Moveon.org: New Player in Gun Control Ad Wars

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- MoveOn.org is moving into the TV fight over curbing gun violence.


The progressive group will announce Friday that it's going up with a television commercial that goes after members of Congress who accept donations from the National Rifle Association.

The MoveOn spot, which the group says it will spend six figures to run for a week on national cable television, is part of their campaign titled, "The NRA doesn't speak for me."

In the ad, a man named Jerry Thompson, who describes himself as a gun owner and proud defender of the Second Amendment, says, "For years I've watched Congress take money from the NRA and then oppose any kind of reform that helps keep us safe."

Thompson goes on to say that he was disgusted by the NRA's response to the December massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Conn., where a well-armed gunman killed 20 young students and six adults.

The commercial ends with Thompson saying "I've had enough. So here's my message to Congress. You take money from the NRA and then continue to do their bidding, we're going to remember that come election time. The NRA doesn't speak for me, and they don't speak for the vast majority of Americans so stop taking their money."

MoveOn's announcement of their new ad comes one day after NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre charged that President Barack Obama's gun control proposals in the State of the Union address were "not about keeping kids safe at school" but rather part of a broad campaign to "dismantle the Second Amendment."

"When nothing else matters to every parent in America, President Obama had nothing to say about school security and nothing he proposed has anything to do with protecting one child in any school in this country," LaPierre said in remarks billed as a response to Tuesday's speech.

Near the end of the State of the Union address the president made an emotional plea for Congress to hold votes on controversial proposals for tougher gun laws. Listing gun violence victims, some of whom were in the audience at the U.S. Capitol, Obama said "they deserve a vote" as many in the audience cheered loudly.

Thursday's NRA speech came one day after LaPierre issued a rally-cry for gun owners, writing in an op-ed that "good Americans are prudently getting ready to protect themselves" against what he described as an onslaught of doom.

"Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Riots. Terrorists. Gangs. Lone criminals. These are perils we are sure to face-not just maybe. It's not paranoia to buy a gun. It's survival," the NRA's executive vice president wrote in the op-ed published Wednesday by the conservative news website, The Daily Caller.

The NRA also went up at the beginning of the week with a web video that asserted that the president's attempts to enact new gun control laws would result in the "confiscation" of people's firearms.

MoveOn says that besides the TV ad, they'll greet members of Congress as they head home for recess with organized rallies and congressional office drop-bys. The group also says it will distribute "The NRA Doesn't Speak for Me" bumper stickers.

CNN's Ashley Killough contributed to this report.

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