Thursday, February 20, 2020

Outreach Long Overdue

The Black Guns Matter Tour, led by Hip Hop artist turned Second Amendment advocate, Maj Toure, travels across the United States educating urban communities on Second Amendment protected rights & responsibilities. The tour not only teaches basic firearms safety and conflict resolution, but also provides a forum for discussing the right to keep and bear arms and the process of becoming safe, responsible, legally armed carriers in each state. [More]
Good-- I wish it were otherwise and race was not a factor, but it is what it is. Every successful influencer knows to persuade people, being able to identify with the messenger is key. It will be instructive to see if this moves the needle in November.

On a tangential note, I notice none of the groups hiding from my challenge are publicizing a similar outreach program to mitigate it. Incidentally, I saw a GOA political questionnaire and God bless 'em, they include this question:

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Like I have said before, the NRA is all show and the GOA is all go. One is a paper tiger and the other is a wolverine. Virginia is proof of that - the goa was all over the place, but where was the nra?

Sincerely,

A lifetime member of the GOA and not a NRA member

Anonymous said...

I recently heard a political staffer make an interesting statement. The statement was so off the wall I completely missed who they were and which campaign they were affiliated with except that I assume it was a Democrat. He said that the Democratic party was nuts not to get their people on the Fox News talk shows. His logic was that if they didn't, they were immediately writing off half of the country from hearing their message.

That's the money shot: writing off half of the country from hearing their message.

The struggle over RKBA is in a similar spot. If all we focus on is old fat white guys (to borrow one incorrect stereotype) we lose out on the support of many who might align with us if they were properly approached. One of the messages on the NRA masthead includes the words "believes every law-abiding citizen is entitled to the ownership and legal use of firearms."

Our message should be inclusive. We should be reaching out to all 50+ genders, all of the races, and the occasional one eyed one horned flying purple people eater. Oh wait. That's probably a felony offense. Scratch the purple people eaters.

Invite people to the range. All kinds of people. Some will accept. Some will not. Don't stop asking. Plan on not doing any shooting while you show them the ropes. Get them to relax, learn, be safe, and enjoy.

Then get ready to answer questions about a best choice for a first firearm.

Chris T in KY said...

As a black gun owner, I only recently learned that not everyone else in the black community believed that they had a civil right to firearms. I only recently learned that our education system is responsible for this. As well as the gun restrictive laws and public housing projects. For generations now many black people have grown up believing they were not allowed to own a firearm. Especially since where they lived they were not allowed to have guns in public housing.

2 years ago on the after-action review gun podcast Maj Toure stated that the NRA had promised him. 50 thousands dollars to tour the United States and promote the Second Amendment. The NRA reneged on its promise to him.