The anti-gun forces in Pennsylvania vow to plod on, despite their resounding defeat in the legislature this Monday:
It was the latest loss in the last six months for Pennsylvania’s gun-control movement, but nevertheless its advocates insisted yesterday they had only just begun their fight.
“We have started to draw the gun-safety issue out of the shadows – which is where the special-interests lobby of the NRA wanted it to stay – and we are not going to stop now,” Joe Grace, executive director of CeaseFire PA, said yesterday. “We have a coalition that is growing, that is very energized.”
It’s been out of the shadows, Joe. You got a vote on the floor of the Pennsylvania House. All the media in Philadelphia, and in many other parts of the state covered this issue to death, and that coverage almost universally was in your favor. You lost. You don’t have the political power in this state to defeat the millions of hunters and shooters who live here. And we’ll do everything we can to keep it that way. John Hohenwarter has it right:
But John Hohenwarter, the NRA’s chief lobbyist in Pennsylvania, countered yesterday that “their problem isn’t organization. It’s their message. They don’t have a message that anyone is willing to buy here in Pennsylvania.”
Grace, of CeaseFire PA, disputed that, citing polls showing that the majority of residents support some form of gun control.
And, he said, his organization is rapidly expanding.
“Our goal is to build a coalition that is even broader and deeper,” he said, “so that it becomes a force to be reckoned with.”
Rapidly expanding? I’ll be interested to verify that with CeaseFire PA’s form 990s when they come out. How much you want to make a bet this rapid expansion is in Joe Grace’s imagination?
I bet their bank account is rapidly expanding, but he’s not going to tell you that it’s at the same rate as Bryan Miller’s wallet shrinking.