NYT OPINION: Republicans Are Breaking With the N.R.A., and It’s Because of Us
By Dave Cullen
Section: Opinion
Source: New York Times
Published Date: December 13, 2022 at 02:00AM
If losing those 6- and 7-year-olds couldn’t drive that change, nothing would.
But we had it wrong. Gun safety wasn’t buried in Newtown, Conn. The modern safety movement was born that day.
Sandy Hook unleashed a slow-motion tsunami of determination that culminated in the first significant act of Congress on gun safety in nearly three decades this June. Fifteen Republican senators broke with the N.R.A. — unthinkable in the old political landscape.
Sandy Hook galvanized two women. The day after the shooting, a suburban mother, Shannon Watts, started Moms Demand Action, which morphed into Everytown for Gun Safety after merging with another group. Three weeks after the massacre, the former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords created the forerunner to her gun safety organization, Giffords.
The groups reinvented the feeble “gun control” movement as “gun safety.” The failed gun controllers were a ragtag band of disorganized, underfunded Washington, D.C., think tanks that never connected with voters or found a compelling message. Who wants to be controlled?
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By Dave Cullen
Section: Opinion
Source: New York Times
Published Date: December 13, 2022 at 02:00AM
We thought gun safety was a lost cause after Sandy Hook. We had it wrong.
You were right to feel hopeless. Gun safety was a lost cause. The National Rifle Association was invincible, and the Republican Party was never going to defy it. The failure to alter that reality after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School — 10 years ago on Wednesday — choked off our last faint wisp of hope.If losing those 6- and 7-year-olds couldn’t drive that change, nothing would.
But we had it wrong. Gun safety wasn’t buried in Newtown, Conn. The modern safety movement was born that day.
Sandy Hook unleashed a slow-motion tsunami of determination that culminated in the first significant act of Congress on gun safety in nearly three decades this June. Fifteen Republican senators broke with the N.R.A. — unthinkable in the old political landscape.
Sandy Hook galvanized two women. The day after the shooting, a suburban mother, Shannon Watts, started Moms Demand Action, which morphed into Everytown for Gun Safety after merging with another group. Three weeks after the massacre, the former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords created the forerunner to her gun safety organization, Giffords.
The groups reinvented the feeble “gun control” movement as “gun safety.” The failed gun controllers were a ragtag band of disorganized, underfunded Washington, D.C., think tanks that never connected with voters or found a compelling message. Who wants to be controlled?
Read more at: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/13/opinion/sandy-hook-gun-safety.html
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