Pro- and Anti-Gun Control Websites

Pro-Gun Control: Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence was originally named the Board of Trustees for Handgun Control. It was renamed to its current title in December 2000, in honour of Jim Brady, Ronald Raegan's assistant and press secretary, who was shot and paralysed during an assassination attempt on Raegan's life.

The website has plenty of easy-to-access information, including victim stories and a "state scorecard", which rates each of the 50 states according to their gun control laws. An information page, entitled "About Gun Violence" gives bullet-pointed sections (with sources) explaining the negative effects of gun violence. There are details accounts of the organisation's campaigns, including success stories. The website also offers an array of ways to get people actively involved in the promotion of gun control, such as social media messages, action pledges, and petitions.

While the website clearly has a strong pro-control and anti-violence agenda, there is no indication of any desire to ban guns. It seems that the creators of the website have nothing against owning guns, however it is the violence of guns, and how easy it is for people to get them, that the organisation seems to be concerned with.

Anti-Gun Control: Guns 'n' Freedom

When the homepage for "Guns 'n' Freedom" loads, the top item you see is an advertisement for the sale of bullets, which calls itself "Freedom Munition". The next thing to catch your eye is the headline beneath, "74-Year-Old Shoots Woman's Stalker." Scrolling down, more headlines appear, indicating stories about positive effects of gun usage, and national and international advances in gun freedom, as well as stories of gun control advances (written about negatively, of course). Menu selections at the top of the blog give the website visitor the ability to filter stories by tags: "gun control", "self-defense stories" and "video". Along this menu, there is also an option labelled "buy ammo", which leads one who clicks it to the online ammunition store of an affiliate.

there is an "about" page, which gives a short 6-line paragraph introducing the website and explaining its purpose - to "scour" the internet for news and stories which support their argument. In this paragraph, they claim that the stories they post are "ignored by the main stream media", and that "the facts are on the side of gun supporters and not gun control activists." However, unlike the Brady Campaign website, there are no facts then given, nor sources referenced.