Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America is nothing if not mercurial. Run by former Monsanto PR flack Shannon Watts, backed by billionaire anti-ballistic bully boy Michael Bloomberg, MDA has focus-grouped their way through an endless series of pro-gun control marketing campaigns, never settling on any one message. Not that I’m complaining; the Moms’ lack of brand discipline is a blessing for firearms freedom folk. MDA has a new angle for Mother’s Day 2015. Unfortunately or fortunately (depending on your perspective), their latest effort is pro-gun safety – actual gun safety – rather than anti-gun agitprop. Or is it? Here’s their SMART crusade in an acronym-shaped nutshell . . .

Secure all guns in your home and vehicles

Model responsible behavior around guns

Ask about the presence of unsecured guns in other homes

Recognize the risks of teen suicide

Tell your peers to be SMART

The campaign’s vague touchy-feely verbiage betrays the hand of some sophisticated (i.e., expensive) ad agency effort. (At least one employee of which loves him or her some Anthony Robbins.) Even so, what’s wrong with urging gun owners to secure their firearms? Or behave responsibly around guns?

As for Moms asking about the presence of unsecured guns in other kids’ homes, personally, this single father doesn’t have a problem with that. In the same way that I wouldn’t mind if a playdate mom or dad asked me if I’ll supervise their kid when they swim in my pool. Not that I have a pool, but still . . .

I know many members of TTAG’s Armed Intelligentsia do have a problem with that. They think their gun ownership is none of the other parents’ business. They consider any such inquiry as a front line skirmish in the cultural war against guns. I reckon these conscientious objectors are free to say “It’s none of your Goddamn business” or the polite parent equivalent thereof. Free speech, free choice.

“Recognize the “risks” of teenage suicide?” Hmmm. That one troubles me. It should be, recognize the signs of teenage suicide. By using the word “risks” for the “R” in SMART the Moms are clearly suggesting that parents should not keep guns in home lest their child use one to commit suicide. It’s a subtle but offensive dig at responsible, caring gun owners. This from a writer who’s seen the immediate aftermath of a young man’s bullet-to-the-brain exit from society.

“Tell your peers to be SMART?” Someone ran out of ideas, defaulting to a spread-the-message message. I would have gone with T Talk to your kids about gun safety. But all-in-all the SMART campaign’s a lot better than anything that Moms has ever done to address “gun violence.” As The Dixie Chicks sang, there’s your trouble . . .

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America is dedicated to civilian disarmament. The SMART campaign – set to launch with actress and Mom Melissa Joan Hart as its spokesman this Mother’s Day weekend – is a Trojan horse. It’s designed to give them credibility in the gun community so that they can exploit that support to curtail Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms.

As we’ve been saying for years, THIS is the kind of post-Eddie the Eagle gun safety campaign the NRA should have launched. Now MDA is claiming the space. In the battle for hearts and minds, this is a loss for the pro-gun side. In the battle for honest-to-God gun safety, not so much. Your thoughts?

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43 COMMENTS

  2. Send all gun owners to re-education camps

    Make them turn in their guns

    Assist federal agencies in carrying this out

    Register all firearms

    Take the second amendment out of the constitution.

  3. I read that acronym and wish we had come up with it ourselves.

    The only part about it that I can’t stand is that they don’t actually want it to work, it’s just a way to get their foot in the door in the fight to convince fence sitters they aren’t insane.

      • sometimes, no matter how you try, you just can’t pull it off. It is like putting a biker into a cop bar, or vis-versa, everyone knows something is off. Even a bystander with no connection to either groups will be able to tell something is “off” and probably won’t end well.

        A anti-2nd amendment group that is pro gun control really shouldn’t try to branch out into gun safety. Its “off”, everyone can see its “off”, and no amount of bloombergs money thrown at the problem will fix it.

        On the other hand, if Bloomberg wants to throw money down a rat hole, I would be happy to accept some. I promise to spend it only on Guns, ammo, training, PPE and Tannerite. I further promise to take everyone I know/meet who will go, shooting. Teach them the basics, burn a few hundrend rounds of 5.56 and 9mm and .22 LR, set off some tannerite then go home and hold a cleaning and post shooting wrap up and BBQ. I bet I could do this for the same/less then MDA gets. Once the initial arms purchases are complete, I bet I could do it indefinitely for 1/4 of what MDA gets budgeted, unless Hillary 2016 drives up ammo prices.

  4. I don’t care how many ad agency dollars are at work, “A step in the right direction” will only come when they start actively lobbying for the repeal of ridiculous, unconstitutional, and often even bizarre gun laws in places like NJ, MD, CA, NYC, and elsewhere. My advice is that they should start small, like how can possession without a permit for a 300 yr old flintlock pistol be a crime?

    Not holding my breath.

  5. Can we start the DUMB campaign ?

    Don’t associate with stupid meddling parents.

    Use guns capable of taking care of task.

    Make sure everyone gets a taste of true civil rights activism.

    Buy more guns and ammo for no particular reason.

  6. Well. Another stupid program from an or with a stupid name from a group for stupid people.

    …

    Well you know it’s not really the worse idea in the world. But of course the program is permanently tainted by the fact it’s from an anti rights organization.

  7. LOL couldn’t even come up with a T for the acronym!
    With all the money they’re given they don’t seem to use it well.

  8. This appears to be the “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back” Marxist maneuver that Lenin liked so much…. Looks like they’re trying to reset possibly… They’ll never let up, this is calculated…

  9. How about we steal their very own slogan from them?

    Get as much training as possible

    Understand the 4 Rules of Gun Safety

    Never assume a gun is unloaded

    Safe muzzle direction

    Every object you point a gun at you should be willing to destroy

    Never shoot at a target you are unsure of

    Sights should be on target before the finger is on the trigger

    Educate your children about guns

    They can do better, that only took five minutes for me…

    • “Get as much training as possible”

      Remember, buy American made ammo, it creates jobs and stimulates the economy…

      (Note: Just lay off buying any more .22 lr for awhile, mkay?)

  10. SMART is the kind of vapid sh1t I’ve come to expect from MDA and its “sister” organization, PETA.

    • I will have to send them a tube of diaper rash ointment. say what you will, but that stuff is the best at healing up burns that I have ever used.

      they will need it.

  12. Ask about the presence of unsecured guns in other homes.

    My reply would be as the US military answer on the presence of nuclear weapons on board aircraft and ships.

    • “I can neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons on this ship.”

      Or, alternatively:

      “I could tell you, but I’d have to kill you, and THEN EAT YOUR BRAIN!” 😀

      • LOL… The brain eating part must be new…Carry on Sailor… Have a GREAT Navy day… 🙂

    • It is not quite the same situation. When we have ” supposedly well trained ” law enforcement officers losing weapons or else leaving an unsecured weapon in a public restroom, it makes sense to ask a homeowner if he should have any unsecured weapons lying around

  13. The NRA should counter (and drown out) this SMART initiative with there own.

    How about SCOPE?

    Secure all firearms not in use, and be conscious of firearms being carried.
    Communicate with kids, family & friends about gun safety/responsibility, openly and apolitically.
    Observe and address at-risk behaviors or language by those you know with access to firearms.
    Positively represent the firearms community in your encounters with dissenting views.
    Embody the safe behavior and handling of firearms, and insist on that same courtesy from others.

  15. You can water that astro-turf all you want it will never grow. And stop spreading the BS around it just makes it stink.

  16. This is why the fight to preserve freedom never ends. Those that fight to enslave us will use any means; lie, obfuscate, mis-direct, to worm there way into our minds, hearts and souls, and once there, they will twist their corrupt and fetid spirits into a noxious and putrid mass of helplessness, powerlessness and dependency.

  17. I guess they aren’t going with the Guns-for-Tots campaign…
    Is it me or does anyone else hear Beavis and Butthead giggling in their heads saying, “Moms Demand Action”?

  18. Never mind the topic, appalling as it is… the alliteration in the second sentence is an A+ stopper all by itself.
    Going to go back and re-read it again.

  19. Trojan horse. They’re on the ropes, they have little to show for their effort, their lies have been documented, and they cannot get enough people to their events. They need to look credible and appeal to the mainstream so they know now to advance their agenda in increments; get people on side, gradually start converting them to their cause, push for gun control.
    Same as Sandy Hook Promise; look respectable, talk about feel good easily relatable topics, and bury your actual agenda so people aren’t put off by it.

  21. The irony is strong with this acronym.

    Considering their entire premise is based off of willful ignorance and made up crap, I think the only purpose this acronym serves is to enrage anyone with brain cells that knows anything about the history of firearms.

  23. Secure all guns in your home and vehicles

    Model responsible behavior around guns

    Ask about the presence of unsecured guns in other homes

    Recognize the risks of teen suicide

    Tell your peers to be SMART

    I see nothing about actual gun safety there.

    • “Shannon
      Must
      Attend
      Reality
      Training”

      … Hosted by Dirk Diggler. Adult beverage refreshments provided.

      Fixed it for ya… 😉

  28. The height of pretentiousness.

    How can an organization founded upon such a demonstrably STUPID premise possibly launch a program that is actually SMART?

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