I did the rant on Facebook days ago, but since I’m on this weird “sleep during the heat, work on costume and the Sims during the night” schedule, I just remembered that I promised that I would post it here so it can be shared (my Facebook is friendslocked):
I have some ideas as to how to NOT get through to people who are ‘anti-gun’.
A) Showing up at an event with your open carry group. Yes, I don’t care if you can legally do it. It’s not gonna help, ESPECIALLY AFTER YET ANOTHER MASS SHOOTING. This isn’t like bringing a petting zoo to help people get used to small fuzzy animals.
B) Talking down to those with less information about guns than you do. Look, I don’t have to be a biologist to know that evolution is real. I don’t need to know the chemical makeup of meth to know that it’s some dangerous shit. I really don’t need to know the differences between an XX-100 and a YY12 semi-demi-auto rifle to know that the ones that can mow down dozens of people in seconds are ones I don’t want sold to civilians anymore. You want to correct the media’s misinfo, take it to the media. Hell, Salon has a great article about it. Offer to teach your friends if it’s really that important to you, and respect their responses (srsly, some people are not going to want to be anywhere near a gun no matter what. That’s going to have to be okay with you)
C) Ignoring people’s fear. Look, I’ve held/fired many types of guns more then twice, and the damn things still scare me, even in the presence of sober mature friends. The things are made to kill, of course people are going to have a fear of them. And they have to right to that fear. It’s a very valid, healthy fucking fear, and it might be growing with each and every single mass killing that splashes up on the news. You’ll just have to deal with that fact.
D) Shooting down (HA!) people’s demands for action because of their lack of knowledge or whatever. If you have the knowledge, use it. SOME THING has to change, and it’s better to make some damn suggestions now than to wait until us “scaredy cats” push some sort of regs that make you roll your eyes and call us “stupid”.
Lastly, E) WAITING UNTIL WE’RE ALL REELING AGAIN FROM YET ANOTHER TRAGEDY TO DO A-D. Jeez, fuck, it’s so tone deaf. People are going to be angry, lash out, mourning, grieving, and it’s just poor manners to try to step into their grief with “Well actually, automatic weapons were banned in BLAH BLAH”. If the 2nd amendment is that important and is in
that much trouble, the opportunity to educate needs to happen when emotions aren’t as high.
Just…fucking THINK for a second.
“This isn’t like bringing a petting zoo to help people get used to small fuzzy animals.”
❤️ that analogy!
Well said, and it needed to be said.
Thank you.