http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKYMdDCC-7g

I know it doesn’t say that, exactly. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence‘s “Be a Secret Superhero” campaign says “If you hear of a weapon threat or threat of violence in your school or community call 1-866-SPEAK-UP.” But we’re not stupid. We saw the Moms Demand Action’s Facebook post post-Paramus suicide: “ANOTHER DAY IN AMERICA, ANOTHER MASS SHOOTING THREAT.” We get that the civilian disarmament movement is moving towards labeling legal gun ownership a “threat”—one that must be eliminated. So I called the Brady’s “National Weapons Reporting Hotline” . . .

I reported a “scary looking man who lives next door with a lot of guns.” The counselor told me the service was primarily for schools but asked if the man was threatening anyone or bringing any of the guns to school. When I said no “but he has a whole lot of assault rifles” she pointed out that he probably has the right to have the guns but “I advise that you call your local police and find out what the local laws are.”

Fair enough? I don’t think so. When a pro-gun control organization masks itself as a crime hotline bad things can happen. Will happen? Watch this space.

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79 COMMENTS

    • “That’s because that phone number is not run by the Brady campaign, it is a legitimate line”

      Huh? The center to prevent youth violence, founded by the current president of the brady campaign.

      It’s equally legit (or not).

      • I’m not going to fault the program just because it was set-up by the Brady founder. It has a legitimate purpose, and the response RF got from calling (fraudulently? no offense meant, perhaps it is fair to call it investigative journalism) shows that they are trying to do what they say they are trying to do, rather than being some nefarious gun-grabbing group.

        If we are going to come down on any ‘honest attempt’ at reducing youth violence just because we question the motives of those that set a program up then maybe we really are ‘extremists’.

        • If you don’t see what is creepy about telling children they can be secret superheroes by ratting people out I don’t know what to tell you. If some kid is bringing a piece to school, the school administrators should be immediately notified… not the Brady Campaign.

          The broader purpose is to clearly reinforce the snitch culture. What is to stop the overzealous child of a liberal family from fluffing something up that he couldn’t take to administrators? The problems with this are obvious, kids are getting expelled for drawing superheros with anything resembling a gun and the Brady Campaign is telling kids to be real superheroes, all they have to do is snitch. The only real purpose here is to provide an alternate channel for allegations that administrators can’t take seriously.

        • (I’m not sure why this system doesn’t allow replies to replies to replies, but…)

          Fug, no I don’t see anything wrong with an anonymous tip line allowing people to rat out gang members who are going to take their gang wars to the school grounds.

          As for your question, “What is to stop the overzealous child of a liberal family from fluffing something up that he couldn’t take to administrators?”, judging from the response RF got, they appear to have a vetting process. I’m sure the dozens of people on this comment thread that are now going to call the number and ‘test it’ to see if they can get them to respond to somebody pretending to be a liberal family fluffing something up and I’m sure we’ll see posts here regarding the outcomes of such ‘tests’.

        • Woah! Nobody said anything about “gang members who are going to take their gang wars to the school grounds”. You totally made that up. They said “if you hear of a weapon threat or a threat of violence in your school or community”. How many liberals out there think that the very fact that you have a gun constitutes a “weapon threat”? Do not assume that there are good intentions in the hearts of these scum bags. We have been burned way too many times to assume that they believe in anything less than total disarmament!

        • Might Mo, the number and group has been in existence since 1998. I am all for a certain amount of skepticism regarding groups like this, but googling the number shows it in wide use nation-wide and RF’s sample call seems to indicate that they aren’t some type of ‘report people with guns’ number.

          I think the stated reason for setting it up, that youth in the community tend to know when a violent incident is going to happen before it does. Gang violence is certainly one of those types of things, and having an anon tipline seems like a good idea for stuff like that. So long as it has a protocol in place to vett cranks like libtards trying to report legitimate gun owners as ‘wackos’. Supposedly this group does have a protocol, developed in conjunction with police.

          Personally, I find it more suspicious that Evolve has started posting Truth About Guns articles on their facebook page and twitter feeds. But that’s just me.

        • I seem to recall the Stasi and NKVD having similar programs in their respective countries once upon a time.

        • Evolve is linking TTAG articles in their social media streams? This could be a good thing.

          For one thing, it could indicate that they’re serious about that “moderate voice bringing both sides together” thing. Maybe they’re not really a false flag for gun control (maybe; they could just be better at concealing it now).

          But even if they are still too close to the wrong side, they’re putting articles written by actual gun-owning Second-Amendment champions in front of people who otherwise would never see what our side actually looks and sounds like.

          I’m curious now…maybe I’ll take a look myself and see what’s going on over at Evolve. Could be interesting.

  2. When will ‘the people of the gun’ become a protected class?

    Other ‘groups’ have special protection under the law to prevent harassment and/or discrimination, why don’t we?

    I think it is about time the NRA and every single gun owner begin campaigning for EQUAL protection from bigots.

    Let’s start a ‘Gun Pride’ movement.

      • While the rapid advancement of the gay rights movement recommends many of their tactics and strategies when advancing any rights issue for a class, somehow I think shouting “We’re here, were armed, deal with it!” might have some unfortunate unintended consequences.

    • This is precisely how I feel. I already faced years of intolerance and bigotry from some hardliners for being gay.. Now apparently that is all null and void because I am being lumped in with the same group of people and labeled a racist homophobe Republican gun owner by MY OWN PEOPLE. I am so sick and tired of it. At the end if the day the People of the Gun have always proven more tolerant, to say the least, as they have been far more accepting of me being gay than my own GBLT group once they found out I owned AKs and shotguns and all the fun stuff.

      • You are so right. I really wish this was more well known. The “right to bear arms” movement does not marginalize anyone.

        I wish that it could focus more on activities outside of the political relm and more on the population reguardless of affiliation to any other activities.

        • Hey! I like the heavy metal! Not the cute toys 🙂 I’m a mans’ man you know what I mean? *s*

      • I am totally cool with you being gay as well. I lean libertarian in this regard which means that I don’t give a F’n $H!T what you do in your bedroom (as long as I don’t have to hear about it :). We as a group need to be very open and accepting to anyone we can get who is willing to pick up a gun and fight for our rights. I was very glad to see Colion Noir come onto the scene as well. The more we break down the Fat Old White Guys w/ Guns stereotype the better.

        • I think that you have your stereotypes bass ackwards.

          I’m an Old Fat White Guy With Guns and I’m perfectly fine with gay people, male or female. Most OFWGWG are. Old guys are generally very tolerant.

          The people that I see bashing gays are mostly young guys in Doc Martens.

        • Personally the NRA can do more to sway people if they propped up a gay person that calls out all the intolerance and the need for protection from those that hate us. There are A HUGE number of gay community members that are completely on the fence about owning firearms and not one major organization outside of the Pink Pistols has made a major outreach to them. I’m purposely trying to shoot for my NRA Instructor certification just so I can attempt to bring more into the fold by being an openly gay instructor. Either which way, this would heavily damage many Leftist stereotypes about gun owners.

          • I made that exact case to my uncle. He is gay and has never been a fan of guns but tolerates them per say. I said exactly this: “Listen you are a gay man living in the south, a place not known for its tolerance, you should consider taking a CCW class just to be educated and so you have the option should you ever decide to buy a gun.” The look on his face said it all, he never considered it that way because he was always of the common thought that the police will protect him. This got him to say, maybe they can’t because it put it into a perspective that hit home for him.

      • When I lived in downtown Seattle for a short time, I had a lot of friends by proxy who were extremely liberal and gay. They were some of the most intolerant people I’d ever known towards anyone who didn’t share their political and cultural viewpoints.

        I feel for you having to deal with that sort of treatment from people who should be 100% on your side, and should know exactly how you feel. Problem is, if they’re anything like the people I knew, many of them will straight up hate you for owning guns, as you’ve already discovered – and it’s the same kind of seething hatred that they get from homophobes. Why they cannot see the irony, I don’t know.

        • Cookie-cutter politics. What they fail to see is that the dough outside of the cut-out cookies? That’s cookies, too!!!

        • It’s the community, honestly. The need for us to be “different” and “special” when we are like every other human being to the left and right for us took precedence, and we are therefore forced to fit the mold the community leaders have set or be forsaken. I really do not like the vocal portion of the GBLT community at all. They are ruining it for those that actually have humility.

      • I seem to have run into a lot of homophobes in some gun fora; people who just won’t stop “gently” pointing out that certain others don’t like being told their lifestyle is a sin no matter how many threads the moderator has to close because people like me jump on their cases. (And I am not myself gay.)

        I am glad your experience has been better.

        • I’ve had alot of individuals jump on me for my orientation, but as with everything once they meet me and get to know me they realise that I am no different than they are. It’s not a big deal to me, either which way. It is their right to believe what they want to believe.

      • I can’t understand why so many people are so obsessed with other people’s personal lives. What are “gay rights” anyway? Don’t all of us humans have the same rights?

    • Take a look at your state’s laws, gun owners might be protected in your state, at least in the employment context. Some states have put anti-discrimination provisions into their concealed carry laws, such as Florida, and some states have “lawful use” laws which can protect gun owners. The lawful use laws were motivated by smokers’ rights groups but they often broadly protect people from discrimination due to their lawful use of lawful products. Even Illinois has such a law. That being said, I am always for a parade.

    • I think Mr. Colion Noir stated the same thing in one of his recent posts, I agree with the both of you.

    • Rkba, I don’t think we really want to go down that particular road. That whole “pride of victim hood” nonsense is part of the reason our society is in such a state of decay.

    • You know it is sad that, in modern times, gun owners now experience such discrimination and that discrimination is approaching that of the early civil rights gay rights and women’s rights movements. Equally sad is that the word patriot is now an insult… fvck I didn’t spend 2 years in the sand box for this country to turn out like this and my grand daddy didn’t dodge rounds on the beaches at Normandy for this to happen. How did the U.S. fall so far? Why did we the people let this happen?

      • My honest opinion is that we allowed the government to forget what “shall not be infringed” means. Follow that up with public school indoctrination and you get the USA’s own New Soviet Man. All other amendments are protected by the 2A. The Second amendment also indirectly protects the individual’s natural right to self defense. We draw the line here and now. No retreat. “Shall not be infringed” means precisely that. No compromise.

      • How did we get to this point……very easy answer….. 40 years of leftist indoctrination embedded into the education system from K-thru-PostGrad. While Repubs were whooping up our occasional political wins, the leftists after every polling loss went back to their classrooms and continued indoctrinating our kids. It has now been 10+ years of REAL WORK to deprogram my kids every evening when they came home from school. Now they are in college and pretty much their radar is on full sweep.

    • We are if you consider the FOPA to actually do anything positive that could’ve t have been done with court rulings.

  4. This is going to be so fun. Calling now to report weapons in a classroom. I will bait them for a while before telling them it’s at a gun club hunters safety class.

      • I am in a two party consent state, so no recording unless they announce at the beginning of the call that it would be a recorded call.

  5. I got 2 main issues with that: 1.) 911 is easier to remember and call. 2.) To protect yourself against violence, wouldn’t you want to be the one doing your own protection?

  6. Just like Stalinist Russia! Squeal on your neighbors to give yourself points with your all-knowing overloads! For Stalin!

  9. Considering that not to long ago a kid got suspended for “threatening behavior” when he was TALKING
    about wishing he had a gun so he could PROTECT people. i wounder what they consider a credible tip?

  11. What do they consider a MASS shooting??? 1 person died, 6 injured. But you can do just as much damage with a large Rambo knife. Probably even worse because no one will hear it and the police will take longer to respond.

    They are just looking for a reason, any reason to ban firearms. They’ll use whatever terminology incites more anger even if it’s inaccurate.

  12. due to recent virginia elections…i am no longer a gun owner and have no idea what you are talking about.

      • Sad to admit that I have several valuable items that cheerfully escaped my vest pocket, went ‘ploop’ into the water & glinted brightly while slipping down into the murky depths. One was even witnessed by the state’s marine sanitation device inspector. Were I a young man, I’d have gone in, but at my age & knowing there was at least 3 feet of water beneath my keel… no way.

      • I took all of my guns out hunting once, and accidentally left them leaning against a pine in the middle of the woods.

        Whoops.

  13. To call the Brady camp Legit in it’s pursuit of a un-constitutional agenda is the same as saying Stalin had some great ideas but he was simply overzealous in his pursuit of equality for the masses
    Heloooooo!!!!
    It’s Propaganda Folks!

  15. Has anyone noticed that the BradyCampaign youtube channel has at this time 561 subscribers (my favorite of their videos is “your voice matters”, with ratings and comments disabled.)

    guntruth has 3,628.

    NRAVideos has 64,477

    hickol45 has around 826,000

    -D

    • Same thought popped into my head when I read this. Rat out your neighbors, parents etc. The state with thank you.

    • “The Gestapo Was Born” from a site I googled. The first image is captioned “German citizens are stopped and searched by plain-clothes and uniformed police in March 1933 under the pretext they might be concealing weapons”

      http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/triumph/tr-gestapo.htm

      Other than the similarity to totalitarian regimes and their reputation of spying on neighbors, the problem I have with a “special” number to call to anonymously turn people in is that there is a anonymous number to turn people in. Could this be misused? It shouldn’t take much imagination to answer yes.

  19. Didn’t DARE do the same thing and got kids to rat out their family members for smoking pot and stuff? Sure it’s illegal, but when they are just smoking it it’s kinda bs to arrest them.

  22. “If you hear of a weapon threat or threat of violence in your school or community call 1-866-SPEAK-UP.” is certainly not what your misleading and inappropriate headline says and it is entirely and completely a good idea. I fully support that kind of “snitch line” and any “snitch line” that catches criminals. This does not violate the 2nd amendment in any way. It’s asking citizens to do the right thing.

  23. Anyone can anonymously claim anything. Why does our criminal justice system accept anonymous tips as sufficient cause for anything other than starting to investigate someone?

    More significantly, the Fourth Amendment of our United States Constitution’s Bill of Rights states, “… and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation …” That is crystal clear: an anonymous tip is not sufficient for a search warrant.

    • Aye! IMHO, we’re farther away from real Liberty in this Nation today than many see or want to see. I sincerely hope less and less People of the Gun persist in the myopic view that because we get a few bones tossed our way on the 2A and some licensed privileges dumped in our doggie bowl that we are somehow becoming a more free nation again; ’cause we aren’t and we are rapidly losing ground in other areas.

  25. Happened a lot in the Soviet Union only the questions were “do your mommy and daddy have a bible at home?”

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