Matthew W. Jackson photo (click to enlarge)
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A decade and a half ago, the Brady Campaign (then named Handgun Control, Inc.) was riding high. With the passage of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act in 1993 (requiring background checks on all firearms purchases from licensed dealers), and the ban of so-called "assault weapons" in 1994 (the passage of which was facilitated by heavy HCI lobbying), there seemed little left for them to do but to choose their next targets.
And their targeting list was quite ambitious. Senator Howard Metzenbaum's (D-OH) "Gun Violence Prevention Act of 1994," also known as the "Brady Act II," was a forcible citizen disarmament advocate's dream, and would have been--was intended to be--the death knell for America's gun culture. We looked at some of the oppressive restrictions it would have mandated last year.
A funny thing happened on the way to the gun ban, though. The 1994 elections were something of a bloodbath for Congressional Democrats, causing President Bill Clinton to later write in his autobiography that the NRA "could rightly claim to have made Gingrich the House Speaker," because the backlash against the AWB was enough to flip the House over to Republican control.
It could be argued that the Brady Campaign's fortunes have been in decline ever since. Oh, sure--they've had some bright patches--even a "We win. They lose. Now, let's get to work," moment in November 2008, with the election of Barack Obama, but that joy seems to have gone sour.
Still, I would not have predicted that not only would the Brady Campaign't political action committee become more or less financially irrelevant (and financial relevance is about the only relevance for a political action committee), but that the Brady Bunch would be reduced to selling their mailing list for some desperately needed cash. Furthermore, the list consists of only about 50,000 names--a mere 10% of the "about half a million" claimed by then Brady Campaign president Michael Barnes in 2004. Was Barnes grossly exaggerating (lying, in other words), or has the Brady Campaign lost 90% of its membership in the last six years?
Of the remaining 50,000 members/donors, how many will be more than a little unhappy to discover that their contact information has been placed on the market, thus opening them up to who-knows-what kind of SPAM?
Update: And what's this? Did the Brady Campaign promise not to sell or share this list?
Email List Subscription
The Brady Campaign and the Brady Center use your email address to send you news and alerts that you have requested. When subscribing to this and future email lists, the Brady Campaign or Brady Center will collect and store the personal information that you provide. However, the Brady Campaign and the Brady Center will not sell your name or e-mail address to spammers or share it with unaffiliated groups.
All this is not at all to say that this is any time for complacency in gun rights advocacy circles. Efforts to close the mythical "gun show loophole," to empower the Attorney General to unilaterally cancel a person's Second Amendment rights, simply by calling him a "suspected terrorist," and to simply do an end-run around the Constitution, via international treaty, are still very much afoot, as are other threats. Obama's disinterest in fighting the gun rights battle is due not to disinterest in attacking gun rights, but to his desire to be reelected--if that happens, look for him to earn his way back into the forcible citizen disarmament lobby's good graces. Besides, fighting off further attacks on gun rights is only part of the battle--we have a great deal of work to do on offense, to get back to shall not be infringed.
With that in mind, to keep abreast on news related to gun rights, and to liberty-related topics in general, consider signing up for Los Angeles Gun Rights Examiner John Longenecker's "Liberty News/Safer Streets" newsletter (more fully described here). That's a mailing list you can count on never being sold or shared.
Atlanta: Ed Stone | Austin: Howard Nemerov | Boston: Ron Bokleman | Charlotte: Paul Valone | Cheyenne: Anthony Bouchard | Chicago: Don Gwinn | Cleveland: Daniel White | DC: Mike Stollenwerk | Denver: Dan Bidstrup | Detroit: Rob Reed | Fort Smith: Steve D. Jones | Grand Rapids: Skip Coryel | Knoxville: Liston Matthews | Los Angeles: John Longenecker | Minneapolis: John Pierce | National: David Codrea | Parkersburg: Nicholas Arnold | Phoenix: Douglas Little | Pittsburgh: Dan Campbell | Seattle: Dave Workman | St. Louis: Kurt Hofmann | Tucson: Chris Woodard | Wisconsin: Gene German
Comments
Kurt, Why didn't you run for office?
Er, what office, 5th?
I'm not really politician material, and couldn't begin to finance a campaign, anyway.
So Kurt, when are you going to push for letting gun owners sue hosts of private house parties who ask them to disarm themselves?
After all, "shall not be infringed" means that you should NEVER be made to disarm by anyone.
Well, would-be attendees could simply choose not to attend house parties where there guns were not welcome. A house being private property, I'm loathe to try to argue that the homeowner is obligated to make ANYONE welcome that he chooses not to, even if that lack of welcome is based on something as irrational as hoplophobia.
Hopefully this will end the Brady Campaign and make them a pitiful footnote in our history as misguided fools. Their donors should be absolutely livid over the selling of that list and some should consider suing if possible for breach of contract if the Brady Campaign promised not to do this. A lawsuit of this size would bankrupt the campaign.
Unless I am having a gun party (like tupperware I guess) I would expect invited guests to come unarmed. Anyone who feels they need a gun in my house and I cannot protect them does not belong there. If I am serving any alcohol there will definitiely not be any guns present even from LEO's. Otherwise they can stay home. I hate bullet holes in my walls/couches.
GunRights, The Constitution has never presumed to dictate to private sovereign individuals what they can or cannot allow in their own private homes. The Constitution was intended to restrict actions of government as well as actions of individuals acting under color of law who profess to be agents of government. That is not to say that the Code of Federal Regulations, the Constitution not-with-standing, doesn’t contain uncountable unconstitutional proscriptions directed at private use of private property.
I have no problem with anyone I consider a friend carrying his firearm into my home. If I can’t trust him with his firearm he doesn’t have any business being on my friends list in the first place. And, at least presently, I do still have a say as to who may enter my door.
My guess is that the Bradys will be free and clear as to the selling of their subscribers’ list. Anybody stupid enough to buy into their agenda is too dumb to realize he’s been had.
[W3]
If you don't trust someone coming into your home armed, you don't trust them enough to invite them in. If you don't want whole people with all their rights intact coming to your home you are more than within your rights to be a hermit. An "invitation" that demands you leave your rights at home is not really an invitation. Treat it as a warning instead.
arm yourselves
the wolf is at your door
for like a thief in the night..........
Keep writng articles like this one Kurt, running for office
will only silence your pen
It's worth noting that the partial donor list we sell helps our donors maximize the value of their donations, and they can easily opt out by request. Furthermore, email information is not included.
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