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Say you are a candidate running for office in Anytown, USA. It doesn’t matter if you are Democrat, Republican, big city, small town, young, old, male, female.
You are trying to scrounge up enough money in campaign contributions to get even a small bit of traction. You need those yard signs. You need radio or tv ads. You need a campaign manager.
Say you are a progressive. You’re thinking of taking a second mortgage on your house because you really really believe in educational reform, or climate change or healthcare. But this campaign for political office might just bankrupt you.
And then the NRA comes calling. They’ll make a donation to your campaign. They’ll pay for your signs. Your radio ads. Heck, they’ll give you enough for two campaign managers.
You can keep your entire platform the way it is. The only concession you have to make is to promise not to go after existing gun laws. That’s it! Guns are *already* legal you think. The laws are already in place. You are not doing anything to make things worse, right? And you know that if you can just get enough money to get elected, you will help poverty, and homelessness, and education, and healthcare. You will make the world a better place for everyone. All you need to do is get into office and buy a little time and perhaps you can work on those gun laws down the road.
Accepting this campaign donation means you will have plenty of signs. And you don’t have to take a second mortgage. Plus, you know if you don’t take the money, your opponent will. He or she will have those signs on everyone’s yard.
Don’t be so sure you would refuse the campaign money. Abusers are known for putting victims in a position where there is no good course of action.
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It’s why multi-issue candidates don’t support gun control.
As Michael Carley points out: “When people who care about gun control go to vote, they typically care about many issues—gun control, the environment, civil rights, the poor, good economic policy, and a host of other things. They rarely vote on that issue alone. Those who oppose all gun control vote largely on that issue. They are passionate about the single issue and their votes turn on it. And then there is the money. In many votes, the NRA choosing to score a bill (count it as one they care about and rate politicians on it) will scare legislators off, regardless of how much their constituents support it. They know it will impact their fundraising and could get them a primary opponent with funding from the NRA. A recent episode of This American Life covered this with a Republican, NRA supporting politician who simply wanted a bill banning toy (not real) guns from schools. The politician went through the wringer because the NRA thought it sent the message that guns were bad things.”
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So we have candidates who are multi-issue candidates. And when a multi-issue candidate gets approached by a mega-donor like the NRA, who tells them they will give money to the candidate so that candidate can solve dozens of problems—if they will just concede on this one tiny pledge, a pledge to not go after gun laws (which seem immutable anyway)—that candidate often says yes.
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Is there one piece of legislation we can get through?
Gene’o Gordan adds: There is a solution that Congress *might* be able to get through, because it doesn’t try to eliminate any existing guns or sales of guns—criminal liability for gun owners who allow their weapons to get away from them through negligence. Here’s a talking point: Leaving a weapon with the killing capacity of a Glock in your sock drawer for an angry teenager to pilfer is no different, legally, than passing a stopped school bus. And people go to prison for passing stopped school buses. Trigger locks, secure containers, ammo stored separately is where this can start. If we can’t have real gun control in our rugged individualist country, that means every individual gun owner has to do their own gun control. And at least in the beginning, the penalties for failing to secure one’s firearms properly need to be draconian.
It would be a start.
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daaaaaamn @NYDailyNews. pic.twitter.com/Yhv2JN4j7K
— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) February 15, 2018
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I want to remind everyone about Virginia 2017: In the 13 races where pro-gun control Democrats squared off against NRA Republicans, Democrats won 12. Top of the ticket — Northam, Fairfax and Herring — had F NRA ratings, and all won. It’s not hopeless.
— Joan Walsh (@joanwalsh) February 15, 2018
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More on gun violence and how to stop it:
Raise Your Hand if You Have Blood on Your Hands
The Patterns in Mass Shootings and a Conversation About Men
Fighting for My God-Given Right to Own Cobras
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