NRA unveils Spanish language site

[O.F.Fascist]

For the people complaining about the "Balkinization" of America, last time I checked the Balkins had several different ethnic groups.

WASPs and Hispanics does not the Balkins make, as for the other "ethnic" groups in the US they arent exactly large enough to Balkinize the US. Blacks = 13% for the forseeable future.

So what if Hispanics become the majority in the US, our country's consitution doesnt automatically stop working when WASPs arent the majority.

 

[stealthmode]

 

[Parallax]

I guess this is a good thing, as it might convince some Hispanics to support gun rights. It would be even better if they learned English though.

 

[c_yeager]

During all the years since its founding in 1871, the National Rifle Association hasn't issued publications in Dutch, German, French, Gaelic, Polish, Italian, et cetera. It's always been an American organization.

In those days the NRA was a group of club consisting of shooting enthusiasts with very minor political goals. Today we are fighting threats to the RKBA from all directions. The focus of the NRA has changed significantly in recent years and now we need all the help we can get.

 

[sturmruger]

I think this is a really smart idea!! The NRA is making the right choice on this one.

 

[The_Antibubba]

This is a smart idea. First, There are many for whom English is a second language, and might not be as fluent in it as in their native tongue. Many of the arguments against gun control are political, and some of the concepts can be difficult to understand. Why not present them in Spanish?

Second, many of the Spanish-speakers who are in America are here legally, and many in that group support stricter border controls. As someone pointed out earlier, many Latinos are very conservative, and gun owners as well.

Third, we are moving into a time when a global gun control movement is growing, and the NRA knows it. Most of Central and South America speaks Spanish (Brazil is the mail exception). It makes good sense to begin to present freedom-loving, pro-gun ideas in a language our neighbors understand. Perhaps they will begin their own pro-gun organizations, or seek out NRA assistance.

Finally, the roots of gun control are racist. For us to be alarmed at "brown" shooters is the Low Road. Gun owners won the election, but the war is still on.

 

[Byron Quick]

If you can't speak English and make little effort to try to learn why am I taking you seriously?

1)Because they have money that can support the NRA, our gun manufacturers, and our political parties.
2)Because many of them vote. It would be much better if they are voting with us; no matter what language they speak.
3)In light of a growing international antii-gun effort, it makes a very great deal of sense to try to get citizens of Central and South America to pressure their governments to become pro-gun. Can't really expect Central and South Americans to learn English for this, now can we? On the other hand, we could just look for allies among the English speaking people and seek allies with the UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.


People, y'all need to get out more or something. I live in a small town in the rural South. Surely many of you have more chances to meet a greater variety of people than I do. Maybe you're sticking to your own a little too much. Hispanics aren't learning English, huh? Sorry, I know a family named Gomez...they're Georgia rednecks in dress, culture, and language. I went to college with a Puerto Rican who spoke English with a Brooklyn accent. I know plently of second and third generation hispanics who speak English. The people I've mentioned?...I speak more Spanish than they do and I'm pretty much limited to saying:"How are you?" In the Emergency Department, I see little kids translating for their parents frequently.

OK, the assertion that all of the other immigrant communities learned English.
You need to check the history of the different waves of nationalities. Few of the first generation ever achieved fluency in English and many never achieved even basic use of the language. Check the history.

Oh, just as an aside, have you ever heard someone speak Spanish with a Southern drawl/ I know hispanics born in the South who can't speak without one.

 

[HankB]

I can see the change in the communities I've been visiting, from the late 80's to present:... feel badly for some 'Lithuanian Americans' in South Side Chicago

This got my attention - I'm a former Chicagoan of Lithuanian ancestry myself . . . there's still quite a Lithuanian community in the area, but it's shifted to second and third ring suburbs as the city itself decays.

As far as an NRA site in Spanish . . . my first inclination is distaste, but upon further reflection . . . there may well be a lot of folks in Central and South America who have heard about gun rights and would like to learn more . . . now they'll actually be able to READ what the NRA has to say. Considering some of the cr@p that's been going on in places like Venezuela (not to mention the U.N.) I think that if we can plant the seeds of a gun rights movement down there, that's all to the good.

 

[Silver Bullet]

Byron Quick ...

Excellent post.

 

[horge]

HankB,
I guess the trend is more noticeable to someone who visits every 2-4 years, rather than to one present continuously... perhaps it's akin to the "boiling a live frog" proposition. From fronting Marquette park, shifting South, ultimately leaving Chicago for 'burbs like Oak Lawn and further out.

ByronQ,
I'll have to differ, and for the sake of context: I use five languages, three of them fluently (English comes in fourth). It's one thing to allow for difficulties in acquiring a new language, but this foreigner has often observed instead, a wilful refusal to learn the common language of the land, to assimilate.

It is a measure of civility how a newcomer adjusts to the customs and traditions of the natives. Civility also commands how the native allows for any challenges facing the newcomer in the adjustment. The United States has not, to my impression, been remiss in easing the challenges facing a newly-arrived immigrant --legal or not-- in terms of providing health care, relevant skill acquisition (language included!), housing, etc.

Still, some newcomers not only refuse to adjust towards what is native,
they demand that the native adjust towards what is theirs.
No keeping to themselves in enclaves like Chinatown or Koreatown, no.
They want the entirety of the country adjust towards them.
I am not American, but if I were, I would hardly welcome that attitude.That so many of those sporting the attitude entered the US illegally caps a supremely rich situation.

It is fine to talk about reaching out to broaden the power base of the NRA.
But it must also be fine for us to note the substantial emotion (within the existing membership) with respect to the immigrant phenomenon I just described, that the NRA's reaching-out does touch?

Again, just a foreigner blabbing here.

 

[Lone_Gunman]

I think this is a very good idea.

The assimilation of hispanics is independent of what the NRA does.

Until cultural assimilation occurs, though, these people can still vote. You are crazy to turn your back on them.

.

 

[CleverName]

I believe that there is a God-given (or purely genetic, if that is your belief) talent for learning languages. I believe that skipped me to a large extent. I've tried learning Japanese, three different dialects of Chinese, Latin, French, and Spanish. The only ones I know, only in the barest extent, are Cantonese, because I speak to my parents and other relatives in that language frequently, and Latin, because I just went through 3 years of awful, GPA-killing high school Latin.

Not everybody is a linguist, in just the same way that not everybody can understand advanced mathematics or economic theory or why the latest Dan Brown thriller isn't as good as the latest from Dave Eggers. And I'm sure that if we moved you to Hong Kong, you'd eventually pick up some Cantonese, but speak English with the other expats as much as you could. Because, after all, you've spent most of your life in America, surrounded by the most part with fluent American English speakers. You think in English, speak in English, and when you speak Cantonese you first translate what you want to say from English. And nobody's complaining that your Cantonese isn't perfect.