The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence is so “low on my radar” that I almost always ignore them. How many people do they have on staff? More than three? They claim they have 48 member organizations. I have not heard of about two thirds of them. And what political influence do they have? Can they send out a mailing and get more than 10 people to contact any politician or sway an election? I don’t think so.

They have a “sister organization” called “Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence” which is a 501(C)(3) corp. I looked them up on Charity Navigator and found this:

We don’t evaluate Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence.
Why not? We had previously evaluated this organization, but they are now filing the IRS Form 990 EZ as allowed under the Internal Revenue Code. Charity Navigator can not complete an evaluation for charities that file the 990 EZ because that form does not contain all the information we require.

The Brady Center To Prevent Gun Violence is listed ( Primary Revenue Growth -11.5%). And so is the Violence Policy Center.

But I did find their IRS filing for 2009. They had total revenue of $372,600 with net assets or fund balances of $86,407. This is down from 2001 when they had a total revenue of $1,579,241 and net assets or fund balances of $316,274.

$372.6K in net revenue? Really? Paul Helmke of the Brady Campaign has a yearly salary of nearly 70% ($258,828) of that.

I suppose that should explain some of their efforts recently. They just don’t have the resources to do anything of substance. [sarcasm]But they are really on their path to the big league by threatening a few bloggers.[/sarcasm]

But how do you explain this email from a week ago?

What are Gun Rights Groups so Afraid of?

If you ever needed evidence that the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence is having a powerful impact on the national conversation about gun violence, look no further. Just in the past week, gun rights groups have made several panicked attempts to counteract our work.

First, the NRA lashed out at CSGV in an editorial in the most recent issue of its flagship publication, America’s First Freedom. The editorial referred to a recent blog I published at the Huffington Post and was a desperate attempt to defend their view that the Constitution sanctions private political violence. Mocking my philosophy and “life’s work,” editor Blaine Smith compares American citizens in a constitutional republic to starving grizzly bears in the untamed wilderness of Alaska. You can read the NRA’s bizarre piece here.

Second, the National Shooting Sports Federation (NSSF) responded to a recent “countermarketing” strategy guide by our affiliate, the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence (Ed Fund), with panicked threats of litigation. Our report educates activists about using the “buyer power” of cities to require gun manufacturers to implement marketing safeguards on firearms sales. In the face of this powerful new advocacy tool, the NSSF has resorted to blanket threats to sue any municipal government who tries to leverage their purchasing power to curb illegal gun trafficking.

Third, the Ed Fund placed prominent newspaper ads signed by 105 gun violence survivors during last weekend’s NRA convention in Pittsburgh. The survivors asked NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre to sit down and have a constructive dialogue about how to prevent gun violence in our country. When confronted face-to-face about the invitation to talk, however, LaPierre ran away!

Gun rights groups are clearly feeling the heat, and your gift today will help keep up the pressure. If you want to keep gun rights groups on the defensive, please support CSGV’s hard-hitting work.

Thank you for joining with us to take on the gun lobby,

Josh Horwitz
Executive Director

CSGV is having a powerful impact? It’s more like they are being made fun of as the village idiot.

Hard hitting work? I guess that would be finding out and reporting the real names of a couple of bloggers.

I say just ignore them. I’m sure all the politicians and courts do.