Know the Opposition: Violence Policy Center

Josh Sugarmann
Josh Sugarmann

United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- One of the reasons that we are facing a harder fight for our rights is that anti-Second Amendment extremists have gone beyond the misuse of firearms in the commission of crimes and acts of madness as a reason to take away our rights. This strategy, which has become very effective, had its birth with the Violence Policy Center.

Do not let the innocent-sounding name fool you. The Violence Policy Center is responsible for not only creating the “assault weapons” myth that is regularly used to beat Second Amendment supporters over the head, especially in the wake of mass shootings, but it is part of an overarching long-term strategy that is responsible for a paradigm shift in the debate over our rights.

You see, to the Violence Policy Center, mere ownership of any type of firearms threatens the “public health” of the entire country. By moving it to this angle it allows them to hammer law-abiding American citizens who wish to exercise their Second Amendment rights – even when they have done nothing wrong. It is part of a pattern of anti-Second Amendment innovation – one that has been a hallmark of the organization’s founder, Josh Sugarmann.

Sugarmann, as Second Amendment supporters should know, is the one who initially suggested that the future of anti-Second extremism was shifting the focus away from handguns and on modern multi-purpose semiautomatic rifles and shotguns. His infamous quote is one that Second Amendment supporters should point to when trying to convince our fellow Americans that they are being misled.

But it goes beyond modern multi-purpose semiautomatic rifles. The Violence Policy Center has also sought a complete ban on handguns over the same years. Again, the refrain is they are a danger to public health. We also saw them hype of alleged dangers from rifles that used the .50 BMG cartridge, and it has waged a relentless war on concealed carry laws, often highlighting the very rare times concealed carry permit holders were charged with crimes. The group even targeted subcompact pistols like the Glock 26 calling them “pocket rockets.” There is one very common denominator in all of this: The Violence Policy Center was trying to create fear about gun ownership and modern firearms technology.

But the Violence Policy Center has not stopped there. In addition to the fear-mongering, the Violence Policy Center has proposed to give career bureaucrats the right to impose gun bans. This is, in fact, precisely what the Violence Policy Center advocated in 1994. Their model legislation was introduced in 1993, 1995, and 1997 by then-Representative Major Owens.

The group calls it “regulating the gun industry” – ignoring the many federal, state, and local laws on firearms already in existence. At the link, you will note that they will claim teddy bears are regulated for health and safety, while guns aren’t.

Putting guns under the model of consumer product regulation would, in essence, allow anti-Second Amendment extremists to ban guns – leaving Americans with little recourse against such a ban. It would even apply to accessories like laser sights. And all from a bureaucrat’s edict – with no effective response. When was the last time a federal government bureaucrat got fired for abusing power?

While the Brady Campaign was dangerous in its ability to harness emotional stories, and to separate a lot of well-meaning gun owners from defending the Second Amendment, and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence has added a more religious fervor that many groups adopt, the Violence Policy Center has literally put forth the nuts and bolts of a plan to take away our rights. They also have played a role in creating the climate of fear used to fuel efforts to take our rights away.

While that approach has been brushed off easily in the past, these days, it is becoming more and more effective – and we are paying for that in terms of losing elections. Eric Holder’s long-sought brainwashing of Americans against guns has begun to take hold, and the Violence Policy Center’s work has been the crux of that campaign. How else do you explain the way an advice columnist can tell a father to put his hatred of guns over love for his daughter, and then double down on it?

Overcoming this climate of fear will be a full-spectrum fight over the long haul that will require the right approach and much attention to not just strategy and tactics, but how Second Amendment supporters come across to their fellow Americans. Supreme Court rulings will only be of temporary respite rather than the beginning of the end of infringements on our rights if the fear created by the Violence Policy Center is not overcome.

 


Harold Hu, chison

About Harold Hutchison

Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.

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StreetSweeper

Josh Sugarmann holds a nearly impossible to get CCW permit in Washington D.C. so he isn’t against guns; he’s only against you or I having
guns.

Ansel Hazen

Another member of the ‘only for me and not for thee” crowd.

BigJim

Those that seek to remove your rights have zero intention of giving up their own.

BigJim

Sugarmann was probably abused as a child. Now seeks to bring a type of revenge against any and all, regardless of the cost.

Vanns40

Just to clear it up, it’s not nearly impossible to get. The total cost runs around $300 and is time consuming but that’s all. You have to take a three hour approved course by an attorney, take an NRA course and have your gun registered. The usual fingerprints etc. Takes about three months for it to be approved and is good for five years. My buddy in Alexandria went through it. Is it what it should be? NO. It used to be impossible and only 6 had been issued before the law change. Now there are close to 2,000 issued.

Knute

And how many of those 2000 are to politically connected individuals? I’ll put a hundred bucks on >90%!

MgM

Riddle me this;
Since we all know this whole anti-gun propaganda campaign is a total lie,
And we have repeatedly proven that the majority does not want more gun control,
Why do we keep losing ground?

Whatzit

I don’t know, but we better figure it out soon.

Knute

Because the mass media belongs to the antis. It is a wholly owned subsidiary. So naturally they talk up their side, and denounce all others. A better question is: if you know all of this, why do you say we are losing ground? We’ve gained lots of ground since Slick Willy’s days, and we are still gaining more today. I could name you dozens, but you likely already know them.You just choose to believe in the CNN and MSNBC talking points, even though you know them to be lies. Why would that be? Why would you parrot their points, if… Read more »

Batch

1. As others have pointed out, the media/entertainment is heavily biased. Think those who came into power during the prohibition period. 2. Look at these comments. There are some here who appear to believe Sugarmann himself wrote this article. Or attack Harold for trying to sharing background information. Or they feel that trying to understand the enemies in this fight is somehow a betrayal. That even attempting to understand the enemy, and those the enemy deceives, is akin to joining the other side. With ‘friends’ like that, it just makes the anti-gun side stronger. It’s not just shooting oneself in… Read more »

Wild Bill

@Mgm, Ok, here is your riddle: Who goes to Congress poor because they have never had an honest job, and comes out of Congress with millions if not billions more that their government job can account for.

Paul Valone

This isn’t exactly news, Harold. Dave Kopel and Eric Morgan wrote about the Sugarmann memo and tactic in “The Assault Weapon Panic” back in 1991. I have the paper, if you would like to see it.

Moreover, Sugarmann isn’t even a major player in the gun ban movement of today. You want something topical? Start writing about how Michael Bloomberg pays activists to be the astroturf behind “Moms” Demand Action and “Everytown” for Gun Safety.

Paul Valone
President, Grass Roots North Carolina

Batch

1991. Almost 30 years ago.

Time enough for a couple generations to join the fight to protect the 2A. And who may not have even heard of the VPC, and their shaping of the gun control tactics. It may be old news to you and me, but I’ve seen a lot of young, fresh faces in the last 5 years that it is new to them. I appreciate what Harold is doing.

Laddyboy

This man who IS a communistic PROPAGANDIST and HATES America is a LYING AS___LE. 99% of American do not own an assault weapon. We have Modern Sporting Rifles! Get your FACTS STRAIGHT BEFORE you open your facial orifice and let air expel.

Whitesfyre

@WilI: can’t believe Ammoland even let you a fat ass fuck up contribute comments on this site. Same shit over and over.

Whitesfyre

I’m going to out you… you big ball-less pussy everywhere you go.

Whitesfyre

I’m waiting for your other screen names I know those also. Do you know who I am yet? You fucking weasel.

Knute

Well said! +1, because I cannot vote more than once here…. unlike the real polls where I can vote multiple times, even after I’m dead!

Tionico

whitsefire, YOU would so all of us a great service cleaing up your trashy pottymouth. We exoect Brown Stuff to be indiscrimately depositied on the streets of the largest West Coast cities by the coddled and subsidised class of beggars. Don’t soil OUR turf here. Clean it up.

Whitesfyre

GFY! Is that clean enough for you c*mtrap!

Knute

You said it! Every leftist troll is violently insane. Just look at the leftie who shot up the baseball game last year, the anti gun star female who killed her own children just last week, the idiot who assulted a guy with a red shirt on because he thought red meant Trump, …. on and on goes this very long list You called it. When someone chooses GOD!, or superman, or some such, as a screename, there’s bound to be some loose screws upstairs. Its a well known sign. Its in the DSM, under “delusions of grandeur” And a very… Read more »

Knute

This is the time of the separating of the wheat from the chaff. And it’s becoming pretty darn obvious which is which. As you said, we know who we are… and so does almost everybody with two brain cells to rub together. The ‘supertrollmen’ and mental defectives are becoming so obvious it’s not possible for them to hide their evil anymore.

Knute

Now for the scary part. Over on that “other site” that must not be named (but goes by a four letter ‘word’…) he always claimed to be, and talked exactly like, a LEO. And he probably is one. Lots of mental defectives gravitate to being LEOs, because low IQ is a requirement for the job, plus they get to intimidate and assault people at will. The perfect job for the violently insane, and likely the only one they could ever hold.
Kinda like the only real job a drunk can ever hold is as a bartender.

Whitesfyre

Every time you sign-out then back-in. All your votes, up or down are being tallied right now. You’ll learn something today guaranteed.

Knute

What will we learn? That you have many socks puppets, and they all say the same things? Or that you cannot achieve even one positive vote here… and never have?
Sorry (not really…. just a figure of speech 🙂 ) to burst your little bubble, but anybody with two brain cells knew that shit already!

Batch

Did you even bother to read the article, or understand the title?

tetejaun

“assault weapon” is a FAKE term.
Using it exposes ignorance of the subject and capitulation to the lies of the anti-gun left..

Vanns40

What wasn’t pointed out in the article was the fact that Josh Sugarmann, while living in Washington, D.C. for many years, held a Federal Firearms License (FFL). It’s unclear whether he did this for himself or whether he ever acquired any firearms under it. When the D.C. handgun ban was overturned, and it was discovered he held the FFL, he was questioned whether he would accept transfers from gun shops outside the city as there were none in the city itself. This was quite an embarrassment for him and he refused all comment except to say that he would not.… Read more »

Mac

Biggest point of his statement is a semi-automatic AR-15 is NOT an assault weapon. If HE can’t get the terms right is is no better that the liberals!

jmb1911

The Violence Policy Center, like any of the other anti gun groups / organizations are more than SUBVERSIVES, along the elected officials at all levels of government that support the agenda of these groups. Vanns40 you are correct about Josh Sugarman, holding an FFL yet he is anti gun. The saying tell a lie often enough people will believe it. This has been done with guns especially AR 15’s, and any other rifle considered to be a ” so called assault weapon” by anti gunner and anti gun politicians. What is quoted above his facial picture in this article is… Read more »

Will Flatt

Harold doesn’t get it; he’s either too dense or lacks the intellectual capacity to see that Leftists are working across the board on the same agenda to eradicate civilian gun ownership. The Left controls the new media, the educational establishment, Big Business, banking, the entertainment industry, and (soon) they will have ironclad control over all of our public institutions forever. Their subversion / insurrection is the Gramscian socialist “long march through the institutions” to seize control of all aspects of society. What Harold can’t see is that demographics is destiny. The Left knows that at least 70% of all nonwhite… Read more »

Will Flatt

@OV: My money is on “all of the above”.

Knute

Or else he’s bought and paid for “controlled opposition”. That’s my bet… Can you think of a better reason why he’s always in favor of either being friendly to, or rolling over and actually helping, the other side?
For my money, anyone who claims to be pro liberty, but is always in favor of negotiating liberty away, can be nothing else. A less friendly, but perhaps more accurate, term might be “traitor”.

Will Flatt

Excellent observation!! Either way, I’d love if he would STFU & GTFO.

Batch

Wow. So many people here don’t get what Harold is trying to do. Way too short sighted.

Wild Bill

@Batch, Please don’t confuse not understanding with not agreeing.

Wild Bill

@wjd, Could be.

Batch

I agree. But it is also important to know ones enemy, how they think, their motives and their ‘weapons of choice’ if we are to defeat them.

Will Flatt

Once again Harold the NRA shill is blabbering minslessly about strategery, full spectrum fighting (I’ll bet my retirement fund he never served a day in the military and learned the term in a book). He says we have to “be nice” to people who haven’t been won over to the 2nd Amendment. BULLSCHIFF!! The VAST majority of voting Americans are either proud gun-owning conservatives & libertarians or they’re antigun commiecrats. The infinitesimal few who have absolutely no opinion one way or another on guns, and who also vote whatever way the wind blows, will NEVER be won over to the… Read more »

Will Flatt

Harold is living in la-la land. The fact of the matter is, demographics is destiny. America is being forcibly altered into a socialist nightmare through demographic warfare. The Left knows that at least 70% of all nonwhite immigrants will consistently vote LEFT, and that the vast vast majority of immigrants are nonwhites (i.e., not European ethnics). Thus you have the blueprint for altering America: you flood us with people whose culture comes from societies that have NEVER known the western traditions of liberty. What we need to do has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with “how we come across”. Long haul,… Read more »

Knute

The world in Bloomburger’s pocket?

Batch

If the only tool in your toolkit is a sledge hammer, you are seriously lacking has a handyman. There are those (like Sugarmann) who will be unfazed by anything but a sledge hammer. So go for it, perfect tool. I’d peg about 20% of gun control supporters in this category. I’ve also observed that Harold is right with about 40% of those who support gun control; They are decent people who do not understand, and are acting out of fear and lack of experience. People who once would have not supported gun control. Those are the people to be “nice”… Read more »

MgM

This is a great thought, but,
Riddle me this;
Since we all know this whole anti-gun propaganda campaign is a total lie,
And we have repeatedly proven that the majority does not want more gun control,
Why do we keep losing ground?
(also see above)

Safegunowner

AR’s remind me of J Lo.
With makeup on , she is menacing.
Without it, she is plain ole J Lo.

Klim

Anybody else notice how much that sugarman fucker looks like Wayne LaPierre?

Jim

this guy is just ANOTHER COMMUNIST JEW.
WHO NEEDS REMOVED FROM OUR REPUBLIC LIKE THE REST LIKE HIM.

Batch

Who are you talking about?

tetejaun

Anti-Semitism and democrats go hand-in-hand.

Knute

” Anti-Semitism does not signify opposition to Semitism. There is no such thing. It is an expression we Jews use effectively as a smear word used to brand as a bigot, like you guys, anyone who brings criticism against Jews.” -Harold Wallace Rosenthal
https://www.azquotes.com/author/33594-Harold_Wallace_Rosenthal

tetejaun

Rosenthal has proven himself to be an incredibly bigoted Jew and a hater of the United States. Simon Weisenthal started out a good guy, but as he continued his war against the Nazis that escaped their punishment for the genocide, he became an America-hater. Weisenthal only liked Jews that were as rabidly pro-Jew (to exclusion of all other religions) as he was.

tetejaun

Sugarmann went on to say “When we show videos of ‘assault weapons’, we will show machine guns shooting. The ignorant Americans will have a mental picture of machine guns shooting anytime the words ‘assault weapon’ are said.

Sugarmann invented the words ‘assault weapon’. At the time, Jane’s Infantry Weapons of the World had NO such term.
No, ‘Sturm Gewehr’ is NOT ‘assault weapon’. It is Storm Rifle. How easily the uneducated are duped.

tetejaun

How I do love the screaming yellow cowards on this board.
Minus 3. I must be slipping.

Batch

What relevance does this have to Harold or the article?

Knute

I think he’s saying that Harold is “M” from the story and gets everything backwards, as “M” did with the grenade. Or, perhaps just that a good beating and a life folding blankets might be all he’s good for.

Batch

? Some of these comments are very strange. The article is a short background piece on who our enemy is. You have to understand our enemy in this war if you hope to defeat them. Did you even bother to actually read it.

Knute

IMO, it is not so much that these ones object to Harold’s main points, which are always the same. I will sum them up as: Always be nice to the other side, and always be politically correct or else the media will use you as an example of how “bad” gun owners are. What I think they might be trying to say to Mr. Hutchison (but going about it badly) is: We are proper grownups, and we already know all about our opponent’s tactics. And one of the MAIN things we know is: that they will demonize as us always,… Read more »

Whitesfyre

Harold would you read a REAL 2A book or two! Fuck what the VPC and Blumbergs of the world have to say about America’s 2A! Next they will want to ban sexy asses and legs that look very nice because someone might get too excited.

Whitesfyre

As in those with really hotspots not hotsausages. ; ) Don’t forget some women post here too. They might think our asses and legs to be sexy… hopefully. Those who are looking for hotsausages are not of any concern to me. So it’s always genetically born sexy females. That are bendy of course. Accuse me of liking gymnast types… you can paint me guilty as charged!

Whitesfyre

Let the asshats in B-more keep killing each other then patriotic Americans can move back in and re-take it!!!!!
If the cops would quit their jobs in cities like this (La, Chicago, DC and other cesspits) in would happen quickly than ever imagined because thinking that Public Safety paid through taxes is much easier than protecting themselves! Plus they would see the need for the 2A!!!!!

Whitesfyre

Stop taking up posting space for something everyone here should already know. I’m surprised that [email protected] keeps letting you post the same comment multiple times everywhere. We know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now sign-in with your twelve-thirteen screen names and vote this down.
BTW they are not in WASHINGTON, They’re located in Virginia!

Whitesfyre

We Will see. I watched the vote count go up 6 and down 7 points in less than minute. You have been caught and will be handed your hat bud.

Whitesfyre

I’ll be following like a foot up high in your big ass.

Knute

No, he is quite literally telling you that downvotes are what he is after. Like as not that that is how this particular troll gets paid. The more downvotes he gets, the more he is being heard. His masters KNOW that fools such as him will never convince a thinking man of anything, so they are content to pay their trolls just to make waves and pretend that they speak for the average gun owner. Downvotes are as good a way to measure that as any other.
So it all makes sense, at least from the perspective of evil manipulation.

Whitesfyre

@wjd: You have been caught and that’s no way to speak of your Mom. I’m sure she did not want to be a sperm bank. Unless you’re an adopted redhead.

Whitesfyre

See how I’m encouraging you to dig that hole even deeper.

Whitesfyre

Every click you make. Why do you think certain changes were made in the system boards recently idiot?

Whitesfyre

Come on… click them down to 12-14. Help a guy out. Don’t be scared you big pussy.

Knute

Have you thought of trying: “Your mama is so fat…..”? That’s a sign of a pretty adult debating style.
Your mama is so fat… when I got on top, I had to get a ladder!
When I got up there, my ears popped!
Your turn.

Batch

Why are you so afraid to expose gun control group leaders, background on their organizations, and promote ideas to defeat them?

Do you really think everyone knows exactly what you know? Is it beyond belief to you that a new 20 year old gun owner who supports the 2A has never heard of the VPC? They have to learn somewhere, at some point.

Why are you working against the 2A movement?

Finnky

Is there a way to block a poster if I no longer wish to see anything they post?