I read magnumDweeb's post "are Anti's enemies" and It really got me to thinking about how we approach discussions with anti's.
It seems to me that most of the time we talk about conversations with antis as trying to inform confused/naive people. I am assuming that most of the "education" takes the form of correcting misinformation: giving them facts about how guns help reduce crime, that there are already stringent requirements for legally owning handguns, that there is no "gun show loophole" etc. I'm new here, so I apologize if this is a bad generalization, and one that I am certainly guilty of.
I wonder if answering these questions and providing these facts is really the most effective way to help people understand our mentality.
I'm going to pull a concept from religious arguments (another area where heated arguments tend to take place).
Often, we would be better to answer questions with questions, than actually answering what we have been asked.
It seems counter intuitive, but many people ask questions without ever being interested in getting an answer. They use the question to make a statement of their beliefs or to start an argument. We can use a question to make them start thinking.
Picture this example: Someone walks up to you as asks "Why do you feel the need to carry a gun?" We could respond "To protect myself, and my family" This would be true, but most likely they would carry on with whatever argument they had intended to start without engaging their minds. Instead if we responded "What would you do if someone was to threaten you or the ones you loved and you had no gun?" Now they are forced to start thinking about their ability to protect what they love.
Note: Like anything else, this has to be done in a non-escalating, non-sarcastic way.
(I have taken this concept from Randy Newman's book "Questioning Evangelism")
So here is my question... Do you guys think this applies? You would really have to be on your toes and prepared to use this method so: What are some other common questions we are faced with - and how could we use a counter question to make people think? Any real life examples?
It seems to me that most of the time we talk about conversations with antis as trying to inform confused/naive people. I am assuming that most of the "education" takes the form of correcting misinformation: giving them facts about how guns help reduce crime, that there are already stringent requirements for legally owning handguns, that there is no "gun show loophole" etc. I'm new here, so I apologize if this is a bad generalization, and one that I am certainly guilty of.
I wonder if answering these questions and providing these facts is really the most effective way to help people understand our mentality.
I'm going to pull a concept from religious arguments (another area where heated arguments tend to take place).
Often, we would be better to answer questions with questions, than actually answering what we have been asked.
It seems counter intuitive, but many people ask questions without ever being interested in getting an answer. They use the question to make a statement of their beliefs or to start an argument. We can use a question to make them start thinking.
Picture this example: Someone walks up to you as asks "Why do you feel the need to carry a gun?" We could respond "To protect myself, and my family" This would be true, but most likely they would carry on with whatever argument they had intended to start without engaging their minds. Instead if we responded "What would you do if someone was to threaten you or the ones you loved and you had no gun?" Now they are forced to start thinking about their ability to protect what they love.
Note: Like anything else, this has to be done in a non-escalating, non-sarcastic way.
(I have taken this concept from Randy Newman's book "Questioning Evangelism")
So here is my question... Do you guys think this applies? You would really have to be on your toes and prepared to use this method so: What are some other common questions we are faced with - and how could we use a counter question to make people think? Any real life examples?
