The Tide Turns In The Battle For Gun Rights

Examiner.com

The tide turns in the battle for gun rights as the Brady Campaign withers away

As gun rights activists await the upcoming decision in the McDonald vs. Chicago Supreme Court case, new evidence emerges that, in this post-Heller decision world, the public has soured on the bitter taste of gun control.

The latest evidence of the declining public support for restrictions on gun rights is in the data released today by the Federal Election Commission on the private donations and expenditures of the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence - Voter Education PAC

The Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence is the flagship group for the gun control effort. The Brady Campaign absorbed the Million Mom March in 2001 when that organization's membership dropped so low as to be no longer self-sustaining.

Information provided by the Center for Responsive Politics , and derived from the FEC reports, shows that the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence - Voter Education PAC, raised an all-time high of over $1.7 million in the 2000 election cycle and distributed over $1.6 million of those funds.

Contrast this to the more recent 2008 election cycle where the PAC raised just over $15,000 and spent just over $54,000.

The 2010 election cycle is still ongoing, but the numbers look no better: So far only $2,500 has been raised and just $4,545 spent.

Browsing through the charts and information at the Center for Responsive Politics shows fewer gun control advocates willing to spend their own money on that agenda. In the 2000 election year cycle 320 individual donors gave a total of $329,996. Contrast that to 2008 where three donors donated a total of $15,000.

So far, for the 2010 election cycle, only one donor has made a single contribution of $2,500.

As the Brady Campaign goes, so does public support for gun control. That's why the huge drop in funds raised, money spent, and individual donors is so telling.

The conclusion is clear: The public no longer believes the gun control lies. Now is the time to work to get that message to the government by redoubling efforts to elect pro-gun candidates and kick out those politicians who would deny us our basic human rights.