I am sorry to vent and I don't mean to create a storm, but why is this stuff being portrayed as normal and appropriate on television. Am I way off base here or what?
No need to be sorry, and no you aren't off base.
All I can say is that each of us who love hunting really need to figure out what we can do to save it, and the RKBA. No, the RKBA ain't about hunting. We all know that. But a lot of people get negative exposure to firearms through the kind of BS TV programs you are talking about, not to mention nimrod blasting one of their cows or some other such nonsense.
Here's what a bunch of us at our local sportsmen's club do.
We have three Hunter Safety Instructors.
We give classes in the spring so we can at least encourage our students to practice what they learn
before hunting season. We live on an island, so most students have to take it in the spring, or they probably won't get their license. Too hard to go elsewhere for the last minute before season classes.
We are working very hard to update/augment the Hunter Ed. materials. With all of the Pittman-Robertson money the gubmint collects, one would think that the instruction videos could have production dates
post 1978. Today's kids are extremely visually oriented. Giving them a movie to watch that was made in the late 1960s doesn't get it done!
We offer NRA rifle/pistol/shotgun/home firearms safety/personal protection/range safety courses. We're working on blackpowder and reloading courses. More knowledge is better. They become better people for having become less ignorant of firearms.
We offer a Kid's NRA Shooting Sports day-camp. The more the kids shoot, the better for us as a society. They learn respect, discipline, sportsmanship.
When a controversy involving firearms comes up locally, we make sure to write letters to the editor explaining that we, as RKBA advocates are appalled, and we go on to explain those things we make available to prevent the problem in the future. People respond very positively to this. Complaining is right and necessary, but
doing something is what makes the change.
We try to pick out new people to take hunting with us, so that we can try to instill the spirit of the hunt into newbies.
I could go on, but everyone gets the drift. Do what you can, when you can.
Some people have accused me in the past of too much altruism. They should hear my intro to my classes where I tell my students that my #1 reason for teaching the class is that I'm not bullet-proof, and I love to hunt, and I'm going to make sure that at least they are going to come out of this class knowing how to do it right, or they are going to fail. No in between!
Good hunting.