Dave Workman
Less than 72 hours after gun rights activists outmaneuvered Michael Bloomberg’s launch of a $50 million “Everytown for Gun Safety” effort by grabbing Facebook presence with that title, the page was taken down sometime late Friday or early Saturday and now people will find a Bloomberg site, but with angry comments posted by pro-gunners.
But Facebook did not pull the page, according to Eric Reed, one of those responsible for launching the pro-gun grassroots effort to grab the “Everytown” presence on the social media site. Late Saturday evening, Reed told Examiner via telephone that “The page was not yanked by Facebook, it was pulled on our end.” Reed is founder of Gun Rights Across America.
Saturday evening there were still scores of individual state-level Facebook pages with the “Everytown” title, but as Robert Farago wrote on his Truth About Guns blog, it’s not certain they will last. Many activists are indicating that if those sites disappear, they will re-launch under a new title.
Reed said he was still trying to get information on exactly what led to the decision to take down the page. A commercial pilot, he was in the air most of Saturday and was trying to catch-up on all of the details. However, he indicated that there had apparently been some kind of legal threat, but because of the late hour, he was having difficulty gathering information. The decision apparently only involved the main pro-gun “Everytown” page, not the scores of off-shoots.
“There are so many ‘Everytown’ pages that have already been created,” he said. “They’re going to have a time (getting them all).”
Only a few comments had been posted by Saturday evening on the new Bloomberg page. One man wrote, “I don’t support you nor do my fellow brothers and sisters in law enforcement. I am proud whenever a citizen tells me they legally carry.”
Another wrote, “You saw a real grassroots movement in our seizure of the fb name. Yes you got it back as you have the Trademark, but be aware, your purpose of trying to push for gun control under a misguided version of safety will not work. Spend your millions Bloomie, you can’t buy a real grassroots movement.”
The pro-gun page, initially launched Wednesday within hours of Bloomberg’s high-profile announcement, had garnered some 20,000 “likes.” Saturday evening, there was still lots of activity on the state-level off-shoots.
Reed gave the impression that this issue is not entirely settled. He told this column that the pro-gun “Everytown” Facebook page is “temporarily on hiatus.”
“They say their $50 million effort is grassroots,” he said. “They have no idea what grassroots is. They will never, ever stop the grassroots movement. Wherever Bloomberg is, whatever mission or task he is taking on, I will be there.”
“I smacked a hornet’s nest,” Reed acknowledged. “I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
NOT!
I was just there and though it is being hammered by pro second amendment types like myself. Go and have a read, the humor by pro gunners had me laughing my butt off.