By ST
This is hard to write. Those of you with a biblical background may be familiar with the story of Paul. One of the most noted Apostles in the good book got his start persecuting the very thing he became later in life. It was a lesson lost on me growing up in the Baptist community in urban Chicago. It’s no secret guns aren’t the favorite topic among the dwellers of that metropolis and I was no different. I wrote many a lauded term paper in high school supporting the Assault Weapons Ban . . .
and I pitched a proper teenage liberal fit when the Supreme Court ruled in a fashion which meant Al Gore lost the election. Yes, I used to be one of those radical, low information voters who’s easily swayed by CNN and Al Sharpton. It’s a good thing time travel isn’t achievable yet because sometimes I want to go back and slap myself so hard I’d probably cease to exist entirely.
But then my life circumstances changed and my back was against a financial wall. Thus motivated by circumstances and a desire to do something good with my life, I joined the Air Force. All along, right up until the first time I shot at Kelly Air Force Base, Texas, I thought the government, media, celebrities and black cultural leaders were right about gun control. It all came crashing down, though, when I pulled the trigger of that M16A2 set to three-round giggle mode. I left the range wondering why I had waited so long…..and that’s when I got angry.
I was angry because I realized I’d been lied to my entire life. What’s worse, I didn’t have any way to know it was all a load of bull. I drank intellectual KoolAid my entire life on the issue, thinking it was water.
I now own an AR15, two 9mms and a shiny NRA membership card. The transition hasn’t been painless: as of now I’m barely on speaking terms with my extended family after they discovered I hold a CCW permit and my mom thinks there’s no reason for AR15s to be civilian-legal. The reaction of my black relatives to my ownership of guns and a carry permit has been about the same as coming out as a lesbian would have been in 1947. If they knew I’m an NRA member and a registered Republican, too, I’d probably be disavowed entirely.
I share all of this because I believe people who’ve grown up in pro-RKBA families and states can’t fathom the kind of social information and message management that motivates voters to support gun control. As Sun Tzu said, to know our enemy and to know ourselves means we can win a hundred battles. There are times today I can’t comprehend what the liberal disarmament lobbys up to, and I used to stand with them.
What we’re up against isn’t just laws, statutes, rules and regulations. We’re fighting, without sinking into hyperbole, a system of cultural and social control. We, the people of the gun, need to break the back of the disarmament lobby by getting positive word about the RKBA past the information barriers erected by anti-gun politicians and their lackeys in the media. By changing the culture, we’ll change the laws. We take down the anti-gun culture by substituting the KoolAid millions of voters are drinking in New York City, Chicago, Baltimore, Honolulu, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles with the water they never knew they missed.