Throughout the nation, there are gun control advocates in state legislatures. Every state has them, the only question is just how many.

Based on the fact that more than half of the states are constitutional carry states, it seems like most of them don’t have all that many.

That’s not dissuading anti-gunners, though. It seems they have a new organization of anti-gun lawmakers that are supposedly going to change everything. And the largest anti-gun groups are partnering with them, too.

Five of the country’s top anti-gun groups are celebrating the launch of a new organization comprised of state lawmakers, which will focus on changing state gun laws.

Legislators for Safer Communities consists of 171 state lawmakers from 43 states, and will serve as a “hub for collaboration, partnership, shared resources, strategy, research, and peer networking,” according to an Everytown for Gun Safety press release.

“The coalition will work in partnership with Brady, Community Justice, Everytown, GIFFORDS, and March for Our Lives,” the release states. All five groups issued statements heralding the new organization.

Everytown, Giffords and others say the new group will circumvent the “congressional stalemate” on gun-control legislation at the national level and will focus on changing state laws, where they have seen recent successes.

This is…brilliant, and I mean that in the most sarcastic way possible.

First, let’s understand that 171 state lawmakers sound like a lot…right up until you do the math. We’re only looking at 43 states, after all. That means you’ve only got an average of just under four lawmakers per state.

Much impressive. Very wow.

Further, most of those are going to come from anti-gun states, which means those in pro-gun states are kind of alone.

The group also apparently wants to focus their efforts in states where they have a better chance of passing laws, which means they’re going to be aggressive in those states. The issue is that those states already have a pile of gun control, which means any new measure is going to go well beyond what you could seriously push in a state like Texas or Alabama.

But any member of this group from those states is going to get painted with the same brush.

It’s impossible to convince anyone you just want to repeal constitutional carry or implement some “safe storage” requirements and little else when you’re part of the same gun control group as the guy in California that just proposed a semi-automatic ban.

Believe me, we’re going to point out that membership at every opportunity, too. We’re going to make a thing of it.

The kicker to me is that this is a total own goal. 

Lawmakers cooperate with lawmakers from other states all the time. That’s why so many bills look the same as what got passed elsewhere. It’s because the bill’s author or someone affiliated with them handed a copy over for them to use.

This is done more or less informally, though I suspect some internal political party mechanism likely helps, and it doesn’t make it as easy to dismiss a proposal based on some kind of group affiliation.

And yet, they’re making our jobs easier.

I don’t know what to say about this other than, well, thanks, I suppose.