Interesting article in Politico on how Obama silenced the gun control movement:
The White House knew its post-Newtown effort would require bringing key gun control groups into the fold. So the White House offered a simple arrangement: the groups could have access and involvement, but they’d have to offer silence and support in exchange.
The implied rules, according to conversations with many of those involved: No infighting. No second-guessing in the press. Support whatever the president and Vice President Joe Biden propose. And most of all, don’t make waves or get ahead of the White House.
Bloomberg has been quite vocal in all this, but I’m going to guess he’s likely working very closely with the White House, and the other groups are pretty much not in a position to do anything other than shut up and get in line.
Losing Coburn from the background checks talks increases the likelihood that the only gun control measure that can pass the Senate is on gun trafficking, a far less sweeping proposal than background checks or the doomed bans on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. Schumer, Manchin and Kirk will try to attract other Republicans to replace Coburn in their coalition.
That’s the asset forfeiture bill I spoke of earlier. I still would not count the ban on private transfers out. The votes might be there. Also interesting is that VPC has been relegated to the “kids table.” VPC outlived its usefulness quite a while ago, and it’s been rather surprising to me that the big foundations continue to fund that charade.
So how do we use the big anti-gun egos to torpedo this? Can we mock them for being wimps and sellouts and cause them to freak out and attack? What does the Administration get, what do the anti-gun groups get?
The anti-gun groups get access, but access without influence is worthless. It’s the political equivalent of patting them on the head and saying “there, there.”
The administration gets silence from the Left. They stop the “take all the guns!” talk from the anti-gunners, which makes this relatively less likely to crash and burn.
Our job, it would seem, is to piss off the anti gun groups to the point that they will break their silence. We want them to do two things, scream at the adminstration for “selling out,” and rant and rave that we need gun grabs.
great points, but I’m convinced these people worship at the feet of obama so blindly that they just won’t do it. if they do, the media who also worships at the feet of obama won’t report it.
So what does everyone think that the Administration has promised the pro-confiscation lobby in return for their silence? How about “Be quiet for now until we get the ban of private transfers done and then we will have the data base to actually get them.”