Sandy Hook Promise Video Masks The Group’s True Anti-Gun Nature
On Friday, the gun control group Sandy Hook Promise released a video, “Evan”. It is a short video detailing two students trading messages on a desk, without knowing who the other is. When they finally meet on the last day of school, a shooter interjects into the scene, and the video proceeds to cycle through several shots in the video that had no focus in the prior clip.
It is important to note, that the gun rights and gun control groups stand in unison on this issue – we are all working to identify troubled individuals looking to do harm, and make sure they get the attention they deserve. No one takes issue with SHP working to cut down on gun violence.
However, after closer inspection of Sandy Hook Promise and what the group has done since its inception, I do have a big issue with the group’s practices, including this video, which is very misleading at best. At worst, the group claims to offer help that it does not provide, and is disingenuously offering to educate the public as a way to promote their own gun control agenda.
The video is embedded below:
Clearly, the child in the video has serious issues. He appears to be bullied and not have any friends, with no one paying him any mind. Perhaps if the MSM didn’t blast out every school shooting for days, troubled youths wouldn’t feel as though they could just copycat the Columbine shooters to posthumously receive the attention they never got in school.
If you have issue with my attacks on media coverage of shootings, ask yourself if the media gave similar coverage to a bus driver who asked kids if they were ready to die before he crashed the bus, killing 5 and injuring over 20, because I’ve heard the media cover the recent Ohio State shooting more extensively, in which there were far fewer casualties, with the only fatality being the shooter himself. The media is feeding into the rash of Columbine copycats, and SHP is not helping by giving troubled teens recognition for unspeakable conduct.
Turning to SHP itself, it is led by Nicole Hockley, who lost a child in the Sandy Hook shooting. I feel for the loss suffered by Hockley and all the other Sandy Hook families, and no law or NRA safety training will ever give her solace in her loss. Nonetheless, her practices as head of SHP are aimed at eviscerating the 2nd amendment in her quest for revenge, without any regard to gun owners’ rights. Moreover, she is known to lie and distort the facts, and will stop at nothing to harm gun owners and manufacturers.
I mention manufacturers, because although I can find no evidence that SHP was directly a party to the frivolous lawsuit against gun manufacturers that was recently tossed out, the fact that the families of 10 victims leads me to be nearly certain that several members of Hockley’s group were plantiffs in the ruling. Bearing Arms detailed quotes from the lawyers for the families as referring to all owners of AR-15s as “notoriously incompetent”.
Hockley also stated that SHP has created a guide to inform people on the warning signs of gun violence, but Bearing Arms was unable to locate such a guide, only finding questionable statistics in addition to their platform.
FirearmsNews did a closer examination of SHP, and found the following:
- The group delivered petitions to New Jersey Governor Chris Cristie, urging him to sign legislation limiting magazines to 10 rounds in the Garden State
- SHP supported the draconian new gun laws in Connecticut
- SHP’s communications director appeared in an ad for anti-gun Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy
- SHP was honored by the anti-gun New Yorkers Against Gun Violence
Clearly, this group has a history of promoting a failed gun control agenda. It is now doing its best to downplay its true goals to garner support from the general public. Make no mistake about it; they will wait until another emotional shooting takes place to put forward their calls for further restrictions on gun owners rights. Hockley and SHP have demonstrated that they are not above using questionable emotional appeals to promote their gun control agenda.
Honestly, I have no problem with the PSA route they are taking, beyond my issue with possible promotion of copycat attacks. However, SHP has shown no willingness to engage with gun owners to try to work together to identify troubled individuals, and to attack the causes that lead them down a troubled path in the first place. These appeals would be far more effective if they had support of organizations that represent millions of gun owners.
Perhaps, if they had started that way, instead of blaming the gun industry and promoting gun control, maybe gun rights and gun control groups could have worked together to make a difference. Like it or not, the NRA is the number one training organization in the USA for gun safety. If SHP and other gun control groups were really serious about doing something other than restricting the rights of gun owners, they would extend the olive branch and ask the NRA and NSSF to work together on gun safety training, instead of using emotional promos to further their gun control agenda.
