The Secret Fears of the Gun Lobby and What They're Planning Next

[billh58]

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/inside-2013-gun-rights-policy-conference?paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark

An inside look at an influential meeting of leading pro-gun minds.

- Snip -

"You'll notice there's a lot of grey in this room," said Judge Journey, who when not sitting on a Kansas district court bench serves as an officer for the Kansas State Rifle Association. "That's the problem with our movement. We've got to get children into the shooting sports and develop an appreciation by them in the right to keep and bear arms. Because in 20 years, where will we be?"

This question -- "In 20 years, where will we be?" -- is one of gnawing urgency for the gun-rights movement. At the National Rifle Association convention last summer, I heard gun industry veterans joke that NRA now stood for "Normal Retirement Age." At this smaller but no less influential meeting of leading pro-gun minds, most speakers circled back to their fear that those in the room represented the end of a proud line. Even as the movement's leading activists boasted of recent victories at the federal and state level -- and there are many, from successful recall elections in Colorado to a carry law in Illinois -- they warned of a deadly demographic drop-off, that the energy and the youth was all in the gun-reform corner. "The people on the other side, like [the Stimson Center's] Rachel Stohl, they are very young and they are motivated," said Julianne Versnel, of the International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights. "They know how to Tweet and Facebook, and they are doing a very good job."

If only winning the battle for young hearts and minds was as simple as opening a Twitter account. Like the GOP it overwhelming supports, the pro-gun movement does not sound like a modern army positioned to win a culture war for the allegiance of young Americans. Beverly Zaslow, a protégé of Andrew Breitbart who produces right-wing documentaries, used to the GRPC podium to slam the television program Glee for not having "normal kinds of relationships in it." Another speaker advised the pro-gun movement to "accept the gays, if they're with us." This kind of outreach is unlikely to draw the required levels of new blood needed to replace the men in suspenders and VFW hats. The severity of the crisis was put most bluntly by Andrew Sypien, content manager for the online retail gun giant CheaperThanDirt.com. "It's the 25 to 35 year-olds who are going to replace you in ten years," he said. "If you don't get them, it's going to die here with you."

The "it" here refers to a Second Amendment absolutism that rejects as unconstitutional restrictions on the right of Americans to buy, sell, transport, and carry firearms as they see fit. For the last 30 years, no single figure has done more to advance this vision of an Armed America than the diminutive, bow-tied organizer behind the Gun Rights Policy Conference. Though few Americans have ever heard of Alan Gottlieb, we live in a country he helped create.

More at link...

American demographics are changing, and the right-wing gun lobby knows it. As younger Americans mature politically, they tend to lean towards Liberalism and the Democratic Party, and fewer and fewer of them buy or own guns. Over the next few years the NRA/ALEC/Koch Brothers cabal will find that buying legislation supportive of gun rights absolutism won't be as easy as it has been, and gun control measures will become easier to pass at all levels of government.

Support a gun control organization of your choice today in any way that you can. We really can't wait for our children to address the gun violence epidemic in this country, so let's show them how it's done -- one Liberal vote at a time.

[upaloopa]

1. That is real gun nuttery to be worried about guns

after you die!
Like the guy who said he would die for his second amendment rights. I say more power to you!

[billh58]

2. Right-wing

"conservatives" have some weird beliefs, and the "cold dead hands" philosophy is one of them.

[flamin lib]

3. I've donated mony to Say Hook Promise, Gabby Giffords and Mothers Demand Action.

I wonder if dividing my contributions is more effective than consolidating them behind one organization.

[billh58]

4. They are all good

organizations, and have different approaches to gun control activism. I believe that the more support, the better. Thanks for all that you do, and for speaking up for sanity and your beliefs.

[CTyankee]

5. I just debated a RKBA supporter a few days ago on this very issue.

I said he had to fear that the U.S. population was getting less white, less rural and more diverse which spelled disaster for his side which is just the opposite. He responded by saying that even if those states that were more like the GOP were outnumbered in the general population, when they were elected to the Senate they had equal representation with the more populous states. I'm sure that is one of their favorite talking points.

[billh58]

6. I find it strange

that "RKBA supporters" on DU argue from the right-wing view point, and defend GOP/NRA-enacted legislation. The facts appear to be that the right-wing in this country is becoming more and more marginalized, and the Tea Party mentality is one of the main reasons for that.

Right-wing radicalism, whether it be religious, Second Amendment absolutism (armed rebellion against the evil government), or outright bigotry, is slowly making so-called "conservatives" a laughing stock nationwide.

[CTyankee]

7. I try to point out this dichotomy to our RKBA folks here at DU. I'm not sure they get it.

My only guess is that they have no concerns about this seemingly contradictory situation they are in. And they have this bizarre need to "prove" their progressive bona-fides by talking about how pro-choice they are. However, my further guess is that it is their libertarian streak that likes the pro-choice side so much, even if it strikes us as being incoherent.

[billh58]

8. There are a few right-leaning Libertarians

on DU who sincerely believe themselves to be Liberal Democrats.

[MisterP]

9. it's almost like they're there to sell something, at any cost to everyone else!

[billh58]

10. That's one of the factors that is driving

their fears. As the market for guns dries up, the profits at all stages of the manufacturing/retail cycle fall off, and the NRA loses donations and clout.