(courtesy Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America Facebook page)

It’s way too early to declare Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America’s TOD. But we’ve noticed a marked diminution of the gun control group’s media footprint. Oh sure, whenever there’s a firearms-related committee hearing, a disarmament Mom gets some obligatory airtime. But I reckon that’s less because they’re considered a force to be reckoned with and more that they’re the only organized group opposing “common sense” gun rights bills in pro-gun states (e.g., campus carry in Texas). But how organized is Moms Demand Action for Guns Sense in America (MDA), really? Here’s their caption for the photo above . . .

Moms Demand Action members in North Carolina joined the HKonJ march yesterday in the name of ‪#‎gunsense‬ and to honor of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill students who were tragically shot and killed last week. Thank you, Moms…

I count four Moms. Note that they’re carrying a pre-printed banner and pre-printed signs. So there’s a central organizing force supporting these MDA members. And when I say members, remember that they don’t pay dues, like NRA members. MDA is cagey (to put it kindly) about their “membership” totals. Here’s the relevant bit attached to their press releases:

Since its inception after the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Moms Demand Action has established a chapter in every state of the country and along with Mayors Against Illegal Guns is part of Everytown for Gun Safety, the largest gun violence prevention organization in the country with more than 2.5 million members and more than 40,000 donors.

There’s no definition of an MDA chapter. No “barrier to entry.” Aside from the hoplophobic zealots assuming the mantle of chapter heads, MDA is comprised of armchair activists. People whose protests take the form of hysterical, irrational and bilious comments on the Moms’ Facebook page. These “members” don’t pay for their participation with cash money or their presence. Muster on a blustery February? No thanks!

That said, MDA is still the big Kahuna of civilian disarmament. Former Mayor and bilious billionaire Michael Bloomberg provides virtually unlimited financial backing, and they’re still media darlings. But without a solid base, with gun rights ascendant in the courts and pro-gun state legislatures, their days are numbered – even if their supporters are not.

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66 COMMENTS

  1. So they just slide up the to rear of some other protest and take a picture, hoping notices that everyone else is facing the other way?

        • Um, I just briefly scanned these 14 points, and there is no mention of gun, weapon, or firearm. The titles do not indicate anything related to an anti-2nd amendment agenda. Wow, perhaps we should do the same thing. Perhaps we get a few pro-2nd amendment signs, go to some million person march, quickly hoist the signs, and take some pictures. Oh, that’s right, we are better than that. We don’t need to lie to make our case.

        • This rally (the main squawking points…not MDA) was of coarse covered by the local lefty media because it was just the usual laundry list of lefty wet dreams and lies.

          The Democrat party has to keep ripping off societies scabs and give the impression that the Repubs are……..”going to put you back in chains!” .. so says perv Joe Biden.

    • When I first saw the photo, I actually did not notice that almost all the bodies were facing away. It is clear at this point that they wanted viewers to think there was a giant protest going on when there was no such thing. I wonder how much money the mothership pays them to attend such events?

      Their tactics are pathetic.

  2. Slightly off topic, but can we use some new adjectives for Mr Bloomberg? The anti-ballistic thing is getting a little old. How about:

    Bombastic
    Bilious
    Browbeating
    Barking
    Bespoke
    Bongo-boy (keeps beating that disarmament drum)

    …? I’m sure there are others but I’m off in search of coffee now…

    • You and me both–I’m still waiting for Boko Haram to #bringourgirlsback. When they do, maybe I’ll start seeing the value of the hashtag thing.

  4. Gun control is unpopular. Period.

    There is a select crowd of people who are very loud and very anti-gun and everyone is getting very tired of them. No one new is joining their cause. It is the same people it has always been.

    At a certain point Bloomberg is just throwing good money after bad. He may be a political ideologue, but MDA has been a non-starter. It wasn’t effective grassroots movement before his money. It was an utter failure. Even after it became yet another liberal astroturf organization pretending to be grassroots it still failed to achieve anything except to fire up gun rights advocates.

  6. Alright, enough is enough. As an Army officer, acronyms are a way of life in the profession. In The Truth About Guns, acronyms are annoying as hell. OFWG, YMMV, TOD… come on, it isn’t cool, it’s unnecessary and lazy.

      • Plenty of professional bloggers use actual words, complete sentences, and punctuation.
        This makes it easy to differentiate between literate people with communication skills and junior high school students pretending to have an opinion.

    • Acronyms are pronounceable as words (like SCUBA or NASA). Otherwise, it’s merely an initialism.
      How do you pronounce OFWG? Ofwug? Not one of those is an acronym. (Maybe TTAG: Tee Tag. Maybe.)

      If you’re going to be critical, be correct in your criticism.

  7. Idea. What if we “join” our “local” MDA chapter? I mean, we all want to “reduce gun violence” right? And no one wants to “take our guns away”, so we should have the same goals. Might give us a chance to make a Saturday afternoon a little bit interesting. Maybe even actually educate some of these people. Hell, take them to the range!

      • I am SO doing this. Except I am making it myself, or having one made, because I am not giving a cent to that organization.

      • Actually… full kit, operator beard, Oakleys, open carried evil black rifle with the MDA logo on the mags and obnoxiously visible chamber flag(sidearm stays loaded, of course), MDA patches all over on plate carrier.

        Marcus: Taking things to unnecessary extremes since 1989

    • An interesting idea. Were MDA a membership organization, with local chapters that had elected officials, that might work. As it is, just showing up and trying to participate — with *real* common-sense idea signs — would at least be interesting. Your idea — take ’em to the range — is a good one as well, except most likely the MDA originals who show up will be very resistant to change.

    • Truth is, they are very secretive and keep their demonstration plans close to the vest. The reason is obvious. If they blasted over facebook where and when they planned to “march,” they would be overwhelmed by a pro-2A counter-demonstration.

      If you want to try to infiltrate their leadership, more power to ya!

        • You’re probably right. Organizationally things are of such a scope that Shannon Watts herself (and maybe an assistant for when she’s traveling) probably manages everything personally from her laptop. A list in the low three figures of “members” and probably a much bigger list of media contacts for the PR effort. Combined with a calendar to map out her campaign and that’s probably it. As a non profit, it would be interesting to see a financial statement — how much goes to overhead, vs actual civilian disarmament advocacy.

        • Well, I know they have a “president” for the Wyoming chapter. She lives in Denver, Colorado (insert rolling eyes icon here)…

    • You forgot about gun sense.

      Personally, I think it makes sense to allow anyone to carry any gun they want concealed or openly without a permit.

  9. “the largest gun violence prevention organization in the country with more than 2.5 million members and more than 40,000 donors.”

    As opposed to the evil “gun lobby” otherwise known as the NRA with over 5 million individual citizens as members, ALL of whom are paying cash money for their membership.

    Let’s see MDA start charging $35/year to put their money where their mouth is, and watch how quick that 2.5M drops down to nothing.

  10. I like how they are standing next to that crowd and the picture is framed to make it look like they crowd is supporting them.

  11. I think if you were to investigate MDA thoroughly, it would probably be a cadre of PR pro’s who have no stake in the issue. They are the semi-polished spokesperson “moms”, that also happen to be professionals in the media/government relations field. The “activists” are useful idiots that try to hijack photo opportunities. While I’m sure there are true believers, I’d wager some are compensated for their time.

  12. “2.5 million members” is probably more akin to 2.5 million Facebook ‘likes’ by mostly non-committed, non-invested browsing spectators who will jump on any bandwagon that mildly interests them.

  13. I might feel better about the Moms if they concealed or open-carried their signs and inserted them between criminals and their victims in their time of need.

    Like say in a mugging or gas station robbery.

    Until the moms bravely step up and end violence with their signs, I guess we are on our own, using the tried and true tools of freedom.

  14. I just hope they keep doing what they are doing. Seems to be working out great for us. It’s kind of like watching a neighbors cat drinking antifreeze- you know it will end bad for it but you don’t want to stop the pain in the a**.

    Okay I will give them A sliver of help. They would get a lot more people at least looking at the camera if they promised to give away a gun. 🙂

  16. Sara Brady’s legacy has gone kaput. I remember in the 80s and 90s how fashionable it was to be anti-gun. Heck, my childhood hero MacGyver was a gun-grabbing loon thanks to Henry Winkler being at the helm of that show. Now thanks to the Internet and alternative media the debate has been settled by way of crowdsourcing rational logic.

  18. You could literally make signs saying “we all want to legalize pedophilia” and and hold a few of them up while using any crowd of people as a backdrop. That is all these people do. Someday the rest of the world will catch on.

  19. Let US not fall into the trap of silence and then end up regretting the loosening of our guard. They aren’t gone till they are gone utterly.
    “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” -Mark Twain

  20. In the pic I count three Moms, someone’s kid, and a furtive figure who may or may not be the Unabomber, all glomming on to what appears to be a Groundlings Demand Free Stuff protest. Color me unimpressed.

  21. I wonder what well-attended public event MDA will use next to make themselves appear much bigger than they are? A One Direction concert? A tea party rally? The super bowl? In the past, they have always relied on using narrowly focused pictures to hide their tiny numbers, making it seem like a picture of their entire protest was just a small section of it.
    I see they have moved on to ‘photo bombing’ other people’s events that have nothing to do with civilian disarmament. I wonder if Mr. Nanny is regretting throwing millions of dollars at Mrs. Watts’ tiny, ineffectual little band.

  22. Whenever possible we (pro 2A) need to identify, investigate, and learn more about people commonly seen at these events. All as a matter of public information and 1A, then expose their idiosyncrasies and oddities in behaviors. Even where they buy signage, who from, etc. In other words undermine their supposed integrity. Upset business which deals with them in such a way the business’ want to distance themselves due to bad PR. All fair and legal, but none the less hard hitting. My cliché argument always surrounds the use of the word “Mom.” IMHO the word is misused by the MDA as a true good Mom would want all options always available to protect their children. No Mom would reduce or in this knowingly increase the chances of injury to their children. Yet this is exactly the position of the MDA.

  23. I will note the absence of color in the photo, specifically, people of color. Way to go Midget Mayor Mike. Keep it white. /sarc

  24. I always feel sorry for children in these things. With parents like those, these kids never had a chance at growing into rational, emotionally mature, decent people.

  26. You mean, MDA would manipulate a photo op to make it appear to be something it isn’t? Surely you jest!

    Next thing you know, they’ll be manipulating a photo from a pre-planned and pre-approved open carry get-together at a Chipotle. And then they might even take a group photo from the side, to make a group of smiling, flag-waving open carriers look like some sort of urban warfare platoon.

    Nah, they wouldn’t be that unethical, would they?

  27. I agree, it may be too early to declare them dead, but the writing is on the wall. My belief – and I predicted it back when it first happened – is that this is the result of Kroger telling them to shove off. All it needed was one major company to brush them off to break their momentum and undermine their credibility.

    MDA knew it too, that’s why they kept getting more and more shrill. As I said then, they cannot afford to lose on Kroger. Now we can enjoy the results.

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