Opinion
United States of America – -(AmmoLand.com)- We’ve discussed both the need for an honest evaluation of the present political situation of the Second Amendment as well as the need to use the right tactics and strategies for a given job. Now, we will delve a little into the tactical/strategic area some more, this time by looking at a tactic that was advocated a long time ago by an anti-Second Amendment zealot – and how it can be used to regain our rights because it already has worked to do so.
In 1976, Nelson “Pete” Shields, who after his son’s death went to work for what eventually became the Brady Campaign, stated in an interview with the New Yorker, “Right now, though, we’d be satisfied not with half a loaf but with a slice. Our ultimate goal — total control of handguns in the United States — is going to take time.”
Thankfully, Shields, who turned to anti-Second Amendment advocacy after his son was murdered, was wrong about his timetable – we are over three decades from the end point of the seven-to-ten-year timeline he estimated it would take to get a handgun ban. 32 years after that interview, the Supreme Court ruled handgun bans unconstitutional in the Heller decision and ruled the Second Amendment was binding on the states in the McDonald case two years after that.
But there is something we can learn from this anti-Second Amendment extremist from long ago:
We can see how the other side has been far more effective in a tactical and strategic sense than many Second Amendment supporters who have been highly critical of NRA EVP Wayne LaPierre [read my History of the NRA Executive Vice President]. What many of them may not want you to know is that under LaPierre’s tenure as Executive Director of NRA-ILA and NRA Executive Vice President, which ran from 1986 to the present, has seen significant gains for our Second Amendment rights.
One of the most conspicuous has been the expansion of concealed carry. In 1986, only nine states had either shall-issue or constitutional carry. By 2017, that number reached 42. This happened over thirty years – and the changes were done slowly. While we are still far from constitutional carry in all 50 states, it is just undeniable that the landscape has changed in favor of the Second Amendment on this issue.
But it didn’t go from “no issue” to “constitutional carry” overnight. It was a long process.
Often the biggest hurdle was getting to a “shall issue” permit system with training requirements. Even then, bit by bit, the NRA worked to lower the requirements, lengthen the time the permits were good, and to reduce the application fees.
The lesson from this is that tactics and strategy are tools, much like firearms. Just because those who seek to take our constitutional rights away use these tactics doesn’t mean the tactics themselves are wrong or should not be used. Furthermore, long-term thinking is something that needs to be adopted.
When dealing with legislation like “red flag” laws, this approach may be a chance to start chipping away at them. Working to add due process and penalties for false accusations would be a start, especially after tragedies surrounding those laws like the one in Maryland. Those laws can be further weakened by narrowing the scope of who can seek them. It should also provide a requirement that firearms be returned once someone is deemed to no longer be a threat.
It will take time, it will not be easy, and the anti-Second Amendment extremists will fight it all the way. That said, “no compromise” should be the phrase we use when it comes to our ultimate objective of restoring our Second Amendment rights. As for the tactics and strategies used to reach that objective… well, if all we can get today is a slice or two of our liberties back, let’s view that as the first steps on the journey.
About Harold Hutchison
Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.
Many of your points seem to stem from a misunderstanding of the Second Ammendment. To quote, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” The 2A makes it quite clear that the right to keep and beat arms does not exist independently from a well regulated militia used for national security. Any American who is proud of our armed forces will recognize that the army ensures our national security, therefor nullifying the 2A for the time being. That does not mean… Read more »
I’m disgusted with the gun control crowd somehow commandering the moral high ground, as if anyone who legally owns a gun is a criminal. Yet, some the most vocal 2A critics are surrounded by bodyguards carrying, yes, guns. Then it’s ok. This country’s 2A is sacrosanct. Period. It cannot be rescinded, modified, taken away, or trampled on. Yet, people are scared to death to say anything because of the rampant PC culture. If we don’t stand up and protect our rights, no one will. If the left wants to try to void 2A, then let’s void some of their favorites,… Read more »
I live in TN. I carry concealed always and never leave house without weapon. I travel north to NY often for family visits. My major gripe is reciprocity I can’t understand why I can’t carry in some states I and many others are law abiding folks. This should not be allowed to occur
What I don’t understand is how any of these laws pass and don’t get shot down with simply ex post facto. Those three words have been a cornerstone of our laws and it is written in the constitution. Quite simply they can’t pass a law that will make you a criminal for something you’re already done or purchased in the past when it was legal (at least that’s how I basically understood it) and charge you for it also. Nor can I figure out how the 2nd got relegated to a “second tier” right that can be manipulated and chiseled… Read more »
@Harold Hutchison Tactics…. Playing chess and thinking of the long game, you may think about how you are going to win in 30 moves(30 years out). Unfortunately, if you continue to give up pieces as part of your “Grand Strategy”, you will not win on your 30th move if your opponent has put you in checkmate on his 12th. You continue to recycle and reprint the same arguments over and over Harold, but it is not converting anyone, and it is not changing anyone’s minds. The left is not playing by yours or the NRA’s strategy. They are luring you… Read more »
I have become somewhat put out with the NRA after not standing strong against the illegal bump stock ban. It goes way beyond bump stocks, it allows a new foothold for the anti gunners to change definitions and therefore bypass congress on a political whim.. Our commander in Chief ( who ran as a pro 2nd candidate ) threw us under the bus as the NRA stood idly by. Waynes 5 million he took a few years back would be better spent in the fight. That said, i think they have done a lot over the years, i will grudgingly… Read more »
To expand on that, it would be more effective against them to frame arguments in terms as they see the world, not trying to convince them the pro gun position is correct in the terms that pro gun advocates see it. They are never going to care how pro gun advocates see it, they will only care if they are made to see being anti gun as being wrong in their own way of seeing the world. For example, I have been framing it in terms of a “war on legitimate gun ownership” as being fundamentally immoral and fatally flawed… Read more »
I think there is one very valuable function the NRA perform for us these days. They serve as a target for much of the anti-gun hate going on in this country. Every time the Bloomburgs, Mad Mamas, Pugliugly, DieFie, UpChuckie Shooooomer, start screaming about more gun restrictions, they whinge and rail on about how “If it weren’t for that GUN LOBBY the NRA, i’d have had the votes, and Mr and Mrs America would have already turned them all in and we’d finally be SAFE…… makes them feel good, gives a target to hate on that is identifiable, and really… Read more »
I’m a gun owner in NYS. The NRA gave us the stiff arm. Cuomo’s SAFE Act was foisted upon us years ago…with not a peep from the NRA. And we languish, still, with NO interest from the NRA. BUT–they keep asking me for more money!
ENOUGH !!!!!! It’s sickening to see these repeated attempts to claim the NRA has been our savior from the anti-gun activists. Regardless of any help they may claim to have been in the past, They are currently, materially working against our better interest. This constant barrage of “You’re stupid if you say bad things about the NRA” and “The NRA is the best thing to ever happen to gun owners” BS is insulting and disingenuous.
Harold Hutchison, you offend me and I wish you would just SHUT THE F@$&K UP and go away!