Gun control protests fall flat in Indianapolis: Are gun grabbers overplaying their hand?

Gun-grabber Michael Bloomberg recently launched Everytown For Gun Safety, a fear-mongering anti-gun group intended to take on groups like the NRA. It’s only logical that anti-2nd Amendment groups would work hard to combat the 80,000+ strong NRA annual meeting happening this week in Indianapolis… and Lord knows, they’re trying.

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Unfortunately for them, it looks like Hoosiers appreciate their guns as much as the rest of the country.

Yesterday, Hoosiers Concerned About Gun Violence held a rally that drew a full 25 protesters. They read names of people killed by guns. A grandmother spoke about the murder of her grandson, making sure to convey that her black grandson was killed by a 55-year-old white man. Race makes the argument more powerful, right?

“It was clear that she was not talking about “sensible” gun reform,” says WIBC’s Tony Katz, who was in attendance. “She was there to have a conversation about race. It was odd, unfortunate and unnecessary. It completely undercut any ‘legitimate’ conversation they were having at the rally.”

Katz went on to address another speaker, Dr. Steve Posner, who said that the NRA is funded by gun manufacturers, so they can’t be objective. The assertion is odd, he says, since “Everytown got $50 million from Bloomberg, and he wants to grab the guns as well. When its their money, its grass roots. When its someone else’s money, it’s obscene and wrong and evil and destroying America.”

Meanwhile, Everytown For Gun Safety dropped a report entitled “Not your grandparents’ NRA,” that portrays the NRA as a radicalized, murderous group, as opposed to the small gun club it was in its inception.

But the NRA that was created after the Civil War to promote hunting, marksmanship, and safety training — and that supported common sense gun laws — no longer exists. Today’s NRA would be unrecognizable to the founding members of the organization.

Anti-gun activists are tweeting the report to every elected official and pro-2nd Amendment leader they can, spamming the #NRAAM hashtag during Friday’s speeches at the NRA convention.

The common theme? Scaring women. Scaring mothers. Trying to marginalize women who choose to protect their families and exercise their rights responsibly. In Indiana, however, their message is falling flat. Gun permits in the Hoosier state are up 42% among women.

NRO’s Jim Geraghty and Charles C. W. Cooke have reminded me that 32% of Democrats are gun owners.

The question is this: Is the anti-gun left overplaying their hand with the current surge of anti-gun campaigns? The majority of Americans believe in the 2nd Amendment, and there are over 100 million gun owners in the United States. Gun owners are not exclusively old white men. They are men and women, of all races and ethnicities, belonging to both the Republican and Democratic parties.

Attempts to categorize gun owners in negative ways probably won’t play well, particularly when anti-gun forces use fear mongering and scare tactics.