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Old February 25, 2013, 09:17 PM   #23
Tom Servo
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Join Date: September 27, 2008
Location: Foothills of the Appalachians
Posts: 13,057
Quote:
Why do you think people would not take to such facts? Not saying you are wrong, but I am curious as to why you believe this so much.
I can throw my $.02 in on this, having debated antis on stage before. To convince someone of the difference, I need two things:
  1. A receptive audience that wants to hear me out, and
  2. one that's got the time to hear me out.

We live in a world where proper debate behavior and tactics no longer apply. It's about scoring points, getting zingers, and quick soundbites.

Mr. Anti says, "these machine guns of mass destruction belong in the military!"

I say, "well, the AR-15 is actually a semi-automatic rifle, which means..."

Mr. Anti points at a picture of an M-16 (or a bunch of dead kids), and the crowd reacts better to that. I'm not even into my third sentence by the time I've lost them.

The NRA gets a limited amount of face-time in the mainstream media (and boy, has LaPierre screwed it up at a pivotal moment). They can't get embroiled in what the layman is going to perceive as a dry technical quibble.
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