FROM THE EDITORIAL and news staff of The New York Times to the entertainment industry,
liberals are working feverishly to help Al Gore succeed Bill Clinton in the West Wing. Gun rights
are front-and-center in the propaganda war. Just last week, the Los Angeles Times had a negative
feature article on the Texas Right to Carry Law, which Bush signed in 1995.

The entertainment industry is now producing television
politico-drama: a television show with a political
message shown prior to an election. The ballyhooed
two-hour opening segment of West Wing on
Wednesday, October 4 was one of the most
politically-correct entertainment events I have ever watched on the small screen. It was complete
with bashing big business, dairy farmers, military strategists – and, of course, gun owners.

The mass media and gun control groups such as Handgun Control, Inc. (HCI), the Million Mom
March (MMM), First Monday campaign, and Americans for Gun Safety — a new group started
with a $12-million-dollar gift from Monster.com CEO Andrew McKelvey — are heavily promoting
the Democratic party agenda (while Al Gore has avoided the gun control issue since the first day of
the Democratic convention last August).

As I mentioned in Million Mom Moles (9/27/00), it has become obvious that MMM is not a group
of Moms sitting around a kitchen table, but a well-organized group of liberal women activists in
coordination with the far left wing of the Democratic Party. HCI has been part of the Democratic
Party since it first openly supported Bill Clinton in 1992. This election year, they have already spent
almost $2 million this summer in ?issue advocacy? ads attacking the National Rifle Association and
George W. Bush on the issue of Right to Carry laws. Although thirty-one states now have Right to
Carry laws in their statutes, which allow law-abiding citizens the right to apply and get a permit to
carry a concealed firearm outside their home, HCI is using it as the primary gun issue against the
Republican Presidential candidate.

The movie star appearing in the HCI commercials is none other than Martin Sheen, who plays the
President in West Wing. Now they have announced that they are buying another round of new
commercials costing well over $500,000, to begin airing this month in the Midwest. With this kind
of financial support, Al Gore has been able to avoid the gun control issue, which he and the
Democrats know can cause a backlash among labor voters in many parts of this country.

So its not surprising that this year, on Monday, October 2, 2000, the opening day of the
2000-2001 term of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Alliance for Justice?s “First Monday2000″
focused on the gun control issue. At the hundreds of anti-gun rallies on October 2, which included
many Clinton-Gore Administration officials, including Attorney General Janet Reno, a documentary
on ?gun violence? starring none other than — guess who? — actor Martin Sheen was being shown.
According to the Independence Institute, ?The ?First Monday? campaign began as an effort to
promote ?social justice? at law schools at the beginning of the U.S. Supreme Court’s term. In
recent years the campaign — sponsored by a coalition of market-hostile organizations — has called
on the legal community to support government solutions to problems ranging from housing and
homelessness to the death penalty and immigration.?

It is now obvious that this year?s First Monday campaign was a flop. The first sign of its failure was
no media coverage. It was a rare report — such as the one written by Paul Carpenter in the
Morning Call of Bethlehem, Pa — that told the real story. According to Carpenter, the organizer,
Helen Ruch, told him the rally was ?just anti-violence? not anti-gun. But, as he reported, ?That’s not
the way it turned out; the rally was largely devoted to anti-gun rhetoric on signs and in speeches.?
When her band of 70 people marched across Bethlehem?s Fahey Bridge, they were greeted
politely by over 1,000 ?foes of gun control.? Later, over 2,000 pro-gun folks attended a peaceful
rally at Bethlehem?s Rose Garden. But Carpenter?s story has an O. Henry twist to the ending. It
seems that Ms. Ruch?s concern for the safety of children centers on law-abiding citizens with
firearms, and she won?t address the question of those killed by drunk drivers. Carpenter reported
that four years ago Ms. Ruch was arrested while driving under the influence. Her breath test when
stopped ?registered 0.162.? To which she answered, ?I have no comment.”

It wasn?t just in Bethlehem that the attendance was underwhelming. In San Francisco, the heart of
California liberalism, only 43 people attended the event, including 8 or so from the media. In
Denver, Colorado the Tyranny Response Team, a pro-gun rights group, had a rally with over 300
people at the Capitol and then marched to Denver University where they outnumbered the First
Monday supporters by 2-1. As with many other First Monday events, which were allegedly open
to the public, when those with contrary opinions tried to ask questions, the organizers were hostile
and did everything to shut out any opposition. Pro-gun advocates reporting from Washington State
and Arizona tell the story of being denied entrance and of the rules of questioning being changed
during question and answer sessions. Although the nationwide event had been publicized since June
and included a long list of supporting organizations, it failed to draw the public support the
organizers expected. As a result, the sympathetic mainstream media deliberately ignored the
liberal?s latest gun-control fiasco.

Election Day, November 7th, is four weeks off. We will be saturated with television advertising for
candidates from President to dogcatcher. But there will be a more insidious type of influence going
on: the media carefully slanting the stories they publish in the hopes of electing their favored
candidates. The line between news and editorials has become non-existent, while the line between
propaganda and entertainment is a line drawn in the sand on a windy day.

Tanya K. Metaksa is the former executive director of the National Rifle Association’s Institute
for Legislative Action. She is the author of Safe, Not Sorry, a self-protection manual,
published in 1997. She has appeared on numerous talk and interview shows such as
“Crossfire,” the “Today” show, “Nightline,” “This Week with David Brinkley” and the
“McNeil-Lehrer Hour,” among others.