I received an email from Richard Douglas a few weeks ago. We exchanged a few more emails* and then on Monday he sent me the following guest post. All links in this post are to posts of his on other sites.
The 2nd Amendment is constantly under fire in the United States, especially with firearms and their control being one of the many political platforms that politicians use to capture votes. Politics being ‘war by other means’ means that nothing is off the table when it comes to a political campaign.
So, through means of propaganda, there has come to be a particular type of image of what a 2nd amendment activist looks like, often a bigot, belligerent, uneducated, and in some locales flavored with a criminal undertone.
These are tactics used to inspire fear because fear sells and buys votes. This is a difficult position that 2nd Amendment activists find themselves in, because of the rhetoric involved and the fact we are talking about guns, which are inherently dangerous tools for a reason.
This is why it is important for 2nd amendment activists to find new ways to support their cause and doctor their public image. Politics is an ever-changing battlefield. You can lose old allies, and new ones fluctuate like the weather.
Image Therapy
Politicians often point towards criminal behavior as a reason to place restrictions on firearms. Recently mass shootings have captured the public eye and make for an easy target. These incidents and behaviors make it easy to label that guns themselves are the problem while ignoring the social and mental health of the individuals who perpetrate those crimes and atrocities.
This creates a very negative stereotype against firearm activists, and with the NRA recently being caught in a scandal, it doesn’t necessarily make it easy to rehabilitate the image of firearm activists.
So perhaps it’s time to adopt a new approach through proactive inclusivity.
Minority Groups are Common Targets of Hate
Groups like the LGBT community have long been the target of aggression and hate crimes. Historically speaking, on November 27th, 1978, an openly gay politician of San Francisco named Harvey Milk was assassinated by a political rival.
Earlier that same year on July 5th, a group of teenagers armed with baseball attacks, who admitted they were intentionally targeting homosexuals, randomly attacked people who were gathered in Central Park of New York City. A place where people of the LGBT community gathered often.
The list goes on…
Clearly, if there was a need to arm and protect a segment of the population, groups that represent the socially disadvantaged such as the LGBT, would make a strong case. By actively recruiting and offering discounts on training and firearms to this group would very much make the statement:
“Enough is enough, and we will not be idle while members of our community are being attacked and forced to live in fear.”
As far as moral and ethical statements would go, this would be a good one.
This type of action actually has historical precedent, such as the Black Panthers forming an armed patrol to protect their own communities at a time when police violence against African Americans was at an all-time high.
By exercising their 2nd Amendment rights, they made a statement that garnered national attention and brought about social action.
As is Your Right
If this message calls to you and you are a rights activist for the 2nd Amendment, then you can start your own group in your community. In the small southern towns I grew up in the gay community is highly sequestered, and growing up my gay friends lived in fear of being the target of ‘gay-bashing.’
You better believe I’d step up to bat if any of them were attacked. Educating this population on firearms safety and carry and practicing with them may give them the courage they previously wouldn’t have.
Becoming a firearms instructor is an option for the average citizen. Though licensure requires intimate knowledge of each action class and previous experience with firearms.
So knowing your equipment, the history of your selected weapons class, and showing proficiency will go a long way to obtaining a license to teach.
Here are the pistol optics I trust with my life, they are dependable and proficient.
The Importance of Action
“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” – John Stuart Mill (1867) **
This statement Mill made at his inaugural address at St. Andrews still holds just as true today as it did when he made the statement. This is why we have the second amendment, to resist oppression with force if necessary.
You have the right to bear arms, and as a 2nd Amendment activist, nothing could show your support of minority groups like educating and arming them. It would go a long way to establishing your reputation in your community and beyond as a Good Samaritan.
Author Bio
Richard Douglas writes on firearms, defense and security issues. He is the founder and editor of Scopes Field, and a columnist at The National Interest, 1945, Daily Caller and other publications.
* This is the email thread:
From: Richard Douglas
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2021 9:20 AM
To: Joe Huffman
Subject: The National Interest contribution
Hey Joe,
Can I contribute an article to your site?
Thanks,
Richard
Columnist for The National Interest, 1945 and Cheaper Than Dirt
PS: I don’t charge a penny. I’m just trying to get my name out there 🙂
From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2021 4:00 PM
To: Richard Douglas
Subject: RE: The National Interest contribution
Perhaps. What do you have in mind?
Joe Huffman
Cell: 208-301-4254
From: Richard Douglas
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2021 8:53 AM
To: Joe Huffman
Subject: Re: The National Interest contribution
Awesome! Here are a couple of topic ideas I could write about:
- Why 2nd Amendment Advocates Need to Unite with the LGBT and Minorities
- Protect Your Political Enemy’s Freedom of Speech
I’m also down for ANY other topic ideas 🙂
Thanks,
Richard
From: Richard Douglas
Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2021 11:14 AM
To: Joe Huffman
Subject: Re: The National Interest contribution
You got it!
I’ll start working on it right away and will send it over within the next couple of days.
—
** There is some question who should be given credit for this.
This follows from the fundamentals of the American soul.
No violence is justified against a minority, no matter how small or loathed, unless the individual in presently imparting actual violence themselves, or there has been due process of law with a default assumption of “the state is wrong”. This forbearance, on an individual level, is necessary for every individual to be assured of the same consideration if they themselves do something generally disliked. It’s the Golden Rule in reverse: The hope that you will be treated as you have treated others.
This is not the same thing as tolerance. Tolerance is the acceptance of the existence of a repugnant position without accepting the position itself. (“Acceptance” is where you embrace the position; tolerance is when you do not.) That’s a First Amendment thing, one that we hope will also be applied to ourselves in turn. It doesn’t mean that your position won’t be vigorously opposed, but that the power of the state won’t be used to do so.
We American-brand Americans encourage the armament of every other peaceable American to ensure the rights that our government is supposed to protect, and sometimes fails to do so.
No problem with doing this but don’t expect it to change the media narrative one bit.
As for the gays, I think the Pink Pistols are still out there which in some places would be a good resource.
The Pink Pistols joined up with Erin Palette’s Operation Blazing Sword.
Erin has been spot on in the discussions around self-defense. If it’s a human right, it applies to everyone — regardless of race, creed, etc, etc, ad nauseum.
With the collapse of law and order in certain areas, more people are getting very interested in protecting themselves. The gun-grabbers may soon find themselves a very unprotected minority indeed.
Good comments all. The problem starts in thinking as a “minority” in the first place.
As mentioned already. It’s a human right.
One that our forefathers thought important enough to draw a line in sand over. Thus 2A.
Considering yourself a minority is a bullshit line out of the communist class warfare handbook.
And if you consider yourself one you need to pull your head out, and get back to being a human first. Just like the rest of us.
Thinking ones self as “special”, because of the way you like to have an orgasm is never a sound mental state from which to maintain a society.
Should NAMBLA members have a right to self-defense? As humans the principle stands.. But as soon as they identify themselves?
Two separate issues. That need to be kept that way.
You’re correct that rights don’t come to you as a member of some particular subgroup.
The way I read the point of the original post is that, due to decades (or centuries) of statist propaganda, members of all sorts of minorities have been brainwashed into thinking that gun ownership is not good for them, and/or that gun owners do not approve of them being armed and dislike them. Combating those lies is an important activity, which makes the work of Erin Palette and others like her so significant; similarly the work of Robert Avrech and the late Aaron Zelman.
”…through means of propaganda, there has come to be a particular type of image of what a 2nd amendment activist looks like, often a bigot, belligerent, uneducated, and in some locales flavored with a criminal undertone.”
Yes. You said it, “through means of propaganda.” And that will continue no matter what. Jesus Christ Himself could campaign for the 2A, and the left would make him out to be a blasphemer, a liar, and probably a whore monger and child molester, and would crucify Him all over again.
And so it is not our image that needs to be “rehabilitated”, but their words and actions. And since we all know that THAT will never happen, all we can do is expose them for the lying, cynical bastards they are. And that means research, and investigative journalism. It means finding quotes, digging through microfiche in dusty libraries, exposing leaders and their networks of associations, publishing old or secret documents, and generally naming names.
I note that your example of gay bashing is from 1978. I also point out that LGBTs in general are today enjoying actual favoritism, and so that “gay bashing” argument is not only a bit stale, the stereotype rarely if ever applied to advocates of liberty, and it certainly never applied to any real Christian.
Of course, a democrat, in the general sense, and by definition, is one who believes in majority rule (and must logically therefore despise minorities). The U.S. constitution has ever been a thorn in the side of the authoritarian movement because it is so relatively immune to majority vote. What’s a poor authoritarian to do then? They are forced to trot out the notion that “majority opinion” means “right, proper, and morally superior” and then set out to demoralize the society and use propaganda to sway the majority. Therefore the title, “Democrat” is itself a tactical lie, for if they lost by a super majority in every election, they’d have to take on other names and adopt other tactics. But they’ll never, ever stop!
As Ayn Rand is famous for saying, “The smallest minority on Earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.”
And so, while democrats will gladly harp about the rights of minorities when it suits their cause, at their fundamental level (meaning, it’s irrevocable) they despise minorities, just as they despise anyone who disagrees with them. If you’re part of any minority in this country, and you happen to disagree with them, they hate you more than almost anything.
Do not expect them to hold to their rhetoric about minorities. The instant their sacred standard of “Standing up For the Little Guy” no longer supports their authoritarian cause, they’ll turn 180 degrees from it, on a dime! For example, their once sacred doctrine of “My Body, My choice!” was fine for promoting abortion, but they’ve rejected it entirely when it comes to pressuring others to get vaxed. And millions failed to notice! They’ll simultaneously hold both doctrines, one for each issue, and be proud of it!
THAT is a fundamental characteristic of a leftist (but truth be known, it’s a basic tenet of the Jesuit “faith”).
And don’t forget that practically every Klansman who ever lived, or who now lives, is a Democrat. And so if you believe that Klan doctrine or Klan behavior is, or ever was, correctly associated with 2A supporters, or with those who uphold liberty in general, you are sadly mistaken, and have fallen for the propaganda you cite. The fact is that “gun control” in America has been, historically, a way for Democrats to oppress black people. It’s no coincidence that the GCA of 1968 was passed right near the peak of the Civil Rights movement.
Therefore don’t ever think you can uphold even the most publically and vehemently declared standards of leftists as a way of morally shaming them, or of convincing them of anything. That’s not how this works! For the Romish left it is all about power, and nothing else.
To better understand what we’re up against, take note of the fact that the (Romish) left hates individual freedom of conscience more than just about anything in the universe. Those that lose sleep are kept up late, hating the very idea and plotting myriad ways to undermine it.
There’s only one thing they hate more, and that’s Christ, as He is the ultimate champion of individual freedom of conscience! It’s why the Pharisees hated and feared Him so much, and why they had him killed– His message threatened their power, station and privilege, it undermined their authority and their notion of group salvation. Ruminate on THAT for a few years, and see if it doesn’t hold up to all the genuine and earnest scrutiny you can give it!
And so, No– The American Principles of Liberty (including the 2A) are NOT in need of an image make-over! Like the Protestant Reformation which was likewise incomplete and has likewise been forgotten in some quarters, The American founding principles are in dire need of a rekindling and completion!
The truth stands on its own, and never needs an image re-do. Some peope will cleave to it while others will attack it and lie about it, and malign in every way they can imagine.