The Heller Foundation’s John Johnson writes:
In many cases, the recent spate of MDA (Mothers Demand Action) meetings is exactly what it appears to be – astroturf events rolled out by big money anti-freedom activists like Michael Bloomberg. The motions of these events are set to be on par with Mother’s Against Drunk Driving (M.A.D.D.), while appealing to the social justice bent of the civil rights movement. However, they are actually corporate sponsored skirmishes; with little, to no true moral framework. The end game is to remove firearms from the public – and they’ll use any tragedy involving guns to get their way. Basically it’s just deception masked as a grassroots movement . . .
All MDA events appeal to raw emotion only, without the tempering balance of reason or logic. Short of calling it communist in it’s approach, several defense rights advocates and liberty proponents have brushed off MDA due to it’s lack of overall impact or true grassroots appeal. Many have laughed and shrugged them off. On most fronts, we as ‘gun rights activists’ are winning, despite the fact that our opponents have stooped so low as to wave the bloody shirts of children in the face of the public.
However, I’ve personally fought this fight before and due to our arrogance, we can lose – it may not seem like a possibility at the moment, but we are severely underestimating people like Bloomberg. I’ve personally addressed the man on gun issues, even pinning him on the tyranny angle at least once. But just like a member of some strange death cult, he keeps getting up, chanting his mantra and continuing on. He’s a fighter, I know this for myself. He’s gotten some grudging respect from those of us with the guts to meet him on his own level.
Bloomberg, though a tempting target, merely represents the tip of the iceberg. There are forces well behind and beyond him that seek to further strip Americans of their precious liberty. For example:
What should be of concern to gun rights people is the fact that these forces against freedom and liberty continue to change the terms in relation to the subject at hand. Violence is now ‘gun violence’, gun banning has become ‘gun safety’ (and who can be against that, right?) and who wouldn’t be for ‘sensible gun reform’. This may seem silly to us, but it’s a tactic – and where there are tactics, there is also warfare and strategic planning going on. By defining the terms of the discussion in sheer Aristotelean fashion, they are slowly framing the debate for later down the road.
They have no desire to change our minds, since they know that’s impossible. No, what they are attempting to do is to isolate us as ‘lone gun nuts’ and turn American public opinion against our message and the core values of this great nation. By simply changing the wording, they can go a long way to meeting their benchmark of ‘gun control’.
And that is their goal. Not only do they want to take over the debate, they are planning to win a long and protracted war by any means necessary. They have ten year plans to remove each American’s ability to defend themselves from tyranny – even going so far as to having some brainwashed generals say that ‘Americans need to be disarmed!’ And sincerely mean it.
These, my friends, are indeed dangerous times. Never underestimate an enemy that is willing to spend years to destroy you and your way of life…years. How many gun rights groups do you know of that have ten year plans – of any sort? I’ll pause and let you think on that one. You shouldn’t kid yourself, we are definitely at war. However, and with great irony, this warfare will not involve guns; it will be mental, asymmetrical and carried out on the battlefield of the mind.
Stated simply, gun rights activists will have to think less like infantrymen at the moment and more like military intelligence operatives. There will be propaganda, lawfare and counter-measures – all forms of social media will be used to influence public opinion. The side with the best grasp of these tactics will most likely win in the eyes of the American people.
In addition to making it out to the range on the weekend, I’d suggest learning chess and reading up on such guerrilla warfare classics like The Art of War. There is a reason. Now more than ever, liberty, rights and defense activists need to recognize that the battlefield is changing – we have to adapt or else we’ll lose – and not just our Second Amendment rights, but possibly our whole way of life.
There are deeper and far more effective strategies to deal with folks like Bloomberg and MDA, but it’s beyond the scope of my initial article to explain these at the moment. (But believe me, we are discussing them at the moment, especially when it comes to the head games they are playing on our youth. Right now, I just want to focus on what every person can do, regardless of ability or (relative) age.
First, it’s time for every American gun owner to get out of the gun closet. If you tote a heater, you need to let others know that you do and why. I concur that this flies in the face of all conventional wisdom given to us by our forebears who told us that the ‘less the government knows about what you have in the gun closet…’ and so on. This is still wise, but they were waiting peacefully for the day when the shit hits the fan in the classical sense. What if the shit never hits the fan like the old timers thought it would (well not yet), just as these enemies of liberty continue to wear us down and take our rights?
What if they are intentionally keeping the shit from hitting the fan just for the sole purpose of disarming the American public? The point here is that it wasn’t too long ago that seeing a gun was as American and normal as it got, but they’ve made it so that we live in a world where a child can get suspended for a pistol shaped pop-tart! In this area, those ‘nutty’ open carry activists are right … if you don’t show it, you won’t own it.
I’m not advocating wearing camo and marching down in front of the courthouse, but I am stressing that we need to help desensitize every American we can to the presence of a firearm. They must be demystified and shown that arms – especially firearms – are simply tools. The only way to do this is to reach out to others and let them know that firearms are not the stick of death spray that the enemies of this country and freedom are telling them that they are. To accomplish this, more Americans need to see more real firearms, ‘more often’.
Second, each gun owner should find one person – just one – and help them buy their first gun and get them down to the range. One. You don’t need to commit to more than that. By all estimates, if every gun owner out there picked one of their friends and turned them on to the joys of shooting and why it’s important for self defense, we’ll nearly double the number of gun owners within a short period of time.
Also, inspire them to seek out professional or experienced trainers (and if one can’t be found, you’ll do just fine in a pinch). By training more people properly on the use of arms, we create an environment of true ‘gun safety’ and breed a new generation of responsible gun owners. We remove all arguments from our enemies by doing this … and more.
Third, we need to reach out to our enemies and their ‘target market’ (distressed mothers), and show them a little gun love. Conversion is the best tool for getting under the skin of the other side, while freeing the minds of our fellow Americans. All in all, they are still Americans – regardless of the Kool-Aid they may have drunk. Instead of getting upset at that hippy girl or ‘pissed off liberal soccer mom’, imagine seeing her on the gun range, happier and with a better perspective on life, while knocking down steel.
Also, by spending time with our enemies, we learn more about who they are and what they want to do. Sign up for newsletters from the MDA, Ceasefire, the Brady Foundation and others. Go to their forums, read their websites – get to know them inside and out. Instead of turning Bloomberg off when he runs his trap on TV, listen to what he’s saying – imagine what you’d say if you where talking back to him in public. How would you counter his arguments?
Learn as much as you can about these people, who they are, where they meet and what they’re doing on a local level. And if you are willing, get in there and do a little sheep fleecing while you are at it. The less of them there are, the better off it is for us in the long run.
Get some of those gun haters down to the range and show them a good time. We do have more fun than they do! We aren’t bitter or gloomy, nor do gun owners ‘hate life’ and ‘want to kill people’. The very reason we took up a gun in the first place was because we felt that life is worth defending and protecting. Eventually, the more they realize how sincere, realistic and honest gun owners are, the more they’ll note how irrational, deceptive and silly that these ‘gun control leaders’ have been. When they realize that we aren’t monsters, then they’ll change. Who knows, they just might become gun owners themselves.
Now, I admit this is an entirely new angle for many, and it may seem a bit out there, but it will work. Even if you can’t stomach step three, at least try one or two. But, if you do decide to go for the goal and keep tabs on these enemies of liberty on a local level, share what you find out. When you feel it’s important, let other freedom/arms/defense-minded activists in on what they are doing in your city. Keep a tab on the big wigs in your neck of the woods.
You’d be amazed where these people will pop up on other issues in the area. Some of these folks are flat paid and even extensively ‘trained’ in ‘community organizing’ – they literally go to school and learn how to role-play in order to ‘affect change’ when they meet people. While you’ll most likely never be able to convert one of these hardliners over to being a gun owner, it would be nice if others working for the cause of freedom knew who they were and where they are.
As gun owning Americans become more informed about the enemies of freedom in our own backyard, we become better equipped to deal with them on a local level. If we continue to keep ‘going local’ in our own towns, we’ll win this war, and very possibly change the fate of this nation and the course of mankind. And yes, this issue is that important. But don’t let that scare you, you’ve got this covered.