by Dave Workman | Senior Editor
A political playbook for “progressive” candidates published in 2012 now has an addendum devoted entirely to gun control with advice on how to deliver a message that will appeal to people without creating a backlash.
The copyrighted guide, Voicing Our Values: A Message Guide for Candidates, was authored by Bernie Horn, a leading lobbyist who pushed for the passage of the 1993 Brady Law, and Gloria Totten, president of the Progressive Majority, a left-wing organization based in Washington, D.C.
There are seven sections in the gun control addendum:
- Gun Messaging
- How to introduce your argument
- About Background Checks
- About Military-Style Assault Weapons
- About High-Capacity Ammunition Magazines
- How to rebut common pro-gun arguments
- Sources for more detailed talking points
Each one features talking points about what to say, and what language to avoid. For example, in the first section, readers are advised to not say “gun control” but to use the phrase “preventing gun violence.” Instead of “stricter gun laws,” the guide advises using “stronger gun laws.”
The addendum was at the center of an on-line 90-minute interactive seminar moderated by author Horn in early February.
Voicing Our Values: A Message Guide for Candidates is reminiscent of an 80-page document unearthed last summer by Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms that was titled Preventing Gun Violence Through Effective Messaging. That revelation in TGM spread swiftly through the gun rights community.
Probably by no coincidence, many of the talking points in both documents stress the same juggling of semantics while moving users toward the same goal of gun control.
There are some bits of misinformation. For example, in the section about so-called “assault weapons,” the addendum asserts, “We all know some weapons are too dangerous for civilian use. That’s why, for nearly 80 years, federal law has banned machineguns, sawed-off shotguns, silencers, very high-caliber firearms, grenades and bombs.”
That is not true, and the firearms community knows it. Many private citizens own full-auto firearms and suppressors are in wide use by private citizens. All that is necessary is for the owners to register their firearms and suppressors in accordance with federal law.
Still, the rhetoric found in this seven-section gun control addendum appears to cover all the traditional talking points.
When discussing background checks, users are advised to say that background checks have blocked more than 1.5 million illegal gun sales over the past 14 years. Then the authors acknowledge, “Nobody suggests this law will stop all criminals. To be successful, the law doesn’t have to. No law stops all crime.”
The document says many conservative groups and religious organizations support universal background checks “because it will save lives.”
In another section on how to rebut arguments from gun rights advocates, users are instructed on how to spin a conversation.
While the guide is copyrighted, visiting the Progressive Majority website will take people to a link where the guide may be downloaded.
