Behind The Times

Virtually everyone knows by now that the renamed combo of the Illegal Mayors and Demanding Mommies didn't secure the Everytown for Gun Safety Facebook page before their big announcement. Rather, it went to a pro-gun rights grassroots activist who was quicker on the uptake than they were. This happened despite their supposed expertise in social media as evidenced by their presentation called "Disrupting the Gun Lobby with Digital Organizing" at Austin's South by Southwest Festival. The SXSW presenters included both Shannon Watts and Mark Glaze.

So when did EGS get their act together and establish their Facebook presence? On April 17th, two days after their big announcement.

And how are they doing in terms of likes? They have 9 likes versus 26,183 likes for the pro-gun Everytown for Gun Safety Facebook page.

Guerrilla tactics do work, and work well, when used against a larger, wealthier opponent who has no real idea what action at the grassroots level really means. Just like in Colorado where four pissed off guys successfully took on both Bloomberg and the Democratic Establishment to recall Sen. President John Morse and Sen. Angela Giron, Everytown for Gun Safety and its over 100 local Facebook pages will cause Bloomberg to have to devote resources in order to get them taken down from Facebook. That is money that won't be spent on ad campaigns or donated to gun prohibitionist candidates. We may lose the battle but we will win the war.

The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight

When you are a billionaire rolling out a new so-called grassroots organization funded with $50 million of your own money, you expect your underlings to have taken care of all the details.

Splashy story in the New York Times? Check.

Fancy new website? Check.

New YouTube video to get the message out? Check.

Facebook page for the new organization? Uhh....

It seems that if you go to Facebook and look for Everytown for Gun Safety you will go to a page actually devoted to gun safety and not gun control. The page lists the Four Rules in its header and it includes links to the real grassroots gun safety organization: the National Rifle Association and its Gun Safety 101 page.

Buzzfeed even did an article on this move. And how did Mark Glaze, former Executive Director of Bloomberg's Illegal Mayors and current Executive Director of Everytown for Gun Safety react? With the predictable violent rhetoric of the gun prohibitionists:

When alerted to the presence of the page, a representative at Everytown for Gun Safety said that it wouldn’t be long before it disappeared from Facebook.

“Maybe they’d like to duel for it,” said Mark Glaze, the executive director of Everytown for Gun Safety. “I hear every person on our staff of 85 is a better shot than Wayne LaPierre. Or maybe a bidding war!”

We’re going through the proper process for transitioning our Demand Action page to ‘Everytown,’ which takes a few weeks, and acquiring trademark protection for both Everytown and Everytown for Gun Safety. Once that happens, we expect Facebook to shoo these cybersquattters politely off this name/page.”

Staff of 85? Shoo these (peon) cybersquatters? So much for their image of being a grassroots organization even though the mainstream media will try to push it for them.

So how do you fight a billionaire who wants to be king and impose his rules? If you are part of a grassroots movement that is willing to fight for its rights you use guerrilla tactics just like these guys did.  Kudos to them on their preemptive strike against the Bloomberg Death Star.

UPDATE: Sebastian has more on this here. There are now many state specific sites dealing with real gun safety.

In addition, let me point you to two new blogs. The first is by Rob Morse and is called Everytown for Gun Safety. The second is by yours truly and is named Everytown for (Real) Gun Safety. They were there for the taking. As that famous Tammany Hall politician George Washington Plunkett said, "He seen his opportunities and he took 'em." It works for me.