January 2012 – Page 12 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Telling Our Own Stories

I attended the NRA Board of Directors meeting this weekend, and anyone interested in the general commentary can check my Twitter timeline. But there was at least one topic I thought worthy of a longer post.

Susan Howard of the Public Affairs Committee made an important point to the rest of the NRA Board of Directors when she gave her committee report on Saturday. She felt it was time for the board to tell their own stories about what they do and how they are involved with the movement to protect our rights. Susan reported that she talked to both Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox about some kind of page or site to really meet your NRA board of directors and get the information on what moves them to serve and stand up for the Second Amendment.

Personally, I say that it’s about damn time. Susan argued it was time to tell the stories that show we’re really the good guys. I think this is a good lesson we can apply more in the broader movement, too.

The anti-gun groups will try to say that if you care about the safety of your family, you’re just paranoid. We need to make sure that we counter with the fact we care about the safety of our families because we love them, and we will do what we must to protect their lives. The best way to counter it isn’t to argue with those groups. It’s to tell others who are undecided on the issue why we’re good folks who can be trusted to safely exercise our rights.

When it comes to the shooting sports, we can apply the same ideas. Anti-gunners will try to say shooters are just compensating for something else, but we know that recreational shooting is fun. The best way to counter it is to tell non-shooters why about what that great time at the range, along with an offer to get them out there to see for themselves. We’re the fun folks, and that’s our story to tell.

As much as we’ve mocked Meet the NRA before, this kind of project should really be CSGV’s worst nightmare. When our people start showing that they are normal folks who simply believe in the Constitution, want to defend their loved ones, and know how to safely have a great time at the range, it will be a perfect illustration to how out-of-touch the extremist anti-gun groups really are with average Americans.

2A Scholars: The Next Generation

Anyone who’s aware of the history of the black civil rights movement knows that it was a multi-generational struggle. There’s little reason to believe that the movement to protect the civil right of keeping and bearing arms is going to be any different. The greats of our movement, who laid the scholarly foundations that made the successes in Heller and McDonald possible, are unfortunately getting old. It is necessary to incubate and foster a new generation of legal minds to continue the scholarship necessary to take this struggle well into the 21st century. It is with this in mind that I spent the weekend as a guest to NRA’s Civil Rights Defense Fund.

The CRDF hosted a seminar for up-and coming legal scholars, hosted by the very people who put Second Amendment legal scholarship on the map, and made the “standard model” the mainstream viewpoint. It featured lectures from Don Kates, Dave Hardy, Joyce Malcolm, Bob Cottrol, Dave Kopel, Nick Johnson, Steve Halbrook, and several others folks who I will feature as I speak more about the weekend in upcoming posts. I should note that if the caliber of people I met this weekend is any indication, the Second Amendment will be in good hands. As someone with no formal legal training, I certainly felt out of my league. The seminar attendees came from all four corners of North America. From Maine to Florida, over to California, up to Idaho and onward to Alberta. Yes, we even had a Canadian attendee.

I’ll have more to relay as the week progresses, but while the Brady Campaign were busy lighting candles to mourn the passing of their relevance, we were busy trying to secure the future of Second Amendment scholarship. This was a first of its kind event, but if this weekend is any indication, I’m very optimistic for future successes.

Smarter Politicking

I see that Drudge is headlining with Rick Perry shooting news:

Ready, aim fire. Thatâ€™s apparently Texas Gov. Rick Perryâ€™s idea of relaxation before returning to the campaign trail this weekend.

Ahead of Saturday nightâ€™s ABC News-Yahoo-WMUR debate in New Hampshire Perry took a few moments to himself at an Austin-area shooting range.

I would suggest that smarter politicking would be to hit up a range in New Hampshire or South Carolina. Just sayin’. Maybe some Rick Perry supporters in those states would like to offer his campaign some local range recommendations. I wonder if the Brady Campaign will issue an update to their “We hate Rick” report with this news.

A Movement With No Followers

That’s how Bloomberg Business Week is describing the gun control movement, in what is a very balanced article, considering the source. The article speaks of record low crime rates as a primary reason that support for gun control among the populace has dropped, but I think that’s only one factor. Violence in the ‘burbs, where most of the political elite live was never that high, even in the 1980s. Additionally, while violence in cities has dropped, city dwellers are still more likely to support gun control over the general population.

I think a big factor in the disappearance of support for gun control is generational, namely that subsequent generations don’t harbor as many racial and xenophobic anxieties as previous generations. Whether our opponents want to admit it or not, much of the nations gun control was prompted by these anxieties among political elites. These days, the idea that rights belong to all Americans, and even in many cases to all persons, is considerably better understood by the baby boomers, than it was understood by previous generations, and is even more engrained in subsequent generations. I think without those anxieties tugging at the subconscious of the elites, gun control finds considerably less reception, except among the fringe, who largely associate with the peace movement, or those who are misplacing grief over loved ones lost in gun related crime or suicides. That’s a very small pool of people, and not enough to build a movement on.

Successful Interview

Just got back from what I think was a very successful interview for the dream job. Now headed down to DC for the weekend to spend some time among friends. We’ll see how well I can blog on the road with the iPad.

Guns Create Jobs

Some Interesting advice on how to make Second Amendment issues into economic issues in the 2012 Elections, by focusing on the fact that the shooting and outdoors industries are job creating machines. It’s an good strategy in an election year where everyone is most worried about jobs and the economy, rather than culture war issues like guns.

Pennsylvania’s Butter Sculpture

Only in Pennsylvania do we consider it to be a wise use of 1,000 pounds of butter to be turned into a sculpture of a beauty queen and a cow.

I hope we’ve invested in a bit more security this year. I’d hate to see a headline that Norwegians came in and stole our prized butter statue to take back home.

Has It Been 5 Years Already?

I think it has been. I started blogging on January 6th, 2007. So this now marks a full five years of blogging. All of that save a few months were as Snowflakes in Hell, but since I never ditched my archives, I say it still counts. Will I go another 5 years? Who knows. I didn’t think starting out I’d make it this far. I’ll certainly give it a try.

Record gun sales …

… now in Maryland. How long can CSGV, Brady, and VPC remain in denial?

An Anti-Gun Article in the Union-Leader?

I say that with a question mark, and a little tongue in cheek, because I can’t recall other newspapers endorsing constitutional carry, and allowing people to have loaded (but unchambered) rifles and shotguns in a vehicle. They didn’t like the very strong preemption bill, however, so clearly they’re anti-gun!

UPDATE: Link fixed.