Wednesday, February 20, 2013

What's In a Name?

If you have your ear to the ground, you've noticed that gun control efforts---i.e. efforts to control guns---have been getting a re-branding lately, with One Million Moms for Gun Control being the latest to get a philosophical do-over:

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America is the new name for an organization formerly known as One Million Moms for Gun Control, the group’s founder will announce Wednesday. The change was prompted by confusion with another group, One Million Moms, which advocates for family-friendly entertainment media — and because the group’s old name includes the term “gun control.”

“We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from stakeholders that ‘gun control’ isn’t the best term to use because it can be polarizing,” the group’s founder, Shannon Watts, said in an interview Tuesday. “We don’t want to be polarizing — we want to be a nonpartisan organization. We’re not about overturning the Second Amendment or banning guns, but we also don’t believe that we should arm every citizen.”

Watts didn't just fabricate a strawman---she fabricated a full-blown Straw God! How many gun rights folks believe that "we should arm every citizen?" I'm pretty much a gun nut myself and even I don't believe that. Oh, and when nationwide news outlets are reporting your organization's deceptive name change, it's probably safe to say that people aren't going to be fooled by it.

Further down, the article excerpts the MDAfGS's manifesto:

Moms Demand Action is not asking our government to ban guns. We simply support common-sense solutions to the overwhelming and increasing epidemic of gun violence in America. Whether the gun violence happens in urban Chicago, suburban Virginia, or rural Texas, we must act now on new and stronger gun laws to protect our children.

I'm not positive, but I assume the "suburban Virginia" reference is a nod to the Virginia Tech massacre in Blacksburg---which is odd, because Blacksburg is essentially smack-dab in the middle of nowhere; it's hardly "suburban." So in addition to being sneaky about the orginazation's true gun control agenda, Moms Demand Action is also woefully inept in the use of basic geographical terms.

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