go!  I agree, just being a member of a pro-gun organization helps, but, you need to up close and personal even among the gun owners.