On August 28, Rev. Jesse Jackson is organizing an anti-gun protest in up to 25 cities nationwide. Not willing to lay the blame for crime on criminals, Jackson and his cronies claim, “people who buy guns from gun shops kill people.” Since the sale of every firearm from every licensed gun dealer is subject to a background check, it is unclear how the millions of law-abiding Americans who go through this mandated check and legally “buy guns from gun shops” are responsible for killing people. Then again, though, Jackson is never one to let the facts get in the way of a misguided PR opportunity.
Though proponents of these gun ban marches will no doubt profess they are simply peacefully demonstrating, such is not always the case. Earlier this year, Jackson was arrested during one such protest at a Chicago gun shop. One of his fellow demonstrators and detainees was Father Michael Pfleger, who threatened the owner of the shop declaring, “we’re going to find you and snuff you out...[and] we’re going to snuff out legislators that are voting…against our gun laws and we’re coming for you because we are not going to sit idly.”
A review of a Rainbow/PUSH Coalition press release announcing the day of protest shows that Jackson’s goal isn’t merely targeting guns sold by licensed dealers, but a litany of additional gun control restrictions: “[These] nationwide rallies would represent a grassroots effort to press state and federal legislators into passing ‘common sense’ legislation to stem the flow of handguns and military-style automatic weapons. [Jackson] favors tighter restrictions on who is allowed to buy guns, better background checks, longer waiting periods for gun purchases, and restrictions on how many guns an individual may buy within a calendar period.”
So, what can you do to counter this PR stunt? Of course, any type of pro-gun counter protest would be covered with the media’s typical anti-gun bias, if it was covered at all. But there is a way we can speak directly to the American people to set the record straight on gun bans, gun rationing, and other anti-gun proposals.
Through a massive and coordinated blitz of letters to the editor of our local newspapers in the days and weeks leading up to the August 28 demonstrations, we can speak directly to American citizens and our elected officials with the facts¾straight from the mouths of voting constituents.