Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership - http://jpfo.org/
"Founded by Jews in 1989, JPFO initially aimed at educating the Jewish community about the historical evils that Jews have suffered when they have been disarmed. JPFO has always welcomed people of all religious beliefs who share a common goal of opposing and reversing victim-disarmament policies while advancing liberty for all. It was the brainchild of Aaron Zelman (1946 - 2010), a leading national civil-rights activist."
This organisation markets itself as 'America's most aggressive civil rights organisation'. This is interesting as it clearly considers this a selling point, perhaps providing insight into their target audience. Furthermore, the fact that the organisation considers protection of the 2nd amendment as a civil rights issue puts it in the same league as issues such as racism and voting rights, demonstrating the perceived importance of this right to groups such as these.
The website states that "Matters in our country are getting worse daily. We're surrounded by police-state "security" measures that do little to make us safe but a lot to make us feel humiliated, bullied, and spied upon. Virtually all our freedoms are being curtailed – from the right to travel or speak freely to the right to have our homes secure against violent invasion by military-style police.
We have -- as Ben Franklin warned us we should never do -- traded away our freedom to get a little security. The result is exactly as Franklin predicted: We are increasingly less free and less secure.
What's the solution? Re-establishing a Bill of Rights Culture as the Founding Fathers intended."
This too is intriguing as they play on emotions and fears of insecurity and violence as opposed to facts (e.g. 'violent invasion by military-style police' is surely a rarity). Perhaps this shows that the argument is an emotive one that uses the fears of the modern world to its advantage. The link with the founding fathers also ties in to this sense of patriotism by forcing the reader to reflect upon their country's past, with an inevitable sense of pride that naturally evolves to an advocacy of the views held by the founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin. Seeing as the morality and national status of the founding fathers is not in question, using their quotes and views to advocate gun rights is a simple yet powerful tool, and one that is hard to dispute.
Finally, the premise of this organisation revolves around the religious affiliation of its members. The significance of this is open to interpretation, although on a superficial level, the jewish aspect of the group describes its origins within that community. Alternatively, we may suggest that by appealing to a large religious group, the JPFO finds it easier to generate a 'movement' by grouping people who are already culturally similar, this adds strength to their focus on gun rights. Furthermore, the links with Judaism enable the group to develop arguments based on the racist aspects of gun control laws and the historical injustices towards disarmed Jews. This gives this group some exclusive arguments which, when combined with the standard arguments for gun rights, gives this group perhaps an added sense of appeal to prospective members.
Ceasefire Oregon - https://www.ceasefireoregon.org/
In contrast with the website for 'JPFO', the website for 'Ceasefire Oregon' is significantly calmer in language, colour and layout and is far less crowded in terms of information.The opening message of this website is "Together, we can work toward a more peaceful future for our communities, schools and families", marking a stark departure from the fearful rhetoric of the JPFO.
A huge part of this website is focused on acting on gun control, through providing the viewer with countless links to petitions and areas to donate money to the cause. This is perhaps because Oregon is notable for its particularly relaxed gun laws. For example; no state permit is required to purchase long guns or hand guns, open carry laws apply to long/hand guns, no owner licenses required, no regulation or classification of assault weapons. On average, 456 people have died per year in oregon due to firearm-related injuries since 2010. Of these, 83% are suicides and 13% are murders.
These statistics link in with the website which features a section on suicide. Similarly to the JPFO website, 'Ceasefire Oregon' is based largely upon emotive arguments, as is evidenced by the family-oriented rhetoric and images of children and depression. This is interesting as both sides of the argument use similar tactics in order to generate support for their cause, yet they apply these in a slightly different way to produce the desired outcome.
Finally, the website's mission statement opens with "Ceasefire Oregon works to prevent gun violence by advocating reasonable, effective gun laws.". This is interesting as they seem to acknowledge the obstacles they face in introducing gun legislation, hence their use of the word 'reasonable'. They understand that they would have very little support if they sought to completely eradicate gun rights in Oregon so they instead aim to appeal to the 'reasonable' portion of our minds and encourage their readers to reflect for themselves upon the shortcomings of the current legislation.
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