Something Isn’t Working as It Should

 

In a few short months, gun owners have gone from counting votes in the Senate to get CCW reciprocity passed nationwide to fighting for our Second Amendment lives.

Gun owners are in a culture war and we’re losing. The forces of civilian disarmament are using the techniques of the anti-smoking movement against the private ownership of guns and they’ve had more success curbing civilian gun ownership with this tactic than they’ve had fighting a political war over the previous 10 years.

This has to change. If gun owners think that relying on the pro-2A messengers and messaging of the past is somehow suddenly going to turn things around for us and make guns cool again, we are delusional and deserve to lose. We can (and have) won political battles, but now that we’re losing a cultural battle, things have to change.

We need allies, we need them fighting for us, and no talk about “Freedom’s Clenched Fist” isn’t going to bring people running to our aide.

What will win this war for us is when people begin to understand that we’re all in this together, that the fight isn’t gun owners versus gun control, it’s really freedom versus totalitarianism. This sort of thing works, NRA. Do this more often, please.

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There are 33 comments.

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  1. Kevin Creighton Contributor
    Kevin Creighton
    @KevinCreighton

    This post was based on an email I sent to my friend Michael Bane, a gun writer and host of a bunch of TV shows on The Outdoor Channel. He adds in his take on his podcast, Downrange Radio.

    • #31
  2. SkipSul Inactive
    SkipSul
    @skipsul

    Kevin Creighton (View Comment):

    Richard Finlay (View Comment):
    I think part of our problem is (going to be) that arguments that can appeal to the political center-left are not arguments that appeal to us. We don’t propagandize well. An effective political tactic might be to harp on racist implications of gun control. If black lives matter, do they matter enough to defend themselves

    The inestimable Frank J. Fleming wrote a piece awhile back on how to win a culture war, and we could learn a lot from his wisdom.

    1. Consume Culture. You can’t fight a war if you don’t know what the other side is up to.

    2. Make Something. Get in the battle.

    3. Don’t propagandize. Be yourself. Be fun. Nobody likes a street preacher.

    4. Abandon your favorite words. No one, and I mean NO ONE outside of gun culture understands what “Molon Labe” means.

    5. Forget politics. It’s not about signing up people to vote for their gun rights, it’s about getting people out the range.

    #1 would be difficult for me.  I’m not terribly fond of the culture at the moment.

    • #32
  3. kidCoder Member
    kidCoder
    @kidCoder

    Taking people to the range and shooting .22 rifles definitely helps, especially when it’s a nice light rifle like the S&W MP15-22.

    But we do need to fix our image problem. I sit next to a young lady in one of my classes. I do not tell her my opinions on gun control. She is a student organizer for the March for our Lives in Dallas. How can I convince her that everything she knows is wrong? Obviously not by telling her “Yo, lady, everything you know is wrong.” Some more tact may be required.

    • #33
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