With weekly meetings, Obama administration gearing up for big gun control push to coincide with Newtown anniversary

Newtown might not be planning any town wide events to mark the shooting tragedy last December 14th. but the Obama administration and gun control groups are still planning enough.  From the Associated Press:

The leader of the board that governs Newtown, Conn., says it will not host any townwide events to mark the anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. 

First Selectman Pat Llodra says the community is choosing to remember and honor the victims in ways that are "quiet, personal and respectful." . . .

Information on the Obama administration plans is available from Politico:

Officials from the White House Office of Public Engagement, which reports to senior Obama aide Valerie Jarrett, are now carrying the administration’s gun control efforts. OPE officials hold a regular meeting with the major gun control groups known as the Gun Violence Table.   

The weekly sessions often include OPE Director Paulette Aniskoff or official Paul Monteiro along with representatives from Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Moms Demand Action, the Center for American Progress, Organizing for Action and Americans for Responsible Solutions. 

The groups are coordinating a November lobbying effort and planning events to commemorate the first anniversary of the Newtown, Conn., massacre last December. . . .

As I have written about before, the White House is apparently still deeply involved in the push for gun control at the state level.

“What’s happening now is a necessary and appropriate drilling down into states both to push the ball forward at the state level,” said Arkadi Gerney of the Center for American Progress, who participates in the sessions. “Also, that’s the best way to move the ball forward at the federal level.” . . .

The coordinated events include a nationwide bus tour sponsored by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the Bloomberg-funded effort, a series of Americans for Responsible Solutions stops by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, and some 200 local Organizing for Action events in August. . . .

The article also had information on the exact timing of the federal push is discussed here:

The groups and the White House are considering events pegged to Dec. 14, the anniversary of the Newtown shooting, which launched Obama’s gun control push. The Brady Campaign is planning four days of events the second week of November, including what its president, Dan Gross, called the largest gun control lobbying day ever at the Capitol and a day of speeches from prominent officials at the Mayflower Hotel. 

Gross said the Brady Campaign also is planning to commemorate Nov. 30, the 20th anniversary of former President Bill Clinton signing legislation that required background checks for commercial gun sales. That event, Gross said, will remind gun control supporters that it took seven votes over six years to become law. . . . 

The rest of the article mentions that while Biden is still involved publicly with the gun control issue, he is not participating in the weekly White House meetings.

Piers Morgan viciously attacked Alan Gottlieb for his "guns save lives" day, but any guesses whether Morgan will attack gun control advocates for their own push for gun control on that day?



Meanwhile, a "news" article in the New York Daily News makes this point:

The heartless gun nuts who hoped to make the anniversary of the Newtown massacre “Guns Save Lives Day” have changed their callous plan. 

The rallies, organized by the Washington state-based Second Amendment Foundation, will now be held one day later, on Dec. 15, which happens to be Bill of Rights Day. 

“We will not politicize the day, and we hope (gun-control advocates) will not politicize and push their anti-civil rights agenda on the 14th,” the group’s founder and executive vice president, Alan Gottlieb, told the New Haven Register.
“We’re going to show that we are sensitive.” . . . .

I have checked this author's other articles and they seems like pretty straightforward news stories.