http://www.saf.org/pub/rkba/books/dfndgr.txt
Things You Can Do
To
Defend Your Gun Rights
(Electronic Edition)
Alan Gottlieb
and
Dave Kopel
Other Books by the Authors
By Alan M. Gottlieb
The Rights of Gun Owners
The Gun Grabbers
Gun Rights Fact Book
By David B. Kopel
The Samurai, the Mountie, and Cowboy: Should America Adopt the
Gun Controls of Other Democracies?
Gun Control in Great Britain: Saving Lives or Constricting
Liberty?
Distributed By
Merril Press
PO Box 1682 Bellevue, WA 98009
Electronic Edition Published and Distributed By
Lektra Press
PO Box 1120, Merrimack, NH 03054-1120
info@lektra.com
R. Craig Peterson, Publisher
in co-operation with Mainstream Electronic Information Services.
THINGS YOU CAN DO TO DEFEND YOUR GUN RIGHTS
A Merril Press Book/published by arrangement with the authors.
Electronic Edition Published by permission of Merril Press by Lektra
Press, PO Box 1120, Merrimack, NH 03054-1120.
Telephone (603) 672-8333
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1993 by Allan M. Gottlieb and David B. Kopel
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any
form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information
storage and retrieval systems without written permission, except in
the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and
reviews.
For information, permissions, or additional copies of this book,
contact Merril Press, P.O. Box 1682, Bellevue, Washington 98009.
Telephone (206) 454-7009
Hardcopy ISBN: 0-936783-10-9 Electronic ISBN: 1-886281-34-3
Printed in the United States of America
Dedication
To our wives Deirdre and Julie, our best friends.
User's Warning
This book attempts to provide information about methods to
preserve and protect the rights we all share. Some of the advice is
based on first-hand experience, and some is based on recommendations
of others. While we've tried to make the book as accurate as possible,
we can't promise or guarantee particular results. It is the reader's
responsibility to put the book to use in an appropriate manner.
A Note on Usage
Half the people in country are female, so we thought it
inappropriate to use ``he'' and ``him'' exclusively. At the same time, we
thought it cumbersome to always say ``he or she.'' So some of the time
we use ``he'' by itself, and sometimes we use ``she'' by itself. The
gender pronoun chosen never has any significance, and everything in
this book applies equally to men and women.
Introduction
``IF JUST ONE TENTH OF THE PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY WHO OWN GUNS WOULD
RAISE THEIR VOICES TO THE POLITICIANS, OR CONTRIBUTE A SMALL AMOUNT OF
THEIR TIME AND MONEY, WE COULD STOP THE BAN-THE-GUN CROWD.'' Former
California State Assemblyman Tom McClintock
If you own a gun, you can defend yourself against a criminal
attack. But how can you defend yourself against people who want to
take away your right to even own a gun? This book tells you how.
In the struggle over the right to bear arms, the gun
prohibitionists start with a tremendous organizational advantage. The
anti-gun movement is hierarchical--that is, its direction comes from
the top down. A few professional strategists decide the issue of the
year: how a waiting period will supposedly stop drug dealers from
getting guns (how about a waiting period for drugs, so they couldn't
get drugs either); how ``plastic handguns'' are being used by
terrorists (even though there's no such thing as a plastic handgun);
the record numbers of toddlers being killed in gun accidents (record
low, that is); the epidemic of mass murder by ``assault weapon''
(another gun control fib).
From there, the gun control lobbies feed the story to their
ventriloquist dummies in the media, such as Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw.
The establishment media's contempt for gun owners is so intense that
the veracity of the story is of little import. Thus, a new issue is
born. Politicians who confuse media opinion with public opinion are
intimidated into enacting more and more severe restrictions on gun
owners.
The right to bear arms movement, in contrast, works from the
grassroots up. We don't get hundred of millions of dollars in free
advertising (thinly disguised as news shows) from the media. The
strength of the right to bear arms movement comes almost entirely from
individual citizens who take up the burden of defending the rights of
all Americans. Thus, the battle is joined: the prohibition forces and
the media, versus ordinary citizens.
Happily, ordinary citizens can do some things in large numbers
that Dan Rather can't: they can write letters to Congress; they can
vote gun prohibitionists out of office; and they can even push the
media to re-examine its attitudes. We can pass on a free society to
the next generations--if we will roll up our sleeves to do the hard
work of preserving liberty.
Of course there are plenty of excuses for not getting
involved, like:
o The NRA will take care of everything. The problem is that the
power of the NRA, and the rest of the pro-rights movement, is based on
grassroots strength.
o Other people don't do their share, so why should I? Well, lots
of other people, including the folks we mention in this book, do their
share and a whole lot more.
o The gun confiscators are going to win no matter what we do.
The gun control lobbies certainly want you to think that. But they're
wrong. In the last 20 years, America has become significantly more
urbanized. Yet in many states, the right to bear arms is stronger than
it was 20 years ago.
The name of this book isn't ``The 500 Commandments.'' You
don't have to do everything suggested here; and unless you have 48
hours in a day, you couldn't anyway. While some of the ideas are very
simple to implement (e.g., register to vote, join the NRA), many
others take a lot of follow-through. For the more time-consuming
projects, take on just one or two at a time, starting with the ones
that best fit your inclinations and talents. As you gain experience in
the struggle for freedom, new ideas and projects will suggest
themselves.
While these ideas are geared towards Second Amendment issues,
many of our suggestions are just as applicable to folks who are
fighting to protect other freedoms in the Bill of Rights. We hope this
book is useful to them as well.
PART I
EDUCATING YOURSELF,
AND OTHERS
American writer Gertrude Stein once described her hometown
Oakland: ``When you get there, there isn't any there there.'' Gun
control is a lot like Oakland: There isn't any reality there. The
people who want to take your guns have loads of misplaced emotion,
prejudice, and disinformation to feed the press. But they're in short
supply of facts and statistics.
This section details the public information side of the gun
rights debate: how to inform yourself about the issues, and how to
inform others.
1. Feed Your Head: Books
``THE THINGS I WANT TO KNOW ARE IN BOOKS; MY BEST FRIEND IS THE MAN
WHO'LL GET ME A BOOK I AIN'T READ.'' Abraham Lincoln
Defenders of the right to bear arms have facts and logic on
their side, but the gun prohibitionists have the media on their side.
Most people get their information only from the media; hence, most
people are badly misinformed about the facts of the gun issue. One of
the responsibilities of being a gun owner is rationally explaining the
facts about gun ownership to your friends and acquaintances. Below is
a list of some of the best books and other materials written about the
right to bear arms, so you can arm yourself with knowledge.
If you're fairly new to the gun issue, the volume of materials
available may seem daunting. Don't worry. There are good books for
every level of knowledge about the right to bear arms.
Starters
Research Reports published by the Second Amendment Foundation
are a series of short and informative pamphlets about various aspects
of the right to keep and bear arms. The Reports are issued as the
result of SAF's continuous research into the social, political, and
legal aspects of firearm rights. Current titles include: Supreme Court
Decisions Regarding The Second Amendment; Saving Seven Days Time While
Fighting Crime: Instant Background Checks as an Alternative to the
Brady Bill; The Role of Firearms In Self Defense; Bans on
Semi-Automatics: Unconstitutional Hysteria; Handgun Control: Its
Threat to Rifle & Shotgun Ownership; Handgun Purchase Waiting Periods:
Do they Reduce Crime? Each of these reports are fact-filled sources
for knowledge about gun use and ownership in America.
The reports are available at no charge from the Second
Amendment Foundation, 12500 NE 10th Place, Bellevue, WA 98005
1-206-454-7012.
The National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative
Action (NRA/ILA) publishes its own set of short brochures about gun
control issues. Titles include: Ten Myths About Gun Control, Gun Law
Failures, A Push for Gun Control, Criminals Don't Wait--Why Should
You?, Semi-Automatic Firearms: A Citizen's Choice, The Armed Citizen,
Don't Buy HCI Lies, 1993 NRA Firearms Fact Card, It Can Happen to You,
Interstate Transportation, and 1993 Compendium of State Laws. NRA also
publishes short brochures about the gun laws of each state, as well as
separate brochures for Washington, DC and New York City (two
jurisdictions whose low crime rates prove how effective gun control
really is.) The booklets can be obtained from Information and Member
Services, NRA/ILA. For the NRA's address and telephone, see chapter
25.
Books: Two Basics
The material in the SAF Research Reports and in the NRA/ILA
brochures is a good starting point for educating yourself on the gun
issue. If you don't have much time for reading, the Reports and
brochures provide you with well-researched quick summaries of issues.
But as a Second Amendment activist, you'll likely be interested in
learning more and more about the issue, for your own interest, as well
as to provide support for your activist work.
An excellent first book on the gun issue The Rights of Gun
Owners by Alan Gottlieb. This compilation of all federal and state
laws relating to guns and ammunition includes everything from
constitutional guarantees to licenses, regulations, concealed weapons,
waiting periods, ammunition purchases, postal regulations, and
crossing state borders. This book details what your rights are, how
those rights are being destroyed, and how to protect yourself from a
government grown too powerful. For those concerned about the
preservation and extension of freedom of gun ownership, this book is a
very good primer.
$9.95 from Merril Press, P.O. Box 1682, Bellevue, WA 98009. To
order by phone call 1-206-454-7009.
Another fine first book (and a good second book as well) is
the Gun Rights Fact Book, also by Alan Gottlieb. The book is easy to
read, and organized by topic (i.e., ``Media Bias'', ``Plastic Guns'').
The book is an excellent source for key facts about just about every
gun control issue.
The book is not footnoted, so it's not particularly suited as
a starting point for research on gun control.
If you're already a gun rights activist, you may already know
much of the information presented in the Gun Rights Fact Book. If so,
the book is a good tool for you to use by giving it to your
less-informed pro-gun friends.
$3.95 from the Merril Press, P.O. Box 1682, Bellevue, WA
98009, same phone number as above.
Just the Facts, Ma'am
Once you're ready to plunge in a little deeper, there are
several sources that provide good overall coverage of the gun control
issue in a readable format. These sources, while written in an
accessible style, are aimed at a somewhat more sophisticated audience
than the two Alan Gottlieb books we just described. These sources also
contain extensive footnotes or endnotes which, while not providing an
obstacle to persons who just want to read the main text, allow persons
who want to press deeper to find out where to go.
Guns, Murders, and the Constitution: A Realistic Assessment of
Gun Control is a gem by Don B. Kates, Jr. For the last two decades,
Kates has been the star intellectual of the pro-gun movement. Kates'
prodigious writing has been published in popular magazines like
Harpers and scholarly journals like the Michigan Law Review that had
never before printed anything pro-gun. Virtually every academic who
has defended the right to bear arms has consulted with Kates. A
prolific pro-Second Amendment writer, Kates has opened up more minds
on the subject of gun control than anyone in the history of the United
States. This 64 page velo-bound monograph (short study) is an
excellent summary Kates' work, particularly regarding the evidence
about gun control and self-defense.
Kates demolishes the myth that domestic homicides are
perpetrated by nice people who just happened to have a gun around when
their wife burned the dinner, dissects the pompous assertions of white
male academics that women are better off submitting to rape than
resisting with a gun, and puts to rest the anti-gun lobby's phony
claims about childhood gun accidents. Eight dollars from the Pacific
Research Institute for Public Policy, 177 Post St., San Francisco, CA
94108. 1-415-989-0833.
Trust the People: The Case Against Gun Control, by David B.
Kopel. Here's a review from gun activist Neal Knox's computer
bulletin board: ``A relatively short (32 typewritten pages) well
documented (plus 20 pages of references) overview of the basic issues.
One of the best things you can use to convince an individual with a
potentially open mind. It's fact filled, well written, forcefully
argued, and makes sure to hit all the right liberal hot buttons (civil
rights, racial and sexual discrimination, etc.). For the price, you
have no excuse for not getting it.''
$4 from the Cato Institute, 1000 Mass. Ave. NW, Washington DC
20001-5403. (202) 842-0200. Request ``Policy Analysis #109, Trust the
People.''
The Gun Control Debate: You Decide, by Lee Nisbet provides an
excellent pro-and-con overview of the gun control topic. Nisbet went
to pro-rights and pro-control organizations, and asked them to suggest
the best essays which had been written in favor of their respective
positions. The 24 essays collected in Nisbet's book offer a ``greatest
hits'' collection of pro-rights scholarship, and also provide an
up-close look at the best material the pro-control side has to offer.
The contrast in the quality of scholarship between the pro-rights side
and the pro-control side is sometimes startling. Studying the
pro-control essays gives you a heads-up on the arguments you will most
likely encounter from pro-control folks.
Available from Prometheus Books, Buffalo, NY, 800-767-1241 (24
hours), or from Merril Press (address and phone above).
Advanced Stuff
Without any doubt, one book stands out at the single best
source of information about guns and gun control in America: Point
Blank: Guns and Violence in America, by Gary Kleck. Simply put, Point
Blank is the best overview of gun control that can be found.
Summarizing the findings of other scholars, and presenting original
research, Kleck demonstrates the folly of harsh gun controls.
Is the average gun owner so stupid and clumsy that he risks
killing himself accidentally with the gun he brought for protection?
Kleck analyzes gun accidents in detail, and shows that most accident
perpetrators are outrageously reckless and irresponsible, and have
little in common with the average gun owner. Kleck also observes that
most ``accidents'' said to occur while cleaning a gun are really
suicides.
Is the gun in the home or business a menace to society? Just
the opposite. Through thoroughly documented numerical data, Kleck
shows that Americans use handguns at least 645,000 times a year for
self-defense (usually without needing to fire a shot). The high rate
of American gun ownership explains why burglary of occupied residences
is so low in comparison to the rates in other countries. Overall, an
American criminal's chances of getting shot by his victim are at least
as great as his chances of going to jail.
Have gun registration, gun prohibition, or any of the rest of
the gun control litany had any statistically perceptible effect in
reducing crime? The answer is ``no,'' suggests Kleck, and he does a
particularly good job in skewering the pseudo-science that the
anti-gun lobbies claim supports their cause.
While intended to be accessible to a general readership, Point
Blank is written for a rigorous academic audience. Accordingly, some
paragraphs of the book delve into technical discussion of quantitative
sociology that will be over the head of anyone without at least two
semesters of a college statistics classes and a fond memory of slide
rules.
The book is well-organized, with a strong table of contents,
index, subheadings, and other reader aids. Thus, instead of reading
the book straight through, you can use it as a guide to all the
research regarding gun control in modern America. So when you want to
write a letter to the editor and supply the real facts about the
(extremely low) rate of childhood gun accidents, Point Blank will have
all the information available right there. And every chapter is
supplemented by at least a half-dozen tables providing a wealth of
statistics about guns and their use.
In short, Point Blank is a book that deserves to be read by
anyone with a serious interest in the gun control debate. Scrupulously
honest, Kleck comes to the politically incorrect conclusion that guns
save lives, and gun control does not. As a result, Kleck has been
vilified by anti-gun forces such as The New Republic magazine, in
thoughtless editorials that attack Kleck by misstating what he says.
While coming under fire from the anti-gun forces, Point Blank
is not entirely supportive of the pro-gun side. In the rare cases
where the evidence shows that a particular gun control has worked,
Kleck says so.
And while Kleck demonstrates the useless or dangerous nature
of most of the gun control lobby's agenda, Kleck does propose his own
set of controls.
Kleck favors a national ``instant check'' on all gun sales. He
would require that even transfers between private individuals be
routed through licensed gun dealers, so that the instant check could
be applied to those transactions.
About 84% of gun sales could be approved immediately, as with
a credit card check. But for the other sales, Kleck admits, a
substantial number of legitimate buyers would be disapproved
initially, and then required to go through a weeks-long process to
clear their names, thanks to the poor quality of criminal justice
records in many states. (For example, if you have the same name as
someone who was arrested for a non-violent felony, and was later found
not guilty, you could easily be turned down by the ``instant check.'')
Moreover, background checks of any kind, including the
``instant check'' do sometimes find ineligible buyers, but almost
never catch a criminal trying to acquire a crime gun. The typical
``criminal'' caught by a background check is more like the man who got
into a fist fight in a bar ten years ago, and never realized that his
third-degree assault conviction disqualified him from owning a gun.
And besides, the very rare criminal who can't get a black
market gun, and who wants to buy a crime gun from a gun store, can
simply ask a friend with a clean record to make the purchase for him.
The negligible benefits of the instant check are outweighed by
their substantial costs, which Kleck fails to fully consider. First of
all, a large new government bureaucracy would be required to
administer the check. Kleck suggests paying for the bureaucracy
through a $10/gun purchase. While ten dollars may not seem like much
to a hunter buying a $500 rifle, it's quite a bit to a young woman who
can barely afford $40 for a self-defense handgun. Moreover, once the
tax was established, the anti-gun lobbies would immediately begin
pressing to raise it as high as possible.
Like almost every scholar who has studied the issue, Kleck
agrees that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to
bear arms. Yet the Kleck instant check amounts to people being
restrained from exercising their Constitutional rights until the
government gives them permission. Kleck, who is a strong civil
libertarian, ought to be more sensitive to the Constitutional policy
against prior restraints.
And lastly, it's very difficult to design an instant check
system that can't be perverted into a registry of gun owners.
But whatever you think of Kleck's conclusions, his book on the
whole is outstanding. It is precisely the kind of carefully argued,
meticulously researched scholarship that the gun debate needs. If you
ever speak out regarding the right to bear arms, if you ever write
letters to the editor, if you ever write your state legislators, you
will find Point Blank a wonderful resource.
Point Blank is published by Aldine de Gruyter (Hawthorne, New
York), and is available in high-quality bookstores. Any bookstore can
special order it for you.
Unfortunately, Point Blank, is published only in hard cover,
and at 512 pages, the book retails for a very hefty $59.95. Despite
the high price, Point Blank is worth every penny. If you can't afford
it, ask your local library to buy it. Most libraries that get two or
three requests for a book within a few weeks will strongly consider a
purchase.
Under the Gun: Weapons Crime & Violence, by James Wright,
Peter Rossi, and Kathleen Daly. The authors are some of the best
sociologists in the United States. They favored gun control, and set
out to collect all the evidence for it in one place. This book is the
result. After taking a hard look at the data, the authors changed
their minds, and announced that there is no proof that gun control
does any good. The book's only serious limitation is that it was
written in the early 1980s, and therefore does not cover some of the
more recent research, and does not discuss some of the issues that
have arisen in recent years, such as so-called ``assault weapons.''
$44.95 cloth, $24.95 paperback from Aldine de Gruyter, 200 Saw
Mill River Rd., Hawthorne, NY 10532. 1-914-747-0110.
Armed and Dangerous, by Jim Wright and Peter Rossi reports the
results of a 1981 National Institute of Justice study of felony
prisoners in ten state prison systems. The study provides overwhelming
evidence of how guns in the right hands enhance public safety: 56%
percent of the prisoners said that a criminal would not attack a
potential victim who was known to be armed. Thirty-nine percent of the
felons had personally decided not to commit a crime because they
thought the victim might have a gun, and 8% said the experience had
occurred ``many times.'' Criminals in states with higher civilian gun
ownership rates worried the most about armed victims. At the same
time, the criminals reported that gun control laws had little or no
effect on their ability to obtain crime guns.
Like Under the Gun, the book is published by Aldine de
Gruyter, 200 Saw Mill River Rd., Hawthorne, NY 10532. 1-914-747-0110.
Prices are $39.95 cloth, and $19.95 paperback.
The Journal on Firearms and Public Policy. Published by the
Center for the Study of Firearms & Public Policy, the Journal provides
a forum for publication of scholarly articles on firearms and their
relation to social, legal, and political issues. It accepts papers on
a broad range of scholarly topics related to gun ownership, use,
carrying, law and policy issues. The Journal also reprints important
past articles in order to provide a unified reference source for
researching firearms issues.
The primary purposes of the Journal are to encourage serious
researchers to explore issues related to firearms and their effect on
society; to provide a convenient place for the publication of research
results; and to provide an information source which can be used by
policy makers to guide their decisions. The Second Amendment
Foundation sponsors the Journal to encourage objective research. It is
the intention of the editors to reprint articles of scholarly quality
regardless of their conclusions for or against the Foundation's
positions on controversial issues.
Volumes 1 and 2 are nearly out of print and available in
limited quantities only. Volumes 3 and 4 will likely remain available
for the next few years. Volume 3 includes a reprint of University of
Texas Law Professor Sanford Levinson's ground-breaking essay on the
Second Amendment; an article on law-enforcement lobbying and the
Second Amendment, by NRA researcher Paul Blackman; a short article on
how gun control endangers all Constitutional rights, by attorney David
I. Caplan; and an original article ``Gun-making as a Cottage
Industry,'' which discusses the types of handguns that would be
produced by home workshops in the event of gun prohibition.
Volume 4 includes an article analyzing New York City's law
requiring mandatory jail terms for illegal gun possession; several
articles about the original meaning of the Second Amendment; and an
article about the unintended consequences of gun control.
Issues available, for ten dollars apiece, from the Second
Amendment Foundation, 12500 NE 10th Place, Bellevue, WA 98005
1-206-454-7012.
Law Abiding Criminals by John Kaplan, Don Kates, and Raymond
Kessler. The purpose of this monograph, which contains three articles
by noted sociologists and criminologists, is to illustrate the lesson
learned time and again that government is not an effective instrument
for social engineering. That is, history has proven that when
government outlaws something desired by a substantial segment of a
population, the populace simply ignores the government edict or
devises methods to circumvent the law. Ultimately, once the law is
recognized as a failure, it is abandoned, but in the meantime what has
been accomplished is to make otherwise law-abiding Americans members
of the criminal class.
Law-Abiding Criminals was produced to present the views of
those who question the efficacy of an all-encompassing handgun ban.
Written by individuals with first-hand experience in the
criminal-defense field, the authors share a common opinion that a
total handgun ban would experience enforcement difficulties similar to
those encountered during alcohol prohibition and drug interdiction
campaigns.
Available from the Second Amendment Foundation, 1250 NE 10th
Place, Bellevue, WA 98005. 1-206-454-7012.
History of the Right to Bear Arms
That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional
Right, by Stephen P. Halbrook: This is by far the best historical book
of the legal development of the Second Amendment in the United States.
The research is thorough, and the reasoning insightful. The book has
been accorded the high honor of being cited as an authoritative source
in an article in the Yale Law Journal--Akhil Reed Amar's ``The Bill of
Rights as a Constitution,'' (vol. 100). Liberty Tree Press,
1-800-345-2888; $12.95.
Halbrook's other book, A Right to Bear Arms: State and Federal
Bills of Rights and Constitutional Guarantees is less essential. The
book is mostly a history of state arms right guarantees in the during
the American Revolution and Early Republic. For a historian, the book
is an indispensable reference. For a general reader, it may be too
densely written. The very steep price slapped on the book by publisher
Greenwood Press is an indication that the market is library sales more
than the average gun owner. Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West,
Westport, CT 06881.
The Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Report of the US Senate
Subcommittee on the Constitution. In 1982, the US Senate decided to
take a look at the original intent of the authors of the Second
Amendment. The Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution unanimously
concluded that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to
keep and bear arms. Although the Government Printing Office version of
the book has gone out of print, the book has been reprinted by the
Second Amendment Foundation. 1-206-454-7012. The book is also
reprinted volume 1 of Gun Control and the Constitution (discussed
below).
The Origin of the Second Amendment, by David Young. The book
reprints 480 documents from the period surrounding the introduction
and ratification of the Second Amendment. Included are newspaper
articles, pamphlets, letters to the editor, debates from the federal
Constitutional convention, debates from the state ratifying
conventions, and Congressional debates.
Author David Young has brought together, for the first time,
all of the original source material regarding what the Second
Amendment meant to the nation that enacted it. The book opens in the
summer of 1787 with the federal Constitutional Convention debating
Congressional powers regarding the militia.
The final major document of the book is a January 29, 1791
article in the Independent Gazetteer (a Philadelphia newspaper), in
which the author, who identifies himself only as ``A Farmer'' warns:
``Under every government the dernier [last] resort of the people, is
an appeal to the sword; whether to defend themselves against the open
attacks of a foreign enemy, or to check the insidious encroachments of
domestic foes.''
In between the first and last documents is a treasure-trove of
American history. Leafing through these pages, you encounter the great
men who founded our Republic, and whose words speak to us today. Wrote
Tench Coxe, James Madison's friend, in the Feb. 20, 1778 Freeman's
Journal: ``Who are the militia? are they not our selves...Their
swords, and ever other terrible implement of the soldier, are the
birthright of an American.'' (emphasis in original.)
Hear Patrick Henry thundering from the June 5, 1788 Virginia
ratifying convention: ``Guard with jealous attention the public
liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately,
nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up
that force you are inevitably ruined.''
The men who speak to us through The Origin of the Second
Amendment harbor no fear that government would interfere with
``sporting'' guns or hunting. They express the greatest apprehension
of select, uniformed military forces, such as the standing army (and
such as the modern National Guard).
As The Origin of the Second Amendment makes unmistakably
clear, the great object of the Second Amendment was to preserve
liberty by ensuring that the American people would have in their
individual hands the weapons with which to resist federal tyranny. The
``well-regulated militia'' included almost every able-bodied free
male.
Besides collecting an excellent selection of documents, the
author also provides a good introductory essay summarizing the
historical context of the debate over ratification of the Constitution
and the Bill of Rights, as well as an appendix giving the full text of
all state Bill of Rights from 1787-89, and a very detailed index. This
book was awarded the ``Book of the Year'' prize by Gun World magazine
in 1992.
The Origin of the Second Amendment is available by mail from
Golden Oak Books, 605 Michigan Street, Ontonagon, Michigan 49953, or
can be special-ordered by your local bookstore (supply them with the
Michigan address, since the publisher is not well-known). The book
goes for $50 plus $5 shipping and handling (plus 4% sales tax for
Michigan residents).
Origins and Developments of the Second Amendment, by David
Hardy. In 95 very readable pages, Hardy traces the right to bear arms
from its origins in early English history up through the creation of
the American Second Amendment. The book is broken down into subtopics,
about one per page. Each subtopic contains a two or three paragraph
quote from an original source (such as an English King's law), coupled
with analysis from Hardy.
The result? A straightforward history of the history of our
right to bear arms, that serves as an excellent introduction to the
topic.
At the same time, the book's long quotations from original
sources are very useful for more advanced students of the right to
bear arms.
Hardy's fine book can be special ordered from your local
bookstore. Or you can order the book directly from the publisher,
Blacksmith Corp., at 1-800-531-2665.
Specialized Topics
The Gun Culture and Its Enemies, edited by William R. Tonso,
takes a detailed look at some neglected angles of the gun control
debate.
The book includes chapters by sociologist William Tonso and by
Kopel demonstrating the existence of media bias in coverage of gun
control. In another chapter, John Salter, a veteran of the civil
rights movement, details how the use of armed force by civil rights
workers in the 1960s was crucial to the movement's success--because it
deterred murders by the Ku Klux Klan.
Do sexually inadequate people buy guns to serve as substitute
phallic symbols? Don Kates and Nicole Varzos demolish the notion in
their chapter.
The Gun Culture and Its Enemies can be ordered for $9.95 in
paperback from Merril Press, P.O. Box 1682, Bellevue, Washington,
98009. 1-206-454-7009.
The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy: Should America Adopt
the Gun Controls of Other Democracies?, by David B. Kopel. Everyone
has heard the argument: Other countries have gun control; other
countries have less gun crime, so if we had strict gun control, we'd
have less gun crime. In a comprehensive analysis, The Samurai debunks
the myth that gun control is responsible for the low crime rates in
Japan, Britain, Canada, and other democracies. The book also offers a
provocative survey of the history of firearms, violence, and crime in
America.
Best-selling novelist Tom Clancy praised the book as ``A
superb piece of scholarship, admirable for its integrity and
painstaking research. Kopel provides the fresh air of reason in a
national debate too often marked by acrimony and prejudice.'' The book
was awarded the Comparative Criminology Book Award by the American
Society of Criminology's Division of Comparative and International
Criminology.
$28.95 plus shipping, available from the Second Amendment
Foundation, 1250 NE 10th Place, Bellevue, WA 98005. 1-206-454-7012.
Also available from the publisher, Prometheus Books, at 1-800-767-1241
(24 hours).
Why Gun Waiting Periods Threaten Public Safety, by David B.
Kopel. The most detailed analysis available of the arguments for and
against waiting periods. 62 pages, stapled.
$8 a copy. Independence Institute, 14142 Denver West Parkway
#101; Golden, CO 80401. (303) 279-6536.
The ``Assault Weapon'' Panic: Political Correctness Takes Aim
at the Constitution, by Eric Morgan and David B. Kopel (revised
edition, April 1993). A 94 page Issue Paper debunking the claims of
persons who want to prohibit semiautomatics.
$12 a copy. Independence Institute, 14142 Denver West Parkway
#101; Golden, CO 80401. (303) 279-6536.
Armed and Female. Author Paxton Quigley, a former anti-gun
activist, explains why she now supports a woman's right to keep and
bear arms. The book contains lots of practical advice for a woman
considering buying a gun.
Available from the Second Amendment Foundation, 1250 NE 10th
Place, Bellevue, WA 98005. 1-206-454-7012.
Gun Control: The Continuing Debate by Dr. Donald Hook. Dr.
Hook, a former agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is a
professor at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. He was educated
at five US universities and OSI/FBI School in Washington DC and the
Criminological Institute at the University of Vienna. He received a
PhD from Brown University.
Gun Control: The Continuing Debate was written to inform the
public at large, and it ought to have a place in public and academic
libraries. It is an informative look at the history, sociology and
governmental aspects of the gun control debate written to the high
school and college level. Dr. Hook covers the field of the gun control
landscape in chapters dealing with the history of the right to keep
and bear arms and in chapters arguing for and against the status quo.
Probably the most controversial statements made in the book occur in
the final chapter where Dr. Hook outlines some compromise positions he
sees as valuable.
Available from Merril Press, P.O. Box 1682, Bellevue, WA
98009, or 1-206-454-7008.
Gun Control and the Constitution. This three-volume set,
edited by Rutgers University Law Professor Robert J. Cottrol is the
best compilation of all viewpoints of the legal debate regarding the
right to keep and bear arms. The hardcover books, brought out by
Garland Publishing (New York) reprint the best judicial and scholarly
analysis of the Second Amendment. For any researcher concerned with
in-depth legal analysis, the books very useful.
Unfortunately, the books are also very expensive. And if you
know how to use a law library, you find most of the books' material in
their original sources, and read them in the library for free. On the
other hand, if you can afford them, each volume will add greatly to
your understanding of the legal background to the gun control debate.
Volume 1, Sources and Explorations of the Second Amendment
($57.00) includes a good introductory essay by Cottrol, reprints of
the US Supreme Court's three major cases dealing with the Second
Amendment, six state court cases, and (perhaps best of all) a full
reprint of the US Senate's 130 page investigation of the historical
record about the Second Amendment., The Right to Keep and Bear Arms
(discussed above). Significantly, the reprint includes several
well-written legal reports which were attached to the Senate report in
the appendix. In contrast, the Second Amendment Foundation reprint of
The Right to Keep includes only the Senate report itself. Garland
Publishing, Inc., 717 Fifth Ave., Suite 2500, NY, NY 10022. (212)
751-7447. fax (212) 308-9399.
Volume 2, Advocates and Scholars: The Modern Debate on Gun
Control ($62.00) reprints 15 major law journal articles analyzing the
Second Amendment. The selections are scrupulously balanced between
pro-rights and anti-rights articles. The effect, however, is to
strengthen the pro-rights position, since the pro-rights articles are
so much better researched and persuasive.
Volume 3, Special Topics on Gun Control ($54.00) reprints 9
more law journal articles, involving specialized topics in the Second
Amendment debate. Most of the articles deal with the English origins
of the right to keep and bear arms, or with the connection between
gun-owning and responsible citizenship, as seen by the generation that
created the Second Amendment. The most interesting article, however,
is final one, written by Robert Cottrol and Raymond T. Diamond, which
explores the history of gun control in the United States as a method
of controlling Afro-Americans.
And, if the three volume set's $173.00 price tag makes your
wallet tremble with fear, there are plans to bring out a one-volume
paperback (priced around $20.00) containing the best material from the
three volumes. Call the publisher, at the number listed above, for
availability.
Gun Control: Gateway to Tyranny. The militant pro-rights
organization Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership has
published this interesting analysis of German gun control laws in the
Nazi and pre-Nazi eras. The authors document how laws which might
appear reasonable on paper were used to disarm Jews and other groups
as a first step towards genocide.
$19.95 plus $2.90 shipping from JPFO, Inc., 2872 S. Wentworth
Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53207. 1-414-769-0760.
Further reading
All of the above books have bibliographies which will lead you
to excellent articles in scholarly journals and in magazines such as
the American Rifleman. The material we've listed here is just a
starting point. There are many other worthwhile books on the subject.
2. Spread the Word--Libraries and Other Public Reading Areas --
``ENLIGHTEN THE PEOPLE GENERALLY, AND TYRANNY AND OPPRESSIONS
OF BODY AND MIND WILL VANISH LIKE EVIL SPIRITS AT THE DAWN OF DAY.''
Thomas Jefferson, letter to Du Pont de Nemours, April 24, 1816.
As you've begun to educate yourself, you can begin to educate
other folks. One of the easiest ways is to get pro-rights books into
your local library.
One good approach for a lone activist or a small group is to
``adopt a library'' and focus energy on getting pro-rights materials
into that one venue. The library doesn't have to be the biggest branch
in the area. In fact, the smaller libraries may be more grateful for
your help.
The books you help supply may be the only pro-gun books in
that library. When students and other persons go to the library to
research the gun issue, they'll find the carefully reasoned material
that you laid out for them. One book placed in one library may, over
time, enlighten dozens of students (and future voters) about the
realities of the right to bear arms.
At the simplest level, you can simply buy pro-rights books,
and give them to the library. Librarians strongly prefer hardback
books, since they stand up so much better under heavy use. Before
putting down the money to buy the books for a donation, check with the
librarian to make sure that the library would be interested in the
book. Libraries may accept some of the books, and reject others.
School libraries will probably want to review all of the offered
books, to make sure that they are suitable for the relevant age group.
Of the books discussed in the previous chapter, the ones most
likely to be accepted by libraries would be the hard cover editions
of: The Rights of Gun Owners; The Gun Control Debate; Pointblank;
Under the Gun; Armed and Dangerous; That Every Man Be Armed; Origins
of the Second Amendment; Origins and Development of the Second
Amendment; The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy; Gun Control and
the Constitution; and Armed and Female.
Donations can also be done on a larger scale. The People's
Rights Organization, of Columbus, Ohio, working with the national
Citizen's Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, bought 25
copies each of three pro-gun books and donated them to the Columbus
Library. The books were Paxton Quigley's Armed and Female, Alan
Gottlieb's The Gun Grabbers, and William Tonso's The Gun Culture and
Its Enemies. The library, which has numerous branches, gratefully
accepted the books.
Another hard-working group, the Keystone Second Amendment
Association put 130 books in 17 high school, public, and college
libraries in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania.
Second Amendment Foundation will be delighted to work with you
in library donation projects. SAF can provide you the books at cost
(about 1/3 to 1/2 of the retail price). They may be able to supply
some books for free.
Libraries are also happy to have magazine subscriptions
donated to them. The NRA magazine American Rifleman is a good choice.
InSights, the NRA magazine for junior shooters, is a fine selection
for school libraries. Because InSights is sent to so many schools, it
has no political content. Some smaller libraries will accept your own
copy of a magazine, once you're done with it. You can just cross out
your name on the subscription label.
Some libraries, particularly small ones that cater to students
writing reports for school, keep folders on current events such as gun
control (which is a consistently popular student paper topic). The
folders may include pamphlets, newspaper clips, and other
miscellaneous materials. Ask the librarian if there is such a file,
and if you can donate materials for it. The Research Reports and
NRA/ILA brochures mentioned in chapter 1 would be good items to
include.
Libraries usually have community bulletin boards, as do
organizations such as the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign
Wars. Keep an eye on the bulletin boards and, if the public is allowed
to post materials, stick up a flyer from your local pro-rights
organization.
Some libraries set up table displays from time to time. If you
see that your library has one, consider offering to set one up about
gun control. Before speaking with the librarian, examine what other
kinds of displays the library has, and try to design something that
fits in with what the library is already used to. The librarian will
probably be more receptive if you can provide a balanced set of
materials, rather than information that just reflects the pro-rights
viewpoint. Don't worry about letting the public see the other side;
the pro-rights argument, when examined in a logical and careful
manner, is so much more persuasive than the gun control side that
moving the public debate away from emotions and towards reason nearly
always makes converts for the Second Amendment.
The above advice about advance preparation fits in for just
about everything mentioned in this book: Advance scouting is always a
good idea. Before you write a letter to the editor of the local paper,
read the letters to the editor column, and see what kind of letters
get printed. Before you visit a Congresswoman's office, study her
voting record.
Not every place where people sit for hours and hours reading
old magazines is called a ``library.'' Some such places are called
``the doctor's waiting room.'' Waiting rooms are an excellent place to
leave pro-rights magazines such as the American Rifleman. Make sure to
cross out your name, so some well-intentioned soul doesn't mail it
back to you, thinking you left it in the waiting room by mistake.
Doctors, dentists, barbers, hairdressers, auto mechanics, and lots of
other professionals all have waiting rooms full of customers desperate
for something to read that's more interesting (and accurate) than a
six-month-old issue of Time.
3. Letters to the Editor
``TO THE PRESS ALONE, CHECQUERED AS IT IS WITH ABUSES, THE WORLD IS
INDEBTED FOR ALL THE TRIUMPHS WHICH HAVE BEEN GAINED BY REASON AND
HUMANITY OVER ERROR AND OPPRESSION.'' Thomas Jefferson, Virginia and
Kentucky Resolutions, 1799.
One of the best things a gun rights defender can do is write
letters to the editor of his or her local newspaper.
More people read letters to the editor than read the
editorials written by professional columnists. Letters to the editor
are a unique chance to influence thousands of people.
How to Do It
One excuse people offer for not writing is ``I'm not a good
writer'' or ``I don't know enough to write.'' Well, you don't have to
be an outstanding scribe to get published in the local newspaper. If
you have even a minimal amount of common sense, you have what it takes
to write a good letter. After all, you understand the right to bear
arms better than do the people who write for Newsweek and the Los
Angeles Times. Much of what those ``professional'' writers do is
reprint propaganda from Handgun Control Inc. You can do better than
that.
Free literature available from the NRA and the Second
Amendment Foundation will give you all the data you need for a good
short letter. (The free literature is discussed in chapter 1.)
Your hometown newspaper may be biased against guns in its news
and editorial sections, but that doesn't exclude you from getting a
good letter printed. Many editorial pages welcome letters that
challenge the viewpoint in the rest of the newspaper.
Here are some key words to remember when composing your
letter. If you keep these words in mind, you'll get published:
Short. 100 words or less. That's enough time to convey one or two
ideas. Long letters have a much smaller chance of being published.
Even if you're responding to a long diatribe against guns, stick to
one or two important points, rather than trying to rebut everything.
Type the letter. This isn't mandatory, but it does help. Otherwise,
write long-hand. In either case, double space.
Clear. Express a forceful opinion on one side of the issue. Don't
waffle. This one should be easy.
Prejudiced. Don't be. Never say anything that is racist, sexist,
homophobic, or displays any other prejudice. Prejudice instantly kills
a letter, and brings all gun owners into disrepute.
Focus. Emphasize our positive side. Tell the people the facts which
support our case. Avoid personal attacks on opponents.
Tact. Honey catches more flies than vinegar. For example, if a news
story misstates the facts about guns, you letter doesn't have to start
out: ``Your rotten paper has once again proven that it is a biased
mouthpiece for bleeding-heart liberal Commies.'' Instead, the letter
can gently offer to ``clarify'' a point that wasn't fully discussed in
the news article. The softer you talk, the better people can hear you.
One at a time. If you're lucky enough to live in a town with two
competing daily newspapers (there are only 16 such cities left), only
write to one paper at a time. Add a p.s. note to your letter saying
that you are sending the letter to only this paper. Papers prefer that
their material be exclusive. Wait ten days, and if you don't hear from
the first paper, send the letter to the other paper.
Wait. Here's one situation where a waiting period actually does some
good. If you've been published in a paper recently, wait 30 days
before sending another letter to the same paper. The Letters to the
Editor section is a community forum; papers don't want any one person
to appear too often.
Address and phone number should be included at the top of the page.
Papers often call to confirm a letter before printing.
Peg. Hang your letter on a news peg. This is very important. If you
write a letter in response to a recent news story or editorial, the
paper will be more likely to print it. There's nothing the media loves
so much as printing stories about the media. Even criticism of the
media gets lots of print space, since (from the viewpoint of the
media, four-year-olds, and similar types) negative attention is way
better than no attention at all.
Sign the letter. Never send an anonymous letter. Nor should you sign
your letter ``Ed Barnhill, NRA Member.'' The fact that you're an NRA
member won't make the letter more persuasive to people who didn't
agree with you already. If you want to add something to the signature
block, add something that will show the readers that you're a
responsible member of the community, e.g. ``retired teacher, farmer,
homemaker, doctor, etc.'' (Don't sign the letter ``Ed Barnhill,
etc.,'' unless your name is actually ``Ed Barnhill, etc..'' )
Finally, write the letter so that a person who didn't read the
original article can still follow your argument. For example, a letter
might read:
A recent editorial (``Stop the Slaughter,'' April 22) claimed
that ``Drug dealers can walk into a store and walk out five minutes
later with a machine gun, no questions asked.'' Actually, no-one can
buy a machine gun in five minutes.
Five months is more like it. Machine guns have been strictly
regulated by federal law since 1934. To buy any fully automatic
firearm, a person needs to get a federal license which requires
fingerprints and a background check, and takes many months of
paperwork.
Before we enact even more gun controls, people should
understand how many we already have.
If you follow these ten rules, about 1 in 5 of your letters
will get published. That's a success rate to be proud of, and you'll
be making an important contribution to the debate.
Your chances of being published, by the way, are better in
smaller newspapers, since there's less competition from other writers.
The odds you will get published in the New York Times are better than
the odds that you will get struck by lightening--but not a lot better.
Your prospects in the Staten Island Advance are much better, and your
odds in a smaller paper are better still. And remember, it's the
readers of the smaller papers who, since they're more likely to live
in smaller cities, may be more receptive to the pro-rights message.
Advanced Techniques
While the above rules are mandatory (if you want to get
published), below are some suggestions that, although not essential,
will be helpful.
Newspapers are written by generalists, who understandably
cannot familiarize themselves with every issue. Thus, reporters and
editors look for material from people who are well-known experts on a
particular subject. In the letter-to-the-editor context, your letter
will be more persuasive to the editor (and likely to get printed) if
you can cite authoritative sources.
For example, the sentence ``gun control never works'' is
merely an assertion. More persuasive is the sentence ``According to
the Wright-Rossi study for the National Institute of Justice, there is
no evidence that any current gun controls have worked.''
Likewise, instead of saying ``The authors of the Constitution
supported an individual right to bear arms,'' supply a one-sentence
quote from James Madison or Thomas Jefferson discussing the individual
right.
Alternatively, when you offer a statistic, put the source of
the statistic in parenthesis: ``While Mr. Meddlethorpe claims that
`the record murder rate proves the need for gun control,' the
murder rate today is lower than it was in 1981. (FBI Uniform Crime
Reports.)'' Don't worry if citing authority makes the letter a little
too long; the editors can always cut it if they want.
And it's all right to bring in personal experience. Newspapers
always like printing ``eyewitness'' accounts; so if one of the reasons
that you think semiautomatics should remain legal is that you
frightened off a burglar with one, tell your story.
Newspapers love to find inconsistencies--two government
agencies undercutting each other's work, or a Senator's actions
contradicting his words. So if you can find an inconsistency and point
it out, go right ahead.
As with every other thing you write, the first sentence is the
most important, so write it carefully.
Make a copy for yourself to keep (but if you don't have ready
access to a copy machine, just mail the letter, rather than letting it
sit in your jacket pocket for ten days until you find a photocopier).
Mail the letter the day after you write it. Letting it cool
gives you time to retract any intemperate remarks, and gives you an
extra day to think about the letter, and perhaps find some
refinements. As Thomas Paine observed, the best writing comes from
warm passions and a cool temper.
Does it Matter?
Even letters that don't get published make a positive impact.
The young newspaper staffer who is in charge of editing the letters to
the editor page will one day be running her own editorial page at some
newspaper. Your letter may be one of the few pro-gun arguments she is
exposed to all year.
Most media types don't hate guns out of genuine conviction.
It's simply a cultural prejudice of their environment. Some people, if
exposed to the facts, will gradually reconsider their viewpoint.
Like everything else in the paper, published letters to the
editor are also read by the rest of the newspaper's staff, including
reporters and editors. Letters about a particular subject may convince
the reporters and editors that the gun issue is important to the
readership, and deserves thorough, frequent coverage.
Will a published letter really matter? You bet. A 1989 issue
of the Yale Law Journal contained an article by Sanford Levinson
called ''The Embarrassing Second Amendment.'' Levinson, one of the top
Constitutional law professors in the US, wrote that liberal academics
(himself included) should face up to the overwhelming evidence: The
Second Amendment really does guarantee an individual right to bear
arms.
Levinson's article dealt a tremendous blow to the silly theory
that the Second Amendment is only a guarantee that states can have a
National Guard. (The theory never caught on with ordinary people, but
had been popular in the academic community.) Professor Levinson's
piece cites a number of letters to the editor of ordinary newspapers.
In fact, it was Levinson's reading of letters in his local newspaper
that made him realize that huge numbers of people really care about
the Second Amendment--even though most law professors don't. Levinson
began to consider that maybe the letter writers were right, and the
law professors were wrong.
Professor Levinson isn't the only person influenced by letters
to the editor. Except for the front page, the letters section is more
widely read than any other part of the newspaper--even the editorial
page.
Congressional staffers follow letters to the editor in the
Congressperson's home-town newspapers as an important gauge of public
opinion back home.
Although Congressional staffers will likely have read your
published letter, send them a copy anyway. If your letter praised the
Congressperson, send her a copy, even if it wasn't printed. She'll
appreciate the fact that gun owners are standing by her, and will
therefore be more likely to stand by them.
Op-ed Pieces
Once you've established a good track record as a letter
writer, consider trying to write opinion pieces for your local paper.
The general rules discussed above for letters apply for most
op-eds too. Total length should be 650-750 words. Going even slightly
above the limit seriously impairs your chance of getting published.
Before submitting a piece, call your newspaper's opinion page,
and ask for their guidelines regarding op-ed submissions.
If you're a university or high school student, your situation
is somewhat easier, since most school newspapers are eager to publish
student writers.
4. Talk Radio
``THE TANK, THE B-52, THE FIGHTER-BOMBER, THE STATE CONTROLLED POLICE
ARE THE WEAPONS OF DICTATORSHIP. THE RIFLE IS THE WEAPON OF
DEMOCRACY...IF GUNS ARE OUTLAWED, ONLY THE GOVERNMENT WILL HAVE GUNS.
ONLY THE POLICE, THE SECRET POLICE, THE MILITARY, THE HIRED SERVANTS
OF OUR RULERS. ONLY THE GOVERNMENT AND A FEW OUTLAWS. I INTEND TO BE
AMONG THE OUTLAWS.'' Edward Abbey.
The suggestions below are written for callers, but are equally
applicable to guests.
Listen to the show for a while, so you can get a sense of the
show's style and direction.
Many of the points made about letters to newspapers (chapter
3) or letters to Congress (chapter 15) apply here too. Don't get mad,
don't scream, don't use obscenities. Negative behavior simply turns
off the listening audience, and convinces people that gun owners
really are mentally dangerous.
You'll be nervous the first few times you call, but with
practice, you'll get more confident and relaxed.
Convincing the host is not the objective; he's already made
his mind up. Your goal is to get a little bit of air time to present
some facts to the radio audience.
Make specific factual points, not just vague generalizations.
Alan's Gun Rights Fact Book (see page 4) includes a section of
suggested talking points for radio call-ins.
Try to make your points in about 30 seconds or less. Don't
read long quotations (like the one at the start of this chapter).
Remember that the host (or the studio guest) will always have
the last word. Don't let this discourage you. Even if the host or
guest argues with some of the points you've made, you will still have
helped bring some people in the radio audience over to our side.
Similarly, the host may interrupt you. Don't get insulted.
It's his show, and he has to keep things moving with the timing he
feels best.
The host may try to agitate you, to provoke you into an angry
response. Fireworks build the host's rating, but they don't do our
cause any good. So no matter what, stay cool under pressure.
Listen to the callers who come ahead of you. Maybe you'll have
something to say to support a comment by a pro-gun caller, or to
refute a comment from an anti.
Never engage in name-calling with the host or another caller,
even if they start it. Instead of calling someone a ``liar,'' explain
how they're mistaken.
Some shows are limited to a specific subject, usually related
to the show's guest. On a specific subject show, you of course have to
confine your comments to that day's subject matter.
In contrast, other shows are ``open forum.'' The host solicits
call-ins to discuss anything they want. You can often get a lively
discussion going about gun control.
If you bring up the gun issue and the host of an open forum
show doesn't want to talk about it, don't take it personally. The gun
debate gets a lot of exposure on talk radio, and some hosts may think
that they need to force a broader variety of topics.
And most importantly: Be nice. A large fraction of the
listeners will be paying more attention to your overall tone than to
your specific points.
If you don't know the answer to a question, say so, and move
on to another topic.
One tactic used by our opponents is for one of them to call a
radio station and pretend to be an irate NRA member who favors gun
control. To weed out the callers who claim to be NRA members but
aren't, bring a copy of the most recent American Rifleman or American
Hunter to the studio with you, and have a question ready about it.
(E.g. ``If you're really an NRA member, can you name just one feature
article in the latest issue of the magazine?''). If the host is
pro-rights, you might want to inform him in advance about the fake NRA
caller problem.
Citizens Band Radio
Who says that broadcast radio is the only way to get the
message out? CB-er Charles Howell broadcasts short pro-gun messages on
his radio, informing them about the latest in gun control news.
The CB audience is especially important, he notes, because it
includes so many truckers. Lots of truckers own guns, but because
they're on the road for weeks at a time, they may be cut off from
regular news sources.
Truckers enjoy the unenviable status of being one of the many
groups of American even more harassed by excessive government than are
gun-owners. So truckers understand the importance of limited
government.
5. Read Gun Week
``EVERY GOOD AND EXCELLENT THING STANDS MOMENT BY MOMENT ON THE RAZOR
EDGE OF DANGER AND MUST BE FOUGHT FOR.'' Thornton Wilder.
Lack of information can be dangerous to you and your gun
rights. The general media do not do an adequate job of giving an
objective description of gun-related events and statistics. Whether
it's the federal scene, or states and cities, there is no other way to
get the crucial information as fast as subscribing to a publication
dedicated to firearms information.
If you didn't hear about a gun control proposal in Congress
until your local paper reported the outcome of a Congressional vote,
then you haven't been reading Gun Week. Gun Week keeps you posted on
what the gun control lobby is doing before it is too late for you to
do something. Regular reports from Washington DC keeps you up to date
on federal issues, but Gun Week also reports on what is happening at
state capitals around the country. Every week Gun Week tells you what
you need to know to protect your gun rights.
Regular hunting reports are also a valuable part of your Gun
Week subscription. Deer, elk, turkey, bear, waterfowl, upland birds,
small game--Gun Week covers all the seasons. Most importantly, Gun
Week covers the seasons on a regional and local level. When deer
season in Pennsylvania looks terrific, elk hunting in Colorado looks
so-so, or Michigan has just issued new hunting regulations, you'll
read about it in Gun Week.
Gun Week's new product reviews evaluate new outdoor products
before you shell out your hard-earned money. Every week you can read
reports about new clothing, handguns, rifles, sights, knives, powders,
ammunition and anything that can make you a better hunter or shooter.
Gun Week is also the first and best place to look for important
product recalls that increase your safety.
Gun Week has been leading the media pack on industry news as
well. Do you know about the metallurgical problems with the M-9
pistol, or the FBI's struggles to adopt a new semi-automatic, or the
troubles at Glock? If none of this sounds familiar then you haven't
been reading Gun Week.
A year's subscription costs $32.00, just $.64 per issue, which
is probably less than the cup of coffee you get at the local diner.
And there is no risk of disappointment; if you are not 100% satisfied
you will be promptly refunded for unmailed issues--no questions asked,
no hard feelings. You simply can't go wrong. In fact, you will
probably wonder how you ever got along without it.
You can subscribe by calling the Second Amendment Foundation
at 1-206-454-7012.
A few years ago, one of Rep. Charles Schumer's Brooklyn
constituents bought him a gift subscription to Gun Week. Schumer was
so upset that he wrote back, and asked to have the subscription
canceled.
Most Congresspeople, however, are not as frightened of open
debate as Rep. Schumer is. A trial subscription sent to your Senator,
or State Representative, or City Councilwoman probably won't turn them
into NRA Life Members. But it may show some of them a new perspective.
And just maybe, some college intern in the office will read
Gun Week with an open mind, and come to some new conclusions about the
right to bear arms.
6. The Big Lie, or Don't Believe Everything You Read
``NO MATTER HOW THIN YOU SLICE IT, IT'S STILL BALONEY.'' New York
Governor Alfred E. Smith, speech, 1936.
Handgun Control, Inc. knows how effective pro-rights
grassroots lobbyists are. That's why HCI has invented a special
campaign, ``Operation Alienate,'' designed to drive gun owners away
from the NRA and other pro-rights organizations. What HCI hopes is
that if you read enough negative information about the right to bear
arms and its supporters, you'll stop working to defend your rights.
In fact, much of the anti-gun ``information'' you read in the
press is really disinformation--falsehoods invented by the anti-gun
lobbies, and thoughtlessly repeated by the media.
The problem of media disinformation is not limited to the gun
issue. During the Persian Gulf War, University of Massachusetts
sociologists Sut Jhally, Justin Lewis, and Michael Morgan tested
people for their knowledge of important facts about the conflict (e.g.
knowledge that Kuwait was not a democracy). The authors found that the
more television people watched, the less they knew. That is, after
controlling for other variables, the study discovered that people who
watched a lot of television coverage of the war knew less about the
war than people who watched only a little television.
In the gun issue, who's telling the truth. The NRA and Handgun
Control, Inc. both accuse each other of being fundamentally dedicated
to dishonesty. At least one of the two organizations must be lying
quite a bit. Here's what Library Journal said in its Sept. 15, 1988
``Alarums and Diversions'' column: ``A highly placed library source in
Washington, D.C. told A&D that the American Library Association lobby
and the National Rifle Association lobby are the only ones whose
information was considered consistently truthful and reliable by
legislators.''
So before you let some hysterical article in the national
media drive you out of the guns rights movement, take the latest
anti-gun screed with a big grain of salt.
7. Computer Bulletin Boards
``NECESSITY IS THE PLEA OF EVERY INFRINGEMENT OF HUMAN FREEDOM. IT IS
THE ARGUMENT OF TYRANTS; IT IS THE CREED OF SLAVES.'' William Pitt,
English statesman and friend of American independence, Speech on the
India Bill, Nov. 18, 1783.
If your personal computer has a modem (short for
``modulator/demodulator''), the computer can communicate over phone
lines with other computers.
If you don't have a modem, you can buy either an internal
modem (a circuit board that goes into one of your computer's expansion
slots) or an external modem (which is attached to one of the serial
ports at the back of your computer). In either case, the modem has two
phone jacks in it, one of which runs to your telephone, the other of
which runs to the wall jack (where the telephone line from outside
enters the room).
Modems require communications software to run them; almost
every modem vendor will supply you with software too.
The faster a modem, the more it costs. However, speedy modems
will usually pay for themselves in the long run by saving you long
distance charges (since they transmit data faster). Try to get a modem
rated at least at 2400 bps, with 9600 being preferable (and
increasingly affordable).
Anyway, once you've got a working modem, you can--using the
communications software--instruct the modem to connect over the
telephone lines with another computer that is ready to receive phone
calls. You can then communicate with any other computer that also has
a modem. For instance, you can dial your cousin Egbert's computer
(assuming that he has a modem, and has his communications software on
and ready to receive calls), and send him your file containing
chocolate chip cookie recipes. Or better (from a gun rights point of
view), you can dial a gun rights bulletin board.
A bulletin board is a computer that is dedicated to making
itself available for communication with other computers. A bulletin
board contains files, electronic mail, and other material of use to
the people who dial in to the bulletin board. There are literally tens
of thousands of bulletin boards in the United States, covering a huge
diversity of topics. Below is a list of bulletin boards focusing on
the right to bear arms.
All bulletin boards listed under state headings belong to the
``Paul Revere Network'' run by Leroy Pyle, and all Paul Revere boards
echo each other; this means that if a file becomes available on one
Paul Revere board, it will shortly become available on all Paul Revere
boards.
Pro-rights bulletin boards transmit information
instantaneously. They are unquestionably the fastest way to get
in-depth information about gun rights issues around the nation.
The boards also have ``conferences,'' which are discussion
areas for particular topics, such as reloading. Conference
participants can write messages to each other, and leave the messages
for viewing in the conference area. Thus, they can have a discussion
stretching over weeks and months, without having to be sending their
messages at the same time.
The bulletin board listing below is arranged by state. For all
of these boards, your modem settings should be N-8-1.
Arizona
Brass Cannon. (602) 639-1039.
Run-Time. (602) 779-3115. PRN
Arkansas
Conway PC Users Group. (501) 329-7227.
California
The Silhouetter. (209) 472-0843.
PRN Los Angeles. (310) 837-7818.
Telecommuter WorkSystems. (310) 676-0492.
Paul Revere Network Headquarters. (408) 947-9800.
PRNet/SF Eastbay. (510) 791-8246.
The City of Tanelorn. (510) 803-0319.
Rights of the People. (619) 961-1708.
A&B Express. (619) 447-0641.
Eagle's Nest. (818) 769-6584.
Bullet Box. (818) 403-0399.
NRA/ILA Sacramento. (916) 446-3221.
Highsierra Online. (916) 577-4438.
Florida
RedMan. (305) 435-1972.
Minnesota
Minnesota MinuteMan. (612) 493-3558.
Missouri
Party Line. (314) 845-7937.
PRN Central. (816) 597-3950.
The Institute. (816) 421-3944.
The Money Pit. (913) 287-1102.
New Hampshire
The Quiet Revolution. (603) 753-9716.
VAXCAT. (603) 424-023.
New York
Airpower Rybbs. (215)- 259-2198.
ImageSoft. (516) 767-5189.
Midnite Caller. (716) 297-0291.
Knights of Discovery. (716) 837-2901.
The Outback. (914) 339-1816.
Paul Revere Network. (914) 339-1816.
The Network. (914) 635-9501.
The Rifle Range. (914) 452-4753.
PRN/DIS. (914) 635-2712.
Ghandeel's Fortress. (914) 647-7280.
The Final Encyclopedia. (914) 737-2539.
Ohio
PRN Cincinnati. (513) 474-9193.
Liberty Line. (513) 891-2430.
The Christian Star. (614) 841-9991.
Oklahoma
Gunners Mate. (918) 665-6841.
Bedrock. (918) 985-6836.
Oregon
The Post House. (503) 667-2649.
Pennsylvania
2nd Amendment. (814) 898-1732.
South Carolina
Schroedinger's Catbox. (803) 652-3759.
Tennessee
Southern Cross. (615) 349-5473.
Reality Relief Fido. (615) 690-2227.
Reality's Link. (615) 246-5595.
Texas
The Firing Line. (214) 341-5582.
BackStage. (409) 721-9606. PRN
Flotom Ent. (512) 282-3941.
Jack's Range. (915) 757-9311. PRN
Virginia
Bullet 'n Board. (703) 971-4491. PRN
PRN/LGC. (804) 877-8320.
Washington
Troubador Systems. (206) 661-2135.
National
Of all the pro-rights boards, the best one is Gun Talk, run by
NRA/ILA. The number is 1-703-719-6406.
To register as a user, you need to supply your NRA membership
number, and pay a $15 annual fee (to defray part of the enormous
hardware costs associated with operating a BBS with numerous incoming
phone lines capable of operating simultaneously). You can register
on-line, or by calling 1-800-GUN-TALK.
Once you're registered, you have full access to the Gun Talk
BBS, with no further fees (except of course long-distance charges from
wherever you're calling).
The opening menu of Gun Talk offers you the option of reading
any of about two dozen bulletins dealing with up-to-minute accounts of
key political battles, recent news involving gun issues, and
fast-breaking legislative developments.
A Files Section contains several hundred text files dealing
with every angle of the right to bear arms issue. Historical articles
about the original meaning of the Second Amendment; detailed analysis
of topical issues such as waiting periods; reprints of articles from
American Rifleman, American Hunter, and the popular media; ballistics
tables; and much, much more are all available in the Files Section.
The Files Section can be a tremendous resource when you need
hard facts to put in a letter to the editor or to an elected official.
Finally, Gun Talk allows you to send messages to other Gun
Talk users. While you can send private messages to an individual,
almost all messages are intended for public consumption, and are
posted in a Message Section for all to read. The contents of the
Messages Section are as diverse as the users, and include debates
about the recent Presidential race, questions about reloading
technique and gun repair, updates on forthcoming gun shows, and
first-hand reports about what it's really like to try to get a pistol
license in New York.
Another national BBS paying attention to gun rights issue is
the Outdoor Forum, on Compuserve. The Forum is shared by a number of
hunting and outdoor groups.
Canada
Canadian bulletin boards dealing in part with firearms or the
right to bear arms:
CARS--The Automotive BBS (Alberta). (403) 752-3930.
K9COPS BBS (British Columbia). (604) 599-0514.
Yorkton Area Opus (Saskatchewan). (306) 782-1355.
8. Telephone Hotlines
``NOBODY MAKES A GREATER MISTAKE THAN HE WHO DOES NOTHING BECAUSE HE
COULD ONLY DO A LITTLE.'' Edmund Burke
Recorded telephone hotlines are one of the best sources for
up-to-date information about gun control battles. You can call
evenings or weekends, if you want to reduce long-distance charges.
Besides the normal phone charge, there is no fee for calling any of
these numbers, except as noted below.
National
Neal Knox's Firearms Coalition runs a high-quality automated phone
message center. The messages are usually updated once or twice a week.
301-871-3006.
International
Sporting Shooters Association of Australia. Dial Australia, then 0055
23308. This number is similar to a 900 number; besides long-distance
charges, you also pay a premium to the phone company of up to 70 cents
per minute. The SSAA earns revenue from the service.
California
California Rifle & Pistol Association. (800)-I'M 4 GUNS
(800-464-4867). This 800 number is only usable from within California.
Gun Owners ACTION Committee. 714-871-4515.
Colorado
Firearms Coalition. 303-369-GUNS.
Connecticut
Coalition of Connecticut Sportsmen. 203-722-3030.
Massachusetts
Sportsmen's Legislative Hotline. (800) 338-6999. (Only from within
Mass.)
Missouri
Western Missouri Shooters' Alliance. (816) 444-0228.
Texas
Texas State Rifle Association. (512) 288-3242.
North Texas Arms Rights Coalition (214) 270-4068.
9. Attend a Leadership Training Seminar
``PARUM PROFICET SCIRE FIERI DEBEL, SI NON COGNOSCUS QUOMODO SIT
FACTURUM.'' (Roman legal maxim: ``It profits little to know what ought
to be done, if you do not know how it is to be done.'')
If you want to be a part of the gun rights movement, then
eventually you must meet with other members and leaders of the
movement. Fortunately, with the gun rights movement this is easy to
do.
Gun Rights Policy Conference
Each year, the major players in the gun rights movement gather
at an event called the Gun Rights Policy Conference. Together with
activists from across the nation, as well as local participants, each
year's activities are reviewed, and strategies shared. The Gun Rights
Policy Conference provides you with an inside scope view of how the
gun rights movement operates, and lets you become a part of that
process.
Since 1986 the annual meeting, which is free to the public,
has been sponsored by the Second Amendment Foundation, the Citizens
Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and Gun Week newspaper.
In addition, over 40 other organizations and industry leaders provide
funding or other types of support to the conference. The GRPC has
gained the attention of the national media for its ability to draw
together all of the heavy hitters in the pro-gun movement.
The GRPC is the largest meeting of its kind in America.
Registration for the event has risen steadily each year as more people
experience the benefits of attending the conference. As a result,
opportunities abound for interested individuals to talk face-to-face
with the people who are on the front lines and in the headlines.
The schedule for the GRPC is spread out over two nights and
three days. Participants are free to select which events to attend as
receptions, speeches, panel discussions and other meetings give
everyone the opportunity to participate fully.
Make your plans to attend the next Gun Rights Policy
Conference by contacting the Second Amendment Foundation, 12500 NE
10th Place, Bellevue, WA 98005. 1-206-454 7012.
Attend a Leadership Training Conference
If you cannot attend the Gun Rights Policy Conference the next
best thing to do is attend a Leadership Training Conference held by
the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. These
meetings are much smaller both in size and scope than the GRPC, but
the lessons learned are no less valuable.
Leadership Training Conferences are one day events where the
focus is on intensive training in the art of grass roots lobbying. The
speakers and materials aim to assist motivated individuals in becoming
effective voices in the gun rights movement. Topics include means to
affect the outcome of legislative deliberations, organizing a local
gun rights organization, successful fund raising, organizing a
communications network and other aspects of the daily fight to save
our firearms rights from extinction.
Make your plans to attend the next Leadership Training
Conference in your area by contacting the Projects Director at the
Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms 12500 NE 10th
Place, Bellevue, WA 98005. 1-206-454-4911.
10. Speeches and Debates
``GUARD WITH JEALOUS ATTENTION THE PUBLIC LIBERTY. SUSPECT EVERYONE
WHO APPROACHES THAT JEWEL.'' Patrick Henry.
Style
Begin to establish a bond with the audience by relating an
experience of your own which the audience is likely to have shared.
Wear a suit and tie (just a suit, if you're female). Surveys
of college students show that they have more intellectual respect for
professors who dress professionally, rather than the ones who dress
casually.
Instead of writing the speech word for word, jot down key
words and topics that you can glance at as you go along. It's much
more fun to hear somebody who's speaking instead of somebody who's
reading aloud. Keep your sentences short, remembering that things
presented orally must be simpler than things delivered in writing.
Make sure that your speech has a beginning, a middle, and a
conclusion. Maintain eye contact with the audience as much as
possible. Instead of looking over the audience's heads, focus on one
particular person, and speak directly to her. Of course make sure to
keep changing the person you focus on. Practice, practice, practice
your speech before you deliver it to the audience.
One obvious audience for speeches is gun clubs or hunting
clubs. But don't overlook other potential audiences. For example,
groups such as Rotary Clubs have weekly luncheon meetings, always with
a new speaker. Same for the Kiwanis, for women's clubs, and for the
League of Women Voters. Many would be glad to have someone address
their group about a topic in the news.
And bring along some written materials to hand out to
interested people afterwards. Membership flyers from your local gun
rights group are a good choice, as is any of the educational material
discussed above chapter 1.
Substance
Choose one topic for a short speech. It's much easier to write a
good, powerful speech on a single subject, than to try to cover the
whole field. A single topic might be ``The Truth about So-called
Assault Weapons'' or ``What the Second Amendment Means'' or ``Why
Concealed Carry Permit Laws Are a Good Idea'' or ``Why Waiting Periods
Don't Work'' or ``Because the Police have no Legal Obligation to Protect
Individuals, People Need the Ability to Protect Themselves.''
In addition, gear the topic to the audience. If you're
speaking for a gun club, the audience might appreciate a fairly
``advanced'' topic, such as how waiting periods set the stage for gun
prohibition. In contrast, an audience of Rotarians might want an
elementary introduction to the Second Amendment, or a discussion of
the importance of self-defense and responsible gun ownership in
today's high-crime society.
As with virtually every other type of persuasive
communication, concrete examples work well. If you're talking about
waiting periods, discuss the people who couldn't get a gun to defend
their families during the Los Angeles riots because of California's
15-day waiting period.
Debates
Most the same rules applicable to speeches apply to debates as
well. One major difference is that you'll have much less time to
develop your points.
In debates (and in general), try to stay focused on the
pro-rights positive agenda, instead of attempting to rebut
point-by-point every argument made by your opponent. If your debate
opponents says something like ``The gun nuts want semi-automated
plastic machine guns firing cop-killer teflon bullets to be sold to
children without a waiting period,'' it would take you 15 minutes to
rebut each of the charges contained in the single sentence.
Instead, keep the debate on our positive issues, with which
the vast majority of people agree with us: using force to defend home
and family is morally legitimate; because the police cannot protect
everyone, people should have the option to protect themselves;
criminals are afraid of and deterred by armed citizens; gun controls
affect only criminals, and distract politicians from genuine solutions
to crime.
Except in front of an audience of lawyers or similar group,
don't spend a lot of time on Constitutional issues. You can make the
point that your own state Constitution (in most states) as well as the
federal Constitution guarantee a right to bear arms, and the US
Supreme Court re-affirmed the individual right in the 1990
Verdugo-Urquidez case. But in general, non-lawyer audiences are more
likely to be persuaded by practical arguments than by legal ones.
11. Look Good on TV
``THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH JAILS, NOT ENOUGH POLICEMEN, NOT ENOUGH
COURTS TO ENFORCE A LAW NOT SUPPORTED BY THE PEOPLE.'' Vice-President
Hubert H. Humphrey, speech, Williamsburg, Virginia, May 1, 1965.
When gun control stories are happening, television stations
often come to local gun stores for interviews and pictures. Sometimes
the media uses the gun store footage for anti-gun purposes.
A typical anti-gun segment might show a police chief calling
for ``strict gun control'' and offering some phony statistic. Then the
announcer would say, ``But not everyone agrees.'' The picture then
shifts to a gun store owner with a two-day old beard and a ratty
shirt, claiming that ``Gun control is just a conspiracy of the damn
liberals.''
Viewers who are making up their minds about the issue will
find the neat and clean police chief much more convincing than the
slovenly store owner.
So if you get a request for an interview, accept only if can
make sure that you and your surroundings (such as your body and/or gun
store) are neat and tidy before the cameras roll. And only if you feel
confident that you know enough about the particular issue to speak
persuasively. It's no disgrace modestly to step aside, and suggest
someone else who you know to be a good talker. It is a disgrace to put
your ego ahead of the pro-rights cause, and do a bad job when someone
else could have done a good job.
Preparing your Substance
Before the television appearance, watch as many segments of
the program as you can. Write down about four key points you want to
convey. The purpose of writing isn't for you to read out loud later,
but to help you organize your thoughts. Think up concrete examples
that support your point.
Even if the interviewer is sympathetic to your point of view,
he or she will try to ask you challenging questions. That's how
journalists conceive their job. So during your preparation work, think
of the hardest questions that someone could ask. And think of the
questions that someone might asked, based on the other side's main
arguments. Then think up responses to all those hard questions. Have a
friend play the role of interviewer, and ask you tough questions.
One good way to handle hostile questions is to use them as a
transition to the positive points you want to make. That way, instead
of being on the defensive, you're communicating a positive agenda.
For example, if the question is ``Why do you support the
availability of these assault weapons which drug dealers like so
much?'' the answer could be ``Actually those guns are hardly ever used
by criminals. Most of the folks who like semiautomatics are target
shooters, or people who want a reliable home-defense firearm.''
Preparing your Appearance
As we keep suggesting throughout this book in regards to
public appearances, dress conservatively, preferably in a business
suit. Never dress in hunting clothes, camouflage, or carry a gun.
Even if the station asks you to. The station's interest in
sensationalism is outweighed by your interest in looking dignified.
For television, there are also a couple other clothing
suggestions. The ideal men's shirt is a light blue one, and the ideal
tie is a conservative one. If you're a male with long hair or beard,
follow your mother's advice (just this once), and get it neatly
trimmed.
If your ego is too big to let a barber tidy up your beard a
little, then you're putting your personal satisfaction ahead of
everyone else's freedom.
During the 1968 New Hampshire Democratic Presidential primary,
Senator Eugene McCarthy was helped tremendously by the thousands of
young people who came to New Hampshire to support his insurgent
campaign against President Lyndon Johnson. The youthful volunteers
were mainly motivated by McCarthy's strong stand against the Vietnam
War, and the volunteers, similar to like-minded youth of the era,
sported thick beards and long hair. And the men were even more
far-out!
Yet when these ``long-haired'' rebels headed off to
conservative New Hampshire to campaign door-to-door, they got
haircuts, following their motto ``Clean for Gene.'' Their objective
was to help Gene McCarthy beat Lyndon Johnson; and if it required a
haircut to avoid alienating New Hampshire voters, they got a haircut.
And on primary day, little-known, underfinanced Senator Eugene
McCarthy garnered a stunning 42% of the New Hampshire vote. Within
weeks, President Johnson withdrew his bid for re-election. Going
``Clean for Gene'' had knocked out an incumbent President.
So if a 1968 hippie was willing to get a crew cut, you can at
least ask the barber to trim your beard a little.
Television stations generally won't offer to apply makeup, but
if you arrive early and ask for it, they might put some on for you.
Makeup is helpful, but not at all essential, particularly with modern
studio lighting, which is much less likely to make you sweat than its
predecessors from a couple decades ago.
Women can continue to use whatever makeup they feel
comfortable with already, as long as it's not excessive. Use lipstick
and eye liner sparingly.
If any of jewelry is larger than ``small,'' leave it at home.
Jangly jewelry will distract the viewers.
Women's clothes should emphasize soft colors. Big prints, big
polka dots, bold stripes, and giant checked patterns are out. So are
pure black, pure white, and pure black and white. Ideally, your suit,
skirt, or dress should come below the knee. Pants are okay too, and
should also go below the knee.
While dressing conservatively, still pick out clothes that
you're comfortable in and familiar with.
Obviously there are a lot of television personalities who
don't follow the above clothing guidelines, and who look great on TV.
At the same time, there are a lot of television personalities who do
follow these guidelines, and also look great. The guidelines aren't
intended for Geraldo; they're intended to help someone who's not a
professional TV person look their best the first time out. After
you've done a dozen TV appearances, you'll have enough experience
under your belt to figure out if you can vary the appearance
guidelines a little.
And remember, gun control is a ``hot button'' issue, and the
other side tries hard to whip up public hysteria. Our job in
communicating with the public is to present the calm, rational side of
things. If your appearance is conservative and dignified, it supports
your message instead of distracting from it.
When the crew is done taping you, leave the interviewer a card
or piece of paper with your name and phone number, in case they need
to do any follow-up. When you get home, send thank-you notes to the
television station's contact person, and to the interviewer.
On the Air
Keep your head steady. Don't bob it around, the way you do in
normal conversation.
Maintain eye contact with the interviewer, not the camera.
If you're in a chair, sit up straight (but don't be rigid).
Remember what your mother taught you about posture.
If a mike is clipped on your shirt or tie (which is common in
many sitting interviews), don't play with it!
SMILE! And then smile some more. A somber face on television
looks terrible. And on television, a small smile looks almost somber.
So let out your natural enthusiasm with a bright smile. (At the same
time, don't make it look forced or unnatural.)
And just as your face can convey your enthusiasm, so can your
voice--not in an angry or frantic manner--but in a vibrant, positive
way.
If you naturally talk with your hands and arms, keep on doing
so. Television likes things that move.
Be nice. No matter how discourteous the interviewer may be to
you, stay nice, and don't blow your cool. Remember, you're trying to
make a good impression on the folks in television land, who may notice
how you act much more than what you say. If you stay calm while the
interviewer works himself into a hissy fit, you'll score points for
the good guys.
Being nice, by the way, doesn't mean you can't be assertive.
You just have to be nice while doing it.
Before answering, pause for a couple or three seconds to
organize your answer. If you're being taped for later broadcast, the
station will edit out any pauses. If you're live on the air, you'll
still sound better with good answers than with hurried ones.
If the interviewer or interviewers ask you several questions
simultaneously, don't get flustered. This isn't a doctoral
dissertation oral exam, and you don't have to answer every question.
Answer the one that gives you the best opportunity to present your
positive agenda.
Keep your answers to each question to three sentences or less.
A good format is to give the main point, and then illustrate it with
one example.
If you keep your answers short, the station will be more
likely to use the points that you wanted to make. If you give
rambling, lengthy answers, the station's editors might pick out the
weakest or silliest statement you made, ignoring the good points that
surrounded it.
And despite all the preparatory warnings above, relax. You've
probably got a nice personality, a good mind, and a pretty smile. Just
let them shine through, and you'll be fine.
Finally, when you gather your family around the television to
watch the fifteen minute interview that was taped, don't feel
disappointed when only five seconds of you shows up on the air.
Television stations routinely shoot far more material than they expect
to use. The theory is by shooting a lot, they build themselves a
margin of safety to ensure they'll have all the good material they
need.
12. Confronting the Media
``THE BRAVE MAN INATTENTIVE TO HIS DUTY, IS WORTH LITTLE MORE TO
HIS COUNTRY, THAN THE COWARD WHO DESERTS HER IN THE HOUR OF DANGER.''
General Andrew Jackson, speech to troops before the Battle of New
Orleans, January 8, 1815.
In rare cases, the media may impose a black-out on the pro-gun
viewpoint. This doesn't mean the kind of coverage typical of the New
York Times, where the news articles are usually slanted against guns,
and the in-house editorials are always anti-gun, but pro-gun op-eds
pieces and letters-to-the-editor do appear from time to time. Instead,
we're talking about newspapers like the San Jose Mercury-News or the
Minneapolis Star-Tribune, which have from time to time shut the
pro-rights viewpoint out entirely.
In cases of pervasive or systemic bias, ask for a meeting with
the relevant person at the newspaper or broadcast station (the news
editor, or the editorial page editor, or the person in charge of
letters to the editor). Bring two or three well-informed people to the
meeting, and bring extensive clips from the paper documenting the
problem. (Or for broadcast media, written notes of particular problems
with particular shows.) Also bring pro-gun articles and books to give
to the newspaper as background information. (If you can, avoid books
published by gun groups.)
While the meeting will certainly not turn an anti-gun
newspaper into a pro-gun one, it might convince the paper to let some
opposing viewpoints trickle into print once in a while.
If your efforts at reasonable dialogue hit a stone wall, hold
a rally in front of the media outlet, decrying its bias. Make sure to
invite all the other media outlets in town to attend. And make sure to
have detailed documentation of the picketed outlet's bias available.
PART II
INFLUENCING GOVERNMENT
The battle in the arena of public opinion is a warm-up for the
battle in the halls of government. Here's how you can stop the passage
of laws restricting freedom, and promote reform of existing laws that
infringe our rights.
13. Register Voters, Not Guns
``SO THEY COMMITTED THEMSELVES TO THE WILL OF GOD AND RESOLVED TO
PROCEED.'' William Bradford, Plymouth Plantation (1647).
Does Registering to Vote Matter?
Some people may tell you that voting by our side doesn't make
a difference. Nonsense. Just ask Moody Stallings. Virginia State
Senator Moody Stallings centered his re-election campaign with boasts
about his attacks on the NRA. In November 1991, Stallings was defeated
for re-election, thanks in large part to pro-rights volunteers who
flocked to Stallings' opponent, and got out the vote.
Every single vote really does count. During the 1980s in
California, over 21 local elections were decided by a single vote.
Even in Presidential elections, pro-gun voters can make a
difference. In 1980 and 1988, the pro-gun vote swung Pennsylvania (and
several other states) to Ronald Reagan and George Bush.
Some folks complain about the paperwork and bother involved in
registration. The question to ask them is: ``Would you rather register
to vote, or register your guns?'' Either we vote and win elections, or
the other side wins, and national registration of all guns will become
a reality.
When we don't win elections, we pay a heavy price.
In 1990, Senator Howard Metzenbaum helped push a bill banning
semi-automatics through the Senate by pointing out that the NRA had
failed to defeat him in 1988, despite his being a fierce opponent of
gun rights.
New York Governor Mario Cuomo expressed the sentiment that
shows why many politicians feel free to ignore the opinion of gun
owners. He called people who opposed his mandatory seat belt law ``NRA
hunters who drink beer, don't vote and lie to their wives about where
they were all weekend.'' Beer-drinking is your own business, and where
you were this weekend is between you and your spouse. As an American
citizen you have a duty to vote, and a duty to vote against
politicians who want to destroy our rights.
(Cuomo, by the way, apologized for the slur on the NRA,
although he never recanted his anti-gun positions.)
Finding Information about Registration
The starting point for every registration campaign is the
county election commission or similar office. The Commission will have
all the information you need about registration. Procedures vary a lot
from state to state. The Commission will also probably have plenty of
free ``how to register'' literature that you can take and distribute.
In addition to county election commissions, the Secretary of
State's office (located in the capital city of each state) also has
voter registration information. At the state government level, the
Secretary of State (usually an elected official) is the person
responsible for supervising elections.
Another source for registration information is the local
League of Women Voters. You could also contact the Election Services
Division, League of Women Voters Education Fund, 1730 M St. NW,
Washington, DC 20036, (202) 429-1965. The League is, unfortunately,
anti-gun, which will make it all the more satisfying to use its
resources to elect pro-rights candidates.
Political parties are also an excellent place to go for
registration assistance.
Getting People Registered
After you've gotten yourself registered, the next step is
registering as many pro-rights voters as you can.
In many states, you can take voting registration sheets and
sign up new voters yourself. Once the forms are filled out, you mail
them to the county election commission. Be sure to read the
instructions carefully, and follow them exactly. One tiny error could
easily invalidate a whole sheet of new voters.
In states that don't have registration by mail, you can still
distribute how-to-register information, and encourage individuals to
register. Lots of potential voters who are intimidated by the
bureaucracy will register once you put the how-to information in their
hands.
Gun clubs are a good starting point for voter registration.
Just as every gun club member should belong to the NRA, every club
member should be registered to vote. No excuses.
In states with registration by mail, all it takes is about 20
minutes at a regular club meeting to distribute, fill out, and collect
all necessary information for every single club member to register.
The following states allow mail registration: Alaska, California,
Delaware, Florida (under special circumstances), Hawaii, Iowa,
Kentucky, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska,
New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas,
Utah, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.
In states which don't allow registration by mail, a gun club
meeting can be scheduled during which to march the whole club down to
the election commission, and register en masse.
Gun shows and gun stores are other good places to distribute
registration material. Gun store owners might want to put a
registration leaflet in every customer's sack, and gun show operators
might want to give such a leaflet to everyone buying an admission
ticket.
And when you're handing out the registration material, hand
out some other literature on the right to bear arms, and the threat it
faces. (Some good sources of free materials include the NRA/ILA
Research & Information office, the Second Amendment Foundation, and
the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. See
chapter 1 for more info.)
14. A Guide to the Legislative Process
``THE BEST ARGUMENT IS THAT WHICH SEEMS MERELY AN EXPLANATION.'' Dale
Carnegie
Organization of the Legislative Body
All state legislatures, as well as the US Congress, are divided
into two houses. (Nebraska, with one house, is the lone exception.)
The lower house (with a larger number of members, representing smaller
districts) is usually called the House of Representatives, or
sometimes the Assembly. The upper house, containing fewer members who
each represent larger districts, is usually called the Senate.
At the city or county level, these is usually only one legislative
body, generally called the City Council, or Board of County
Commissioners.
The practice of dividing a legislative body into two houses is
called ``bicameralism.'' In order to become law, a bill must pass both
houses of the legislature. Bicameralism provides a check on hasty,
poorly-written, or emotional legislation. It's no surprise, therefore,
that the anti-gun movement is generally much more successful at the
city council level than at the state legislature level.
How a bill Moves through the Legislature
Upon introduction by a legislator, the bill is assigned a number.
The number reflects the house of origin, and the order of
introduction. For example, if the bill is the 52d bill introduced in
the Senate during the year, the bill will be ``S. 52'' or ``S.B. 52.''
(The ``B.'' stands for ``Bill.'')
Once the bill has been introduced and assigned a number, it should
be available from the ``bill room'' of the legislature.
Make sure to notify your National Rifle Association state liaison
and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms about
any gun-related bills that are introduced as soon as you hear about
them. The national pro-rights organizations depend on local activists
to be their eyes and ears about gun issues in their area. The national
groups have only a limited ability to monitor state legislatures, and
almost no ability to monitor city and county government. They need you
to keep them up to date.
State legislatures and city councils (but usually not boards of
county commissioners) have committees that specialize in particular
subjects. A bill dealing with firearms issues will usually be sent to
the Judiciary Committee, although there are sometimes other
committees, such as Public Safety, State Affairs, Military Affairs, or
Local Affairs that might hear the bill.
The committee will schedule a public hearing, where interested
persons will have the opportunity to testify. (See chapter 24 for
hints on testimony.) The bill may be revised in committee. If the
committee votes to approve the bill, the bill is sent to the full
house for consideration.
In rare cases, the bill may be sent to another committee. For
example, a bill which increases the penalty for unlicensed gun
possession might first be sent to the Judiciary Committee, and then
the Appropriations Committee. The latter committee would consider the
fiscal impact of the extra prison space required by the increased
penalty.
The assigning of bills to particular committees is the
responsibility of the leaders of the majority party in the house.
Usually the leaders have great discretion. If they favor a bill, they
will send it to a committee that they expect will approve the bill;
and if the leadership doesn't like the bill, they will send the bill
to a committee they expect to bury it.
If the bill survives the committee process, it is brought up on
the floor of the particular house for a vote. So if the bill was
sponsored by a Senator, it would have been sent to the Senate
Judiciary Committee. If approved by Senate Judiciary, the bill would
be voted on by the full Senate. If approved by the full Senate, the
bill would then be sent over the House of Representatives.
Once in the House of Representatives, the bill would go through
the same process, being assigned to a committee, and if successful in
committee, being voted on the full House of Representatives.
Thus, opponents of a bill have at least four separate
opportunities to kill it: once in Senate Committee, once on the Senate
floor, once in the House Committee, and once on the House floor. As a
result, it's much easier to kill legislation than to pass it. This is
exactly as was intended by the framers of the federal and state
constitutions, who wished to guard against the proliferation of laws.
At the city or county level, there will be only one legislative
body, and there may be no committees. So to be enacted, a bill may
need only to receive a single vote of approval. This is one important
reason why anti-gun forces have been so much more successful at the
local level than the state level. This is also one reason why
preemption laws are so important, in order to make sure that laws on
crucial issues like gun rights are made only at the state level.
(State legislatures can, if they wish to, enact laws ``preempting''
local laws on a particular subject, in order that legislation on the
subject be uniform throughout the state; about 40 states have some
form of preemption for gun laws.)
If the bill has passed through the legislature, it is sent to the
executive branch (the president, governor, or mayor), for approval.
The executive may sign the bill, or veto it. If the bill is vetoed, it
may become law anyway, if two-thirds of each legislative body vote to
override the veto. (A few legislative bodies, such as the Indiana
legislature, can override the veto with a simple majority.)
The above discussion is a general outline that leaves out numerous
details and complications. Legislators who are expert in legislative
procedure can find numerous ways to revive bills that have been
killed, to avoid the committee process, and to accomplish all sorts of
other strange results.
How to Get Information About the Law
Most state capitols have a ``bill room'' or other area where
interested citizens can pick up copies of proposed legislation. In
some states, the bill room staff can mail a bill to you. You make
their life much easier by knowing the bill's number. Staffers for your
Congressperson can help you get copies of federal bills, although the
process will usually take a while.
Studying the exact language of a bill is very important. Careful
review of the bill may save you from making false statements about the
bill which your opponents (or your legislator's staffer) will quickly
refute. In addition, legislators are more apt to be persuaded by
people who can discuss the concrete details of a bill, rather than
people who just make generic statements about ``gun control.''
Careful attention to language is also important because major
results can flow from tiny revisions in drafting; just removing the
word ``or'' and replacing it with ``and'' can turn a reasonable gun law
into a highly repressive one.
If you need to refer to existing city (municipal) law, the city
hall will have a copy of existing city laws. Law libraries, and some
public libraries, will have copies of state and federal laws. Most
courthouses will have their own small law library.
Compilations of statutes will usually have a key-word index at the
end. If you don't find something under ``gun,'' look under ``firearms,''
``arms'' and ``weapons.''
Bound volumes of statutes are not updated every year to reflect
new laws which have been passed. The new laws can be found in the
``pocket part'' at the back of each volume. Make sure to look in the
pocket part before considering your study of a particular law
complete. If there has been a change made in the last couple years,
the new wording will likely be found in the pocket part, and not the
main volume.
How Your Congressperson Gets Information
Legislators suffer from the unhappy dilemma of being starved for
information at the same time they are drowning in it.
Congresspeople must live and work in Washington, DC, but have to
represent the views of folks in their district. Indeed, staying
employed as a Congressperson means keeping the folks at home happy.
How can you live in Washington, and at the same time know what the
folks in Kalamazoo are thinking?
Many state legislators face a similar problem. They live and work
in state capitols such as Albany, but have to represent the views of
their district far away in Brooklyn. How to stay in touch?
One obvious way is to read the hometown newspapers. But while
newspapers are important sources of information, the concerns of
journalists aren't necessarily the concerns of ordinary folks. Yet
after a while, legislators tend to confuse newspaper opinion with
public opinion. So when the editorial board of your hometown newspaper
goes on an anti-gun rampage, your representative starts to think the
folks back home are against guns.
Legislators also depend on letters from their district, which is
one reason that mail operations are so important to most legislative
offices. And legislators also rely on the in-person contacts they have
when they go back to the district.
Yet while legislators are desperate for information from the
district, their are overwhelmed with information about legislation.
Even in the smallest state legislatures, elected officials must make
decisions about a bewildering variety of topics every day. Lobbyists
try to buttonhole the legislators as they walk from one committee to
another; bills hundreds of pages long are introduced on Monday and
require a vote on Wednesday; and a torrent of printed matter descends
on the legislative office every day.
Knowing the twin conditions of information glut and information
starvation faced by the legislators, gear your presentations to cure
both problems at once. The most persuasive argument you can present to
a legislator is how a bill will affect his own district, and how
people at home will react--that cures the legislator's problem of
information starvation.
Deliver your arguments in easy to understand, carefully-prepared
formats, such as a strong one-page letter, or a well-practiced five
minute presentation during an office meeting with the legislator.
Instead of just handing him a transcript or a book or a stack of
articles, you will have already digested the material for him, and
presented it to him in a readily accessible way. That cures his second
problem of information overload. (You can still hand him the stack of
articles that supports the information in your one-page issue summary;
he'll be impressed with your thoroughness, and his aide might actually
look at some of the articles.)
15. Letters to Elected Officials
``TO SIN BY SILENCE WHEN THEY SHOULD PROTEST MAKES COWARDS OUT OF MEN.''
Abraham LincolnCoalition of NJ Sportsmen, July 1991.
The section on letters is one of the longest in the book. Why?
Because writing to legislators and other public officials is the
single most effective way for a regular person to influence the
political process. In preserving Second Amendment rights, nothing is
more important than exercising the First Amendment right to write
letters. For ease of reading, we refer to ``legislators'' in this
chapter, but the suggestions are equally applicable to any public
official
Style and Mechanics
Include your return address, so the elected official can recognize
that you're from her district, and can send you a reply.
If know or have met the legislator, and feel it is appropriate to
address him/her with a first name, do so. (A familiar salutation will
get more attention from the staffer, but will annoy the legislator if
you're never really met him.) If you're not in a position to write
``Dear Pat,'' then use either of the following salutations for Senators:
Dear Senator
Dear Senator Grobnowski
The salutations for a member of the House of Representatives can be
any of the following:
Dear Representative Zortch
Dear Representative
Dear Congressman
Dear Congresswoman
Dear Congressman Fudpucker
Dear Congresswoman Zortch
Dear Mr. Fudpucker
Use the same principles for other officials. ``Dear Governor'' and ``Dear
Governor Jameson'' are both fine; ``Dear Backstabbing Liar'' isn't.
Keep the letter to one page or less. It's much more effective to
use your time to write several short letters instead of one long tome.
If you'd like to convey more information than can fit on one page,
send along copies of supportive printed materials, such as newspaper
and magazine articles, or other studies.
Type the letter if you can; otherwise write neatly.
If you have personal or business stationary, use it.
If you know the fax number for the office you're writing to, send
a fax, since faxes (being rarer than letters) get noticed.
When you sign the letter, don't bother to include your affiliation
with a pro-rights organization (unless you're writing on behalf of the
organization). Your legislator already knows what the NRA thinks about
the bill, so adding ``NRA Life Member'' to your signature block doesn't
tell the legislator anything new. Gun rights groups get their
influence from citizen activists, not the other way around.
In contrast, signing something about your role in the community
(college student, bus driver, nurse, or the like), may help the
legislator learn about the broad cross-section of the community that
is pro-rights.
Originality is essential. You don't have to go do your own
statistical analysis of the effectiveness of state waiting period
laws. But you do have to say things in your own words. Simply mouthing
the slogans from pro-gun sources shows that you didn't care enough to
think up your own language. Since you appear less committed, your
letter will be less influential.
If you feel shy because you may not write as smoothly as does
someone who writes for a gun magazine, don't worry. Legislators aren't
looking for superior rhetoric and linguistic excellence. They just
want to know that you care.
Originality is also essential in the physical letter. Don't even
think of writing one letter, and sending photocopies to several
elected officials. If the issue isn't important enough to you to send
an original copy, the legislator won't worry much about pleasing you
with his vote.
Of course you can use your word processor to send various original
print-outs of the same text to several legislators. As far as the
legislators can tell, they're getting an original.
You can save time by keeping a letter-writing file containing the
addresses of officials you write to. Chapter 16 of this book contains
addresses for many federal officials, and includes space for you to
pencil in the addresses of everyone you write to.
Encouraging other pro-gun people to write is an excellent idea.
Gun clubs can have ``letter parties'' at their monthly meetings. Bring a
supply of paper, envelopes, and pens, and let the club know about
what's going on in the legislature. Fifteen minutes later, all 25
members have written letters that are ready to be stamped and mailed.
When
The time to write a letter is whenever a gun bill is being
considered by a legislative body. Over the course of a typical year,
everyone ought to write at least two letters each to her US
Representative, two Senators, President, Governor, and state
legislators. Some hardworking folks will write more often, and as long
as they don't write to the same official more than once every month or
two, every extra letter helps.
The time to violate the one letter/month letter limit is for the
follow-up letters described below.
Who
The most important people to mail to are people whose elections
you vote in. A Congressman from California doesn't care a lot about
what people in West Virginia think. So when you write people whose
election doesn't depend on your vote, focus on people who might want
to stay on your good side anyway. The US Representative who represents
a district on the other side of your state may care about you if he's
thinking of running statewide for Senator or Governor.
Also, if a Congressperson has taken a leadership role on
pro-rights issues, send him or her a thank-you no matter where you
live. The Congressperson will like the idea of becoming a
nationally-known leader.
Substance
Be polite. Honey catches more flies than vinegar.
A letter should be about one particular issue or bill, which the
letter should identify right away. If you know the bill number,
mention it. For example: ``I am writing to let you know of my
opposition the proposal to outlaw many semiautomatic firearms, Senate
Bill 666.''
Offer reasons why your action would be a good idea: ``The
preemption bill would make gun laws uniform throughout the state.
Everyone will have an easier time obeying one consistent set of laws,
instead of hodgepodge of city and county laws.''
Mention anything about your background that would be especially
interesting to the official. If you are affiliated with law
enforcement (e.g., police officer, former prosecutor), say so. Same if
you're a kid. (Only people who are presently children should say so;
being a former child doesn't count.)
It seems counterintuitive that being under the voting age would
make a legislator more interested in your letter, but it's true. First
of all, the legislator expects you to become a voter one day. Second,
children and teenagers are less involved than are adults in political
issues, so the fact that you are involved stands out all the more.
Most importantly, children and teenagers get less mail than adults do,
and tend to treat the mail they do get as more significant. Thus, the
legislator thinks that his letter to a young person may be brought to
a history or civics class for discussion, or at the very least talked
about within the young person's family.
If you have voted for the elected official before, or contributed
to her campaign, or are an active member of her political party, let
her know. Of course don't make something up.
If you are familiar with any of the legislator's past acts or
words on the gun issue, weave them into the letter. For example,
``During your campaign, you stated at a speech at South Bonaparte High
School that you were against gun control. I hope you will be able to
maintain the pro-rights commitment you made then by voting against the
waiting period bill.'' Or: ``Your vote several months ago in favor of
the ban on semiautomatic firearms was very disappointing. Too many of
our American rights have already been eroded. I hope you will be able
to protect what's left of the right to bear arms, and vote against the
waiting period bill.''
Personalize the letter as much as you can. If you met the
legislator ten weeks ago at a public event, say so. It's okay if all
the meeting amounted to was you shaking his hand and saying ``I'm John
Josephson,'' and all he said was ``Nice to meet you.''
The prior meeting need not have had any policy discussion to be
worth mentioning in your letter: ``It was good to say hello to you last
month at the county frog-jumping contest. I'd like to let you know
about my concern regarding the upcoming vote on S. 228, the handgun
waiting period bill.''
Likewise, if you've met or talked with a staffer, say so: ``I
called your office last May to discuss the gun issue, and had the
pleasure of talking with your assistant Bob Anderson.'' And if the
staffer was pleasant or helpful, say so.
Things not to do
Getting hysterical about the issue or making excessive assertions
doesn't work. ``If the gun registration bill is enacted this year, all
guns will be confiscated next year, and the Communists will take over
the year after that'' will not convince anyone.
Bragging about how important or influential you are will not be
persuasive. If you're influential, use your influence to convince
other folks to write to the legislator.
Follow-through
Less than one percent of people who write to Congress write a
response to their Congressperson's reply letter. Moreover, big
lobbying organizations have no ability to generate reply letters, so
legislators who read a reply know that you are strongly motivated.
Accordingly, follow-up letters get noticed by the Congressional staff.
And since your follow-up letter probably can't be replied to simply
with a form letter, the mail staffer may have to write an individual
reply, which will of course engage his attention all the more.
Follow-up to the Evasive Reply
Your follow-up letter needs to be carefully keyed to the
legislator's reply. Be on the lookout for replies that were designed
to give the impression that the legislator is on your side, but
actually made no commitment. Phrases such as ``I am happy to let you
know that hearings on this issue have been scheduled,'' ``Many people
share your concern,'' ``I will keep your views in mind when the bill
comes for a vote,'' or ``I am following this legislation carefully,'' do
not, in themselves, indicate anything about the legislator's actual
view or intended actions.
If the legislator sent you an evasive reply, write back and
politely ask for some substance: ``Thank you for replying my recent
letter about semiautomatic prohibition. Unfortunately, the reply
didn't answer the most important question: do you support or oppose
the prohibition?'' (From here, you can proceed as usual, offering an
argument or two in favor of the pro-rights position.)
Follow-up to the Negative Reply
Another type of letter you may get, rather than being evasive, may
forthrightly explain that the legislator disagrees with you. In this
case, write back, and refute his arguments. However much the stupidity
or prejudice displayed by the letter may anger you, don't letter your
anger show through in your reply. Remain polite.
Refuting the legislator's arguments can be difficult sometimes,
because the legislator is likely getting his ``facts'' from the anti-gun
lobby, and the facts may have no connection to reality. For example,
if he tells you that ``semi-automatics are 20 times more likely to be
used in a crime than other guns,'' you may have trouble refuting the
claim, unless you are happen to know that the ``20 times'' figure is a
distortion of statistics about firearms traces analyzed by Cox
newspapers. (For the truth about the ``20 times'' statistic, see The
``Assault Weapon'' Panic, Issue Paper, discussed in chapter 1.)
So don't worry about refuting every single sentence, if you don't
have the facts at hand. Limit your reply to pointing out errors by the
legislator for which you do have the facts available.
If any new facts have come to light about the issue, bring them up
in the letter, to offer the legislator a chance to reconsider.
Include in the follow-up letter a question or two, designed to
force a response from the legislator.
In your reply, recognize that the legislator was at least honest
enough to tell you how he feels. Here's a sample follow-up.
Thank you for answering my recent letter about semiautomatic
prohibition. I appreciate your honesty in stating that you would
support a gun ban. I think however, that your position may be based on
some mistaken facts.
For example, your letter claimed ``There is no reason why anyone needs
a machine gun in today's society.'' Actually, the semiautomatic
prohibition has nothing to do with machine guns. While some
semiautomatics look like machine guns, they do not fire like them. A
semiautomatic fires only one bullet at a time-- just like every other
gun. Would you agree that gun laws should be based on how guns
actually function, and not how they look?
Two weeks ago, the Hometown Gazette ran a story detailing how
so-called ``assault weapons'' are never used in crime. A copy of the
story is enclosed. In light of the new information, perhaps you would
want to re-evaluate your position regarding these guns.
Finally, I would like to point out that semi-automatics are very good
guns for home defense. Because the operation of the semi-automatic
action diverts recoil energy away from the shooter, the gun is easier
to fire accurately, and there is less chance of a stray shot. Were you
aware that semiautomatics are therefore actually safer for
self-defense than other guns?
Follow-up to the Positive Reply
What would you think of a parents who scolded their children when
they did something bad, but ignored them when they did something good?
Well that's how most Americans treat their legislators. No wonder
things are such a mess!
If you've written your legislator to ask to take a pro-rights
stand, and he writes back to say he will, by all means send him a
thank you letter. Supply some positive reinforcement.
Consider making photocopies of the legislator's positive letter,
and giving them to your pro-rights friends. And when you write to
thank the legislator, tell him about how you're circulating his
letter. In effect, you've multiplied his favorable interaction with
one constituent into favorable interactions with a dozen constituents.
In your thank you letter, mention any new facts that validate the
legislator's pro-rights stance. Send a copy of a recent editorial or
article or letter-to-the-editor that supports the pro-rights position.
And finally, your reply can gently urge the legislator to take a
more active role on the issue--such as by cosponsoring a good bill, or
speaking up on the floor during debate.
A sample thank you:
Thank you for responding to my letter from last month, and letting me
know that you support the firearms preemption bill. You are absolutely
right that things will be easier on the police and on ordinary folks
if there is one consistent set of gun laws that applies throughout the
state.
Enclosed is a letter to the editor from the South Wasquatch Herald.
The writer explains how she was arrested for carrying a firearm for
protection in East Wasquatch, even though carrying for protection is
legal in her hometown of South Wasquatch. The letter is just one more
example of why our state needs to have consistent, uniform laws.
In addition to voting for the preemption bill, would you consider
adding your name to the list of cosponsors? It's going to be a tough
fight to get the bill enacted, and any support you could offer would
be very helpful.
Telegrams and Mailgrams
Generally speaking, mailgrams are better than telegrams, because
mailgrams contain up to a hundred words, while telegrams are much
shorter.
The telegram's sole advantage is that it will arrive within four
hours, while a mailgram will arrive early in the morning the day after
it is sent.
Mailgrams and telegrams are best when they are not a substitute
for a personal letter, but a supplement to it--as a last minute chance
to reemphasize your views.
And