First let me establish that we are winning...Ever since the AWB of late 94, Ruby Ridge (92), and Waco (93) which fed into the later Republican, it seems gun rights activists have been making steady, incremental gains. Open carry states were convinced to create concealed carry permits. License to carry states moved to constitutional carry. Major SCOTUS victories with Heller and McDonald have created break through momentum in the gun rights movement, while the slow decline of violent crime in the country has only vindicated the ideas of the movement.
But all that success bred complacency. When Federal Democrat politicians promised "we aren't coming for your guns", many of the non-enthusiast public believed them. They thought the 90s taught them to leave that issue alone. The momentum of years before began to slow a little with Obama and House Democrat sweeping victories. With the economy in meltdown, withdrawals pending in Iraq and Afghanistan, it seemed the Federal legislature had its hands full. So for the first 4yrs not much overt action was taken on the topic.
That situation was dramatically changed with the catastrophe of Sandy Hook. With anti-rights congressman in office, a supporting major news and entertainment organizations, and a anti-rights narrative ready to go (just waiting for the right crime) a full frontal assault on rights was attempted, with discussion of a renewed AWB.
That attack failed.
Then they feinted for backdoor registration schemes.
That attack failed.
The only success they have seen is a few State houses. But even there the battle can accurately be described as a stalemate. While some States have increased restriction, others have supported gun rights (see the Chin Up! thread) with more Constitution carry, campus carry liberalization, and even Illinois is on the precipice of major liberalization.
The biggest assault on our rights in 20yrs and it has been blunted and parried from Federal to State.
![[ar15]](http://www.armedpolitesociety.com/Smileys/default/addon/AR15firing.gif "AR15 Firing")
The gun rights group remained unified in political pressure and message. The numerous small gun, ammo and accessory manufacturers remained unified with gun owners. The biggest political groups (NRA, 2AF, GOA) did not back down, did not water down the message. Articulate pundits across the blogosphere brought superb data, dialectic and rhetoric arguments to bear against the emotionalism of the anti-liberty.
That established, I notice this cultural "coincidence...http://bgr.com/2013/05/17/google-fiber-broadcast-television-impact-analysis/TV show audiences have been falling for a long time, but recently the decline has turned into a plunge. According to Goldman Sachs, ratings in the 18-49 year demo dropped by a hideous 17% last winter, the steepest drop ever. “American Idol” is losing nearly 25% of its audience in a year. Most of the big new shows have been disasters and old staples like “Survivor” and “Dancing with Stars” are in free fall.
Everyone has long known that the broadcast dinosaurs are in trouble but it is only now becoming clear just how rapidly they are losing their grip on consumers in the United States. This coincides with rapid growth of time spent on mobile apps: American iPhone owners now waste two hours per day on apps and annualized growth of daily engagement still tops 30%. But it also opens up completely new vistas for Netflix, Amazon, Google and Apple when it comes to video distribution.
I suggest that as I write this message on an internet forum, the late X'ers, Millennial (born 82-02) and next generation (still being born) is walking away from the major media control, at least, for now. And this is having a major impact on narrative control for all generations of news consumers.
This loss of narrative control is a major contributor to today's gun rights' victories. The loss of narrative control gets our message out, to counteract the partisanship of most news sources. It allows us to defend our positions on our own terms, we don't need a talking head to put words in our mouths.
