Why we are here: asymmetric warfare.

[ArfinGreebly]

Legacy

Some years back, Cowboy Action Shooting surprised the market by gaining popularity hand over fist.

It became more than just "shooting" and became a sort of sub-culture. Some of the THR members, I'm sure, enjoy that aspect of shooting.

It created a social grouping that really hadn't existed before.

I'm sure it's not a new observation that people like social activities that allow them to belong and to do something interesting with like-minded people.

When I talk to CAS folk, they don't ramble on about technique, velocity, 50-yard groups, high scores, and so on; rather, they talk about having had a good time.

One couple talked about a weekend outing they had just South & West of Las Vegas, saying, "It was colder than heck, but we had a great time. Had trouble hitting a damn thing all weekend, but it's good fun."

It's good fun.

People go bowling because . . . it's good fun. People golf in that same mode. Sure, you can get all "scoreboard fixated" and competitive, but sometimes you just relax and to hell with the score.

We have a sport that's good fun.

Sure, we can bring out the cannons and scare everyone on the line; we can dress up in war paint and bring along the professionally tuned sport-rifle-of-death; we can share the secret handshake and cluster with the brothers.

Trouble is, that's a solitary endeavor, even an elite pursuit.

Within "the brotherhood" it's all good fun.

Seen from without, it can be exclusionary, even tasteless.

Still, we have a sport that's good fun.

People will latch onto the most amazing things as fads. Some of the stuff that passes for "the in thing to do" just leaves me cold. Nonetheless, it resonates with a large crowd.

Skateboarding, snowboarding, things like that, have a "coolness" factor. Not that many people stick with it, not many at all go pro.

We have a sport with all the cool it will ever need. Anyone can do this. No special athletic prowess required.

Not everyone will appreciate the Second Amendment for what it is. Not everyone will want to hunt. Not everyone will opt for self defense. Everyone, however, can enjoy a cool sport.

As folks become more familiar and comfortable with shooting, some will want to advance; some will go for self defense; some will want to hunt. A rare few will awaken and grasp the power and truth of the Second Amendment.

Shooting doesn't have to be all grit and bruises.

My son outperforms me in every physical sporting endeavor. I still out-shoot him.

Shooting is an equal access sport.

Inevitably, when you "socialize" a sport, you're gonna get people who wanna make a fashion statement as much as they want to do any good with a rifle. Every sport has them.

So we have a strength. We have a sport that everyone from 8 to 80 can do. People in wheelchairs can do it. It's fun. And it's a legacy.

Eleanor Roosevelt's favorite passtime.

Skill at arms, an American tradition. Keep the flame alive.

Some people throw frisbees. Some play softball.

Some make little holes in tin cans from 50 yards away.

More exposure. More familiarity. More comfort.

A sport for the whole community.

Make it fun.

 

[Trebor]

Oleg,

You need to add an "2A Activists" forum or "Pro-Firearms Activism" forum to THR. This forum would *ONLY* be used to discuss ways citizen activists can promote the gun rights agenda.

This type of stuff is *supposed* to be covered in the current "Legal & Political" forum, but I don't think that forum is serving that goal. L&P tends to range far and wide and doesn't really give the potential new gun rights activist much to work with. You could try to "rein in" L&P, but I think it would be better to create a new forum that is *very narrowly* tailored to pro-gun activism.

This forum would help the gun owner with little, or no, previous experience in political activism learn the general strategies for effective activism and develop specific techniques he could use to promote our cause. It would also give experienced activists a place to share what they've learned over the years and develop new ideas. It's for the gun owner who wants to help and isn't going to wait for the NRA (or any other org) to do all the work.

This forum would have be closely moderated to stay "on topic" for it's purpose and to keep it from becoming just another "L&P" forum.

I know that the whole idea behind THR is to promote firearms in a positive light and encourage activism, but in many ways we are "just another gun board."

As it stands now there is a lack of specific, precise information on THR that an activists or potential activist can use to help them get started. The activism information that is here is often buried in the sheer mass of general threads or lost in the acrimous debates in L&P.

As a whole, THR has become a gathering place where shooters come to exchange ideas and talk about guns. We've got a pretty diverse group and we've shown we can share info on guns in general. Now we need to bring it to the point where we share info on how to protect and promote our 2A related civil rights.

Here's some of what I'd like to see in such a forum:

A thread on the best way to write a Pro-2A "Letter to the Editor". This would make a great sticky later.

A discusson on how we, as individual gun owners and shooters, can work to reduce the sterotypes associated with firearms ownership. How we dress, act, and talk plays a bigger role than we think.

A discussion on the best way to fight a anti-gun ordinance or regulation on the local (city or county) level.

A discussion on how gun owners can better relate to the media and how we can use, and make, opportunities to get *our* message across. Reporters are usually ignorant on the realities of firearms and tend to parrot the "prevailing wisdom." You'd be surprised at the amount of pro-gun press you can generate by working *with* reporters instead of just avoiding them because, "They are all anti-gun anyway."

A discusson on how local gun owners can network to create mailing lists and grass roots organizations to respond to local anti-gun threats and get their voices heard.

Advice on how to get people with only a passing interest in guns to range and what to do with them once they are there. A little education and hands on experience goes a long way.

There have been discussions on many of these topics in the past and there is a lot of good info in the archives. We need a forum where this type of info is all pulled together in one spot. If the purpose of THR is to promote and preserve our 2A human rights, don't you think we need a specific fourm dedicated to just that purpose?

Thoughts anyone?

 

[the naked prophet]

The odds against us aren't as steep. We can and should win and gain over time. Let's get down to figuring out the situation, take inventory of resources and methods available to us and to them, start drawing up mission assignments.

Everyone seems to be saying that the problem is that things are the way that they are. That is a problem, yes, but look at why it's a problem. It's a problem because everyone else believes that it's the way things should be.

The real war waging here is the war of public opinion. The real generals of the other side are the ones who own the TV stations, movie studios, newspapers, schools, etc.

The only way we can fight is to convince more people that we are right. That freedom is better than dependency. They own the schools - they tell the kids what is right and what is wrong, they tell the kids that it's okay to live on welfare while they refuse to give the kids any skills necessary to get a career while also preventing the parents from having as much time with the kids to teach them morals or life skills.

They own the news outlets - they tell everybody "oh noes! a gun killed somebody, and the poor criminal is in jail!" They feign neutrality and simultaneously convince the somnambulant public that guns (or lack of welfare, or lack of this law or that law) is the problem.

They own the movie and television studios - they write the scripts that only ever show bad guys and cops with guns, that whenever a normal person uses a gun it gets taken away from them. Anybody remember the sitcoms of the 90s, where they would make not-so-subtle jokes about republicans or gun owners? People adopt the mannerisms and even beliefs of the people in television shows that they watch frequently. Don't believe me? Watch a stargate marathon (or buy the DVD set) and then see if you catch yourself saying "indeed" or "for crying out loud." These things subtly sway public opinion.


What can we do? We can become teachers. We can become journalists. We can buy newspapers and television stations. We can run for office.

Do you know how many gunny teachers there are in your kids elementary or high school? Not many. Do you know how many gunny writers work for the local paper? Not many. Do you know how many gunnies are running for office? Not many.

I'm going to grad school to be a teacher. I write a column for the school paper and I regularly submit "letters to the editor" for larger even national newspapers. There's no libertarian candidate for state representative for my district...

Get out there and sway public opinion. Yes, it may be a tactically unsound decision to let people know you own guns, but unless the public sees normal people "just like them" who own guns, then they will continue to believe in the drooling backwoods militia redneck stereotype that is constantly portrayed in the media.

If you haven't made a career choice yet, become a teacher or a journalist.

If you're looking for a large investment, buy a small town newspaper or television station in a traditionally Democrat area.

Some of our members here could write incredible movies or TV series (*cough*Nightcrawler*cough*Correia*cough*) with a pro-liberty message.

Oleg Volk makes excellent posters, but I'm sure he probably can't afford to buy billboards along major highways to put them up. Maybe instead of that second AR-15 you could pool your money with other folks at the local shooting range to rent a billboard and put up one of Oleg's posters.

Or you could write letters to the editor every time an anti-gun piece comes up. If we inundate the newspapers and news stations with complaint letters (and they can't all be from the same 2 or 3 people either) and letters to the editor, they'll have to believe that the public doesn't want to hear their garbage any more. They'll tone it down because they're running a business (either that or they'll start to lose money and the super-rich folks who fund all the anti-gun efforts will have to start paying instead of making money on their propaganda). If you don't think you can't write well (and sometimes, when you think you write better than you really do) then you could take a writing class at the local community college - we need volume, but we also need to not reinforce the stereotype they so adore.

And, perhaps nearly as important as taking back the schools and media, take someone shooting. Invest in a .22 rifle and a .22 pistol, as well as a few spare sets of nice earmuffs and shooting glasses. Invite your non-gunny friends to the range. Invite acquaintances, coworkers, fence-sitters, anyone who'll come - except diehard anti-gun journalists who will write up the range trip as some sort of harrowing near-death escape from armed-to-the-toothless backwoods hicks.

That is what we can do. Anything short of that and within a few years, we will be all alone in a sea of public disdain for us and our beliefs. And in a democracy, the public opinion is really the only thing that matters.

 

[Smurfslayer]

+1 Trebor

Darn good idea on the activism sub-forum.

A more narrowly focused forum on how to help all levels of political animals in the pro rights community - but especially beginners.

How about it Oleg?

 

[RandyC]

An informed public is at this point a great part of our problem.

Where do we get our information? -- public and private schools, television, and newspapers. Now tell me which of these institutions emphasizes personal responsibility? Emphasizes the cost of freedom? Even defines what personal liberty means?

Ahh, you say I've left out the family. Well, sadly I think we are one, maybe two generations past being able to depend on dad to teach his son about personal responsibility, about honor, about sacrifice. I'm speaking in a general sense here.

Our republic has always been in turmoil. Freedom is like that. Historically we have only been truly brought together by a crisis. 9/11 did that for a brief period of time.

As for logic and debate winning the day for us lovers of personal freedom? I'm not counting on it. What today is called debate is just a sound bite shouting match and logic turned out the lights and left the room long time ago.

On the good side: there are a lot of us who passionately love our freedom and when we stand together we're darned hard to budge. We are formitable.

 

[Jeff White]

How about just moderating legal and political so that it reflects it's original purpose and sending all the other topics over to APS?

Jeff

 

[Smurfslayer]

How many different forums can one person keep up with and remain politically active? Besides, statistically, very few of us participate in the political process to the level of what could be called "activism". Probably the single hardest thing to do is convince folks how simple it is to get started.

 

[Sharps-shooter]

Innocence.

That's what I think we need. More innocence.

Right now, most of us are so conditioned about thinking of firearms in political terms, that it's nearly imposssible, at least for me, to stop thinking of it as a political issue. After all, the gun issue comes up in elections and people make laws about it. You might even say, if you follow Mao Zedong, that firearms are the underpinning of all politics.

But if you step back from that paradigm, just for a moment, you can see a firearm as a tool, pure and simple. Foreign policy and taxes are inherently political issues. Tools are not. A firearm is more politically charged than a gas stove, in the current political climate, because people have made such a fuss over it. But a flame can be just as destructive as a bullet.

On the internet and in gun-related media, I've seen a lot of anger and fear about the future of gun rights. It is justified, of course. But dwelling on it is not always productive. Overreacting to our own fears about being disarmed is something entirely different from the vigilance we need to have in order to maintain them. This is what has given rise to the image of the paranoid old white guy holing up in his bunker with his tinfoil hat and all his guns. We all know that's not the way to win the hearts and minds of the public.

In this, like in so many things, I think we need to learn from our ancestors. A hundred years ago, and less in many places, guns were just a part of life. They were respected deeply, even venerated, but they were also commonplace. Nothing to get bent out of shape about. People made them, people used them, people carried them around, in ways that were consistent with them being commonplace tools of everyday life.

Now, it is difficult for us to think of guns as being commonplace tools of everyday life. You have to be discreet about them on the one hand, and on the other hand you get excited about their capabilities. It's easy to see them at both ends of this spectrum-- as a showpiece, something to brag about, or as a secret, something to keep concealed. What's harder, I think, is to see them right in the middle, as just things that have a purpose.

I think that it is an act of extreme activism to approach firearms innocently and without a great amount of emotional baggage. Around Thanksgiving, I bought an ar15. I went to the Gun store, paid for it, and rode home on my bicycle with it. I'm sure that was shocking to some of the people who saw it. I'm sure they said, hey, look a guy on a bike with a black rifle. But next time, it won't be so shocking to them. They saw it, and nothing bad happened, and then it was over. I did this, because I wanted to approach the rifle as something that was nothing to get bent out of shape about. I treated it just like anything else that I go and buy from the store.

I've let my kids use guns. My older daughter was five the first time she shot a gun. And it was a 45-70 rifle, too. It made a really loud noise, but she wasn't scared. Because I didn't give her the impression that it was anything to be scared of. Careful yes, but not afraid.

I m sad to say this, but I from what I've seen of the people I know, i think the film "Bowling for Columbine" has done more to change people's attitudes IN FAVOR of gun rights, than any other piece of art I can recall. The reason this is bad, is because it wasn't exactly pro-gun in nature. but what it did do was convincingly bring to a popular audience the notion that guns themselves are not the reason for violence in this country. Sure, the NRA said it for ages, but this guy (Michael Moore, who is himself an NRA life member, though critical of the organization) said it in a way that would get listened to by people who were somewhat anti-gun to begin with.

If we, as a community, could really get this point across, could get people desensitized to the movie-instilled idea that "seeing a gun means something bad is about to happen", then I think we could have a return to the cultural norms of past generations, where guns were nothing to get bent out of shape about, and people knew it.


I

 

[Trebor]

How about just moderating legal and political so that it reflects it's original purpose and sending all the other topics over to APS?

I don't think L&P can be "saved." It's become such a catch all for rants and general politics that it would be really hard to narrow the focus down and keep it on track. That, and THR still needs a place to discuss these kinds of issues or they'd just pop up again and again in the *new and improved* L&P and we'd be back where we started.

Personally, I think it would be better to start fresh with a new forum for *just* activism related discussions. Things that are off-topic would be moved to the general L&P forum or one of the other forums.

I think any new "2A Activistism" forum would start small, but would grow to be a very usefull asset over time. There could be a collection of "stickies" on proven letter writitng techniques, effective communication, how to take an anti to the range, etc, and new stickies would come up as a thread reaches the point where it contains enough useful info to be stickied.

Members could go there for ideas and report back on the succesful things they've accomplished, or even the unsuccesful attempts they've made. We could post copies of letters we've sent to give other people ideas, talk about how local activists worked together to fight off some local anti-gun initiative and just share info on how to be better activists. Obviously, this forum won't have as much traffic as any of the other forums on THR, but it would be the forum that most closely goes to the heart of THR's mission.

 

[Trebor]

Besides, statistically, very few of us participate in the political process to the level of what could be called "activism". Probably the single hardest thing to do is convince folks how simple it is to get started.

Pro gun activism can be as simple as writing a letter to the editor. Instead of posting here to bitch about some bad news story you've seen, instead write directly to the editor and let *him* know what you think.

Letter writing is the "gateway drug" to political activism. Let's give newbies to this site a place where they can read about how to write a letter to the editor, see what letters other members have written and sent, and show them what "next steps" they can take as pro-2A activists. Not everyone will go past the letter writing stage, but every effort helps.

This forum would have a larger "how to" element than any of the current forums. We have discussed many of these things in the past, but we need to put it all in place so the new or potential activist has a place to go for "one stop shopping" to learn about becoming an activist.

The experienced activists can actor as mentors and guides and also share info with each other on the fourm and use the forum as a way to network for off-forum discussions.