Why aren't we as noisy as black people?

L

Lavan

New member
Give me a good reason why EVERY gun owner (white, black, or green) isn't doing the same things the negroes were doing in the '60's.
Our civil rights are being crapped on. We are treated like 2nd class citizens. But we are real Uncle Toms when it comes to guts.
Letters should be going to every advertiser on any network that carries Rosie. Every sponsor of an anti-gun show.
We should be sitting in Dianne Feinstein's senate doorway (or a representative of the NRA should be) and blocking the entrance of anyone who wants to enter.
We have got to make some noise. NOW! Irritating noise. Strident demonstrations. We should be crying out for help.
Sometimes I think we gun owners are too confident in our own independence to think that we need outside help.
Personally, I write letters. I get them published. Do the same. Make some noise. It has worked before. It can again.
 
Lavan, your question is one that I've asked a zillion times. Unfortunately, the only answer I can come up with is apathy on the part of gun owners. That, and the fact that the anti's have diced us up into factions: the trap shooters, race gunners, hunters, target shooters, AW owners. All to often, members of one of those segments doesnt care what happens to the other segments. If we don't get together, someday soon the anti's will be asking "why do you need a $5000 double-barreled shotgun when you could duck hunt with a $200 single-shot?"

Dick
Want to send a message to Bush? Sign the petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/monk/petition.html and forward the link to every gun owner you know.
 
Complaining does get attention, but it does not inspire admiration. I think we would do better by working on our image in this country. We have been pretty-well trashed. Maybe if more of us could get involved, as a group, in things like helping, for instance, Habitate For Humanity, that image would improve. If my health permitted, I would like to do more of that sort of thing.

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"Unless the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain that build it:
except the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain." (Psalm 127:1)


"Freedom is given to the human conditionally, in the assumption of his constant religious responsibility."
(Alexander Solzhenitzyn)
 
Lavan,
you need to think real hard about what your asking, the blacks were subjected a true double standard that existed for decades.

When have you been denied access to a public bathroom or thrown out a diner for being a gun owner.

And this not on how blacks were treated but, just pointing out the fact, that the issue here has nothing to do with the color of a mans skin, what we look like is not something we can change easily.

Owning a gun, is different.

Apples and Oranges

Waterdog
 
...and because the vast majority of gun owners are white, protestant/catholic males. When was the last time you saw a bumpersticker saying save the males? Nobody gives a hoot about a bunch of affluent white people. Haven't you forgotten that we're the victimizers to the rest of the population?
Also gun owners don't usually inspire people's sympathy because there isn't a mental link with weakness. Gun owners already are apparently strong, so why worry about them? Of course, I could be wrong.

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"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy!" --- Benjamin Franklin
 
Several have touched on the issue that caught America's attention in the 60's....it's guilt. To compare the negative attentions paid by govt and citizens toward Blacks vs Gun Owners is an apples and oranges case.

They're "only" taking away our Second Amendment rights. The Black were deprived of all of 'em. True, they gained some ground by protest, martyrdom and violence....but these gains were hardly due to the volume of their complaint. So the pols gave them Affirmative Action, forced busing, govt subsidized ghettos and the right to live under a new kind of slavery called "Welfare" .

To me, the comparison of gun owners and blacks is faulty. While the wellspring of both types of bigotry is identical (fear and loathing), gun owners haven't "suffered enough" in the public's eye to deserve recognition. If you really want some recognition look at the American Indian and all that gambling income? Of course, it's a pretty niggardly reward for genocide.

I hope the day never comes that firearms owners are treated in the way Blacks or Indians have been.
Rich
 
I agree with KeillerTN, The best thing we can do now is to work on our public immage. That is by doing everything we can to introduce ourselves and our sport to the general public. Promote our cause, let the public see us at our best and build a new "public relations proof" block of voters. They are taking advantage of the general public by exploiting their fears and the lack of any king of firearms knowledge. A common political tactic. Gun clubs, Nra, and every gun owning individual should commit to promoting the shooting sports in any way they can.

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The road to tyranny, we must never forget, begins with the destruction of the truth.
William J. Clinton, President
At the University of Connecticut, Oct 15 1995
 
"Negroes," Lavan?

The difference in activism is simple and critical. Ever read "Letter from Birmingham Jail?" You must break the law. The equivalent of a lunch counter sit-in in gun owner's terms would be holding a press conference to build and sell a Sten gun.
 
I think he does have a point, though. Depending on the outcome of this election and how things turn out in CA and other places, I think the time for civil disobediance may be coming. Not the full scale revolution some are looking for, we aren't at that point, but something to show that we are at the limit of what we're willing to take. The TRT has some good ideas, but (no offense to those of you who aren't) the bigotted stuff I've seen over there has turned me off to it.

At this point, I'm still willing to go the normal routes, but honestly, the time may come and soon when we have to get louder.
 
Just to nit-pick: some of us (TFL collectively) are Black people. A lot of us are loud. Just that much of the loud activities becomes only obvious in retrospect, with the help of a sympathetic historian.
 
Mort...

Negro was once the accepted scientific descriptive term for black people of African descent. Just as Caucasion was for white people of Euro descent and Oriental was for yellow people with epicanthic eye-folds. None of these were ever derogatory; perhaps archaic these days, but not derogatory. Black used to be derogatory as late as the 1960's

FWI ;)




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"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!
 
Bad comparison. How about picking something like "Pro-choice" activists.

Race and gun ownership are not comparable. Not at all. You will not win minds with that faulty logic, and you surely will not win any hearts either.

Take it from someone who is on your side on the RKBA issue.
 
So why isn't every gun owner fighting for their rights? As already touched on, there is a certain amount of apathy. I think there are three other major reasons as well. First, many gun owners distrust authority and authority figures such as the police. Aspects of such distrust have been posted several times on TFL. Second, many appear to be afraid to fight for their rights because that draws attention to the fact that they are gun owners and this does not go unnoticed by the government. As such, if confiscations do occur, those speaking the loudest are likely to be the first to lose their guns. Third, gun owners tend to be very autonomous and the ironic thing is that gun ownership helps promote individual autonomy and thus undercuts the fight for RKBA.
 
Gopher: To which I'll add the 4th, and most important reason: Most gun owners aren't GUN OWNERS, they're just people who happen to own guns. They're not going to become politically active over a threat to somebody else's guns, because gun ownership means nothing more to them than toothbrush ownership, or hammer ownership.

The only way to motivate the people who just happen to own guns, is to persuade them that the real target isn't this gun or that, it's ALL guns, including theirs. Fortunately, this is getting easier, since the anti-gunners are beginning to feel so confident of ultimate victory that some of them are starting to talk about banning all guns.

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Sic semper tyrannis!
 
"When have you been denied access to a public bathroom or thrown out a diner for being a gun owner."

Ever see a "No Weapons Allowed" sign? It's not "gun owner" it's gun carrier.

Also, ever hear of someone being dismissed from a jury pool because he answered "yes" to the question: "Are you a gun owner?"

Rick
 
Maybe we are just too affluent. Too much to lose to indulge in REAL civil disobedience. Otherwise we could organize a "Carry a gun" day and 70 million of us end up in jail. Then who pays the attorneys?

I will concede, I guess, that the question was naive.

However, if we can't get funding for a real shivaree, then I do like the suggestion of supporting habitat for humanity or something.

We have voluntarily funded the wildlife stuff through license fees. Maybe some institution would like support through a gun or ammo tax. Yeah, TAX!

If 10% of our money was funding a crippled children's hospital that would fold if we were harassed, there is a chance it would be too unpopular and the bastards would have to go after someone else.

Of course, who else epitomizes the ONLY threat to a police state?

I think I will just shut up.
 
No, no, no. We're looking at the question wrong. Lavan's question does not suggest that the struggles need to be similar in nature or even comparable, nor does it suggest that the relevance comes from equating the two struggles in the mind of the public.

The question is "Why?" I think the answer is that the civil rights struggle was fought by a generation of African-Americans who were inspired by their leadership, but won because that generation comprised a population all of whom were similarly (if not identically) affected by violations of their constitutional rights to equal protection and due process under the law.

By contrast, gun owners are affected differently by gun control efforts. Some are hardly affected at all (shotgun hunters) and some have been legislated out of existence (full-auto enthusiasts). There is so far no "critical mass" of gun owners ready to make the sacrifices necessary for an effective program of civil disobediance. This is made worse to some extent because of the blocks now thrown up in front of people who wish to take up arms for the first time, and by the cliquishness of gun owners who prefer to associate only with "their own kind,' whether defined by color, politics, religion or social position.

Thank you for a post which has led to excellent discussion.

Regards,

Ledbetter
 
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