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A RIFLE IN ONE HAND, A LAPTOP IN THE OTHER: The Christian Science Monitor interviews some gunblogge?

By Glenn Reynolds

A RIFLE IN ONE HAND, A LAPTOP IN THE OTHER: The Christian Science Monitor interviews some gunbloggers. Money quote:

But here?s the real news: In the press box, bloggers outnumbered national reporters by a good margin. And officially, nearly 50 bloggers ? compared to 100 mainstream print journalists ? were accredited by the NRA press office to attend the 138th annual convention.

And here’s another:

?If you compare the pro-gun activity in the blogosphere versus the pro-gun-control activity, the scales have just tipped tremendously in their favor,? says Josh Sugarmann, founder of the Violence Policy Center in Washington, which advocates for more gun control in the US. ?There?s much more engagement, more involvement, and they clearly have more free time than people on our side of the issue do.?

In the process, gun bloggers are taking on issues like gun control preemption laws in Philadelphia and putting pressure on firearms firms for their choice of spokesmen. And while their reach can be argued, their rise appears to mirror polling data showing that Americans, sometimes by double-digit gains, increasingly favor more gun freedoms, not gun control.

Read the whole thing. Meanwhile, here’s my report from last year’s NRA convention.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on May 17, 2009 (boomark / email).