United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- When it comes to defending the Second Amendment, the only thing that is possibly more infuriating than anti-Second Amendment extremists are the gun owners who don’t get involved. The numbers are there to make this issue a deal-breaker for any politician. According to Pew Research, 30 percent of Americans admit they own at least one firearm. Another 11 percent say they know someone who owns at least one firearm.
This comes to about 99 million admitted gun owners, plus another roughly 36 million who say they know a gun owner. That comes to 135 million people. To put that into perspective, 136,669,276 people voted in the 2016 presidential election.
Now, according to Pew, 19 percent of gun owners say they belong to the NRA. If only those responses were backed up by the NRA’s actual membership numbers. If the NRA had almost 19 million members as opposed to almost six million, the whole political landscape regarding our rights would be very different.
But far too many gun owners are not involved. Why is that? In some ways, they haven’t given the issue much thought – they don’t see the issue as affecting their hunting guns. Or the ones handed down from their parents, grandparents, or through past generations.
While some like to deride people in that position as “Fudds,” it’s a very short-sighted course of action. In many cases, these are people who, with the right approach, could be convinced to get involved in defending the Second Amendment. Why don’t they? Part of the problem is the fact that there are some Second Amendment supporters who manage to convince people who don’t like gun control to not get involved, or worse yet, to support the Bloomberg agenda.
Why are these potential supporters choosing to sit on the sidelines, or worse yet, going along with anti-Second Amendment extremists? Because some Second Amendment supporters are more interested in contests of philosophical purity rather than effective advocacy, and rather than educate those who have honest questions, they preach to the choir with the same sense of moral superiority we get from the likes of Bloomberg. It’s just as off-putting, and what is worse, media outlets like CNN will blast it out – with the appropriate commentary from hosts as biased as Chris Cuomo – whose brother is Andrew Cuomo.
This is why poorly thought-out Second Amendment advocacy can be much worse than no Second Amendment advocacy at all. As I have said before, it is understandable to be angry and indignant about the injustices that the likes of Michael Bloomberg, Dianne Feinstein, Eric Swalwell, and others seek to inflict on law-abiding citizens who have nothing to do with the tragic misuse of our Second Amendment rights. But when you let the anger take control, it can have the opposite of your intended effect. Fighting hard does no good unless we’re smart about it.
For just one example of how hotheads can ruin pro-Second Amendment advocacy, look at the Ask Amy saga not so long ago. The notion that a parent’s love for a child should have a lower priority than hatred for the Second Amendment ought to be an easy slam-dunk for Second Amendment supporters to paint anti-Second Amendment extremism in a bad light, but it was blown because at best, some Second Amendment supporters didn’t consider how their responses to her would come across, and sabotaged any chance (even a minuscule one) of getting someone hostile to our rights to rethink their position.
How do we get gun owners who aren’t involved to get involved in the fight for the Second Amendment? It’s about outreach, it’s politely correcting misconceptions, building bonds, finding out why they are not involved, and then making sure our words and actions reflect ourselves and the Second Amendment in a way that they will want to be involved in the defense of our freedoms.
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.
We need to frame the argument in much broader terms. What I mean by that is we need to place the Second Amendment in its broader context of an enumerated Natural Right working in concert with the other enumerated Natural Rights. These rights are not granted by government. This is a hard sell to a culture who think the Federalist Papers is a government union newsletter. We simply have to educate people on a much broader scale and reverse the convoluted and incomplete education people get via public school. Frame the specifics of the 2A arguments more broadly. Ask people… Read more »
@nrringlee, Well said. It would seem that in a society that is becoming more and more narcissistic the notion of freedom would resonate.
AMEN!! No compromise!!
No compromise on any enumerated Natural Right. All of the amendments are important.
The title of the article was a clear indication of who wrote it without even reading it. If the NRA membership increased to at least half of the number of gun owners in the country then Wayne would have to hire more assistants to figure out how to squander that much more money. The idea is very simple, when people pay money they expect to see a value come from it and that doesn’t include what Wayne wears or who he provides quarters for.
Bingo
HERE IS THE PROBLEM! People just do not get the concept that the Bill of Rights (BOR) are ten amendments SPECIFICALLY WRITTEN by the founders to protect INDIVIDUAL CITIZENS from the potential abuse of power power the founders EARLIER wrote into the Constitution. The BOR are not and never were government rights but only intended for individual citizens. This is first necessary to understand the Second Amendment and why it is there and that the militia is NOT the national guard (established much later by law in 1911 and implemented in 1916) but that the militia is just individual citizens… Read more »
The problem is that each type of gun owner just thinks of themselves. The shotgun hunters/Skeet and Trap shooters think that gun control has nothing to do with them since they don’t shoot one of the little black guns and will continue to think that up until the government comes for their guns and then they will suddenly realized that ALL gun owners needed to fight the anti-gun idiots. The same with the hunters, they think that their hunting rifle is safe since it isn’t one of those EEEVVVIIILLLL little black guns. Each segment of gun owners are to involved… Read more »
I have a beautiful full stock, TALO edition mannlicher 10/22 with basket weave checkering. I even put on a matching leather sling with a basket weave pattern to match the checkering. It is this rifle I show pictures of to those who dont understand firearms and ask them “Does this look like an assault rifle to you?” Of course, they answer no, and I then procede to explain how it is one of the specific rifles always targeted by such bans, the differences in chamberings, ect. These are the non gun owners, and they usually walk away with a different… Read more »
Sorry Harold, you strike out again. You falsely try to paint 2A purists as the baddie, when it’s the other way around. You cannot blame purists for driving ‘nominal fudds’ into the arms of the Bloomberg machine!! No, if some gun owners support the anti-2A agenda, it is because they ARE fudds!! Moreover, the opposite argument can be made for the vast majority of gun owners, and likely the actual reason why they remain OUT of the 2A fight for our rights: They have seen what the fudds and NRA shills (like you, Harold) have done to shore up the… Read more »
Harold, apparently reading comprehension is at an all time low. What you’re saying makes total sense. Reach out and bring someone in instead of driving them away. Good advice for those willing to take an introspective view of their approach. If ya’ll wonder why you haven’t brought anyone into the fold lately, if people you talk to seem put off and want to change the subject, or get away from you altogether—it’s you and your thundering approach. Harold’s not saying that screaming, “Shall not be infringed” at a rally is wrong. But if you’re eating out with some family/friends and… Read more »
Winning consensus is largely about connecting with others…being known, trusted, and liked, and engaging. Ripping someone’s position on an issue right out of the gate will end the opportunity to gain consensus and change their views to align with your pro-2A position.
About half way through I stater thinking “Gee, that doesn’t sound right.” After a couple more paragraphs I’m beginning to think “This guy is an idiot”. Scroll one more time and see Harold Hacks up some’s picture and then I know for sure “Yep, he’s an idiot”. More of his “Don’t upset the Left , confronting the opposition with conviction is a bad idea” BS.
Harold, yer a yella coward and an embarrassment to PoTG.
Boy, Wouldnt it be something if a cowardly tratior named Harold Hutchison actually started defending the second amendment? Unfortunately we must deal with reality. Harold, stupidly as natural, thinks that we view gun owners who are not signed up as “Fudds.” This is first and foremost a lie. A “Fudd” is a specific type of individual. The “Fudd” is the gun owner who joins a group(NRA) to virtue signal how much they care about their rights, and then spends all their time criticizing and blaming anyone who refuses to join their group(NRA), or worse those working inside the group to… Read more »
2A supporters should consider JPFO membership as well as NRA. JPFO has some excellent comic book ty,pe publications: “Grandpa Jack”. They are factual, educational, pleasant reading. Leave them on table everywhere.
Also their “Dial 911 and die” is a great book.