It's not "just a movie" or "just entertainment" - it is powerful propaganda

[Neverwinter]

They are called socialized lemmings. It matters little if you speak the truth about guns it only matters that you said it and you can't be right because the socialist didn't say you were.

Owning guns doesn't mean you are smart, independent, or free thinking. It simply means you own guns.

I agree. Owning guns tells me nothing about your psychological faculties. Succumbing to the manufactured prejudices of the entertainment industry and media does.

Although hopefully you were smart enough to avoid taking anything seen on the presidential debates as fact.

And the pretense is finally dropped. "You're stupid and I'm not".

 

[Just Jim]

Owning guns doesn't mean you are smart

Being a liberal Democrat that bans guns proves you are not smart, same as voting for one. Some people you can trust more with their gun than their vote. To use a gun there is a fear factor that has to be dealt with but to use your vote doesn't seem to matter much at all but both can cause alot of damage....

The media seems to make it all right though. The diversity shown in all things dealing with life is acceptable accept legal gun ownership.

jj

 

[geronimo13]

I think the issue isn't the propaganda that is everywhere. Why don't we teach everyone to question where their ideas come from?? They come from their parents, their school, their church, the news on media, etc. That's easily defeated by questioning why the opinions expressed are presented?? The bailout is needed to keep the economy afloat. WHY?? If we spend anytime thinking about who benefits and who loses from different courses of action it becomes clear to us. If not we just parrot the lines repeated in the media, mindlessly. It's about self respect and being free. The media manipulation works as long as no one questions the motives. The last thing the manipulators want is a questioning, free thinking society.

 

[notorious]

I am an NRA Life Member; have been since Shrub's daddy was POTUS. I also regularly donate money to the NRA. My legislators are, no doubt, sick of hearing from me on gun issues.
Perhaps more importantly, I work at divorcing gun issues from the idiot liberal/conservative dichotomy. During the Clinton administration, we allowed the NRA to essentially become the National Republican Administration. They profitted by coming to just automatically expect the "gun vote" though all they could honestly claim was that they were marginally better than the Democrats on gun rights. See, most of the folks you run into in this life just aren't single-issue voters who can gag down the total package of what a candidate stands for just for the sake of his stance on a single issue. I know a good many Democrats who like guns quite well, but vote for the anti-gun party because too many other things about the Republican party turn them away. So I make it a point to take Liberals, Democrats, Greens, and all the others that Conservatives love to hate to the shooting range. I have made gifts of firearms to several formerly anti-gun people who became enthusiasts under my tutelage. My goal is to, eventually, take gun rights away from both political parties as a political tool. Ideally, both parties will learn to leave the issue the hell alone, unless they are planning to make the laws less restrictive.
Further, I work at teaching all my students critical thinking skills. I push no particular political agenda. Nor do I address guns specifically. My goal is to give them the tools to make their own, informed decisions; not to tell them what that decision should be.
Whether you think that is "enough" or even worthwhile, I submit that it is more substantive and more effective than fulminating on message boards for an audience of people who already agree with you.

You and I have more in common than I previously thought. Some people won't be changed in my experience, but at least I got them to be less paranoid about guns being magical killing objects.

For those who are open, I put a fully loaded gun on a desk, (in a safe direction, of course) and just sit there and tell the irrational gun fearing lemmings to be patient and see if anyone mysteriously dies from being in the presence of a loaded firearm.

It's a slow process, but it's like that psychological desensitizing to phobia tactic and it works, provided that the person doesn't run screaming from the room at the sight of a gun.

I know what you are saying, it's the same as politicos complaining to each other on talk radio or forums but sometimes it just feels good to rant. I take my fight to the other side daily but where I work... it's an uphill battle but I have converted quite a few coworkers who were just following popular rhetoric without critical thinking.

I simply asked why and pointed out some facts and over a few weeks, a few of them came around and said thanks for giving them more to think about.

 

[AKGuy]

The issue isn't the media's message(s). If it were, violent video games would have precipitated massive amounts of "copycat" violence.

The real issue is an audience's receptivity to whatever message(s) end up being put out there for consideration/consumption. And, in this case, if the non-gun public is receptive to anti-gun messages then it's up to us to intelligently craft strategies and responses aimed at teaching otherwise.

Funny how sex is typically considered "obscene," but mindless shoot-em-up gun violence isn't...

Until RTKBA folks "get" this crucial difference--and until RTKBA folks quit calling everyone who disagrees with them "not smart"--then erosion is almost guaranteed.

 

[Joe Demko]

Being a liberal Democrat that bans guns proves you are not smart, same as voting for one. Some people you can trust more with their gun than their vote.

You've drunk the whole punchbowl of kool-aid, it's clear. Continue clinging to the idea that guns are a conservative thing and you are pretty well guaranteed to lose your rights in your lifetime. This is exactly why gun-owning Democrats, at least the ones who don't have skins thicker than rhinocerous hide, avoid gun boards and gun clubs. They get tired of getting slammed and called names for their political affiliation when they should be welcomed as brothers-in-arms. Your attitude is toxic to the long-term protection of our gun rights. Spout the "Democrats are teh sukk" dogma on dedicated conservative discussion boards, not gun boards.

 

[subierex]

Reminds me. I need to re-up my NRA membership.

 

[notorious]

Trudat! Guns are an AMERICAN thing and no party, regardless of affiliation, can take that away. However, it has been politicized to the point that it is almost impossible to separate. It doesn't help that the gunban groups have clung to the left and the left has embraced it as their shining cause, thereby deepening the ties and associations.

 

[AKGuy]

Notorious...I agree that gun ownership issues have been largely turned into something synonymous with right-vs-left. But...I don't think that we as pro-RTKBA's can say that the debate has been stolen or hijacked away from us. Rather, I suspect that it's been a combination of things that has led to the present state of affairs, not the least of which are tendencies to be REactive instead of PROactive on the part of pro-gun folks...and by proactive I don't mean extolling survivalist-type mentality stuff such as claiming that the general public MUST have access to AK47s, silencers, and 50cal thunderguns (and I don't mean 50cal blackpowder, either!), insisting that ALL gun control is bad and evil and some kind of harbinger of apocalypse, etc. In fact, I daresay we enable anti-gun folks by insisting on focusing on things that really aren't at the root of the problem as far as any public perception of gun ownership. Once things get to a certain tipping point, there will be nothing we can do, which is why I'm willing to :banghead: and "suggest" that we focus on what's real and on issues that will really favorably influence undecided folks rather than scare them away. Anybody can check into this board and read what's posted...and there's a fair amount of stuff on here that would scare the beejeezus outta a whole lotta folks and lead them away from where we want things to stay, much less go.

 

[AKGuy]

...oops...I hit the post button too soon...So long as we have RTKBA supporters willing to call anyone/everyone who votes Democratic "stupid" etc then at that point WE are the ones who are being divisive. The issue really isn't Democrat-vs-Republican-vs-Libertarian...so why do so many in our own ranks insist on that? I daresay a whole lotta blue collar folks voted Democrat this time because they perceived it to be in their best interest to do so, NOT because they are stupid or because they are so simpleminded that they only vote on the basis of one issue (and saying that Obama=All guns taken away is silly at best) to the exclusion of everything else.

 

[notorious]

True true... firearms are not the main issue on most people's minds when they pull the lever, especially in the midst of the worst economy thanks to Barney Frank and Chris Dodd and their patronage of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

As long as we can separate the issues and make guns an American thing and those who don't like guns an Anti-American thing, we will surely win the long fight. That's just me.