There's no such thing as "Bad Publicity"

Two weeks ago I wrote about an article that appeared in the website of the Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence (here-after "The Brady Bunch" and, despite their renaming of the organization, remains all about 'http://www.handguncontrol.org/' --- The Organization Formerly Known As Handgun Control, Inc.).

The reason I visited the Brady Bunch website is because I think it's a good idea to keep track of those organizations who have the intention and goal to deprive me, personally, of my civil rights.

The reason I wrote about this article was because of the literally hundreds of negative, but generally avoiding ad homonym attacks, comments submitted by gun owners.

My article attracted some minor attention (according to my readership statistics) and a few comments. Surprisingly, one of the comments was from "Zach", who is in fact Zach Ragbourn, Assistant Director (Communications) of The Brady Bunch. (See Below)

Well, I don't know how they got my blog address. I certainly didn't contribute to the comments on their website but I did cite their URL.

Do you suppose they keep track of websites who link to their website?

Sure they do. We all want to know who's reading our 'stuff', but more important we want to know who is proliferating it.

Website Proliferation?

Remember the Bell Television Hour in the 50's? They had a special which demonstrated a Nuclear "Chain Reaction". They set a thousand mousetraps on a table and balanced a ping-pong ball on the bail of each mousetrap. Then they threw one more ping-pong ball into the middle of the array, and we all watched in awe as the bouncing balls set of mouse trap after mouse trap until they were (almost) all set off.

Chain Reaction. That's what happens when websites link to each other. The result is that readership increases in the "Level Zero" website. ("Level Zero" is a 'bio safety' technical term used to designate "the original source of contamination" -- no connection intended between The Brady Bunch and the term "contamination".)

By mentioning The Brady Bunch in a blog article, I have perhaps increased their readership. Okay, not by much. Just a little bit. Well, if not for gun owners, who else would read them? And considering the miniscule percentage of the American population who are NOT gun-owners but care enough to read them, who else would care enough to comment?

I'm completely opposed to their goals and deplore their persuasive techniques, but I'm not concerned about encouraging more people to read their website.

So when I received an email from Zach last Friday, it didn't take me too long to get past the knee-jerk reaction of "Hey, so now I'm a flak for The Brady Bunch? I think not!"

However, I had better things to do, which is why it has taken me four days to get around to sharing Zach's invitation with you.

I know you and your readers are interested in gun rights, so I thought I'd alert you to Sarah Brady's guest entry on today's Brady Blog. Today is the anniversary of the Reagan/Brady shooting, and also the anniversary of our Campaign Against Illegal Guns.

Some of your readers are probably aware of Sarah's post already, since I think The High Road and maybe one or two other sites have probably pointed it out. It's a good chance to have Sarah answer your questions directly, so I thought you might be interested in taking a look:
[article link here]

As was the case of the previous article, there are literally HUNDREDS of comments ... mostly from pro-gun readers. Again, I probably won't read all of them before I publish this. I certainly won't add my own comments, because almost anything I could think of to say has been said. In fact, it looked like a cow-tipping in a piranha tank.

If you want to go there and read that, then I think you should.

Gun Control is a touchy subject, and the commenters there seem to be not only opinionated but well read, thoughtful, and generally respectful. It's worth mentioning that Sarah "La Sarah" Brady is the author, and the occasion is the 30th anniversary of the shooting of Jim Brady by Hinkley in an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.

It's also worth mentioning that the shooting was a tragedy, and should never have happened. It's a failure of society in every sense, and the consequences to then-White House Press Secretary Jim Brady is the sort of thing which no-one would have wished for nor have wished upon our worse enemy ... of which Jim and Sarah Brady are decidedly not.

I do not agree with the politics, goals, aspirations, or tactics of the Bradys or their organization. I believe that they are working toward a goal with firm conviction, and while I think they are wrong and misguided I acknowledge that their beliefs are not a negative reflection on their character.

The tactics of The Brady Bunch -- -- I deplore. I believe the word "duplicitous" is not too strong because ... well, go read the comments and make up your own mind.

There is something fundamentally wrong with the thinking of people who make it their life's work to undermine the civil rights of law-abiding fellow citizens.