Stategies to Promote Understanding By Stu Chisholm

 My 

My wife and I are news junkies.  We have a nightly habit of pigging-out on various cable news

programs during dinner and discussing them.  Every now and then the topic of firearms comes up and will prompt my wife to ask me questions, since I’m the “gun nut” of the house.  I must also preface this by telling you that she’s not a shooter at all!  She’s never had an interest and, in fact, is a bit uneasy around firearms.  Beyond patiently and almost heroically learning how to clear my handguns and make them safe in case of an emergency, she’s otherwise happy to ignore them.  She’s a Democrat, but will sometimes vote person before party.  She’s thoughtful, emotional and intelligent.  In short, she’s like a lot of women we all know and love.

So when she asks me a question, I take the time to answer her as completely as I can, without any heat and without blundering into jargon that only we activists are familiar with.  If I don’t know something or am unsure of my facts, I’ll take the time to go to the computer and run a search, or crack open one of the many books on firearms I have around the house.  The conclusion of these sessions has become very predictable.  She simply asks, “So why don’t I hear this stuff on the news or read it in the papers?” 

This is a perfectly valid question.  I don’t bother trying to blame the “liberal media.”  The fact that my wife is a cable television producer and graduate of Central Michigan University, and that I’m a disc jockey and part-time writer makes us a part of the media!  We’ve studied it.  We understand it.  And we both know that the big, bad “liberal media” is a myth.  Oh, sure, there are liberal TV personalities, and maybe liberal editors, but there are just as many conservatives, if not more.  The biggest explosion in talk radio and cable news has been in the conservative sector! 

All of this isn’t my main point here, but included for my fellow pro-gun activists for perspective.  The main point is that, in the absence of a new John Stossell special, or any other good, well-researched information in the mainstream media, it falls to US to take the lead. 

For instance, with the election of Barack Obama and a Democratic majority in Congress, there’s been a lot of talk about the old Clinton “assault weapons” ban and the possibility of it being reinstated despite any evidence that it had any impact on violent crime. 

When I expressed my disgust at the idea, my wife of 23 years said, “Well, this may be one area where we part company.  I don’t see why anyone needs an assault weapon.”  It suddenly dawned on me that I’d never explained this to her!  So I eased into a dialogue by asking her if she knows what an assault weapon is.  Afterward, near the end of the conversation, I was explaining to her how my own rifle, which I won at a SAFR meeting and is a familiar sight around our home, was considered an “assault weapon” by some simply due to its cosmetic features.  (It is a semi-automatic version of an AK-47, a favorite boogeyman of the gun ban crowd.)  When our conversation wrapped-up, it was she who hit the Internet to find out if what I told her was true!  She simply couldn’t believe it.  She found out. 

One summer night, Representative Sander Levin decided to hold a “town hall meeting” in St. Clair Shores, close enough to my home that I couldn’t resist attending.  Looking around the hall, I noticed that there were more women than men, and there were also a lot of senior citizens in the group.  I originally decided to just sit and listen, as the biggest concern for most of the crowd was Jobs, the worsening economy and Social Security.  Yet unknown to me, a fellow gun rights activist was in the front row and called the Senator to task for some of his votes.  While I applauded his spirit, he made the mistake of using the term “anti-gun,” which prompted a woman sitting next to me to say, “Well, I’M anti-gun!”  This was an opening I couldn’t resist! 

“Are you really anti-gun,” I asked, “meaning that you oppose a senior citizen from having protection in their own home or a divorcee with a restraining order against a bully ex-husband being able to have a gun, or would you more accurately describe yourself as anti-violence?”  This made quite a few folks around us turn their heads and, expectantly, wait along with me as she considered her answer.  “Yes, I suppose that’s a better description.  I’m just sick of all the violence.”  I shook her hand and said, “So am I, and I’m an NRA member.”  She, and our onlookers, seemed genuinely surprised, and it touched-off a side-conversation after the meeting that had more people gathering around me than the Senator!  There was no yelling, but some very sincere questions posed by people who, up until then, hadn’t thought much about firearms beyond the bad stuff they saw paraded by on the nightly news or in action movies.  A lot of them thanked me, shook hands and uttered words that were all too familiar: “Why haven’t I heard this anywhere else?” 

My wife sometimes complains when Wayne LaPierre of the NRA, or Eric Pratt of the GOA appears on a cable TV program, that they come off either as hotheads or militants bordering on crazy.  I laughed-off her comments until I caught LaPierre myself one afternoon.  He was going head-to-head with some anti-gunner, and he let his emotions get the better of him.  Who likes to watch people yelling and talking over each other on a news program?  I decided that Wayne needs an image makeover! 

As I explained to my wife, the NRA is, among other things, a lobbying organization.  We all have our various pet issues, and whatever your issue, there’s a lobby.  When you join one, you WANT them to be tough advocates for your issue!  Even the liberals expect NARAL, Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and the Sierra Club to be forceful!  Yet to the average person, they appear as extremists.  Their passion looks like anger or hostility, they seem rigid and inflexible and they sometimes use words that onlookers don’t understand!  This thwarts any possibility of learning or understanding, and may even reinforce some prejudices that were already present.  Message to Wayne: adjust your delivery to your audience! 

And what about inflexibility?  Could it be that this perception has merit? 

Talking to non-gun-owners is a lot like talking to people who don’t build and fly radio-controlled airplanes or don’t ride horses; they have some ideas about it, but in reality know very little.  In fact, when it comes to guns, many are eager to learn!  More often than not, they readily ask questions.  Answers prompt more questions, and soon you’ve built a dialogue that is far more effective than any talking head cable show.  I’m often struck by how sincere these people are, and that includes local members of groups like the “Million Mom March.”  They’re simply women who are appalled by all the violence, and they’re usually very surprised to find out that most NRA members are too. 

“No compromise” sounds good if you’re a lobbyist.  Yet we gun owners must take the time and thought to consider that people like that woman at the town hall meeting have legitimate concerns!  We want to keep our kids safe at school and at home.  Although rare, accidental shootings get plenty of “if it bleeds, it leads” press, we, as the pro-gun community, must not consider efforts to reduce crime and violence as compromise, but must be active participants to assure that those efforts are as effective as possible without infringing on the right to obtain, own and carry firearms.  We must always be at the ready to rationally, logically and factually explain the reality of firearm use and safety.  At the same time, we must realize that this is an emotionally charged issue, and work hard not to give those we’re trying to influence the impression that we think they’re stupid, irrational or foolish.  They’re human, after all.  There’s a huge difference between taking someone under your wing and bludgeoning them with Ted Nugent’s “crowbar of logic.”  The latter might work well with your hunting buddies, but I recommend the former when you’re talking to the moms and dads at the PTA meeting. 

With the shifting political winds, nationally and locally, it is more important than ever to establish a dialogue between the pro-gun community and the community at large.  That doesn’t mean talking AT.  It means real, 2-way conversation.  It means fair consideration of other people’s fears, concerns and ideas.  We can no longer afford an “us vs. them” perspective.  Guns cannot be a partisan issue.  We fight for the rights of all.  Let’s cultivate our patience, work hard against intolerance, and always – ALWAYS – be ready, willing, able and HAPPY to educate others, together and individually. 

November 20, Roseville, MI