Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America reckon they won big in the mid-term elections. In fact, pro-gun pols slammed the antis across the U.S. The only real victories enjoyed by the doyennes of disarmament: the retention of anti-gun governors in Colorado, California and Connecticut and the passage of I-594 in Washington State. I doubt MDA’s “gun sense voters” tipped the balance in those gubernatorial races. And the Evergreen State Universal Background Check debacle was well and truly tipped by . . .

the tsunami of cash injected into the “debate” by statist billionaires Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Ballmer and Nick Hanauer – not the Moms. Money that funded a blizzard of pro-I-594 commercials, for which the NRA and SAF had no good reply (pointing out that registration leads to confiscation).

Of course, MDA are the antis’ poster child, their Trojan horse. So while the BS is strong in this self-congratulatory video, and the anti-gun group were handed their hat in the Senate, firearms freedom advocates would do well to remember Sun Tzu’s advice: all warfare is based on deception.

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38 COMMENTS

  2. Unfortunately, they might have the facts on their side in Connecticut. Foley won the primaries on the back of SB1169, despite having failed to beat Malloy four years ago.

    Unfortunately, despite things in the state continuing to go terribly, Foley lost the general gubernatorial election by a margin 3.5x as large as last time.

    Being understandably surprised at this, I looked at the actual results from my district to see if, perhaps, my ballot and others were spoiled for having refused to fill in the circle for the positions that only had a single, Democrat, contender. There was a difference between the total number of votes in that category and the total number of votes for governor, though, so I have to assume that my ballot wasn’t spoiled.

    • You did what you could. Too bad so many the rest of CT firearm owners couldn’t open their eyes and get off their butts to help you out and go vote.

      I’m even starting to view the low AR registration rate not so much as civil disobedience, but as just another demonstration of civil laziness there.

      • Malloy got 20,000 fewer votes than 2010. Foley got 40,000 fewer.

        CT is shrinking, and the Republican voters are leaving in larger numbers than the Democrats.

        Malloy’s destruction of what was left of our economy has paid political dividends in ensuring his perpetual reign.

    • I thought (wrongly) that Visconti dropping out at the last moment would push Foley over the top even though I had been thinking he was running a horrible campaign. The negative ads against Foley were running every single commercial break and they were running everywhere. Malloy never ran on his accomplishments. But Foley never responded. And if I think about it, the NRA was asking for another yet contribution almost daily, but other than a single postcard in the mail, I don’t know how my contributions were used because I didn’t see it. As a CCDL member, I voted, and I have no reason to doubt how my friends and neighbors voted. But it’s hard to overcome the vote in the three big cities of Hartford, Bridgeport, and New Haven.

    • Voter turn out was still quite impressive IMO.

      I have no doubt Foley wouldn’t have been much better than Malloy during Sandy Hook or in the future, but at least he wasn’t Malloy, like his campaign seemed to be based on. Another thing that hurt Foley is many state employees voted for Malloy over Foley, electing to take the lesser of two evils.

      I liked Visconti but unfortunately I think him being a viable 3rd party candidate doomed him before he began. I also thought him dropping out might give Foley the edge but I wouldn’t have bet on it and glad I didn’t. It would be nice if people at large pulled their heads out of their asses and saw that no matter the party, you are gonna get f*cked one way or the other. Maybe then we can get a real third party candidate in to try something new for once.

  3. Well MDA = Bloomberg… ergo if they stupidly decide to remind people of this fact (that their grass roots group is really astroturf), then they can claim some credit for 594 if they want to.

  4. It gives me a grim bit of amusement to watch these imbeciles go. They get a victory and they think that the world is magically better. In case they forgot laws change every day. We on the side of liberty know this intently. We know that the fight is never over. We don’t sit back and pat ourselves on the back for every tiny little victory.

    No, we’re going to take this hit in WA and redouble our efforts against the forces that challenge out natural right of self defense. And we will not stop until we’ve rolled back this ‘progress’ and (proverbially) pushed all these demanding moms and their billionaire backers into the sea.

  6. “the retention of anti-gun governors in Colorado, California and Connecticut”

    You forgot New York. Unless you’re going for the alliteration.

    • At least the GOP captured the Senate in Albany. That’ll keep Cuomo in headaches and stress enough to hinder any presidential campaign he may have been considering. The NY Times tried to spin that, though, as a positive, a chance for him to demonstrate bipartisanship, centrism and leadership. Yawn…….

      • Cuomo got enough support from republicans when he pushed through the “SAFE Act” that I don’t take that as comfort.

        Cuomo needed to go. The fact that he didn’t- and that even the rural areas of NY had very low turnout rates- tells the tale about the NY electorate.

  7. Red chains or Blue chains it does not matter what color is draping over your shoulders through partisan b.s., what truly matters is that some of you are so willing to be chained. We live in a Constitutional Republic that is supposed to be able to elect representatives sworn to protect all the people within certain guidelines. We do not live in a Democracy where the majority can strip the constitutional and natural right of gun ownership. In Washington the diseased liberal areas nullified the will of the citizens in other areas who do not drink the statist kool-aid with the stroke of pens, irregardless of the American Bill of Rights. An American citizen in Washington can no longer hand his own firearm to a friend without becoming a criminal, whereas California just encouraged weapons theft. At some point folks will call traitors for what they are and change will not be written with pens and accountability will be swift.

  8. I love how this group (moms demand action) blocks anyone who disagrees with their freedom hating ways on twitter and facebook, not only that, they disable comments and the like system on Youtube. Could anyone explain why they block comments and the like system?

    • PR 101. If your cause is going to generate controversy and infighting on a platform you don’t have direct control of, you disable comments. I’ve set up and ran/run social channels for businesses where controversy is the norm (bars and nightclubs) – management always wants commentary turned off, lest some guy who got 86’d the night before comes out swinging via social media on the pages you have for your business. Because taking down a post on a platform you don’t own, takes time, and often isn’t done if it’s just a “dissenting opinion”.

      So, comments are turned off on all MDA/Bloomberg pages, because Watts, being a professional liar (PR person) her whole life, knows she can’t easily remove opposing commentary. And she fully well knows that nowadays, the POTG aren’t a bunch of beer-swilling old fat white guys sitting around watching NASCAR on tube TVs. Your modern POTG uses the same techniques and services she does. We have smartphones, Macs, apps, data engineers and miners, the whole data-driven arsenal. Our cause is just, and we need to and have been meeting the opposition on their front. The firearms industry has a bit of a way to go in terms of utilizing social channels, but it’s gotten a lot better, especially in the face of Bloomberg’s pet geeks and liars.

    • Classic Alinsky move, having a discussion with the opposing side humanizes them.

      and of course “fifth rule: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.”

  10. It would be fitting, I think, to feature photos of Bloomberg, Gates, and Allen whey you highlight something flowing directly from their checkbooks.

  11. I’m in Washington State. 591 won in the majority of counties. In the voter rich county like King county, it lost. And that’s where they had a school shooting a few weeks ago! That’s how it went for legalizing Marijuana here. It lost in many counties, but not in voter rich county like King.
    Republicans are in control here now also, so in the end, nobody is losing sleep over that unenforceable law 594
    The blowhards antis can blow until their lungs collapse. Yes they won a few battles, but they are losing the war they waged. Strong 2A folks like me here in Washington are just saying….meh.

    • 594 pisses me off because it struck me as a big bag of crap that the electorate was sold under what I believe to be false pretenses. I only hope that enough folks that voted for it are directly affected by it. Maybe then they’ll learn to actually read the law before voting for it.

      • Sadly, had there been money a lot of the antis disinformation lies would have been countered. Instead, 594 had a clear field to send out their propaganda.

        Give it a year and the antis will have a new initiative. I-594 is unworkable. The next push will be to “fix” the loopholes still left. Again “reasonable, common sense” and “for the children” will be presented.

    • Same situation in California. By area, the state is 90% red, but by population it is 60% blue. Unfortuantely, the blues have it. On the other hand, I would not characterize governor Brown as “anti-gun,” but rather as not strongly pro-gun. The microstamping debacle predates his election (Arnie signed the bill), and CCW issuance, the elements of which are dictated by state law, is determined by county sheriffs and the city police chiefs, not the state. Further, the Attorney General is an independently elected political office, so the Governor has no control over the antics of Kamala Harris. Finally, Brown has vetoed the worst of the bills that have made it to his desk, allowing the least offensive to become law–so he would seem to fall into the “right to bear subject to some state regulations.” (Which is also consistent with the way the California Supreme Court has dealt with the issue over the years.)

  12. The only real victories enjoyed by the doyennes of disarmament: the retention of anti-gun governors in Colorado, California and Connecticut and the passage of I-594 in Washington State.

    Maybe I’m biased because I’m in Colorado and directly affected by one of those items, but those are pretty damn important (actual and symbolic) victories.

    If the People Of The Gun couldn’t oust Colorado Governor Bloomberglicker after what happened last year, that’s a sign of political impotence.

    And as TTAG and other sites have reported, what happened in Washington state is going to be happening across the country in the next few election cycles.

    You’re doing your readers, and the RKBA movement, a great disservice by minimizing those those defeats. From a purely gun-owner-rights perspective, the Colorado governor’s race and Washington’s I-594 were the two big contests this week, and we lost.

    • Exactly, and it appears that the two legislators who succeeded those recalled earlier got voted out this time around. Luckily for you Coloradans, you picked up additional seats in the State Senate elsewhere in the state.

    • I’d partially agree with this analysis in that I 594 and Hickenlooper were probably the biggest contests from the symbolic standpoint. Overall, I’d call the results mixed because of the two high profile losses above, but the Senate won’t be taking up any gun control in the near future, and many more state houses are in the hands of more 2A friendly Republicans. If the citizens of these states apply local pressure , gun laws can be improved on the state level.

  13. The passage of I-594 is an important event, and to think otherwise is to be in denial. It doesn’t mean that “all is lost”, but it is a new development that absolutely has to be addressed.

    And I am not sure that “registration leads to confiscation” is enough of an argument for the general public in this day and age, but there were enough other problems with the bill that could have been addressed if the money was there.

  14. Sure, I seem to remember Saddam’s PR guy declaring victory and denying the troops were near Baghdad,too. More than once.

  15. “and let our politicians know that if they won’t take action…we will”

    HOW THE FUCK do you expect to do a damn thing when your fighting against something that would be used for force? You going to go to each gun owners house and force yourself in, open each location and take all the guns without so much of a “What are you doing in my house?” The main issue I have with emotional arguments over logical was never more prevalent.

  16. Hickenlooper and 594 are losses, but the GOP owned most of the governor’s offices and state legislative chambers before the election, and ran up the score on Tuesday.

  18. These people must be delusional. Democrats lost the senate. They occupy less seats in the House than they have in over 50 years. The Democrat party occupies less seats in all state legislatures than they have in over 100 years.

    • True but with the victories they got, they will go elsewhere and try again. The WA folks have already said they aren’t stopping and will push for more gun laws. I fully expect them to come south back to Oregon and try again here now that the Dems control the Oregon house, Senate and Gov.. They got no where back in March 2013 but not much to stop them now.

      • What you are describing is what they hope to accomplish through WA and OR legislatures. That’s always an option in blue states anyway.

  20. I would have to argue with the idea that the NRA response of “Registration always leads to confiscation” isn’t so much of a stellar response. That is essentially the opposition to the anti’s telling the anti’s that this vote is the proper course to follow for their ultimate goal. It would have been far wiser to underscore the fact that more laws don’t equal less crime, but more guns do.

  21. Shannons group of 10 or 12 regular faux mom sockpuppets made no difference anywhere, especially in I594- that was bought with millions of dollars of ads in Seattle papers by Gates, Balmer, and two rich guys from out of town- Hanauer and Bloomberg.

    Pretty sad commentary on the independents and libertarians and tech types that think themselves smarter than others.

    California was never going to be close, so that’s invalid to include. Same for NY.

    CO’s Hickenlooper barely scraped by, especially when you consider the potential for voter fraud in the laws he signed permitting ballot harvesting just before the election. He’s a lame duck now with most of the voters pissed at him, and no one trusting the ballot process.

    CT others have covered.

    This was not a victory for MDA, except in Watts fevered imagination.

    What the 2014 election cycle will be remembered as is Obama’s repeat of Clinton’s strategic error pushing anti-gun laws, and the loss of the majority in Congress that hobbled him, and kept most politicians anti-gun shy. This is an even bigger loss of Democrats- a repeat on that same lesson that will resonate for a generation.

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