Stop Bigotry Against Armed America
We have a name for it when the majority of us blame an innocent minority. It is called bigotry. The non-gun owning majority of US adults blames legal gun owners for wrongs that armed america didn’t commit. Armed america is blamed for social ills they didn’t cause, and for which they may, in fact, be part of the solution. Recent polls show how bigoted the majority of us are. I wrote about these differences and the source of the misperception between disarmed and armed america. How should we stop this bigotry against legal gun owners?
We must first recognize that this is not an argument about facts and figures. Licensed gun owners are the most law abiding and non-violent segment of our population. This argument is about how gun-owners are perceived by unarmed america. The defense of armed america must start with those who create the false perception of gun owners. We have to stop the stream of lies.
Zero tolerance in the news
The majority of unarmed urban americans don’t own guns and don’t have friends who do. They get their impressions from the news. They see a series of crime reports and think legal gun ownership leads to criminal violence and mass murder. Ask your local paper to run articles that accurately report some of the thousands of justified self-defense events that happen every day.
Zero tolerance in entertainment
There are a lot of cop shows and crime dramas. They portray competent and attractive government agents using guns. Armed citizens are usually shown as unattractive and incompetent. Write in to the shows and tell them they are promoting bigotry against armed america. Repost your comment on social media.
Zero tolerance in the courts
We maliciously prosecute non-violent gun owners who have inadvertently and non-violently violated one of our 23 thousand gun laws. Vote against judges and attorneys who prosecute these innocent gun owners. Acquit these gun owners when you’re called onto a jury. More than one-out-of-12 of us have a gun in the home.
Zero tolerance from our legislators
Eliminate the laws that treat gun owners as second class citizens. Why do we have to pay a tax to exercise a human right? This bigotry deliberately disarms the poor. Ask your legislators why are we deliberately excluded from schools, churches, and some lunch counters?
Zero tolerance for commerce and culture
Avoid “gun-free” zones. You wouldn’t do business with a store that excluded blacks, Catholics or Jews, so why are you doing business with someone who excludes armed Americans? Go to another store, theater, or sports complex. Also, find a new merchant if your bank, grocery store or credit card company donates to bigoted organizations.
There are a thousand ways to end this bigotry.
I’ve given you my ideas, but you are many and I am one. What should we do to change hearts and minds?
SlowFacts 
I refuse to patronize WhataBurger because the company is biased against citizens exercising their right to carry firearms. Please provide a list of other businesses that act similarly.
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I already do all the above with the exception of contacting the paper. My paper is notoriously left and that isn’t going to change. short of a change of ownership and firing all the existing editors and most, if not all, the current reporters.
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Thank you for all you do.
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Nice work, Rob. I will add that if a majority of our minority will become politically active, both in the state legislatures and in Congress, we could change a lot. You are correct about the biased mindset of the news, but there are some things that even misled anti-gunners can agree on. I propose that we push hard for the following Bills to become law (you can learn more about them at http://www.downsizedc.org).
1. The Read the Bills Act, which requires that no legislator may vote on a Bill without certifying that he/she has either personally read the Bill, or has heard it read on the Floor; and that the Bill is posted online for a reasonable period, anticipated to be a week or ten days.
2. The One Subject at a Time Act, which requires that no riders unrelated to the Bill may be added, and removes the politically criminal policy of “gut and amend”.
3. I don’t know if this is proposed with a sponsor yet, but we MUST pass a Bill which requires that all legislators and public officials be subject to the laws they pass — no exemptions!
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Well Done Rob, I am going back and tweeting about this series to get people reading it again. I hope somebody will see it that has a wider audience than my tweets and get a discussion going.
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