I have observed previously that our opponents seem to be whipping up some real grassroots opposition to HR822, as evidenced by the high rate of signatures in opposition to the bill. The problem is, I’m not convinced that our opponents are capable of whipping up this kind of opposition, and it has to be coming from somewhere. I have found some more evidence that something is certainly very odd about the opposition here. Take the continued success of this latest Twitter hash tag campaign featuring Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker. Except I’m unconvinced this campaign has its genesis on Twitter itself. Take a look at some of the re-tweeters:
This person only has a handful of Tweets. 30 to be precise. This Twitter handle also only follows 5 people, none of whom tweeted about Booker’s video. This is not the only example I’ve found. I’ve found numerous examples, such as this person, this person, and this person. These are not people who spend much time, if any time at all, on Twitter. I believe, however, that they are real people. I’m not suggesting someone is creating users for the sake of astroturfing, since several of the accounts are personalized. So the question is, who’s prompting all these people who normally aren’t Tweeting to suddenly Tweet? Is it Cory Booker’s magnetic personality? Is MAIG really growing as a force?
One thing is certain, the campaign MAIG has put together is doing everything right. Under Booker’s video, you’ll note all the standard social networking buttons. The site is very well done, and it’s pretty clear they are using professionals. At some point we were going to push far enough to fire up the other side. HR822 is pretty clearly it. Whether the opposition they are whipping up is going to be thinking about HR822 on election day is another matter, but it does seem MAIG has been successful at gaining some grassroots support that can at least make some noise on their issue. The big question is whether they are getting help from some of the major left-wing outfits like MoveOn, or Obama for America. It seems hard for me to believe this much activity is happening just on people sharing Booker’s video in a viral manner.
The petition in question was pushed by a Police group. I wonder if there is a union mandate or push. Certainly our anti-rights opponents don’t have the power to push signatures, and many of the petitions some of the heavy hitters have under 10 sigs.
But Unions seem to be able to get boots on the ground, either from devotion, or paying them to participate.
My comment seems to be disappearing. Maybe because of my link. So …
They are on track to get the 25,000 sigs they need to get an Administration response to their anti-gun petition, whereas the pro-gun petitions (see http://stephenewright.com/fromthebluff/2011/10/11/are-we-actually-losing-a-grassroots-vote-to-anti-gunners/ won’t even make it to 5,000 sigs. Yes, the Brady Campaign/MAIG is on their way to a great victory, the President is getting cover for vetoing the bill if it gets to him, and we’ll have to hear about this for a long time.
There are somewhere around 3 million CCW license holders affected by this. If just .01% of them would vote, we would get 30,000 sigs right away. I mean … I know a lot of people on our side don’t want to register on a government website, but if you’ve already gotten a CCW they have a lot more than just your name, email, and zip code. If you want, just set up a temporary email and don’t use your primary.
I’m pretty disappointed in our side on this. We either hang together, or we hang separately. Do I hear Japete popping a bottle of champagne? ;-)
A lot of us don’t really want to fork over our info to the White House. You might say there are trust issues.
Our founding father’s put their signatures on a document declaring open rebellion against the king, knowing they were making themselves targets. But while this online petition is not in the same league/ballpark/sport as signing the Declaration of Independence, and probably won’t have any real world effects, you never know. And it’s nothing more than putting down your name, email address, and zipcode. To the government that has your IRS records and a record of any gun you’ve bought through a dealer.
“Molon Labe!” “From My Cold Dead Hands!” (But I won’t sign a petition) LOL.
I wanted to comment about a similar news pattern to 822 news that you are seeing with MAIG activity. In periodic searches of Google News on HR 822 and “National Right to Reciprocity Act of 2011”, I very rarely see any news items that are pro 822. I also don’t see good counter responses to news articles in the top of the searches (pro 822 responding to con 822 news articles). Media Matters seems to be at the top of all searches.
We are being beat at the news cycle for 822. Swing opinion is being set, and by our opponents. Leadership may be needed on this issue. Have we given up already on 822 passing this session, and are planting the seeds for this after the next election cycle? Will we fair better with a Cain or a Romney in the WH?
We have always gotten beaten severely at the media game. If anything, the media is considerably better on our issue than they were a decade ago. What’s always served our side well is grassroots. The problem on our side is that I think a lot of gun owners are going back to sleep. They woke up a bit when Obama got elected, but after not having a threat on the horizon, and seeing nothing but good news…. I think gun owners are settling in for a slumber.
RE HR822, I was going to write that the grassroot support of our cause has not yet been mobilized… I had not seen an NRA alert letting us know when to get out the phone, email and faxes that we can mobilize when we needed (witness new PA Castle law). When I got home on 10/22, I saw this: in my inbox: http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Federal/Read.aspx?id=7147
So… two things… we need timing for the grassroots mobiliation, and we need to plan to mobilize. Gun bloggers are a key element of this, and I’m hoping Sebastian, SaysUncle, John Richardson start to beat the drum to mobilize the grassroots at the right time to move this legistlation. PAFOA, CALGUNS and all of the other groups will be key as well. Is this part of the master plan?
This is additive… and like we saw with the PA Castle law, our efforts are not wasted with a presidental veto. Remember we were vetoed by Rendell re Castle Law, but the legislative momentum continued. HR822 is the worst news for NY, CA, NJ, MA… because once this wedge gets opened, the question will be why do out of towners get to protect themselves, but not citizens of the state?