Well the question becomes is the news media a leader or follower, the classic chicken and egg question. I think both, and the key is to set the boat in the right direction.
Suppose for example a number of Hollywood celebs came out and said they enjoy shooting sports, and strongly support concealed carry. Or one or more of the American Idol contestants?
What if Brangelina did so? Well actually she did:
http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/a...un_confession/
And what did the NRA do about it? They should have offered her millions to become a spokeswoman, assuming my ideas are correct. They should have coaxed more celebs out of the woodwork. As it stands, I wager a number of readers of this forum are learning this fact for the first time. That shouldn't have been allowed to happen. I don't mean to blame the NRA, I just use them as short-hand for the entire pro-gun community.
And that is what I'm getting at. Forget about all the CDC stats and the cold dead hands. Make gun ownership cool. It is cool after all, isn't it?