Stop Bigotry Against Armed America
We have a name for it when the majority of us blame an innocent minority. It is called bigotry. The non-gun owning majority of US adults blames legal gun owners for wrongs that armed america didn’t commit. Armed america is blamed for social ills they didn’t cause, and for which they may, in fact, be part of the solution. Recent polls show how bigoted the majority of us are. I wrote about these differences and the source of the misperception between disarmed and armed america. How should we stop this bigotry against legal gun owners?
We must first recognize that this is not an argument about facts and figures. Licensed gun owners are the most law abiding and non-violent segment of our population. This argument is about how gun-owners are perceived by unarmed america. The defense of armed america must start with those who create the false perception of gun owners. We have to stop the stream of lies.
Zero tolerance in the news
The majority of unarmed urban americans don’t own guns and don’t have friends who do. They get their impressions from the news. They see a series of crime reports and think legal gun ownership leads to criminal violence and mass murder. Ask your local paper to run articles that accurately report some of the thousands of justified self-defense events that happen every day.
Zero tolerance in entertainment
There are a lot of cop shows and crime dramas. They portray competent and attractive government agents using guns. Armed citizens are usually shown as unattractive and incompetent. Write in to the shows and tell them they are promoting bigotry against armed america. Repost your comment on social media.
Zero tolerance in the courts
We maliciously prosecute non-violent gun owners who have inadvertently and non-violently violated one of our 23 thousand gun laws. Vote against judges and attorneys who prosecute these innocent gun owners. Acquit these gun owners when you’re called onto a jury. More than one-out-of-12 of us have a gun in the home.
Zero tolerance from our legislators
Eliminate the laws that treat gun owners as second class citizens. Why do we have to pay a tax to exercise a human right? This bigotry deliberately disarms the poor. Ask your legislators why are we deliberately excluded from schools, churches, and some lunch counters?
Zero tolerance for commerce and culture
Avoid “gun-free” zones. You wouldn’t do business with a store that excluded blacks or Catholics, so why are you doing business with someone who excludes armed Americans? Go to another store, theater, or sports complex. Also, find a new merchant if your bank, grocery store or credit card company donates to bigoted organizations.
There are a thousand ways to end this bigotry.
I’ve given you my ideas, but you are many and I am one. What should we do to change hearts and minds?
Share this:
Over 16.3 million concealed handgun permits last year, largest increase ever- Crime Prevention Research Center
“During President Obama’s administration, the number of concealed handgun permits soared to over 16.36 million – a 256% increase since 2007. Unlike surveys that may be affected by people’s unwillingness to answer some personal questions, concealed handgun permit data is the only really “hard data” that we have on gun ownership across the United States.”
Read the full report from the CPRC here.
Share this:
Blaming Gun Owners- 2017
What do most of us think about legal gun owners? In theory, legally armed Americans are just like anyone else. In practice, unarmed america views firearms owners with fear and distrust. The news and entertainment media built a false image of legal gun owners. These distortions leave honest gun owners as political scapegoats.
What does unarmed america think about guns?
Pew Research released recent reports describing the views of non-gun owners. Firearms owners are a minority of the US adult population. Distilling their impression from dozens of reports, the unarmed majority are afraid of guns and gun owners. The majority thinks armed america is dangerous. This shows in their personal and their political preferences.
Unarmed America thinks firearms education is essential. They think gun owners should take firearm safety classes. We never learn if unarmed america has actually studied gun safety themselves. Non-gun owners are so afraid of firearms that about half of them say they need to be told when they’ve unknowingly entered a gun owner’s home. They feel less safe if a gun in the home.
Unarmed america also has policy prescriptions for gun owners. People who don’t own guns think guns are easy to get and that criminals obey gun laws. They think more gun laws would change how criminals behave and would make us safer. Unarmed america thinks legal gun ownership actually enables violent crime and mass murder. That is the underlying attitude of the american majority.
Who taught unarmed america about legal gun owners?
Based on the Pew reports, unarmed Americans who live in rural areas actually have friends who own guns. They know gun owners and have used firearms themselves. In contrast, urban unarmed Americans don’t have friends who own guns. Despite the claim of a richer and more diverse social network in an urban setting, unarmed Americans in our cities have segregated themselves. They don’t meet and socialize with their armed neighbors.
Without real world experience, where does unarmed america learn about firearms? Their perception of armed america comes from the news and entertainment media. Consider what they see and hear.
The news shows them on a daily basis that gangs use guns for both intimidation and violence. Unarmed america is unaware that honest gun owners use a firearm in self-defense far more often than guns are used in criminal activity. The majority never hears about the thousands of law abiding gun owners who defend themselves and their families every day. In their perception, it never happens.
Unarmed Americans know that terrorists and mass rampage murderers use guns to hurt large numbers of people. These events are heavily covered in the news. Unarmed america doesn’t hear about the mass murders that were stopped by honest gun owners.
Going a step further, we’ve now demonized the police. This means that the majority of Americans never see legally owned firearms used to defend the innocent. These distorted news reports inform the majority view.
The entertainment media reads from the same script. There are lots of police and crime shows on broadcast TV and cable channels. These dramas seldom show an honest and competent gun owner preventing a crime. That plot line doesn’t make a compelling 40 minute drama. The recurring characters must have the spotlight and save the day. Reality simply doesn’t make good art. For dozens of hours every week, the majority of us sees criminals use guns, while honest gun owners are portrayed in a negative light if they are shown at all. We would call it propaganda if it were done deliberately. The result is that legal gun owners and unarmed america live in different worlds.
What does this mean for legal gun owners?
The majority of US citizens see legally armed america as part of the violence problem. They think disarming legal gun owners is a solution to urban violence.
Armed america is demonized, deliberately alienated, and blamed for the violence in our cities despite the fact that licensed gun owners are the most law abiding and least violent segment of society. This bigotry comes from misperception, and perhaps from frustration with failed urban politics. The majority responds to what it sees, and what is sees is a deliberate manipulation of reality. This distortion plays into the hands of partisan politicians.
A minority of Democrats own guns. Hillary Clinton confirmed that segregation when she publicly identified the NRA as her political enemy. The media bias from our liberal urban media centers promotes that viewpoint, both explicitly and tacitly. A majority of US adults agree.
It is only a matter of time before a Democrat/Socialist/Progressive politician used his political position to exploit that bigotry against armed america. In the mean time, what are honest firearms owners going to do to change that perception?
Share this:
The Rise of Concealed Carry | RealClearPolicy
Dr. John Lott describes the growing number of people carrying a concealed firearm and who benefits the most from armed self-defense. Give Dr. Lott a read. RM
“..the people most likely to be victims of violent crime benefit the most from having a gun to protect themselves..
“I think police are the single most important factor, but if you look at interviews..you find that they understand themselves that they virtually always arrive on the crime scene after the crimes occurred, and that raises the question about what people should do when they have to confront a criminal by themselves. By far, the safest course of action is for people to have a gun.
“The second group of people who benefit the most from having a gun are people who are relatively weaker physically — women and the elderly.”
Source: The Rise of Concealed Carry | RealClearPolicy
Share this:
Yes, elections have consequences, but will politicians be blamed for destroying jobs in Seattle and New York City? I predict the politicians will make more of us unemployed..and then call for more welfare. That works for the politicians. RM
The New York restaurant industry is slowing down, adding fewer jobs and shedding eateries amidst recent hikes in the minimum wage.The Empire State lost 1,000 restaurants last year and the number of jobs as cooks, servers and dishwashers grew by an anemic 1.4 percent. That’s a far cry from the 4.4 percent annual growth the state’s eateries enjoyed from 2010 to 2015, according to the Employment Policies Institute, a nonprofit research group.The Big Apple accounts for the lion’s share of the state’s growth — and the slowdowns in the city are more dramatic.
Source: Restaurant workers feeling the pinch in New York | New York Post
Share this:
Legal gun ownership is heavily regulated in the United States. Protecting our rights is not necessary when we agree. It becomes essential to protect a minority view, and gun owners are a minority here in the US. Pew research conducted a series of interviews last month. They released reports on the opinions of gun owners and non-gun owners. Here are where gun owners and non-owners disagree based on recent polling data.
The urban/rural divide-
Gun-culture 2.0 is centered around self-defense rather than hunting. That motivation has grown in recent years but there is still a large urban/rural divide in gun ownership and the attitude towards firearms. Most rural households have a gun. Urban households with a gun remain a minority. You’re almost twice as likely to live with a gun in your home if you live in the country as opposed to the city. There are similarities. A majority of gun owners in both settings have a loaded gun easily accessible.
There are also large differences between the urban and rural culture. A majority of rural non-gun owners say they have friends who own guns. Despite the myth of urban diversity, a minority of urban non-gun owners say they have friends who own guns. There is some common ground between gun owners and non-gun owners. A majority of non-gun owners in both urban and rural areas say they have at least fired a gun.
Affiliations-
The handgun owners who carry concealed are significantly more likely to be NRA members than those handgun owners who don’t carry. NRA members are significantly less supportive of background checks than are non-NRA gun owners. Gun owners who are NRA members were almost five times more likely to contact their political representatives about gun policy than gun owners who are not NRA members.
Sexual division-
People who admit over the phone to owning a gun are three times more likely to be male than female. On average, women learned about guns when they were 8 years older than when men learned about guns. Women are a growing part of the gun culture, but they have not reached parity yet.
Disagreement about safe storage-
Non-gun owners have different standards of gun safety than people who actually own a gun. A majority of non-gun owners think all guns should be kept unloaded at all times with ammunition stored separately. A majority of gun owners disagree. That divergent opinion might be explained by the reality of keeping both guns and ammunition in a locked gun safe. We simply don’t know.
Duty to inform-
A minority of both gun owners and non-gun owners say it is essential to tell visitors there is a gun in the home. Though a minority view, non-gun owners were almost five times as likely to say that gun owners should tell visitors that there is a gun in the home. Non-gun owners were almost twice as likely to say there is a duty to inform if the visitors have children. Again, this difference may be masked by the practice of safe storage.
Personal protection versus sporting use-
The majority of gun owners say they own a gun for personal protection. A majority of gun owners also say that they feel safer having a gun in their home. As expected, a minority of people living without a gun in the home feel that having a gun would make them feel safer.
Safety training-
A clear majority of gun owners say they have taken a firearms safety course. A majority of non-gun owners say that safety training is essential but they have never taken such training themselves. I wonder who will teach their children about gun safety?
The right to keep and bear-
Gun owners and non-gun owners disagree on the right to keep and bear arms. They disagree about banning “assault weapons”, banning “high capacity magazines”, and reducing the number and type of “gun-free” zones. Non-gun owners think gun laws work.
Guns and crime-
Gun owners think legal gun ownership reduces crime, while non-gun owners think legal gun ownership leads to more crime. Non-gun owners think easier access to legal gun ownership would lead to mass shootings. They think legal gun owners are part of the problem. Gun owners disagree.
The poll gives us public opinion. We may argue that the opinion is uninformed or inaccurate, but that is a separate discussion. It shows us the clear differences between the gun culture and opinions held by the majority.
~_~_
I gave you 600 words. Please leave a comment, a like, and a share. RM
Share this:
Al Gore lied, and people died. Global warming is a scam.
“It is therefore quite-clear that the data has been intentionally tampered with. Since this has formed the basis for plans to steal literal trillions of dollars and has already resulted in the forced extraction of hundreds of billions in aggregate for motorists and industry this quite-clearly constitutes the largest economic fraud ever perpetrated in the world. I call for the indictment and prosecution of every person and organization involved, asset-stripping all of them to their literal underwear.”
