logo
Donate
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
    • Glossary
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Magazine
  • Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

On Gun Control, White House Fails to Tap Power of (Its Own and Other) Nonprofits

Pablo Eisenberg
April 2, 2013

 

Hole
Iurii Konoval / Shutterstock.com

In his State of the Union speech, President Barack Obama urged the Congress to adopt stringent gun control measures, including a ban on assault weapons and large ammunition clips. It was tough talk. Did he really mean it?

Though he has barnstormed parts of the country on the issue, speaking to mayors and police chiefs who were already on the gun control bandwagon, his administration has done little or nothing to mobilize large constituencies that could neutralize the influence of the National Rifle Association (NRA), the powerful pro-gun lobby that appears to terrorize so many or our congressmen and senators. On March 28, the president once again urged Congress to pass his gun control agenda, yet the White House has not yet taken any action to back up his rhetoric.

Organizing for Action (OFA), the so-called 501(c)(4) grassroots organization founded by White House operatives and led by Jim Messina, was supposed to deliver masses of people, many of them young veterans of the Obama political campaign, to support administration initiatives such as gun control and immigration reform. But, so far, it has turned out to be just a fundraising mechanism to lure big money to White House coffers. Only a strong outcry from watchdog groups like Common Cause forced OFA to abandon its plans for a pay-to-play vehicle for corporate and large individual donors.

Contrary to its promise, Organizing for Action has not launched any major effort to rally the forces needed to win the immigration reform and gun control fights. One is left with a perplexing question: for what action is the OFA organizing?

White House staff have demonstrated an incredible lack of interest and/or incompetence in failing to call out nonprofit sector organizations as activists for tighter gun controls. Surprisingly, they have done no such thing. They haven’t, as one might have expected, convened any conferences or workshops for nonprofits to enlist them as soldiers in the battle for gun control. Nor, as far as we know, have they reached out to individual groups to gain their support for such an initiative.

It is a major missed opportunity. Many large nonprofits, with substantial constituencies, have the money, staff and resources to mount major campaigns. The foundation community also has the money needed to finance comprehensive, sustained efforts. Together, they have the wherewithal to outspend and to politically outmuscle the National Rifle Association. Yet they haven’t been asked to do anything. If they were to join forces with Mayor Bloomberg of New York, who’s had the courage to give millions of dollars and his personal involvement to the cause, chances for much tighter gun controls would be enormously enhanced.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Why, then, has the Obama administration done nothing but talk about gun violence? For an alleged former organizer, the president has either been a poor organizer or a reluctant warrior.

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the Senate majority leader, has yanked the assault weapons and limited ammunition clip provisions from the gun control bill the Senate will consider, claiming there weren’t enough votes to pass it if the legislation included the controversial measures. The president could have pressured Reid to introduce the complete bill, but he didn’t.

One is left with the impression that the president, as in other cases, is satisfied with the rhetoric of toughness and a mild gun control bill, that he has no intention of fighting hard for what he promised. In doing so, he, not incidentally, is helping the fortunes of several Senate democrats facing difficult challenges in conservative states in 2016.

But that is not presidential leadership. He had a chance to enroll a potentially powerful nonprofit sector as his agent of change on the issue, a decision that might have turned the tide of the battle and broken the back of the NRA. What a waste of resources.

And what a retrograde step in helping to solve the problem of violence in American communities.


 

Pablo Eisenberg is a senior fellow at the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute.

About the author
Pablo Eisenberg

Pablo Eisenberg is a senior fellow at the Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute.

More about: Policy

Our Voices Are Our Power.

Journalism, nonprofits, and multiracial democracy are under attack. At NPQ, we fight back by sharing stories and essential insights from nonprofit leaders and workers—and we pay every contributor.

Can you help us protect nonprofit voices?

Your support keeps truth alive when it matters most.
Every single dollar makes a difference.

Donate now
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

You might also like
“Advocacy Works”: Nonprofit Status-Stripping Measure Dropped from Republican Budget
Isaiah Thompson
Cancer Research in the US Is World Class Because of Its Broad Base of Funding—with the Government Pulling Out, Its Future Is Uncertain
Jeffrey MacKeigan
Endowments Aren’t Blank Checks—but Universities Can Rely on Them More Heavily in Turbulent Times
Ellen P. Aprill
US Colleges and Universities Have Billions Stashed Away in Endowments—a Higher Ed Finance Expert Explains What They Are
Todd L. Ely
Nonprofits Under Fire: How the IRS Can—and Cannot—Revoke Federal Tax-Exempt Status
Jeffrey S. Tenenbaum, Esq.
Providence Nonprofits Reeling from Funding Cuts and Threats (And, Organizations—What You Can Do!)
Cynthia M. Gibson

Upcoming Webinars

Group Created with Sketch.
May 27th, 2:00 pm ET

Ask the Nonprofit Lawyer

Register
Group Created with Sketch.
June 26th, 2:00 pm ET

From Performance Management to Mutual Commitment

Fostering a Culture of Joyful Accountability

Register

    
You might also like
A view of the US Capitol against a blue sky.
“Advocacy Works”: Nonprofit Status-Stripping Measure...
Isaiah Thompson
A female scientist wearing a turquoise protective hair cap, yellow safety goggles, blue gloves, and a blue protective gown peers intently into a black microscope while carefully holding a pipette.
Cancer Research in the US Is World Class Because of Its...
Jeffrey MacKeigan
A piggy bank wearing a graduation hat and standing on a pile of cash, symbolizing how endowments for academic institutions can be accessed in difficult times.
Endowments Aren’t Blank Checks—but Universities Can Rely...
Ellen P. Aprill

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright
  • Donate
  • Editorial Policy
  • Funders

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.