This is only the second time I've mentioned something on this forum, but I'd like to chime in as a guy who is a liberal, a NJ resident and somewhat of a reformed anti.
Go brew a cup of coffee. This will be a long one.
For 31 years of my life, I never considered owning a gun. The Boy Scouts taught me how to shoot a .22 when I was a kid, but other than that, I never touched a gun. I was always somewhat shocked and perhaps a little disturbed when someone told me that they were a gun owner if that ownership wasn't placed in the context of hunting. I never once held a pistol, nor knew anybody who owned one, nor ever saw a real one unless it was in a policeman's or National Guardsman's holster (post September 11th).
Much of this changed when my brother moved in with me. He had been a resident of North Carolina and was somewhat down on his luck so I opened my home to him for a few months. 11 months later (much more than *a few*) he left when I started charging him rent. One day I was cleaning out my basement when I noticed something sticking out of one of my vents. I pulled out a .22 rifle that my brother had brought from North Carolina and hidden there.
I was absolutely shocked that a gun was in my house and I had no idea what to do about it. Was I supposed to go to the police? Was it even legal to be in the house? Could I be facing jail time? Was it even loaded? What if it went off? This thing scared the heck out of me. When I confronted my brother about this, he admitted to having stored a shotgun in my vents as well. He didn't want the guns back for "Girlfriend Reasons" and I didn't know what to do with the weapons. I didn't want to get in trouble, I was afraid of going to the police, and I didn't think I could legally sell them. I didn't even know where to buy a gun, much less sell one or if it was even legal to take it someplace to get sold.
I did some research and with the consent of my wife, I did the unthinkable. I applied for my NJ Firearms ID card, just to be on the safe side if they were going to be in the house, until I could figure out what to do with them.
A couple months later, when my wife was out of town, a friend of a friend offered to take me to a shooting range. I asked him if I could take the .22 in my basement and he offered to bring ammunition for the rifle. After a couple of hours of shooting, for some crazy reason, I started to enjoy putting holes in paper. I loved it so much that I got a membership to that range and I went occasionally. Two years later. I bought a carbine as a present for myself when I got a new job. After that, I bought a handgun as a present for completing my MBA.
But I had to tell you that story to try to explain my reasoning about the Brady Campaign:
Many people, especially those who grew up in cities like New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, or the suburbs of one of those big eastern cities, cannot even mentally grasp the notion of owning a firearm. I can tell you this because for 31 years, I could not even fathom why anybody needed a firearm for a reason other then hunting or protecting livestock. Firearms aren't even a part of our mental orbit. The only time we ever see a gun is when we watch a movie, and in that case, the gun is usually used for some sinister purpose. If you are always seeing guns in connection with crime or death, you equate them with crime or death. This unfamiliarity breeds fear. We fear what we don't understand. We fear the things that are not normal to us.
Why does the Brady Campaign do what they do?
Honestly, I think they want the same thing that you do. I would imagine that very few people on this forum would ever want to commit an act of violence with a firearm. The Brady Campaign, oddly enough, agrees with that goal. But while you want it with gun safety and training, they want it with gun restrictions. They do it because they think they are right, and I would say that most of my neighbors, co-workers and friends agree with them. Many of us just can't understand why someone would need a gun because we are so far removed from firearms that they might as well be komodo dragons or bigfoot: things that only exist on television.
I can tell you this: Sarah Brady saw her husband, an honorable man and loyal public servant, shot in the head and paralyzed by a deranged gunman. James Brady was guarded by a cadre of professional, trained men with Uzis (
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Reagan_assassination_attempt_montage.jpg) and that didn't stop a determined criminal with a crummy little .22 revolver. Is it any wonder why she feels this way? Is it any wonder why she doesn't believe that you, average Joe Citizen have any chance against a criminal? She doesn't consider this "emotion" or a false sense of reality. This is logical fact to her and she was reminded of it every day that her husband sat in that wheelchair: all because of a crazy man and handgun.
Take a look at this youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGkRKT0Q-L4&feature=related
Most of you on this forum would probably think this is cute. I can tell you that if I got up from my chair and showed this to my friends, they would react with astonishment and revulsion.
This is what you are up against. You are working against people who cannot even comprehend why you would teach a child how to shoot a gun. Videos like this feed hysteria. You might say that "An insane delusion is a false sense of reality to which one adheres despite all evidence to the contrary." But to many people, a firearm-free world *is* their reality, and they want to keep it that way. It's not their fault. They are not "sheeple" or anti-American, they just can't imagine anything else.
Facts don't matter. Compelling arguments don't matter. None of this matters. Only the tightly defined reality of safe, suburban or gentrified city life matters.
It's not insanity. For all intents and purposes, in fact for 88% (
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/health/interactives/guns/ownership.html) of the people in my state, this gun-free world is already a reality.
And you will never, ever be able to change their opinions. Ever. Their non-firearm reality is as real as your CCW reality, or as real as your duck hunting reality, or as real as your IDPA reality.
The closest we can come to winning over the antis is to go after the "mushy" antis. These are people like me: Men and women who really aren't pro or anti-gun. Just people who never had firearms in our orbit, but wouldn't mind a trip to shoot a handgun or a round of skeet. These people are the swing voters. These are the ones who may understand why a hunter would need a gun, but can't understand why you need 15 rounds in your Glock or a scary black rifle the certainly looks like the kind of gun that soldiers have in Iraq.
It's up to you to take these mushy antis and introduce them to new realities.
I have to get my range bag ready when I finished with this post. I'm taking one of my liberal center-city Philadelphia "mushy-anti" friends to the range with me on Saturday. This is the only way to win against the Brady Campaign. Every time you take someone new to the range, you win. You augment that anti-reality.
It's up to us to grow our sport shooting reality. And with every new shooter, the reality of the Brady Campaign shrinks a little more.
