Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America was originally called One Million Moms for Gun Control. In the immediate aftermath of the Newtown massacre, PR-meister Shannon Watts named the group as homage to the Million Man March; the 1995 gathering in Washington, D.C. where some 400k African-American men rallied to “convey to the world a vastly different picture of the Black male.” Shannon soon realized that . . .

A) she was in no danger of organizing a million moms for gun control B) the media might call her out on her relatively paltry support C) the abbreviation “1MM4GC” was only slightly more media friendly than N.W.A. and D) the name stopped her from claiming more than a million supporters for “gun sense.” So she rebooted as Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

The action her group demands is basically any law that disarms civilians. So far, her group’s only real, demonstrable “success” has been Starbucks’ polite request to its customers to leave their guns at home (which carries no force of law). Even that “victory” had many mothers (so to speak). Starbucks’ open letter to The People of the Gun was as much a reaction to in-your-face open carry activism as it was anti-gun agitation.

MDA’s attempts to replicate that victory—the grass-roots campaign to turn Staples into a “gun free zone”—blew up in their faces. I suspect their just-announced jihad against McDonald’s will face a similar fate. Never mind. Shannon will continue to consider her group’s PR successes the thin end of the gun control wedge. Whatever MDA can do to demonize civilian gun ownership, even if yields nothing in the way of legislative change, is a solid win.

Moms Demand Action throws down the gauntlet (courtesy Facebook)

Truth be told, making firearms ownership culturally unacceptable is MDA’s main mission. Shannon’s positioned as the firearms equivalent of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The central flaw with this strategy: firearms ownership is not drunk driving. Owning a gun is not, on its face, a bad thing. In fact, millions of law-abiding Americans cherish their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms.

That leaves MDA – indeed all gun control groups – in an uncomfortable position.

On one hand, their core, indeed only active supporters are rabid anti-gunners. Keeping them motivated requires an emotion-driven no-compromise message: civilian gun ownership is bad! Bad! Bad! Bad! Bloody shirts must be waved. Inconvenient truths about armed self-defense must be avoided, distorted or ignored! Disarmament is the dish of the day!

On the other hand, “ban guns” is not a mainstream message. So . . .

“We’re not anti-gun,” Shannon Watts told a reporter. “We’re not against the Second Amendment. We just believe in common sense to end the growing epidemic of gun violence in America.”

MDA must work on two levels: no-holds-barred anti-gun extremism for the groundlings (e.g. their Facebook rabble rousing) and vague “stop gun violence” populism for the paparazzi (e.g., the decidedly non-specific video above). As long as the mainstream media venerates apple pie, motherhood and disarmament; as long as MDA doesn’t have to rely on members’ money (thank you Mayor Bloomberg), Moms Demand Action can continue this endless stream of bi-polar anti-gun agitprop.

Suzanna Hupp (courtesy hereandnow.wbur.org)

Countering Shannon Watts’ disarmingly milquetoast mainstream media message is no mean feat. How do you fight a MILF Mom and her emotion-driven drivel? Newtonian [sic] physics. You put up an equal and opposite force in the shape of a Suzanna Hupp [above]. Wikipedia:

Hupp and her parents were having lunch at the Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen in 1991 when the Luby’s massacre commenced. The gunman shot 50 people and killed 23, including both of Hupp’s parents. Hupp later expressed regret about deciding to remove her gun from her purse and lock it in her car lest she risk possibly running afoul of the state’s concealed weapons laws; during the shootings, she reached for her weapon but then remembered that it was “a hundred feet away in my car.” Her father, Al Gratia, tried to rush the gunman and was shot in the chest. Hupp escaped through a broken window and believed that her mother, Ursula Gratia, was behind her. Actually however, her mother went to her mortally wounded husband’s aid and was then shot in the head.

As a survivor of the Luby’s massacre, Hupp testified across the country in support of concealed-handgun laws. She said that if there had been a second chance to prevent the slaughter, she would have violated the Texas law and carried the handgun inside her purse into the restaurant. She testified across the country in support of concealed handgun laws, and was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1996. The concealed-weapons bill was signed by then-Governor George W. Bush.

Unlike Watts—a self-anointed self-appointed anti-gun crusader lobbying in the name of her children—Hupp is the real deal. A woman whose crusade for gun rights was based on personal experience. A former State rep who had a demonstrable, positive effect on gun laws in Texas and, by that example, the rest of the United States.

Hupp has retired from the field of battle. The gun rights movement needs a woman like Hupp stat. It needs a been-there media-friendly pro-gun female who can counter Watts’ media-friendly anti-gun misegos. Given Shannon Watts’ youth, financial support and love of the media (and theirs with her), MDA isn’t going away any time soon. The sooner gun rights advocates find their champion, the better.

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97 COMMENTS

    • I think everyone is forgetting how much money Shannon Watts is making from the con job she is running. That girl will ride this pony till the money dries up.

      • I sitll think Bloomberg banged Shannon and this whole thing is payola to keep his name out of the papers.

      • ^ THIS ^

        It’s high time someone started looking closer into lovely Ms. Watts’ background, and her source of funds, and what she takes out of this gawd-awful hamster wheel she created to keep herself runnin’ hard. I’m pretty sure behind her is aligned with C.D. Spangler’s daughter Abigail, who has been on the hoplophobia gravy train for many years before Shannon came a callin’…

    • ….you want Ms. Hupp to sleep with Bloomberg?

      RJ O’Guillory
      Author-
      Webster Groves – The Life of an Insane Family

        • …Ha!…Great retort!…..”below the belt”…ha! Literal and figurative…simultaneously…ha!

          But don’t abuse me…I was not the one suggesting Ms. Hupp “get involved”…..without defining it…ha,ha,ha!

          RJ

      • Smart and articulate (and attractive), but waaay too conservative. People who don’t follow Breitbart or The Blaze would only know her as the Fox News Tea Party pundit.

        Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

        Trouble is, she’d be vilified by the rest of the MSM for it and she’d only get on the liberal networks (which is practically all of them) when they want to cast her as a harsh female who can anger their viewers and give the liberal interlocutors someone to yell at (basically, the Ann Coulter role).

        The MSM will try to do that to any woman who doesn’t stand on their platform. This is why someone like Nikki Goeser would be better — less party affiliated baggage AND a compelling personal story that’s not easily shoved aside.

        Although, as was pointed out below, a black lesbian single mother who has a similar story and the requisite communication skills would be the ultimate spokeswoman. Her mere presence in the debate would basically nuke the anti’s entire position from orbit.

        • or we could go with a strong,tall,good looking man with confidence and a back bone to just tell the girls against guns: “No”.

    • I like KJW, even though, so far as I know, she is not a Mom. The only question is whether or not she has the gravitas necessary for the national stage? Perhaps Colion can give her lessons?

      • I can’t recall KJW ever getting political. She tends to stick to the shooting-is-fun-and-positive approach.

        • I think people like KJW are going to be an important social aspect to this political fight. An example of a healthy person with a healthy enjoyment of firearms. All she needs to do is keep making those impressive shots we can share with our fence-sitting friends, helping to put a smiling face on firearms in their minds.

          Hope she doesn’t mind being used as propaganda.

    • The MSM will ridicule any woman who goes against the grain. You would think Sarah Palin would perfect antidote to Watts but look what they do to her. Death panels anyone?

      • That is correct: According to feminists there is a special place in hell for women who break from the hive and refuse to toe the line on their (extensive but retarded) narrative.

        Google “Suzanne Venker” fox news women need men for proof (i.e. read the comments from women.)

  4. MILF Mom? Isn’t that implied in MILF? Unless of course you are talking about the mom of the MILF.

    • Who said I’d L to F her? She’s a whiny little girl. I’m very happily married to wonderful Glock-toting WOMAN!

    • I’m not surprised to see the MILF term down here in the comments section. I thought the TTAG writers would be better than that….

      • My comment wasn’t meant to imply anyone is or isn’t a MILF or whatever you want to call them. Just that the term used is redundant, the M in MILF means mom, so MILF mom’s is reptetitive. Us IT guys say the same when people say NIC card

        • Does a robot factory where they build those cash-dispensing boxes that ask for your Personal Identification Number number use automatic Automatic Teller Machine machine machines?

  7. “It’s On”; frustrated soccer moms try to find relevance.

    These people have become so transparent to anyone paying attention it goes beyond the pale.

  9. Am I the only one anticipating the modification of the “IT’S ON” poster (see above) by one of our resident graphic geniuses?

    • When I saw it, the first thing that popped into my mind was to have it say, instead, “Let’s get it on.”

    • While the obvious intent of the poster is to show a “superhero” Mom stripping down to her hero costume fight crime, perhaps the line should read, “It’s Off!”

  11. A homosexual female that has suffered prejudice on an extreme level and used a firearm to protect herself would be the ultimate trump card to the Left and their stereotypes. It would destroy their arguments near immediately and in a very, very spectacular fashion as they would be left scrambling to try to counter a person like that, which would be impossible.

    • fixed it for ya:

      A homosexual BLACK female STAY AT HOME MOM that has suffered prejudice on an extreme level and used a firearm to protect herself would be the ultimate trump card to the Left and their stereotypes. It would destroy their arguments near immediately and in a very, very spectacular fashion as they would be left scrambling to try to counter a person like that, which would be impossible.

    • How about this:

      Mother of two, who used a firearm to defend herself and her children? Now THAT would be hard to trump.

      • They already tried that angle when that Mother used a revolver to defend her children. The Left simply stated that she could have had her gun taken away and blahblahblah and that she was republican anyways.

    • They would ignore it like they ignored the fact that the little jackass school shooter who shot a girl and offed himself was one of their own.

  12. “Shannon’s positioned as the firearms equivalent of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.”

    Not quite the same. MADD realized pretty early that going after the automobile or the alcohol industry was not going to work. Instead, went after LEO and justice system to actually enforce the laws on the books. Second mission was education.

    Result? It has made a difference, without “infringing” on anyone’s rights.

  13. by the way, notice the purported “mom” in the picture is not wearing a wedding ring. . . . very telling indeed. My wife would be po’d at that petty point alone . . . .

    • Being a mom AND being married first is so out of fashion, man. You’d be surprised the number of times various friends have told me “We can’t get married, we haven’t even lived together yet.”

      • And thus we see the real problem at the root of all of our countries problems…

        Broken families leave no one to teach individual responsibility and the value of life.

        Bring back the traditional family and values and “gun violence” will go away.

        • BINGO! Feminism has done an awesome job at gutting our culture and values.

          Ergo girls against guns. Young boys shooting up schools. It’s all part and parcel of the same thing.

          Symptoms. Symptoms of our society being systematically decayed from within. Feminism is one of the main vectors.

    • I thought that they did that so you would know it was not Shannon herself…Did you also notice that the buttons weren’t torn off?

    • That was the first thing I noticed.

      Not a particularly great message to send when we’re talking about combating what is primarily a problem of violence perpetrated by adolescent youths who in most cases don’t even know their fathers.

  14. Maybe we need a good expose of how Shannon Watts aka Shannon Marmion Troughton aka Shannon R. Weaver manipulated America on behalf of Monsanto so it wouldn’t be required to label GMO foods.

    Or how she was the corporate mouthpiece when Blue Cross denied the insurance claim by a 13-year-old boy with heavy brain damage.

    • At first I thought that was a married name, but everything I can find seems to say she just switches things up every once in a while. Which begs the question:

      How intelligent does one have to be to use an online alias then register their national organization USING THEIR HOME ADDRESS???

      • Has anyone ever been able to figure out WHY she has had so many different names? She’s obvious a very mysterious figure despite posing herself as a “stay at home mom” – obviously a very big “mistruth.”

    • or an interview with her husband John’s ex-wife down in Atlanta and stories about what involvement Shannon may have had . . . .

  15. Robert – by the way, not sure if you are up to date on your hip hop, but Shannon Watts’ mantra to the reporter (“We’re not anti-gun,” Shannon Watts told a reporter. “We’re not against the Second Amendment. We just believe in common sense to end the growing epidemic of gun violence in America.”) sounds a lot like the start of a Bone Thugs & Harmony standard . . . . just saying. . . plenty of people have resigned over plagerism allegations:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw7OINGjm5c

  16. Even Mothers Against Drunk Driving got drunk w/ power. This is from wiki about their founder Candice Lightner.

    Lightner left the group in 1985. In 2002, as reported by the Washington Times, Lightner stated that MADD “has become far more neo-prohibitionist than I had ever wanted or envisioned … I didn’t start MADD to deal with alcohol. I started MADD to deal with the issue of drunk driving”.

    Moms w/ causes . . . they bring more laws & less freedom. You notice that moms demand action not take it. I just wish they would target the DoD with all its tax funded weapons.

  17. I feel for the “moms” who are frustrated and want to do “something.” The problem is, they don’t want to educate themselves or accept the realities of this world. It’s another “feel good” remedy and not a cerebral evaluation of the facts and numbers. There is more than enough “sensible” gun law on the books now. Instead of trying to convince people the 2nd Amendment doesn’t matter, they would be well served taking a course in shooting and firearms safety. They could invest their time learning to protect their own. Believing the government and the police are here to “protect” us is a fairy tale. I feel sorry for them because they are willingly ignorant and pride themselves on staying that way.

    • The “moms” want to test us to see if we can be trusted, to see if we will protect them so that we may carry guns amongst them.

      That we do not respond to their fitness tests by acting “fit” to do so means they must continue to push.

    • I see opportunity, something with the slogan “YOUR mom demands action!” Plus, it’s Cafe Press, so you could literally have a listing for your shirt pop up next to the listing for theirs.

    • If the girls against guns were getting the kind of action at home that they obviously desperately need, they would have little use for spending their time trying to emasculate all of the rest of you.

      Clearly the task at home is already complete.

      • Actually, if it wasn’t for the fact that the money would ultimately fall back into the civilian disarmament crowd’s coffers, that would make a great gag gift!

    • Now that’s interesting. Typically, the MDA types would be of the liberal persuasion, by extensions, with husbands or boyfriends of the same type. But – these are the same folks that are always demeaning gun owners as having small equipment. So – if they’re demanding action, doesn’t that mean that they aren’t getting satisfied at home by the supposed big dicks they’re married to?

      • Try to imagine what a liberal man is like, married to a feminist activist such as Shannon.

        Do you imagine a man with a strong handshake who eeks confidence and high value?

        There’s a reason that Shannon behaves the way she does. These are not coincidental or accidental match ups.

  20. My wife and about 5 or 6 other stay at home moms (middle to upper middle class, mixed ethicnicities) go out together for breakfast and then to the gun range at least once per month . . . . Shannon’s siren song doesn’t sit too well with them

  22. “1MM4GC”
    The only thing that popped out at me from this soup was
    “M4”
    and
    1 millimeter for Gun C…

    Other words, don’t give them an inch;
    unless you’re going to give them Dirk’s 8.
    Sorry Dirk if that estimate is short.

  23. How do you counter a MILF mom with an emitionally charged message?
    You get good looking well spoken survivors of rape, assault, and domestic violence to tell their side.
    You demonstrate with attractive spokespeople that Guns Save Lives. Why? Bc it works.

  24. You think the girls against guns won’t see offering this lady up as just another round of supplication? Guess again.

    They don’t want us “responding” to them point by point – They want us standing up to them and just saying No.

    Take a stand. Hold your position. Have a frame. Don’t change it.

    That is all that needs to be done. Period.

  25. This whole MDA thing is extraordinarily disingenuous. Using the word “mom” for their members is a blatant attempt to curry free favor for their rabidly anti-gun political stance. It’s too bad the unwashed don’t understand reason or this crap would be dead in the water.

  26. “Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The central flaw with this strategy: firearms ownership is not drunk driving.” – I came to this same conclusion this past weekend.

    This is a great point that we should be hammering at. In every way and every shape possible.

    It addresses their false premise broad-sided and it is very easy to prove as false.

    A great delivery of this information might be: (laughing softly, grinning) “A citizen carrying a gun is not the same as a drunk driving a car. They are not the same ball park, they are not even the same sport.” … then. Silence. Smirking smile.

  28. Why are they focused only on “gun violence”?
    Is it somehow better if a criminal uses a knife in a rape or bashes a victim’s head in with a brick?
    I fail to see the difference.

  29. I think that MDA has more to do with trying to peel off just enough women voters to make sure the next national election ends up a winner for the Ds. They aren’t trying to change hearts and minds. They are just after a little bit of the low-hanging soccer-mom fruit.

  30. I can’t tell you how many of my women friends are learning to shoot and purchasing pistols. It gives me great hope.

  31. Does anybody else think that Kirsten Joy Weiss would be interested in joining this Women For the Constitution Brigade? Or maybe Gov. Palin?

    Ann Coulter might be Pro-2A, but from other things she’s said, she appears to be kind of a raving lunatic.

  32. “Shannon’s positioned as the firearms equivalent of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The central flaw with this strategy: firearms ownership is not drunk driving. Owning a gun is not, on its face, a bad thing.”

    Um, I have news for you. There are millions of people in this nation who absolutely hold the position that owning a gun, on its face, is a very bad thing.

  33. I thought TTAG was taking a break from covering this twit. Is the break over or is this just a one-and-done article?

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