The Armed Citizen – Armed With Knowledge
Great read for citizens of America who believe in the God-given right to self-defense and protection.
The Armed Citizen is Back Online
TheArmedCitizen.com
Kentucky, USA - -(Ammoland.com)- AmmoLand.com’s featured Gun Blog of the Month is the The Armed Citizen. ( www.thearmedcitizen.com )
The Armed Citizen is an online blog that archives news stories from across the USA of citizen use of firearms to save their own lives from criminals.
Guns save lives, and are necessary for protection. That’s according to research from David Burnett, who track incidents of defensive gun use at TheArmedCitizen.com.
The Armed Citizen, LLC is a website dedicated to arming citizens not just with guns but with knowledge and information. As a website, the Armed Citizen has existed for several years, originally created and maintained by Clayton Cramer and Pete Drum in response to gun control advocates and criticisms of gun ownership. The blog documented stories of armed self-defense starting in late 2003, accumulating nearly 4,000 entries by 2010.
These stories were compiled into a study which was published on the November 2009 cover of the NRA’s America’s First Freedom magazine and an article through the US Concealed Carry Association.
In July 2010, a frivolous lawsuit was filed against The Armed Citizen alleging copyright infringement. This was one of hundreds of lawsuits filed by a group of copyright trolls known as Righthaven. TAC was in good company, since the Second Amendment Foundation, the Second Amendment Sisters and the Drudge Report were also sued. In order to escape a prolonged and potentially bankrupting legal battle, TAC’s owners settled and, believing that success is the best revenge, used donations to rebuild the website.
The Armed Citizen Blog Interview:
Q: What is your Blog’s Official Name?
A: The Armed Citizen
Q: What is your Name?
A: David Burnett
Q: Where are you located?
A: Central Kentucky
Q: What is the point of view or purpose of your blog?
A: To provide a resource for armed citizens. Our main goal is to have an ongoing list of defensive gun use stories as illustrations for why people need to be armed, and to highlight the positive aspects of firearms. Almost all the people in the real-life stories we post would be dead if they didn’t have a gun. That’s a huge factor to consider when someone decides to enact stricter gun laws.
Q: How long has your Blog been active?
A: Since 2003 initially. It was begun by Clayton Cramer, who worked with Pete Drum. I joined the crew around 2007. It was relaunched in its current state at the first of the year.
Q: What do you do for a living or is your blog a full time job?
A: I work a security job, teach concealed carry classes and I’m currently developing some business plans for a computer programmer. (I have a degree in business.)
Q: Do you have a specific agenda or goal of your blog?
A: Guns are the great equalizer. More people need to own them — a lot more. And not just OWN them but KNOW them. We need to eradicate ignorance about firearms. Our motto is “Armed with knowledge.” The most powerful weapon any of us has is located between the ears. A gun is just a tool; being an armed citizen is about a lot more than just having a pistol in your closet. It’s a mindset. That’s what we want to encourage.
Q: We have all heard or read about the troubles with Righthaven, extroting money from sites like yours. Can you relay us the story again and how was it resolved?
A: It really does boil down to legal extortion. We used to copy stories from the newspapers or TV stations and reprint them, providing full citation and links. Sometimes if a story was long, we had to excerpt it. The newspaper we quoted had the article available freely, and had more than a dozen buttons on the page inviting the reader to share the article. We were hardly making any money on the blog, it was more of an academic exercise. But a lawyer in Nevada decided there was a gold mine in suing mom-and-pop blogs for money. Unfortunately, it wasn’t our battle to fight. There was too much to lose, so we settled. Our fans were awesome with the donations, we didn’t lose a penny in the end. But we still hope Righthaven’s litigious little jihad comes to an end very soon.
Q: What advise can you give other Gun Bloggers on protecting themselves from shady practices of those like
Righthaven?
A: Don’t copy any images or text from any newspapers or online media! Especially the ones funding Righthaven. Don’t even link to them. If they’re declaring war on the very blogs that sustain them with huge referrals, they don’t need us to send them any more traffic.
Q: What was the best thing you did on your blog that go the most reaction from your readers?
A: We had an article published on the cover of the NRA’s “America’s First Freedom” magazine. That was quite a highlight. On both sides, I daresay…
Q: Obviously since we are featuring you your blog is Pro gun? What do you think the outlook is for the future of gun rights in America?
A: Never better! The law is more friendly than ever, and we’ve obviously made some significant political strides. But guns shouldn’t be partisan. Self-defense and self-preservation aren’t liberal or conservative. They’re human. We need to help people understand that, and help them understand that if they will stand up for themselves and make themselves a less attractive target, they’ll be safer.
Q: What is your favorite firearm and why?
A: I’m a Glock man. Simple, effective, efficient.
Q: What things would you like to do or expand in your blog to in the future?
A: Oh goodness! There’s a lot I have in mind, and a lot we have coming. I’m in talks with people in different countries to take the concept nationwide. We want to create an article database, and reach out especially to people who aren’t experienced with guns. Those are the people I like talking to the most.
Q: What would you like to say to those that are anti gun or maybe just unsure of the purpose of guns in our society today?
A: Well, first of all, come to the website. Read the stories of the everyday citizen who simply prepared for the possibility of a criminal assault just like you prepare for a car wreck (with a seat belt) or a fire (with a fire alarm) or a virus (by installing virus protection). Things like that happen every day. The ones who are prepared are far more likely to survive. The people who aren’t armed because they feel apprehensive about a piece of metal will be less prepared, and more attractive to criminals. But I swear to you, if you just visit a range once with someone who knows what they’re doing and is safe with firearms, you’ll at least come away with a more educated opinion.
Q: What parting remarks or comments you would like to make or promote?
A: Well really, I’d like to make an appeal to people first to visit the website and share our stories. Second to support our sponsors, and consider becoming a sponsor themselves. Third, I’m looking for someone who might be willing to share the vision and workload of the blog if anyone wants to contact me. Other than that, the goal is to make every capable citizen a law-abiding gun owner.
If every criminal were told that their victims were armed, crime would almost be nonexistent.
David BurnettVisit: www.thearmedcitizen.com
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