Ownership of guns in Texas is a common phenomenon. In Texas, there are more gun owners than in any other state in the union. As far as the ownership of a gun in an urban setting is concerned, there are those who would argue that there is more danger in town than on the ranch and so owning and using a gun is necessary for survival (Wood, 1993). The policies of Texas state and local governments drastically affect each of our lives every day. Political conflict is only a difference of opinion as to the substance and direction of the rules that govern us (Hrebenar, 2004).
By lobbying policies against guns in Texas through our lobbying group “Texans Against Guns (TAG)’, will build the public that will improve the lives of Texans and also the places where they live. This will enrich TAG’s ability to fulfill our mission. A lot will be done by us to promote the interests of the communities living in Texas. Also, TAG will bring awareness of the literacy or fighting the illegal possession of guns by the citizens. Furthermore, we will advocate for the victims in the criminal justice system or urge social programs to incorporate arts in our program (Avner, 2002).
TAG is going to work with the nonprofits so as to have the best opportunity to shape our social contract which is that we can make for unity. Voluntary associations, charities, nonprofits and community-based organizations can be the only excellent vehicles for us to engage in the lives of our communities. The nonprofits will make people do what they can do separately and do it together as one. This will make us and the concerned people understand that our role is not only to deliver programs and services but also to involve ourselves in public discussions about the governmental policies that will shape our local state, and federal priorities (Avner, 2002).
Lobbying will act as TAG’s opportunity to provide leadership in shaping and sustaining public policies that will reflect our values and priorities. This will be the best way to guarantee that we will carry out services and programs in a supportive environment and our community and that our community works on long-term and lasting solutions to the problem of gun possession (Avner, 2002).
Since grassroots campaigning is the selective hybrid of telemarketing, data mining, and spin doctoring used to generate public support for otherwise unpopular corporations caught in a legislative battle, TAG will allocate money to influence politicians for their support in our fight against the possession of guns by Texans. When this direct method of influencing politicians does not work, TAG will use the indirect method where we will target the voters through the media. Here, the media outlet will act as a filter between our lobby group and the public and it has to decide on what to communicate to the people between the information we will give and its own idiosyncratic bias. When the voters observe the report of the media outlet, they will update their beliefs on the state of the world and in the final stage, we will choose our platform to maximize our votes. Therefore, we will affect the policy of Texans against guns outcomes directly by influencing the voters to believe in the state of the world (Sobbro, 2009).
Since our lobby group is wealthy since we have an annual budget of $100 million, we will also apply monetary politics so as to maintain large-scale economic balances by keeping interest rates, exchange rates, bank credit in some appropriate relationship to inflation, employment, economic growth and international payments flows (Woolley, 1984).
By involving parties, news media, lobbies and voters who are important actors involved in every democratic political process, we will be able to fight against guns by Texans. The final political outcome will be the result of the mutual interaction among the above actors since they are intrinsically related.
Reference List
Avner, M. (2004). The lobbying and advocacy handbook for the nonprofit organizations. New York: Wilder Foundation.
Hrebenar, T. (2004). Interest group politics. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University.
Sobbro, F. (2009). Indirect lobbying and mass bias. MPRA, 182(15), 2-3.
Wood, C. (1993). Faith in firearms: Texans will not be parted from their guns. Web.
Woolley, J. (1984). Monetary politics. The federal reserve of monetary policy. Cambridge, Mass: Press syndicate of the University of Cambridge.