Slappy McGee
Member
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2007
- Messages
- 61
Hi All,
After a somewhat frustrating debate with a good (and highly intelligent) friend that ended in the old anti standby: "but you don't really need and AK-47" I got to thinking about an actionable, grassroots and apolitical way to change attitudes about firearms. Voting and writing letters is frustrating, and it troubles me that people are quick to want to regulate something they have never experienced first hand. I also think the political organizations for and against are so extreme that one feels like they must pick a side and that either is rife with fanatics. Looking for something that might help combat this situation and be within the realm of action, I came up with TakeMeShooting.org.
The 10,000ft. view of the concept is to have people with shooting experience sign up on the site. Minimal information will be required, basically just an email address, zip code and commitment to be safe and be a good host. People interested in learning to shoot can sign up and "request a shoot." The site will then match the prospective shooter and newbie based on zip code. If the shooter agrees, email address are dispensed and the two can connect and the "newbie" can be introduced to shooting.
Both sides must commit to following the 3 "commandments" of gun safety, and to no political discussions (i.e. no talk of sheeple, cold dead hands, nobama, etc.). There will be no charge, save for the shooter asking for reimbursement of range fees and ammo if they want, or just asking the newbie to "pay it forward." There will be a feedback mechanism to weed out the "bad apples" on the host side.
At a minimum, if we can take away some of the mystique of guns, and show people that you don't turn into a maniacal killing machine by virtue of firing a few rounds, we're ahead of the game and folks that want to villainize guns and gun owners will have a much harder time. If we get some more people into shooting, we have some new friends.
So what do y'all think?
At this stage I've "parked" the domain, and if this looks to have legs I'll start wrangling some designers and coders to make the technical side of the game work.
After a somewhat frustrating debate with a good (and highly intelligent) friend that ended in the old anti standby: "but you don't really need and AK-47" I got to thinking about an actionable, grassroots and apolitical way to change attitudes about firearms. Voting and writing letters is frustrating, and it troubles me that people are quick to want to regulate something they have never experienced first hand. I also think the political organizations for and against are so extreme that one feels like they must pick a side and that either is rife with fanatics. Looking for something that might help combat this situation and be within the realm of action, I came up with TakeMeShooting.org.
The 10,000ft. view of the concept is to have people with shooting experience sign up on the site. Minimal information will be required, basically just an email address, zip code and commitment to be safe and be a good host. People interested in learning to shoot can sign up and "request a shoot." The site will then match the prospective shooter and newbie based on zip code. If the shooter agrees, email address are dispensed and the two can connect and the "newbie" can be introduced to shooting.
Both sides must commit to following the 3 "commandments" of gun safety, and to no political discussions (i.e. no talk of sheeple, cold dead hands, nobama, etc.). There will be no charge, save for the shooter asking for reimbursement of range fees and ammo if they want, or just asking the newbie to "pay it forward." There will be a feedback mechanism to weed out the "bad apples" on the host side.
At a minimum, if we can take away some of the mystique of guns, and show people that you don't turn into a maniacal killing machine by virtue of firing a few rounds, we're ahead of the game and folks that want to villainize guns and gun owners will have a much harder time. If we get some more people into shooting, we have some new friends.
So what do y'all think?
At this stage I've "parked" the domain, and if this looks to have legs I'll start wrangling some designers and coders to make the technical side of the game work.