The Brady Campaign and all the other Antis have created marketing themes that they believe will get the best results for them. It used to be that WE were the problem. Then they discovered that WE didn't appreciate being accused of being equated to drug dealers, gang bangers, and psychos and, worse for them, WE were a pretty big group that average everyday folks could identify with and those folks didn't appreciate the implication that they weren't any better than the criminals and lunatics.
That theme didn't play well for them so they switched themes to the big bad power hungry power playing NRA, but that hasn't played as well either because WE are the NRA in more than just the slogan's terms. WE join and support the NRA and SAF and GOA and the numerous state organizations. WE identify with the NRA so by attacking the NRA they swell our ranks and hurt their cause.
The new theme is to follow the backlash against corporate greed and malfeasance and try to characterize the firearms and ammunition manufacturers as the ones manipulating Congress, who would otherwise enact every draconian restriction and ban the Antis want
. The Antis now want to cast themselves in the light of Erin Brokovich fighting to protect the health and lives of the little people being harmed by the ruthless gun makers. They think by not attacking US and focusing on the companies as willful participants in tragedy they can drive a wedge between US and the manufacturers and retailers and that the great middle won't identify with this focus of their attack as they did before.
The obvious illogic of their new front, and the fundamental sameness of their objective, shouldn't go missing to US and we shouldn't let it go missing for the majority of the public that do identify with US. Firearms manufacturers aren't polluting the environment and poisoning workers or the public by secretly dumping toxins into the shop and environment. They're producing a product that is then being bought by the public. That product, unless defective, causes no harm to the public or the environment. It is an item that does nothing except sit and take up space all on its own. It doesn't migrate through the air or water or soil. It doesn't dissolve or sublime to gas. Like a toaster or TV it just sits and takes up space until someone puts it to use. The vast majority, take that both ways, of Americans purchase and use firearms without any harm to anyone statistically. Occasionally some criminal lunatic takes a firearm and uses it to cause tragedy and ruin lives. This is still no different than it has ever been, a criminal lunatic tries to harm as many people as possible as a slave to their own demons. They're not a slave to the car they drove any more than the firearm they use. They're driven by something completely personal and unique to them that has nothing to do with US. Because the Antis can't completely pass up trying to find some way to exploit every tragedy they have to find a way to do it without offending the people that vote so they have to focus on a new "evil doer" that the public won't identify with and that's the manufacturers.
This idea of the Antis that they can focus on the manufacturer isn't even a new tactic. That's been tried before and the courts pointed out the item and the manufacturer and retailer aren't responsible for harm as long as the item isn't itself somehow defective. Regardless of this the Antis can't attack the gunowner without peril since there are so many more of US than before and there are so many people who don't own guns that know us as friends and neighbors they trust. They can't attack the NRA as easily as they did before. They WON'T attack the criminal and the basis of crime. That leaves the manufacturer and retailer to attack to maintain their relevance. Or more accurately, their slipping relevance.
They won't go away and they won't give up because they now have careers and house payments to make based off their chosen profession of trying to remove firearms from US. They may even believe in their ideology, but make no mistake there are politicians and pundits and lobbyists that are Antis as a profession that have a lot of skin in the game personally in the form of their careers and they can't ever walk away from the fertile field of exploiting every isolated firearms tragedy because no one wants them for anything else.
We know that there will be attempts to exploit this tragedy, but we need the facts of this case to be able to more effectively counter the rantings of the Antis. We don't know enough details for a detailed plan, so we have to use a well established approach.
We need to vigilant, but we don't need to go off half cocked. Keep your powder dry and stay alert and don't be shooting at shadows in the dark. Write to your Congresscritters expressing sympathy for the victims. Point to the secure nature of the facility and ask how security could have failed so catastrophically. Point out the other weapons are reported as coming from the security staff at the facility and that they should have been secured better. Direct the attention to the particular character of the facility and that the murderer took weapons from the security personnel to carry out the crime. We will see discussions of his mental condition and whether he had ever received treatment and for what.
