The Violence Policy Center isn’t an unbiased entity that just keeps track of the gun debate in a dispassionate way. They’re a gun control group that routinely treats anyone who disagrees with them as awful people simply because we aren’t buying what they’re peddling.
Time and time again, they present things that are happening in the gun world as some kind of nefarious thing.
But this time, it seems they’re almost getting the idea.
As the National Rifle Association (NRA) continues to try and rebuild trust with gun owners (both members and non-members alike) and the firearms industry, Gun Owners of America (GOA is the self-proclaimed “only no-compromise gun lobby in Washington” and even more extreme than the NRA) is working to fill the breach.
One of the most obvious examples is the aggressive promotion of GOA’s new Gun Owners Advocacy and Leadership Summit (GOALS) convention, now in its second year and scheduled for August 9th and 10th in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Like the NRA’s longstanding annual meeting, a centerpiece of the GOA event is an industry bazaar of new guns featuring, “The most iconic brands in the shooting sports industry.” And don’t worry, in case there could be any doubt, “Families and children are welcome to attend as this a celebration [sic] for the entire 2A community.”
Besides the chance for children to handle a range of firearms – and virtually anything else gun related — with impunity, both meetings have child-focused activities (or as the gun industry trade association the National Shooting Sports Foundation exhorts, “Start Them Young”).
The final line in their email blast is, “The more things change…”
That’s right.
See, a lot of people, including a lot of members of the VPC, always figured that if you could get the NRA out of the way, then they’d have an open road toward gun control. They saw the organization as an impediment to their goals and never bothered to look at the broader picture.
The NRA was always willing to compromise, particularly when it looked like they didn’t think they could win outright. The organization was always willing to try and neuter some anti-gun efforts a bit just to make it suck a little less. This lost them some goodwill in the gun community.
But anti-gunners kept it up, and they managed to find enough dirt on Wayne LaPierre to just about get what they wanted.
Now, they’re finding out something I said all along.
The NRA may have been the 800-pound gorilla in the gun rights world, but it wasn’t the only gorilla. It also wasn’t some group that sprang out of the ground for no reason, nor was it funded by some billionaire with an agenda that made it look like there was more support financially than actually existed.
The NRA’s power always rested in its members. It could mobilize millions of gun owners. Its grading system could kill political careers in an instant in pro-gun districts.
But if you push them out of the picture, those members aren’t suddenly going to support gun control.
Instead, they’ll support another group, and that group will likely be in a position to start filling other voids left by the previous group’s hard times.
GOALS is just one example, but you’re deluded if you think this was ever the biggest priority. It’s a networking opportunity and a showcase, but this is and always will be about the Second Amendment.
We’re not going anywhere.
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