This past Friday, I was invited to attend a rally hosted by Organizing for Action in Harrisburg to support universal background checks. Anyone who knows me well knows that I have mixed feelings about gun control. On one hand, I distrust the idea of guns being exclusively in the hands of an increasingly militarized police force, and on the other hand, I don't want America to be the wild west, either. The answer is obviously not at either polar end, and is somewhere in-between. Background checks, however, are clearly within that in-between.
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| Ralliers support background checks in Harrisburg |
The reason I was most excited to attend the rally on Friday, however, was my interest in seeing how OFA 4.0's first real event would go.
Ever since Organizing for Action was announced, I've been extremely curious to see what would come of it.
Its statement of purpose is vague enough to basically mean whatever President Obama wants it to mean, so I thought seeing OFA in person would make things a little more concrete.
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| About two dozen people showed up for Friday's rally. |
Although I'd like to say the attendees came from all walks of life (and in some respects they did), they were all united in the fact that they were 2012 Obama supporters. Their opinions on gun control differed incredibly. One thing they all agreed upon was background checks made sense, and it's silly to say otherwise. More impressive to me was their enthusiasm to support their cause on such a cold day with practically no notice on a Friday afternoon. I had been contacted about this rally on Thursday night, and I assume most of the attendees had as well. Considering the short turnaround, the attendance was actually fairly impressive.
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| Home-made signs by supporters coming from Lancaster, PA |
This is fairly telling on what OFA 4.0 is and isn't going to be. It won't be an especially dogmatic organization. Just like Obama is willing to compromise to get action, OFA 4.0 isn't going to advocate for hand gun bans. It will seek to gain grassroots support for low-hanging fruit ideas such as universal background checks. It won't necessarily go out and create huge rallies, but it will keep Obama supporters who were left on the sidelines the past four years engaged.
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| OFA organizer Julia Cusick checks the early gatherers in. |
After going to the rally, I'm still not exactly sure where OFA 4.0 is going, but I do see an organization capable of directing the conversation and tone around the gun control debate. They can catch the attention of the 24-hour media cycle and at least get talking heads to acknowledge their stance. While that may not be the marching in the streets Obama supporters imagined in 2008, this grassroots organization could be the moderate-left version of the 2010 tea party. Here's hoping.
