This from ma-firearms@world.std.com.
RKBA!
Tracker
-------------
RKBA! Welcome to The Resistance (women too)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
If this makes sense to you, please forward it to other lists...
We in the Massachusetts Firarms email list have been working on pro-gun
public messages for months. This grassroots project began with signs for a
rally in Boston Common in May; progressed to ideas for a billboard campaign;
evolved into slogans for lawn signs; and now now focusses on stickers and
stencils inspired by the pink triangle of the gay freedom movement. The
effort has coincided with what is arguably the most dangerous political and
cultural assault on personal freedom in this country's history.
Throughout the process, we've brainstormed and argued to try to find the one
most effective message, the one best idea for words and graphics. This may
have made sense when the goal was an expensive billboard, but now it's not
necessary: any number of excellent short phrases can work on lawn signs, and
several recent suggestions would work well for stickers or even (let's say it
out loud) roadside graffiti. There's no need to cull the ideas down to
one... as long as there's a single unifying symbol to tie all the messages
together and identify them as coming from a single, unified group of people.
That key unifying symbol already exists, and has been right under our noses:
RKBA! Four capital letters... plus the exclamation point.
It's short. It's known to us, to all other pro-gun activists, and to many
other gun owners. (And don't disparage the need for a rallying symbol of
solidarity within this kind of movement.) More importantly, it's just
cryptic enough so that people will want to know what it means -- and we'll
tell them.
Add it as a logo to signs and slogans, and as a sign-off or postscript to
longer messages. Use it alone, or with the word "Freedom." (Hand out
thousands of "RKBA! Freedom" stickers to kids on the subway. Thanks, Richard
Cashman.) Use it anywhere you'd paint or draw a symbol. You can make it
part of a fancy stencil, but you don't have to. It's only four letters and
an exclamation point: write it on restaurant checks, on invoices, on packages
you send, on business cards... anywhere people will see it.
Go ahead and make lawn signs that say "Save the 2nd Amendment" or "Criminals
go where guns are banned," or any number of other good phrases (maybe even
including "Silence = Death," appropriated from the gay freedom movement), but
add "RKBA!" to the end. (How about: "For the Children -- RKBA!") Design a
stencil of a five-pointed star with the digit "2" inside (thanks, sasquatch)
-- but put "RKBA!" underneath it. See www.GunsSaveLife.com/Burma.htm for
some great "Burma-Shave"-style pro-gun roadside signs from the Champaign
County (IL) Rifle Association. Stay tuned to the Massachusetts Firearms list
for more ideas. Just add "RKBA!" to everything. Rick Vaughan
(jurist@attymain) signs his excellent messages with the tag line, "The Right
to Self Defense is a Fundamental Human Right - RKBA." Rick, add an
exclamation point.
Why the exclamation point? To signify the imperative: Join us! Do
something! Don't give in! Learn, educate, speak out, resist! If we all use
it, this symbol -- RKBA! -- will be our version of the clenched fist of the
black power movement.
Now... Some of us breathe more deeply with mention of the Sons of Liberty,
and most of us stand just a little taller with thoughts of 1776. But the
anti-freedom forces have made a lot of progress in this country -- so much
so, in recent years, that times have changed; we've entered a "new reality"
(thank you, Andy Barniskis) -- and a better model for us than the Concord
Patriots may now be the French Resistance during the Nazi occupation.
When someone asks who's writing RKBA! everywhere, and wants to know who we
are -- tell them we're The Resistance.
We're not the NRA (although most of us may be members); we're not any other
group. We're not conservative Republicans. We're not the Christian
religion, in any of its versions. We're not for or against abortion,
legalization or suppression of drugs, or any other issue except individual
liberty and the right of the people to keep and bear arms. And because --
like the French Maquis of the early 1940s -- we're the voices of freedom in a
country governed by tyranny, we're also The Underground. (Yes, that's
already happened: How many of us want to advertise our gun ownership?)
One further thing: We won't succeed in regaining our freedom without the
support of more women, now over half of all voters. The other side has been
shameless in deceptively preying on women's protective instincts, and we must
devote a large part of our efforts to reversing this process.
To this end, one technique is to modify some of the RKBA! symbols: to the
bottom of the letter "B," attach, as a descender, the lower part of the
female symbol (like a small inverted crucifix). This version of the RKBA!
logo would go nicely with appropriate signs and messages -- for example
(thank you, Kevin McDonough), "Support Gun Permits for Women (RKBA!)." We
could even discuss copyrights with the NRA and post "Refuse To Be A Victim
(RKBA!)."
Let's make this work -- and may God help us. RKBA!
Sam Cohen
SamCohenXX@aol.com RKBA!
RKBA!
Tracker
-------------
RKBA! Welcome to The Resistance (women too)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
If this makes sense to you, please forward it to other lists...
We in the Massachusetts Firarms email list have been working on pro-gun
public messages for months. This grassroots project began with signs for a
rally in Boston Common in May; progressed to ideas for a billboard campaign;
evolved into slogans for lawn signs; and now now focusses on stickers and
stencils inspired by the pink triangle of the gay freedom movement. The
effort has coincided with what is arguably the most dangerous political and
cultural assault on personal freedom in this country's history.
Throughout the process, we've brainstormed and argued to try to find the one
most effective message, the one best idea for words and graphics. This may
have made sense when the goal was an expensive billboard, but now it's not
necessary: any number of excellent short phrases can work on lawn signs, and
several recent suggestions would work well for stickers or even (let's say it
out loud) roadside graffiti. There's no need to cull the ideas down to
one... as long as there's a single unifying symbol to tie all the messages
together and identify them as coming from a single, unified group of people.
That key unifying symbol already exists, and has been right under our noses:
RKBA! Four capital letters... plus the exclamation point.
It's short. It's known to us, to all other pro-gun activists, and to many
other gun owners. (And don't disparage the need for a rallying symbol of
solidarity within this kind of movement.) More importantly, it's just
cryptic enough so that people will want to know what it means -- and we'll
tell them.
Add it as a logo to signs and slogans, and as a sign-off or postscript to
longer messages. Use it alone, or with the word "Freedom." (Hand out
thousands of "RKBA! Freedom" stickers to kids on the subway. Thanks, Richard
Cashman.) Use it anywhere you'd paint or draw a symbol. You can make it
part of a fancy stencil, but you don't have to. It's only four letters and
an exclamation point: write it on restaurant checks, on invoices, on packages
you send, on business cards... anywhere people will see it.
Go ahead and make lawn signs that say "Save the 2nd Amendment" or "Criminals
go where guns are banned," or any number of other good phrases (maybe even
including "Silence = Death," appropriated from the gay freedom movement), but
add "RKBA!" to the end. (How about: "For the Children -- RKBA!") Design a
stencil of a five-pointed star with the digit "2" inside (thanks, sasquatch)
-- but put "RKBA!" underneath it. See www.GunsSaveLife.com/Burma.htm for
some great "Burma-Shave"-style pro-gun roadside signs from the Champaign
County (IL) Rifle Association. Stay tuned to the Massachusetts Firearms list
for more ideas. Just add "RKBA!" to everything. Rick Vaughan
(jurist@attymain) signs his excellent messages with the tag line, "The Right
to Self Defense is a Fundamental Human Right - RKBA." Rick, add an
exclamation point.
Why the exclamation point? To signify the imperative: Join us! Do
something! Don't give in! Learn, educate, speak out, resist! If we all use
it, this symbol -- RKBA! -- will be our version of the clenched fist of the
black power movement.
Now... Some of us breathe more deeply with mention of the Sons of Liberty,
and most of us stand just a little taller with thoughts of 1776. But the
anti-freedom forces have made a lot of progress in this country -- so much
so, in recent years, that times have changed; we've entered a "new reality"
(thank you, Andy Barniskis) -- and a better model for us than the Concord
Patriots may now be the French Resistance during the Nazi occupation.
When someone asks who's writing RKBA! everywhere, and wants to know who we
are -- tell them we're The Resistance.
We're not the NRA (although most of us may be members); we're not any other
group. We're not conservative Republicans. We're not the Christian
religion, in any of its versions. We're not for or against abortion,
legalization or suppression of drugs, or any other issue except individual
liberty and the right of the people to keep and bear arms. And because --
like the French Maquis of the early 1940s -- we're the voices of freedom in a
country governed by tyranny, we're also The Underground. (Yes, that's
already happened: How many of us want to advertise our gun ownership?)
One further thing: We won't succeed in regaining our freedom without the
support of more women, now over half of all voters. The other side has been
shameless in deceptively preying on women's protective instincts, and we must
devote a large part of our efforts to reversing this process.
To this end, one technique is to modify some of the RKBA! symbols: to the
bottom of the letter "B," attach, as a descender, the lower part of the
female symbol (like a small inverted crucifix). This version of the RKBA!
logo would go nicely with appropriate signs and messages -- for example
(thank you, Kevin McDonough), "Support Gun Permits for Women (RKBA!)." We
could even discuss copyrights with the NRA and post "Refuse To Be A Victim
(RKBA!)."
Let's make this work -- and may God help us. RKBA!
Sam Cohen
SamCohenXX@aol.com RKBA!