However the catch is that the benefits of such a move are usually the product of policy brought about by the same party that seeks out your support on the basis of protecting your second amendment rights by the phantom onslaught of the the anti's. This seems to me to be a very large scale example of the Republicans pissing on all of your collective backs and then telling you its just raining.
I think the same about raising the specter of socialist conspiracy. Generally characterizing political action by those who fear guns as socialist conspiracy will alienate a lot of folks with open minds who recognize nanny state tendencies -- not socialist ideology or conspiracy -- in their friends and family members who fear guns.
Jay
While they may be true, evoking conspiracy theories of gun grabbing socialist aching to pervert the founding fathers intentions and put you under the heel of an all controlling state does our cause a disservice.
We need to find a way to make the accepted wisdom of American society that guns are simply a tool, neither good nor bad.
While the rational for that concept is grounded in fact, achieving that end requires appealing at an emotional level to counter the emotional and factual lies the antis have been feeding society for the last 40 years.
"Phantom onslaught of the anti's"???
"Socialist conspiracy"????
"Conspiracy theories"???
There were conspiracy nuts in Poland who said Hitler was about to invade. It wasn't so nutty when the tanks were rolling into Warsaw. Same thing here. It's a little late in the game to be talking about phantom onslaughts and conspiracy thoeries when it's actually happening right before your eyes.
Do we really accomplish anything with non-gunowners whose opinions we'd like to reshape by pretending to be dumb? I'm not buying it. We have facts on our side. We're actively showing them that guns are merely inanimate objects and tools... showing them that hammers killed more people last year than so-called Assault Rifles. And I truly don't believe the demographic has changed all that dramatically since Clinton and the Liberal Democrats got their asses handed to them in the 1994 mid-terms. They still can't make a move without exploiting the emotions of people grieving dead children. If anyone here really wants to believe the propaganda that gun ownership by household is down 15% or that 80% of NRA members support Universal Backround Checks, I've got some swamp land for sale... mineral rights not included.
I'm afraid what a lot of this boils down to is a small minority who feel we should play some faux civility game with the closet anti's and Obama cheerleaders who infest this forum. I just checked the mirror. I still don't have a "Stupid" tatoo on my forehead.
As for those who keep saying we ought to be doing something differently to accomplish our goals, for God's sake, please tell us what that something is already. Then actually do it. Demonstrate "something" that works better than what we and the NRA has been doing and show us verifiable results. I'm not from Missouri, but show me anyway. Seeing is believing and I haven't yet seen where some of these prescriptions are worthwhile, but I have seen where they only lead to attrition. It's real easy to change my attitude about anything. Show me a better way that actually works.
edit: Correction: if gun ownership by household was really down from 50% to 35% of U.S. households, the overall drop would actually indicate that something like 30% of gunowners have sold or scrapped their guns and chose to not keep a gun for protection or sport. Has anyone here actually seen that??? Sales figures over the last decade tell a dramatically different story. The whole notion is ridiculous, but that's what you'll get if you deal with liars and take liars at their word.
