#paf200

Today in class we talked about lobby groups and what they do. There is a  nonprofit organization called American hunters and shooters association that lobbies for safe and responsible gun ownership. They favored restrictions on guns but also said the owners themselves would have to be willing to be safe while owning them. This organizations goal was to protect the history of guns that are used for sport in hunting, gun safety and law enforcement training.  The NRA was judgemental of this organization because they were not sure it fully represented gun owners. 

Typically social movements are now accompanied by a hashtag, like the MeToo movement, but that is not the only way to be a successful social movement. By having a large amount of support from various demographics depicts a problem that impacts a wide variety of people. When college students alone protest, legislators and others look at is a group of students who have nothing else to do, so it does not appear to be as big of a concern. Having middle aged adults, regardless of socioeconomic status, protests depicts a more urgent issue requiring immediate action from legislation. This reason is a contributing factor as to why the Parents Against Vaping e-cigarettes (PAVe) are powerful factor. Parents are normally middle aged citizens, and when they take time out of their busy work and parenting schedules to address an issue holds more power than when a college student takes action. The vaping movement has a political objective. It is political because the goal is to change the law regarding age requirements or have harsher regulations.

Political education is very important in today’s society especially being educated on gun control. Mass murders, such as those at schools in Parkland, Fla., and Santa Fe, Texas, at a newsroom in Maryland and at houses of worship in Poway, Calif., Pittsburgh, Pa., Sutherland Springs, Texas, and Charleston, S.C., shock the conscience and spur debate, but with little action from Congress. Already in 2019, there have been a number of mass shootings. In April 2019, a shooting at a synagogue in the town of Poway in Southern California killed one and injured three in what officials deem a hate crime. President Donald Trump has repeatedly pledged to protect Second Amendment rights and often warns gun owners that their Second Amendment rights are “under assault.” In an April speech to NRA members, Trump announced he will not ratify America’s participation in the international Arms Trade Treaty, which would provide some international oversight on arms sales.

Another form of social movement is social media. Gun control has been a big topic across social media lately. Mass shootings are commonly followed by demands for action on social media. Yet it also shows that such initial momentum gradually runs aground when faced with gun-rights activists. History suggests that the challenge for the gun-control activists goes beyond channeling grief and outrage into calls for new gun laws. A handful of students soon launched Never Again MSD, referring to the name of their high school where the shooting happened, creating the related Facebook and Twitter pages. Organizers say that a team of several students is charged with running the official Never Again MSD social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram and have been helping out with the accounts of individual students who have gained national prominence. 

Today I am going to go deeper in to the non profit organization called Guns Down. Guns Down tries to help the young individuals and to strengthen their communities. They also works with the formerly incarcerated to rebuild their lives after serving their time. They have services to help clients to reunify their families, gain the skills to earn a good living and transcend their present circumstances. Their vision is to help these men and women live their best lives. However, their primary objective is to save the lives of innocent people in danger of mass shootings.

Today in class we talked about implementation. Corresponding to gun control, policymakers use the bottom-up implementation since they have experience dealing with mass shootings and the amount of outcry from citizens about gun violence. I also know it is bottom-up implementation because they keep having to revise all the proposed laws on gun violence due to the amount of backlash and the sensitivity of gun violence. Gun control implementation is also not defined by a single policy because of the many things factoring into one category of gun violence. 

Allies are partners that join a movement to pursue a common goal. Allies are often opposites that make the movement stronger, like having male allies for the women’s rights movement. An ally of The American Vaping Association (AVA), who support vaping as a way to end addictions to cigarettes and tobacco are many major tobacco companies. Even though the AVA is against tobacco products, they have the support of the major tobacco companies because any regulations to e-cigarettes will also affect other devices. The tobacco companies are promoting the common goal to not have any actions be taken against vaping devices on their website, their own promotional messages, and even via personal interactions. Allies sometimes only show a little interest and are not as committed to the cause, but in this situation, the allies are just as invested.

Today in class we talked about advocacy groups and how they influence legislation/regulations, improving governmental service programs, securing government funds, and obtaining special benefits for members or clients. There are a lot of advocacy groups for gun control such as The Brady Campaign, Coalition to stop gun violence, Everytown for gun safety, moms demand action for gun sense in America, Mayors against illegal guns, third way, and Gun free kids. Some of these groups are working towards banning guns and some of these groups are working towards keeping guns but promoting gun safety.