I’ve wondered for a while how much of David Hogg’s crap was a case of being an idealistic youth and how much was nothing more than a desperate grab for fame. Yes, it’s cynical, but it was about the only way I could explain his extortion attempt with Smith & Wesson. Anyone who truly believed in gun control would have probably learned that his followers weren’t the kind who could impact the gun manufacturer’s bottom line.

Well, we now have our answer.

The effort, termed Mayors for Our Lives, builds off the name recognition of this year’s polarizing March for Our Lives movement spearheaded by Hogg and other Parkland, Florida high school students with the help of wealthy donors and established gun control groups. The mayors involved pledge to make voter registration forms more available to students and back “get out the vote” campaigns aimed at younger demographics.

Hogg, appearing with De Blasio on MSNBC’s Morning Joe last week, said the recent surprise win by Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillium in Florida’s Democratic gubernatorial primary came about because of youth advocacy. “In Orlando, our team for March for Our Lives Orlando helped promote voter registration so much that it went up 90 percent in Florida,” he said. “Youth voter registration is up 41 percent. Those people are not taken into account on polls.”

De Blasio, a Democrat who has been at odds with the White House since President Trump took office and has long-allied with groups such as the Brady Campaign, said getting younger voters to the polls is a game changer. “And I’ll tell you something when it comes to gun safety, what I hear from younger voters is uncompromising,” said De Blasio. “They believe it’s a matter of life and death. They’re right. And what David and his colleagues have done has changed American politics and awoken a different sleeping giant which is younger voters.”

There are already dozens of anti-gun groups, and part of why they’re so ineffective is that they aren’t unified like the voices on the pro-gun side. Creating yet another anti-gun group won’t actually help anything.

So yeah, it’s a grab at fame.

Further, Hogg’s stupidity is on full display as he touts a win by an anti-gun Democrat in a Democratic primary as if it actually means anything at this point. Yes, Gillium won the primary. He isn’t the governor of Florida by any stretch of the imagination. Not yet. Until and unless that happens, the youth advocacy has accomplished jack squat.

But what Hogg has managed to do is further dilute the anti-gun voices already out there.

When gun rights advocates want to see what the leadership is thinking about an issue, there are only a few places where they generally concern themselves. Most never look past the NRA, but those that do rarely bother to look anywhere beyond the Gun Owners of America or the Second Amendment Foundation unless they look at one of the state groups. The voices are pretty unified behind just a few banners.

Gun control groups spring up all the time, in part because people like Hogg are driven by ego. He couldn’t handle the idea of advising De Blasio to unite with one of the other mayoral anti-gun groups. He had to have his stamp on the movement, something to buck up his resume. It’s ego, not activism.

Which is fine for me, since I oppose pretty much everything he stands for, but at least we seem to know why he stands for it now. A true believer, he isn’t.