The Chronicle of Philanthropy | Advice for the Gun-Safety Movement From a Former NRA Lobbyist

BY DREW LINDSAY, THE CHRONICLE OF PHILANTHROPY
10/4/22 7:00 AM EDT

John Goodwin is not the stereotypical gun-safety advocate. He owns several shotguns that he uses to hunt birds. He’s also a former lobbyist for the National Rifle Association.

But a relatively new organization is recruiting people like Goodwin to join the fight for gun safety. The group, 97percent, was created in 2019 as a bipartisan home for those who believe in Second Amendment protections and moderate gun restrictions. Goodwin is one of more than a dozen advisers who include a former president of the Brady advocacy group, ex-lobbyists for the National Rifle Association, and former Republican and Democratic members of Congress.

Adam and Staci Miller — California philanthropists, start-up entrepreneurs, and social-impact investors — started 97percent to break down stereotypes about gun owners and help give them a role in the movement. The group takes its name from a 2018 poll that shows that 97 percent of Americans support background checks for all gun purchases. Additional surveys of gun owners by the organization have found that more than 80 percent back such measures as required training and gun-safety education with the purchase of a gun and restricting gun access for domestic abusers.

Goodwin, who was at the NRA in the late 2000s, says he has distanced himself from the gun-rights movement because of its opposition to what he believes are common-sense safety measures. “A big, big part of the gun-rights movement is: ‘If we give them an inch, they take a thousand miles,’” he says. “I don’t buy that anymore.”

Gun-rights advocates also have to recognize that guns play a role in thousands of deaths, including suicides, Goodwin says. “How horrible is it that our veterans who put their life on the line, go overseas, fight for us, come back, and take their own life with a handgun? The gun-rights side needs to acknowledge there are too many people dying from gun violence. Until they acknowledge that part, it’s going to be hard for them to come to the table.”

The Chronicle asked Goodwin to critique the gun-violence prevention movement he’s joined as someone who’s worked outside it for much of his career. Here is some of his advice.

Talk to the grassroots. Goodwin praises the movement for building its grassroots through Moms Demand Action and the youth activists of March for Our Lives. “There’s no more sympathetic group in America than moms and children,” he says. “Those are the people who are going to move the needle with policy makers.”

But he believes the messaging of advocacy groups is too diffuse and too often targeted at the “grass tops” — lawmakers and the media. Gun-rights organizations, by contrast, focus communications on a single audience: their members. Even when their leaders speak at a Capitol Hill press conference, “their only audience is their members. It’s almost a master class in how to do this.”

Tone down the rhetoric. Advocates should rein in loaded, sensational language and speak matter of factly, Goodwin says. Terms like “assault weapons” sound good but there’s no defined class of such guns, which makes advocates sound ignorant of the culture they’re trying to regulate. “No one really knows what that means,” Goodwin says. “It’s like, ‘This coastal elite is trying to take my guns away. Yet he doesn’t even know what he’s talking about.’ That dialogue is not helpful to anyone.”

Understand the power of the gun-rights grassroots. The media and gun-safety advocates often assume that lawmakers vote against tighter laws because of contributions from the NRA. But campaign contributions are relatively small because of federal regulations and have only so much influence; what’s more, members of Congress fear their constituents who are passionate and energized by gun-rights issues, Goodwin says. “It’s the people that go to the ballot box, those people back in the districts across America. That’s who gets policy makers to listen.”

Take the victories you can get. Violence-prevention advocates often pursue gun bans and other strategies that opponents can depict as “gun grabbing” and a threat to their Second Amendment rights, Goodwin says. Gun owners will embrace gun-safety measures much more readily than gun bans. “Instead of trying to get all guns off the street, instead of trying to change the Constitution to abolish the Second Amendment, look for that common ground.”

Don’t assume gun-rights proponents are all gun owners. An increasing number of opponents of tighter gun laws may never even have fired a weapon, Goodwin says. Rather, they philosophically oppose a restriction on a right granted by the Constitution. “As the entire country becomes more tribal in our politics, that segment is growing quickly,” he says.

97Percent is a new gun safety organization (@97PercentOrg) whose mission is to reduce gun deaths in America by changing the conversation around gun safety to include gun owners, conducting and sharing research that challenges conventional thinking, and leveraging technology.

Read original Opinion piece on The Chronicle of Philanthropy.