If You Don’t Have Grassroots, You Have To Buy Ads

Gabby Giffords and her Americans for Responsible Solutions (sic) have reportedly made a six-figure media buy for ads against HB 562. According to the Charlotte Observer, the ads are supposed to start running today. They feature former Wilson County Sheriff Wayne Gay.

“As a sheriff for 28 years, I fought to keep our communities safe,” Gay says in the new ad. “But right now, some in the legislature want to repeal background checks on handguns. This will make it easier for criminals and the mentally ill to get guns. … Tell the folks in Raleigh we need to keep background checks.”

The ad seen below parrots the misleading stats pushed by anti-gun Prof. Daniel Webster of Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health.

So now Gabby and her husband Mark Kelly (aka the Space Cowboy) feel the need to insert themselves into North Carolina politics just like Michael Bloomberg. I guess when you don’t really have grass roots and paid members, you have to resort to throwing money around for TV advertising.

As to former Sheriff Gay and those sheriffs who oppose HB 562, it is about power, control, and money. They don’t want to give up any power or control nor the money generated by pistol purchase permits. It never was about crime prevention when enacted and it isn’t about crime prevention now.