My strategy for political fundraising is pretty simple: like many people, I join membership organizations that are aligned with my position on a particular issue (( For example, the NRA, GOA, and SAF for gun rights, the ACLU and EFF for freedom of speech, privacy, etc. )), keep my membership up to date, and subscribe to their mailing lists.
Additionally (and in my view, more critically), I also subscribe to the mailing lists of groups advocating against my position. For example, I’m subscribed to ARS mailing list (( I’d subscribe to Everytown and CSGV, but I’m not sure I could survive bashing my head against the wall that frequently. )). Whenever they send out a message calling for more donations (( ARS often asks for small donation amounts and has an “anonymous donor” that will match all contributions. Anyone know who that donor is? )) I make a note of the amount they request. Every few months I add up all the requests that ARS makes, double it, and split that amount between contributions to the NRA, GOA, and SAF.
Groups like the NRA, GOA, and SAF work to concentrate and amplify the voices of their members. Individually, a vote or a letter to your legislator isn’t terribly meaningful, and I can’t make flashy TV ads or do much with $50, but the NRA and other groups can use that money much more effectively for lobbying, advertising, etc.
While I can’t hold a candle to Bloomberg’s billions, I try to do my part.
I’m curious what strategies others have when it comes to fundraising and political advocacy. Thoughts?
Month: October 2014
Defense Distributed announces the “Ghost Gunner”, a CNC mill for making AR-15s
Defense Distributed, a group famous for the “Liberator” (an open-source, freely-available 3D printable gun), just announced the “Ghost Gunner” — a compact CNC mill that is designed specifically for turning a metal 80% lower into a complete AR-15 lower receiver in about an hour.
Sure, general-purpose CNC mills have existed for decades, but they’re a bit expensive, hard to learn, and generally out of reach of the average person. DD’s hope with this machine is to make it easy and cheap (about $1,200 at the normal price, discounted to $999 for the first ten to pre-order) for the average person to use out-of-the-box.
Coming on the heels of the failure of State Senator Kevin de Le?n’s SB 808 “ghost gun ban”, which would criminalize the manufacture of homebuilt firearms unless one registered them with the state and added a serial number, this is particularly interesting.
In the wake of the governor?s veto of the Ghost Gun ban, Wilson?s CNC mill could make?untraceable guns all the more accessible. And as the video above shows, Wilson isn?t shying away from that face-off so much as directly confronting gun control advocates. He?s gone as?far as applying?for a trademark for the term ?Ghost Gun,? a move that could limit how gun control advocates are legally able to use it.
?This wouldn?t be worth doing if Kevin de Le?n didn?t know about it,? Wilson says.
(From Wired’s The $1,200 Machine That Lets Anyone Make a Metal Gun at Home)