As I reported earlier we will be premiering David T. Hardy's Documentary In Search of the Second Amendment in Twin Falls. Hardy has spent 4 years working on this documentary and it is a must see.
On October 3rd, there will be a presentation before the film by historian Clayton Cramer, who is the author of the book Armed America and also appears in the film.
I hope Ryan has notified the local press to come down and cover this. If the attendance is not overflow/SRO, I'd sure like to know why not.
Is the gun store you patronize a leader in protecting the rights of the communities they serve, or merely a merchant? If the latter, have you and your shooting friends taken the time to approach and educate them on the real need for gun shops to supply freedom information as well as freedom tools?
Nothing will change unless we take it upon ourselves to change things. I hope that's not news to anybody.
Most of the gun stores here in Hampton Roads, to one degree or another, are composed of people that want us to buy their guns, but do not want us carrying them. Recently, a large number of Virginia gun owners showed up at a Norfolk, VA city council meeting to complain about harassment of gun owners by city police. The local gun store owner, who chose to not actually attend the meeting, went out of his way to apologize to the city council for what we did.
ReplyDeleteI'm still not sure what makes me more furious about that: the fact that he apparently is in favor of police harassment, or that he thinks he has the right to apologize on my behalf. I'm just glad I have a friend with an FFL, because none of the bastards in the gun stores around here are worthy of my money.
Yeah, that's the way it is most places, LD--I'm suggesting we gun owners take the lead to change that, because business owners aren't inclined to rock any boats out of fear of government reprisal.
ReplyDeleteIt's unfortunate that we need to economically prod them into supporting rkba, but they need to understand that we have the power to favor their competitors who do--it's not just BATFU or council zoning boards or whatever who can negatively affect their bottom line.
I would think a coalition of local gun owners would more than make an impression on any store owner. You don't need to present this negatively--present it as an opportunity--and when you find one that sees it as such, make sure his competitors know about the customers he's attracting to pro-rkba events.
I recall when I was living in LA, the LAX Firing Range allowed our NRA Members Council board of directors to use one of their training rooms for our meetings. They also supported our MC with swag and discounts. We in turn advertised them in our newsletter, invited them to attend our meetings, held events at their range bringing them business, and were ready to respond with volunteers to attend any local govt meetings that might impact their business.
The businesses that understand the symbiotic benefits of supporting their customers' interests are the ones that deserve our dollars. If we continue to patronize those who don't, and never take the initiative to say a word or approach the ones we deal with, well, that'll never change anything, will it?