http://www.examiner.com/article/there-is-a-gun-control-playbook-versus-washington-gun-ownersAugust 1, 2013
The firearms community has long quipped about gun control strategies from a “playbook,” but yesterday a major gun rights group discovered that advice from a genuine guide to waging a politically-savvy gun control campaign – produced in part by Washington, D.C. consultants who did research for a Washington State gun control group – is part of that group’s political effort.
The 70-plus page guide, produced last year and posted on-line as a pdf by Temple Beth El though a link no longer appears on the TBE website, is titled “Preventing Gun Violence Through Effective Messaging.” It offers tips on everything from using effective rhetoric to dividing National Rifle Association members from NRA leadership. One of the people who prepared the guide was Al Quinlan, a principle of the Washington, D.C.-based firm of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner (GQR), which also has offices in London and Buenos Aires.
A PDC report filed by the Seattle-based Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility (WAGR) shows a May expense of $43,700 paid to GQR for opinion research.
According to the guide, Quinlan was part of “a team of communicators” with “decades of experience advising organizations on message development and strategic communications.” Other members of this team were Frank O’Brien, creative director and founder of OMP, another Washington, D.C.-based firm, and Jeff Neffinger and Matthew Kohut at KNP Communications, also headquartered in Washington, D.C.
Examiner reached out to them for comment. Quinlan was traveling and leaving on vacation with his family, according to an aide. The others did not immediately respond.
Among GQR’s clients are the Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the Joyce Foundation, several state education associations, Defenders of Wildlife, National Public Radio and the Sierra Club. Among OMP’s clients are Planned Parenthood of America and the Natural Resources Defense Council.Discovery of the links between GQR and the Initiative 594 campaign – and ostensibly the guide, itself – came somewhat by accident in an ongoing inquiry by the Bellevue-based Second Amendment Foundation into the City of Seattle’s controversial gun buyback program in January. SAF was seeking all documents relating to the program from the office of Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and also from King County, since Executive Dow Constantine was also involved.
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http://gunssavelives.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Gun-ViolenceMessaging-Guide-PDF-1.pdf
