For anyone who follows the Brady Campaign on social media sites, they know that the Brady camp has been pushing a conference call for supporters for several days now. As tempting as it was to make it a drinking game, I decided to instead tune in while I made dinner. Both Sebastian and I are happy with that decision since a) dinner smells delicious, and b) we’d both be drunk beyond comprehension if we took a shot each time that a Brady staffer repeated the slogan of “we are better than this.”*
That said, there were a few things to learn what the other side is focusing on at the moment. Here are the things I thought were worth reporting:
- While they repeatedly discussed an effort to ban semi-automatic firearms and magazines, their real focus was clearly on background checks/gun show loophole/private sales bans. Every single Brady staffer & recruit mentioned this and made this the focus of their speech. I suspect that this means they are going to go the Illinois-style of trying to get everything they can possibly get, but will fall back on so-called background check legislation if they don’t get the gun bans they want.**
- Anyone who said that just because Joe Biden is involved in the White House’s public relations effort meant that we could not take the White House threat seriously, you’re very shortsighted. Dan Gross told everyone that the point person at the White House is actually Valerie Jarrett. I think we’ve seen enough stories out the kinds of plans the White House has, so people shouldn’t be thinking that the mere mention of Biden means it’s all a big joke.
- They are extremely concerned about acting now and acting quickly. They acknowledge that the farther they get away from the 24/7 media coverage of dead people, they lose start to lose support for blaming guns. They begged people to set up meetings in the district offices of their Congressmen and Senators who are back in the district right now. They told their supporters not to wait on any specific bills that might be moving forward, but just to write, call, and demand any form of gun control.
*They totally knew we were on the call since they said that NRA members were on it. Maybe they didn’t know that the bloggers were listening, but they definitely knew that many folks would be tuning in from the pro-gun side to see what they are up to.
**I call this so-called background check legislation because we have seen that their version of gun show loophole has very little to do with background checks, but seeks to shut down gun shows.
“Dan Gross told everyone that the point person at the White House is actually Valerie Jarrett.”
As I understand Team Obama that’s a tautology. Doesn’t tell us if she’s really going to push it or not.
It means that handling actual policy isn’t happening under Joe Biden. It means that it is an Oval Office effort, not something being handed off to the Vice President so that it will be swept under the rug and go away.
Errr, I don’t see how you can know that. Maybe Jarrett’s plan is exactly that, punt to Biden and a commission, maybe give the Republicans enough rope to hang themselves (except I expect Democratic Senate resistance there), and then have Obama give more speeches about how evil the NRA and the Republican House are.
You’re right, we don’t know that Jarrett is behind the scenes or if she will do anything meaningful even if she is. The point is, don’t just write off the Biden panel just because Biden is leading it. Many Republicans don’t take Biden, or anything he does, seriously. But don’t assume the WH isn’t taking this seriously just because Biden is the front man.
Interesting – Biden gets the (public) credit, while Ms. Jarrett gets to do the hard work and the insiders respect. Nice divsion of work.
Not very ‘progressive’ policy I see….a man taking credit, once again, for the work a woman does…..
The “gun show loophole” ploy is a plan to force all gun purchases through the NICS. You don’t think they really destroy those checks do you. So gun registration by another name.
That and/or to regulate gun shows out of existence. E.g. massive criminal liability for those running it if e.g. one guy outside in the parking lot decide to offer a gun to another (unless the offerer, and effectively all attendees, are registered as dealers).
McCain signed onto this cause after he lost the 2000 presidential nomination and started … well, total nuclear war against the base. Actually helped get something passed in Oregon.
The ‘point’ is getting 4473’s filled out, anything else that happens is a bonus…..
I don’t know, we’ve seen some local stuff here in TX going on with certain municipalities going after gun shows on any publicly owned properties (i.e. convention centers and some stadiums). So far it hasn’t gone anywhere, but there is obvious interest in trying to get gun shows shut down completely.
I think Biden is getting too much of a short shrift. Yes, yes, we won’t see brilliant new ideas from him, but he is very skilled at working is colleagues in the Senate. That division of labor might be very smart, with Jarrett doing the back office and Joe doing the politicking.
Not to be ignored.