Some things never change in this world, and dominance seems to be one of them. It’s the old elementary school thing really. At least a variation of it. That said, I am guilty as charged when it comes to jumping all over actions that I see as traitorous to the cause.
After all, I was among the first to call out The National Rifle Association for doing, among other things; Supporting The Gun Control Act of 1968. Supporting the Lautenberg Domestic Violence Act, and it’s lifetime ban on firearms possession and ownership for less than felony convictions. Both of these have direct impacts upon the freedom and liberty of all Americans, even if you are not a firearm enthusiast. Ex Post Facto Law..? King James would be proud to be sure. King George would also be quite pleased at restricting our ability to say no to him without losing our heads in the process. An assault on any part or portion of the Bill of Rights, is an assault on the entire body of it. What follows is from one of the most well thought out writers on the internet. Think about it folks, and by folks I do mean the NRA, SAF, NAGR, and so on.
Maybe we (the gun community as a whole) are victims of our own success. In the last several years we have survived a Democratic controlled Congress along with one of the most liberal presidents in history, and successfully defeated the first real anti-gun legislation we’ve seen at the federal level in 20 years. In the last 12 months we’ve seen sheriffs across the nation come out in support of gun rights and we’ve seen two state lawmakers recalled and a third resign over their stance on gun rights in Colorado.
Sure, there have been some setbacks in some states such as Connecticut and New York, but all in all, we’ve moved forward as a community in the last couple of years. It also seems we’ve become a community divided during that time. Over the last 2-3 months I’ve noticed a severe amount of infighting in the gun community. Now, when I say “gun community,” I’m talking about gun owners in general, gun bloggers, print publications, gun companies, accessory companies, trainers, activists, gun rights groups and grassroots organizers (sorry for whoever I just forgot).
Now I know that gun manufacturers are competing against each other and those of us in the publishing world are technically competing against each other as well. However, I think that we’re all forgetting (perhaps due to the complacency from the positive issues mentioned above), that we’re all on the same side of a lifestyle that is constantly under attack by people who would love nothing more than to take it ALL away.
Recently, I’ve seen several disturbing things (and I’m not going to name names here, which would only add fuel to several fires) including a prominent gun blog call out a print publication over a product review of a controversial new pistol, only to have another prominent gun blog call out the first gun for their calling out of the print publication… does that even make sense? Sure, all of that controversy probably means more pageviews and readers all around, but what damage does it do to the community? You force readers to choose a side and show the anti-gun community a weakness.
I’ve seen the leader of a large, national organization who hasn’t been on the scene very long bash the leader of a well established gun rights group who has literally done more for gun rights in the courts than any other organization. That second organization then had to publicly respond to the comments from the first organization. How does that look to outsiders? Instead of questioning each other’s commitment to the cause how about having a civil discussion on the phone or via email about the differences in your organization’s strategies and thought process?
Read the whole thing here at GUNS SAVE LIVES
Conservative Libertarian Outpost 