Wednesday, January 30, 2008
« Quote of the day--LawDog | Main | Bummer. My wife is stuck at the summit o... »

Uncle discusses, "How do we win this political gun battle?", asks for some help, and gets this suggestion. Then Sebastian offers this.

There is some good stuff there but there were a few items left out.

  • Join pro gun groups. The first group you should join is the NRA; even if you think they compromise too much. They are the 800 pound gorilla in the legislative kitchen and just the raw number of members causes the politicians to think twice before cooking up an anti-gun scheme. Other groups serve useful purposes and should be considered as well. Some of them are 501(c)(3) corporations and your donations are tax deductible.
  • Come out of the closet. In the early days of the gay rights movement there was a phrase, "Silence equals death!". Getting people to come out in the open about being a gun owner helps the anti-gun people realize we aren't red-necked, knuckle dragging, Neanderthals, who beat their wives, complain about the "coloreds" lusting after our women folk, and whose idea of a good time is shooting our empties while chugging beer from the tailgate of our pickups. It worked for the gays and it can work for us.
  • Closely related to the previous item is to speak up when someone says something hostile about gun ownership. Know your facts, know the anti-gun position fallacies, and don't be afraid to share them when someone tries to push that failed agenda. Come up with sound-bites and don't belabor things. People will "turn off" if your viewpoint takes more than about 30 seconds to explain. If you don't have anything more directly to the point, ask Just One Question.
  • Invite the media to your pro-gun events and put announcements of your events in their "whats happening" section. Most media outlets are starved for material. If you are having a special event invite them to come, watch, and report on it. Write a decent news release (such that they can easily and quickly plagiarize it for their own use) and you increase the odds of attendance and positive coverage considerably. See, for example, Boomershoot coverage.
  • In the end game, which we may just be entering, we need to drive them to political extinction. You don't get there by saying, "They have a valid point and everyone is entitled to their opinion." We must make their position as socially uncomfortable as that of the KKK. See this post for how to do that.
Joe Huffman  Wednesday, January 30, 2008 9:48:24 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [7]  |  Trackback