What GOAL is doing (grading, lobbying, minor PR stuff from a person who knows how to work an interview) places our allies in a position where they feel they need to remain accountable. Any major deviation would lose them a sizeable chunk of support that would put them at a disadvantage in a general election. They also are the largest current organizing force available to us in the state, since the NRA refuses to assist us in most cases, and has proven detrimental in others. Whatever else supplements their work, GOAL needs to remain supported and funded for this.
What Comm2A is doing is the single most likely method of getting laws and enforcement fixed in the state. I don't like the fact that that's the case, and that could change drastically based on the next 4-8 years, but at the moment that's the reality of the situation. Again, whatever else supplements their work, Comm2A needs to remain supported and funded.
We need expansion in 4 areas that I can see: GOAL's reach & membership, elections/candidates, "hardball" lobbying, and jamming of the Bloomberg-funded "grassroots" movements.
- GOAL's reach is insufficient. Membership numbers versus licensed gun owners and my informal polling of politically aligned people indicate that most people outside of the NES/GOAL/Comm2A nexus don't even know about GOAL, much less the AG's most recent antics. We can play with the voting margins with the numbers we have now, but effectiveness will be less, and inconsistent. We need to gain the attention, support, and votes of literally hundreds of thousands of people. Off the top of my head, the only suggestions I can provide are that the messaging needs to be be stripped of anything not related SOLELY to 2A (and hunting), and then slowly expanded to include groups & messaging that wouldn't normally intersect*. At the same time, we need to help GOAL reach the people that it hasn't already...And I'm not sure of the best way of doing that.
- Elections are being run in this state with ZERO opposition. This needs to change, even if the candidates that are running are not serious candidates. Forcing antis to either continuously fund campaigning or to change rules in ways that exclude the moderates of their own parties can only help us. This wouldn't require more than a couple dozen people across the state, plus the combined forces of NES/GOAL/party (R or D) to gain the minimum required signatures to get people on ballots.
- Hardball "lobbying" seems to me to be something that orgs other than the NRA are good at. There was a thread a while back about NAGR, and while I'm not sure that they're the best people for the job in MA, the interviews I've seen that detail the results of their lobbying seem to indicate that the tactic has some merit if applied properly. They also get the "winning by the margin" strategy**. Large number of people required, though, in addition to the major difficulty of building the network within the state and
NOT stepping on GOAL's toes. (Did I mention I that NAGR might not be the best people for this. FACL would be good to look at -
https://facl-training.org/)
- Jamming is a whole other front that I've heard talked about but don't see applied. Think Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals." Large impact with a small number of people, but lots of time required with zero compensation, a serious need to be able to think on your feet, an absolute requirement that you're able to control your emotions and say things to people that you don't believe. Even a dozen people spread across the state, concentrated in the areas where Bloomberg's activity is greatest, would be enough. Join, establish yourself, and then 1) vacuum up as much information as you can, 2) get into a position where you can (un)coordinate people by providing legitimate-looking bad information and/or messaging, 3) get into a position where you can deliver "their message" with an audience and "screw up" the message, or 4) some combination. This one is probably the toughest, but potentially the best shot at dismantling casual support for MDA/Bloomberg. The potential for blowback is huge, the potential for personal safety problems is high, and the time & personal investment are substantial...So don't go starting this stuff unless you're willing to be honest with yourself about your temperament / talent / current public exposure, and do it right. (Still, if you ARE interested in this or know someone who is, shoot me a PM.)
*(Go to Twitter and start crawling the #blackgunsmatter posts to see what I mean.)
**(
https://www.nationalgunrights.org/about-nagr/strategy)