giggitygiggity
Member
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2009
- Messages
- 2,250
I've been thinking a lot about how to get people to support 2A rights and I think we, as a gun community/culture have been doing some things wrong. I think the biggest thing that we do is make 2A rights a party issue. The stereotypical Republican supports guns, is Christian, favors defense spending, dislikes welfare/social programs, against gay marriage, is pro-life, etc whereas the stereotypical Democrat is the opposite.
I think we create this idea that if you are a gun supporter, you have to be a Christian, favor defense spending, dislike welfare/social programs, be against gay marriage, be pro-life, etc. Therefore, when you have someone who is pro-choice or gay or shares a belief/ideal that is not in line with the stereotypical Republican, they naturally exclude themselves or we (the gun community/culture) exclude them from our hobby. There is this idea that it is all or nothing. "I am not going to become a gun person because all gun people are Christians, against gay marriage, etc and that's not where I stand on those issues."
We need to stop making this a party issue and start making this a civil liberty issue. We need to stop lumping gun rights in with all the other Republican beliefs. We need to say be able to put aside other differences in beliefs and invite and expose others to the gun community/culture. For instance, you have a coworker who has never been shooting and you don't want to hang out with him outside of work because he supports gay marriage and you don't; if he is otherwise an OK guy, put that difference aside and ask him to come shoot one day after work. If he likes it, that's cool and perhaps he'll pick it up as a hobby and support gun rights; if not, there's no loss.
I suppose my main point is that we may be losing 2A supporters simply because we outcast people because they don't share the stereotypical gun supporter's extended beliefs.
I'm interested in your thoughts. Before this thread gets carried away, recognize that I used some generalizations. Also, please don't make this political and get the thread closed down. Stick to the issue of how we can better sway people to support gun rights.
I think we create this idea that if you are a gun supporter, you have to be a Christian, favor defense spending, dislike welfare/social programs, be against gay marriage, be pro-life, etc. Therefore, when you have someone who is pro-choice or gay or shares a belief/ideal that is not in line with the stereotypical Republican, they naturally exclude themselves or we (the gun community/culture) exclude them from our hobby. There is this idea that it is all or nothing. "I am not going to become a gun person because all gun people are Christians, against gay marriage, etc and that's not where I stand on those issues."
We need to stop making this a party issue and start making this a civil liberty issue. We need to stop lumping gun rights in with all the other Republican beliefs. We need to say be able to put aside other differences in beliefs and invite and expose others to the gun community/culture. For instance, you have a coworker who has never been shooting and you don't want to hang out with him outside of work because he supports gay marriage and you don't; if he is otherwise an OK guy, put that difference aside and ask him to come shoot one day after work. If he likes it, that's cool and perhaps he'll pick it up as a hobby and support gun rights; if not, there's no loss.
I suppose my main point is that we may be losing 2A supporters simply because we outcast people because they don't share the stereotypical gun supporter's extended beliefs.
I'm interested in your thoughts. Before this thread gets carried away, recognize that I used some generalizations. Also, please don't make this political and get the thread closed down. Stick to the issue of how we can better sway people to support gun rights.