Anti-Gun Primer

When it comes down to it, the majority of 'gun control' in the US boils down to a few actual groups, The Brady Campaign (BC), The Joyce Foundation & Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) along w/ their Astroturf/Sockpuppets and even then there's considerable crossover. One of the best places to see this has been the Georgia Packing site but it hasn't been updated in awhile and there have been some changes and it is currently being updated.

Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence/Million Mom March (BC/MMM): Formerly known as Handgun Control Inc (HCI) this is pretty much the original 'Gun Control' group and the only one w/ any real 'grassroots'. They claim to have approx. 50K contributing members. The BC absorbed the MMM after they came under investigation for potential tax fraud. They are currently shedding major staff , have lost 90% of their membership according to their own numbers in the last 6 yrs and are having some serious financial issues.

Even w/ the 'Grassroots', they are not free of astroturfing efforts. For awhile, they were running multiple twitter feeds under different names. The book written by their legal director and soon to be acting president Dennis Henigan has a large portion of the positive reviews for it done by other professional gun control advocates w/o acknowledging their connections. Most of their "We Hate The NRA sites" that they've run in the past seem to be down.

They also are the organizing force behind 'Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence'.  An alleged coalition of 24 churches but really only seems to be their 'spokesperson' Jim Winkler'.

A 'new' group, the 'National Gun Victims Action Council' has appeared.  I put this under the Brady Campaign due to the fact that most of the 'board' is made up of Brady Campaign retreads.Their self admitted goal is to pass laws calling for confiscation.

(Un)Important/(Ir)relevant personalities:
Dan Gross: Current President. Hired to fix their dismal fundraising and keep the lights on. 
Jonathan Lowy: Current Legal Director
Dennis "What 'People' Henigan: Former Legal Director. Has since left the group.
Colin Goddard: VT survivor given staff position so they can exploit his tragedy. Part time now.
Andrew Goddard: Colin's Father, head of Virginia branch MMM, Religious Bigot
Joan Peterson: BC Nat'l Board member, blogger, punching bag, also a board member of a Joyce Foundation SUPGV group.
Tom Vanden Berk: BC Nat'l Board member, Acting Ex Dir of Illinois Council against Handgun Violence.
Max Nacheman: State Coordinator(?) in coordination w/ MAIG.

Joyce Foundation: This is a huge, multi-million dollar 'charitable' organization that funds the majority of gun control activism in the US including organizations, websites and research. It's grant page is a literally a who's who list and most are interconnected in some way. President Obama was a board member from 1994-2002. They have recently removed the lists of grantee's and the amounts from their website.

Coalition to Stop Gun Violence: Formerly known as National Coalition to Ban Handguns Claims to be an umbrella group of 48 organizations but is really just another group of 4 or 5 people in a DC office. Receives a large portion of their money from the Joyce's. Current activity is primarily attempting to smear firearm advocates through the use of loaded terms like 'Traitor', 'Racist' and 'Insurrectionist'.  Also have started a website to attempt to smear NRA board members called 'MeettheNRA'.This site was originally run by employee/intern Tim Johnson who has since moved on to Media Matters, another Joyce grantee (see below).

Besides money problems, they've also recently had their Twitter account suspended for a week for posting work/personal information of pro-gun advocates and were caught using a sock puppet by the name of GritsJr to support their articles. 

(Un)Important/(Ir)relevant personalities:
Mike K Beard: President
Josh Horwitz: Executive Director.
Ladd Everitt: Comm. Dir. aka GritsJr.

International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP): Joyces provided money to hold a summit and generate a report (written by other Joyce advocates) calling for more firearm restrictions as well as general operations. Some staff in common.

Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence: Formerly Legal Community Against Violence (LCAV): Legal group used to push litigation and legislation. Sends lawyers to advise anti-gun groups and legislators and to support lawsuits in favor of 'gun control. Depending on year, most or much funding comes from Joyce. Claims 'over 700' professional members. Now sporting a brand-spanking new website titled 'Smartgunlaws' because anyone who disagrees w/ them is then considered not smart. How sneaky.

States United to Prevent Gun Violence(SUPGV): This is an umbrella Joyce group that covers most of the state level organizations and websites that couldn't survive w/o outside funding as they have little to no actual 'grassroots' support and/or membership. They absorbed the Freedom States Alliance (FSA) due to lack of funds and many of the FSA websites (ex 50caliberterror) are now defunct. Some examples are:

'Citizens for a Safer Minnesota' aka Protect Minnesota. Same group. Different names and websites but same mailing address/E-mail. This is the group Joan Peterson is a board member of.
New England Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence: Runs the 'OhhShoot', 'ArmedRoadRage' and 'LawAbidingCitizen?' blogs w/o attributing it to themselves.
Ceasefire Oregon: Runs 'NewTrajectory' and 'KidShootings' Blogs. Originator of blog didn't even know his group was affiliated w/ Joyce Foundation or SUPGV until we informed him of it.
Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence (ICHV)/Illinois Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence(ICPGV): One of the better funded groups being in the Joyce's backyard. Still has recently reduced operations and staffing issues. Ex Dir Colleen Daley.  The ICPGV was shifted over as a sub-group of the LCAV to the ICHV in 2009. 
Ceasefire Pennsylvania:  One of the larger state run Anti-groups. Runs the 'Coalition for Peace Action' site and lists Ceasefire New Jersey as a 'project'.
DemocracyinAction: Creates the 'GVP' Report. A generalized site of all their goings on.
Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort (WAVE):  Over $1m received since 2008.
Women Against Gun Violence (WAGV): California based group

Most 'Ceasefire' groups are also 'affiliates'.

Violence Policy Center: One of the more extreme groups out there. No membership. Funded now exclusively by Joyce Foundation. Less than half a dozen staff/interns in a DC office. Primary activity is attempting to demonize Concealed Carry by presenting anecdotes of illegal/criminal actions and creating contentious 'reports'. Famous for rebranding semi-auto firearms as 'Assault Weapons' and playing on that name confusion:

The weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons�anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun�can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons.

Past attempts have been to ban all handguns and put bolt action rifles under the same category as machine guns by labeling them as 'Sniper Rifles'.

(Un)Important/(Ir)relevant personalities:
Josh Sugarmann: Head money leech
Tom Diaz: Talking head

Research/Media: Aside from organizations and websites, the Joyce Foundation also provides considerable amounts of funding to create 'scientific' articles pushing gun control. Schools that regularly/have receive(d) money are
Harvard School of Public Health
John-Hopkins/Bloomberg School of Public Health
American College of Preventive Medicine
UC Davis among others.

(Un)Important/(Ir)relevant personalities:
Philip J. Cook: Often works w/ Ludwig. Regular grant recipient in early 2000's.
David Hemenway: The most active regurgitator of anti-gun reports.
Jens Ludwig: Often works w/ Cook. Regular grant recipient in early 2000's.
Matthew Miller: Usually works w/ Hemenway.
Garen Wintemute: current focus is documenting activity at gun shows and deciding whether it's legal or not using personal opinion and conjecture.

They've also provided funding for loaded questions on the NORC GSS report and provided money to 'MediaMatters' (which runs the site 'Gun Fact' and 'Center for Public Integrity' to promote gun control articles and smear firearm advocates. Also funded in 2004 and partnered with was the Entertainment Industries Council (EIC) to promote anti-gun messages in television and movies. A prime example of this being 'Lethal Weapon 4' which had anti-NRA posters in the background of the police station.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG): Group started by NY Mayor Bloomberg and former Chicago Mayor Daley. Currently consists of over 700 mayors nationwide. Most known for its support of 'stings' into other states to entrap gun shops and show dealers into questionable sales. Primary funding is from Bloomberg but also received funding from the Joyce Foundation under title "United Against Illegal Guns Support Fund". While receiving money from the Joyces, 'Bloomberg Philanthorpies' has donated at least $2m to the Joyce Foundation in return.

Created the poll claiming the majority of NRA members support gun control using the censured polling group 'The Word Doctors" (using the owners name Luntz instead of the company name) and was caught creating a sockpuppet group "Americans United for Safe Streets". Runs the site 'ClosetheLoophole' and 'OurLivesOurLaws' but acknowledges connection.

A large number of MAIG mayors have been indicted/convicted of crimes ranging from assault, extortion to child porn. 

(Un)Important/(Ir)relevant personalities:
Max Nacheman: State Coordinator in coordination w/ Brady Campaign.

Others: Groups and individuals not affiliated w/ the above three are few and far between.

Mom's Demand Action:  'Grassroots' group started immediately after Sandy Hook by professional PR executive Shannon Watts who claimed she was a 'stay at home mom'. Claims to have over 100k members in 100 chapters across the US.  Original name of the group was 'One Million Moms for Gun Control'.

Heeding God's Call: Works closely w/ Bryan Miller, former ED of now defunct Ceasefire NJ. Attempts to attach religious terminology to gun control. Some attachment to Ceasefire PA which Miller is strongly associated w/ and a Joyce grant recipient.

International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA): Not a US group per se but numerous US groups are part of it and US gun control efforts are directly or indirectly supported through IANSA.  UN lobbying organization. Former director Rebecca Peters stated that US residents should only be allowed single shot rifles w/ a range of less than 100yds.

Protest Easy Guns (PEG): Primarily focuses on 'Lie-in's' and harassing gun shops and repeating tweets by other groups smearing firearm owners. Started by Abby Spangler.

Stop Handgun Violence: A near defunct group run by John Rosenthal. Only activity is maintaining a few anti-gun billboards primarily in Boston, MA.

Students For Gun Free Schools (SGFS): Focuses almost exclusively on opposing self-defense on campus.

I'll add more and update as I think of them and come across. If you have information, please email me or leave a comment w/ supporting evidence.

The original post and comments are here.