Sandy Hook, Uvalde, Parkland, Covenant, Columbine: these names have been indelibly seared into the minds and consciences of Americans from every part of the country for at least the last 25 years.
They are the locations of five of the worst mass shootings to happen in the one of the seemingly least likely and least warranted places imaginable, our nation’s schools. Who would conceive of such an evil as to massacre children in a hail of gunfire? Who would cross the threshold of innocence to bring death and violence to the very least among us?
The answers to those questions remain a mystery to most, with only the doctrine of utter human depravity to account for the insidious evil done in those places, and countless others in the last several decades.
But mystery or not, proponents of gun control laws and the removal of firearms from pretty much all public and private spaces, have looked to harness the fear, the rage, and the sorrow of those horrible events to stoke public outcry and apply pressure to lawmakers in dozens of states.
“Saying we want to reduce gun violence is a sales tactic or a marketing scheme. But from my perspective, I don’t really know what the goal is here.” - Jeremy Ball, owner Sharp Shooters Gun Store
One of the most effective movements toward gun control has been Washington state, fertile soil for activists and grandstanding politicians. It is no wonder then that well-funded and incredibly coordinated lobbyists and organizations have made Washington their home and a base from which to strike hard at the tenets of liberty surrounding gun ownership and the buying and selling of firearms.
In the wake of the events of Sandy Hook elementary in 2012, in which 20 students and six adults were killed by a gunman entering the school in Newtown, CT, a mom of five named Shannon Watts started a Facebook group to try and rally parents across the country to fight against gun violence. That group exploded into a national organization called Moms Demand Action, so that within a few short years, all 50 states had an active chapter calling for more and more gun control in every corner of the United States.
This small, grassroots campaign was well organized and what it lacked in big donors and financial backing, it made up for in spades with a relentless ground game and spirited activism. But as with all things, what greases the wheels of politics is American currency. And Mom Demand Action had precious little of that capital.
Enter Michael Bloomberg. Yes, that Michael Bloomberg, the once failed presidential candidate with more money than just about any man living.
Combining the Bloomberg financial empire with the enthusiastic spirit of Moms Demand Action, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility was born.
From 2018 – when the organization first began disclosing its financial information – to 2023, the AGR raised nearly $20 million in major or individual donor funding as well as state or federal grants.
Their mission, as stated on their 2025 agenda is to ensure that “we are creating a future where every individual has the right to live free from fear and violence of gun violence.”
The Alliance for Gun Responsibility has not been the only Political Action Committee (PAC) hard at work to curb gun rights in Washington state for the last decade. Washington Ceasefire is also using community events, a social media presence, and public outcry in the wake of violent acts to raise millions of dollars in the fight “against gun violence.”
Like AGR, Washington Ceasefire makes much of the gun violence statistics in Washington state, citing them on their homepage under Know the Facts. In that list, they make much of the suicide numbers, the teenage death statistics, and overall deaths.
However, curiously, under the list of stats for Washington state, the first item tells readers that Washington is the 40th out of 50 US states in terms of gun violence as of 2021. Those stats predate the “assault weapons ban” of 2023, the mandatory waiting periods, the 10-round magazine limitation and a host of other laws targeting private firearms ownership and regulations for FFLs.
And yet, only 10 states in the union have recorded fewer gun deaths in all of the US. One has to wonder, what threshold are these groups trying to reach?
According to Jeremy Ball, owner of Sharp Shooters Gun Store and Indoor Range, as well as an outspoken advocate for the retention of gun rights and improved gun safety, the goal seems to always be a moving target.
“Saying we want to reduce gun violence is a sales tactic or a marketing scheme,” Ball said. “But from my perspective, I don’t really know what the goal is here. The statements that come from a lot of people don’t match what their actions are.”
Ball also added that in the last three years, there has been a lot of legislation rammed through at warp speed, but no follow up to see if any of the laws that have passed have improved things, been effective, or created any sizable decrease in gun deaths.
One has to wonder, is that moving target the point?
From 2021-2023, Washington state passed more gun control laws than ever before. For a state that once boasted the fewest restrictions on firearms in the nation, the last three-five years have seen an utter reversal of that position. No state has passed such aggressive restrictions on private ownership, nor have any states hamstrung the gun sellers to such a degree as the Evergreen state. Yet money keeps pumping into these PACs that have not changed their rhetoric or aggressiveness in the public square.
The Alliance for Gun Responsibility repeatedly declined requests for a statement or interview, but their legislator report card page, list of 2024 campaigns aided by AGR to bolster gun control policies in Olympia for the upcoming sessions, and the 2025 political agenda make it clear that now is not the time to wait and see.
Rather than allowing the recent rash of policies bear fruit, there is only the option seemingly to put the car in overdrive. Ball, personally doesn’t think the goal of these PAC’s is to suddenly hit absolute zero (an idea that fundamentally rejects human nature in all of its evil capacity), but that upticking revenues are a tremendous motivator. Both for the leaders of ARG and WCF, and the politicians that their lobbying has supported in obtaining or retaining their public office.
“I think that our political system, even when people go into it with the best of intentions, the ability to be swayed by financial benefit and corruption is very difficult to not partake in,” Ball said. “I think those people are probably challenged by that stuff on a daily basis. They may start out objective early on, but the more that stuff comes up…they want to keep their job.”
And what about the financial backing? Surely with such low gun violence and ever increasing control on the buying and selling of firearms, the well of public donation must be drying up? But the opposite seems to be true, with ARG reporting nearly $10 million in donations from 2022-2023 alone.
The key, it seems, is not statistics or results, but only the ever-driving zeal of the emotional appeal.
“The reason for that is because they don’t understand,” Ball said of the zealous support of these organizations. “I have found that in most cases, the people are very misguided. They have an emotional attachment to this specific issue. But when you start to discuss how this works in actuality, they really start to come around and realize that it's not necessarily one particular issue driving these problems in our communities.”
For his part, Ball has made it a goal to reach out to some of those citizen supporters of Washington's anti-gun PACs. In one case, he recalled, after reasonable discussing the issues, a couple that once ardently opposed gun rights with AGR, came to see another side of things and even became gun owners themselves.
Austin Johnson is a podcast host of Mid-Tier Thoughts and an avid historian of American and Washington gun rights. He noted in an interview that 20 years ago, gun laws were virtually unheard of across the country.
In the late 90’s, US congressmen attempted to pass a ban on handguns in the capital building but were immediately shut down and rejected. No one messed with the second amendment.
Trying a different tactic, anti-gun lobbyists turned to states like California, Michigan and other havens of progressive ideologies. After securing a huge wave of victories in those states, they set their sights on a second tier of vulnerable states, with Washington being in that second group.
Today, Washington gun rights have eroded so thoroughly that in another month, the state could well require all citizens to procure a permit to purchase a firearm. But according to Johnson, the fight will not end there. The money is too good. By his estimation, states like Montana seem to be next on the list, ones that have been turning purple in recent election cycles.
There is no goal, no plan, no victory. Only more. The love of money is the root of various kinds of evil.
