A few years ago Alan Gottlieb (chairman of Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms) introduced me to their “new hire”, Dave Workman. Among his other duties it was Dave’s job to write lots of press releases. At the time I thought, “That’s nice. But what will that do for us?” Since then I have learned a thing or two. It turns out that if you, in essence, do the work of the reporters and the editors in writing up a story often times they will publish it. It works much better than calling or writing the reporter and/or editor and trying to get them to write a story on a particular subject or complaining about they way they wrote the last story on your pet topic. And even if they don’t publish it they will read at least part of it. You can influence a lot better when you are in communication with them. If you “hide in the closet“ it is almost trivial for your opponents to define you and make you appear as a monster. CCRKBA and The Second Amendment Foundation have been pumping out the press releases for some time now. And fairly frequently the releases will get picked up by the major news media. They are making a difference.
When I worked for Microsoft in Redmond I would see Gottleb on a fairly frequent basis and although we would talk about the anti-gun bigots in those and other terms I would not see any public use of that term. As Alan explained it to me the left had a monopoly on the term. Only they could call someone a bigot. It simply wasn’t possible for someone to call someone on the left a bigot. That has changed in recent years and it’s good to see. Here is the most recent example:
CCRKBA SAYS ARIZONA RESTAURANT ASSN. SPREADING ANTI-GUN BIGOTRY
Opponents to concealed carry reform in Arizona have stooped to anti-gun bigotry in their efforts to convince Gov. Janet Napolitano to veto legislation that would allow legally-licensed, law-abiding citizens to patronize restaurants and bars, said the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA).
“It is appalling that Steve Chucri, president of the Arizona Restaurant and Hospitality Association, would rely on a poll that essentially has 78 percent of Arizona residents practicing social bigotry against law-abiding gun owners, who prevent crimes almost every day somewhere in America,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “That’s apparently the percentage of poll respondents who, according to what Chucri reportedly told the Arizona Daily Star, ‘oppose the idea of sitting next to someone at a restaurant or bar who is armed’.
“Fifty years ago,” Gottlieb observed, “this kind of cracker mentality was directed at black citizens in Mississippi and Alabama. But whether it is prejudice against racial minorities or law-abiding gun owners of all races, it is still bigoted and just as insidious.”
CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron also found it objectionable that Chucri’s group, in cooperation with the Arizona Tourism Alliance, Arizona Hotel Lodging Association and the Arizona Licensed Beverage Association, are sponsoring an advertising campaign against Senate Bill 1363 that promotes fear, if not outright hysteria, against legally-licensed citizens who simply want to enjoy a meal with their families, in a safe environment.
“We all remember the Luby’s massacre in Texas several years ago,” Waldron said. “That incident prompted citizens to demand concealed carry reform in the Lone Star State. Today, in Texas and more than 30 other states, legally armed citizens are welcome in restaurants, theaters and many other establishments. We’re not sure why Arizona restaurateurs have such a low opinion of firearms owners in their state.
“Perhaps these business groups should have signs printed up with the message, ‘ If you own a firearm, we don’t want your kind in here’,” Waldron added. “Yet legally-armed citizens have proven for years that they are better behaved as a group than the general public, and they actually prevent crimes. It would seem to me that businesses would want such people as customers. In this case, it would appear that nothing is as blind as bigotry.”
With more than 650,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is one of the nation’s premier gun rights organizations. As a non-profit organization, the Citizens Committee is dedicated to preserving firearms freedoms through active lobbying of elected officials and facilitating grass-roots organization of gun rights activists in local communities throughout the United States.