United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- Let’s face it, far too often, anti-Second Amendment extremists beat Second Amendment supporters in long-term planning. All too often, Second Amendment supporters are caught up in the short-term – battling each other over the minutiae of this bill or that primary election. Or when a case like Heller or McDonald is won, too many let up a little.
On the other hand, anti-Second Amendment extremists have embedded themselves thoroughly in corporate boardrooms, many mainstream media outlets, our schools, amongst medical associations, and in academia. In essence, the massive stigmatization campaign against the Second Amendment has been in the works for a long time. Remember when Eric Holder called for brainwashing people against guns? That was in 1995.
Look at today’s cultural and social climate, and for all we were angry about that comment, Holder’s strategy has succeeded in large part. Why? Because they had a long-term strategy to take our rights away. Even as they lost elections and legislative fights in the 1990s and 2000s, they were content to work their long game.
What sort of long-term planning did many Second Amendment supporters do to counter Holder’s brainwashing plan? Well, looking back, it seems like there wasn’t much. Far more energy was spent on damning the NRA for compromising here, or for whatever power struggles took place amongst the NRA Board of Directors. Tactical and strategic differences turned into personal feuds, and score-settling, not focusing on the long-term future of defending the Second Amendment.
And just as was the case when passage of the Firearms Owners Protection Act in 1986 masked the problems that the feuds of the 1980s were causing in the early 1990s, the passage of right-to-carry legislation and the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, plus the Heller decision, in the 1990s and 2000s, masked the fact that anti-Second Amendment extremists were consolidating their power and were preparing to leverage it.
Now, the likes of Bloomberg can hit Second Amendment supporters from all angles. Hollywood will portray ownership of guns as risking everyone around the gun owner. Corporate policies can deprive gun manufacturers and FFLs of the credit lines and payment processing that they need to survive as businesses. Silicon Valley censors Second Amendment supporters. Andrew Cuomo uses financial regulations to target Second Amendment supporters, and now there are rumblings that New York’s anti-Second Amendment attorney general may launch attacks of her own. If they can take out the NRA, then other pro-Second Amendment groups will be the next target.
Whether you’re a supporter of the Knox faction or the LaPierre faction, it doesn’t matter. Whether you like SAF, or GOA, or NRA also is irrelevant. We all share the blame for this, and we all have the responsibility to put what are relatively petty disagreements aside to deal with this. Continued focusing on them will only help Bloomberg.
So, how do we fix this? For starters, with one notable exception, we must ensure all pro-Second Amendment groups survive. Similarly, we must now look at what other pro-Second Amendment entities can bring to the table now and in the future, and let the past be the past. Perhaps Ackerman-McQueen, doesn’t just do advertising work and PR work for the NRA, maybe it can expand its clientele among the entire Second Amendment community. Forget the complaints about how much NRA money goes to Ackerman-McQueen – this firm is uniquely situated to help firearms manufacturers, instructors, and FFLs get their story out to local media and affect how exercising the Second Amendment is perceived. It could also help get pro-Second Amendment candidates elected.
At the same time, Second Amendment supporters must work their own long game. Take the time to go over the textbooks your schools use. Ask your kids what is being taught. Get involved with the PTA, and also with the local school board. This will take time. Other Second Amendment supporters will need to work their way up in the corporate, media, and creative arenas.
One thing is for sure: If Second Amendment supporters don’t get serious about long-term planning, they will lose, big time.
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.
From a nine-year NRA Director (on the Finance
Committee for 5).
THE 76 MEMBER NRA BOARD OF DIRECTORS IS DESIGNED TO FAIL.
Over half of them are Wayne’s long-term sycophants
who have KNOWN about the management’s problems
since 1997 when THEY conducted a three year purge
of the Board by defeating the 30+ reformers on it.
They are EACH every bit as guilty of dereliction of duty
as Wayne LaPierre is of self interested mismanagement.
It is not rocket science to turn this around. First and foremost it must be pointed out these anti’s are authoritarians. Make them defend their authoritarianism. They can couch they loose. They will get red faced, they will get angry but just calling their ideas authoritarian and point out the way they are wanting authoritarianism. What they are saying is government is the determiner of rights – your owner, the same government that murdered 18 million native Americans, the same government that ran The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male was an infamous and unethical clinical study… Read more »
Ackmc, LaPierre, Powell, cox, north….. they have a unique mindset on how to rid the second amendment clientele out of money. Every single one of these need to be sued by the NRA for everything from breach of contract, mis management, fraud, conspiracy to deprive etc. Killing every contract and pension of these people and ackmc, stripping them of any and all power, removing them permanently, and suing them to recoup monies from them during their reign of self promotion and self profiting from their positions. The only way the NRA can ever be able to get past the financial… Read more »
How about bringing an understanding of what a Civil Right is, and what our Constitutionally enshrined Civil Rights are back to the third grade (and all grades up to 12th).
Finally. Glad to see that SOMEONE is thinking strategically. The bickerers that only bicker will lose. I for one, don’t want to lose this fight.
Cut the bickering folks.
For once I completely agree with Harold.
Talk is cheap. Get involved or zip your lip.
Harold is nothing but an apologist for LaPierre and I’d wager benefits from member funds via LaPierre for his undying support of Emperor LaPierre and his corrupt organization.
We, the gun owners of america, Don’t have enough PR to educate the general public about firearms. MSM sucks when it comes protecting the second PR can only help and LOTS OF P.R.
Certainly strategic planning is important. And a key component of strategic planning is getting and keeping one’s own house in order. If we are to prevail, we must ensure that the organizations that represent us are in fact working on our behalf and not their own. If we want to win, we must direct our “2nd amendment groups” to act consistently in our behalf. It is not to our benefit to simply insist that we forget their flaws – we must correct them forcefully. We must first reform from within so as to present a united front to the enemy.… Read more »
“Perhaps Ackerman-McQueen, doesn’t just do advertising work and PR work for the NRA, maybe it can expand its clientele among the entire Second Amendment community. Forget the complaints about how much NRA money goes to Ackerman-McQueen – this firm is uniquely situated to help firearms manufacturers, instructors, and FFLs get their story out to local media and affect how exercising the Second Amendment is perceived. It could also help get pro-Second Amendment candidates elected.”
Harold, I think you had an epiphany with this statement: it’s called taking a lemon and making lemonade.