CNN is a freaking joke.
It is amazing to me how fast the anti-gunners got their political campaign off the ground after this shooting.
What I suspect is that they created a rapid-reaction capability, with as much of the logistics as possible worked out in advance. Pre-written scripts. Canned policy statements. Everything ready to roll out on a moment’s notice.
I mean, all of these incidents are pretty much the same, right?
Parts is parts.
What they didn’t count on was that this particular incident had a lot of villains, who had far more responsibility for this tragedy than the NRA.
So they jumped all over this thing, and were up and running, literally overnight. The NRA was playing catch up ball from the very beginning, and things looked pretty good for them for a while.
But then the details started coming out. 37 visits to the house. 4 deputies cowering behind their cars. 2 calls to the FBI. Suddenly, the story was no longer about the guns, it was about police malfeasance.
If they had known all of the details, there is no way the anti-gunners would have chosen this field to fight their battle. But they couldn’t know, because they fully committed in the first thirty minutes. That’s the problem with rapid-reaction plans; they are by their nature generic, and they can’t be adapted to the situation.
So they have wasted this great effort on what will, ultimately, avail them nothing. They have revealed their strategy and squandered the element of surprise. Next time they try to trot out the photogenic children, it will be same old/same old. This trick will only work once.
You can bet your bottom dollar the NRA is working on their counter strategy, even as we speak. They will not be surprised again.