[Frank Ettin]

Originally Posted by barnbwt

Let's be fair, guys; this statement could be used by any reporter doing a hatchet-job on any pro-gun demonstration adjacent an anti-gun demonstration anywhere....

Okay, but it's still predicable. It also helps them and hurts us.

Originally Posted by barnbwt

...I suppose the argument could be made that public rallies are a stupid waste of our effort,...

And that might well be. There is no reason to have a public demonstration unless it can be done in a way well calculated to advance our interests. If we can't figure out a way to stage a public demonstration that we can be sure will help us, then we need to find other tactics.

Originally Posted by barnbwt

...A protest is not proselytizing; it is artificially generating a news story intended to be sympathetic to your side...

Yes, and that's one reason that they don't work well for us.


Many in the RKBA community have pointed at the Civil Rights Movement without understanding in any depth how it worked, why it worked, and how its lessons can and can not be useful for the advancement of our interests. But --

• During the Civil Rights Movement many Whites came to care about the plight of the Blacks, and much of the focus was to make Whites understand and care. The successes of non-Whites on the social and legislative fronts depended on Whites seeing non-Whites as oppressed. How many non-gun owners think gun owners are oppressed?
  
  
• The acts of civil disobedience, involved very normal, benign, human acts: taking a seat on a bus for the ride home after a hard day at work; sitting at a lunch counter to have a meal; a child registering to attend school; registering to vote; voting; etc. These are normal, every day thing that White folks took for granted. And it became profoundly disturbing for many White to see other humans arrested for doing these normal, benign things simply because of the color of their skin.
  
  
• During the days of the Civil Rights Movement of the '50s and '60s, civil disobedience, as favorably reported by the mainstream media, and as favorably commented upon on college campuses and in sermons in houses of worship across the nation, helped generate great public sympathy for the cause. That sympathy helped lead to the election of pro-civil rights legislators and executives. And that led to the enactment of pro-civil rights laws.
  
  
• On the other hand how has the public thus far responded to the thus far minimal "civil disobedience" of RKBA advocates?
  
  
  • Where have there been any great outpourings of sympathy for the plight of gun owners, especially from non-gun owners -- as whites showed sympathy for the plight of non-whites during the days of the Civil Rights Movement?
    
    
  • Where are the editorials in the New York Times lauding the courage of gun owners in their resistance to the oppression of anti-gun prejudice?
    
    
  • Who has heard a pro-gun rights sermon in his church? Where are the pro-gun rights rallies on college campuses?
    
    
  • Where are non-gun owners joining with gun owners in pro-gun rights demonstrations, just as whites joined with non-whites in marches and demonstrations during the Civil Rights Movement? Where are our charismatic leaders inspiring the nation?
    
    
  • A tired black woman arrested for taking a seat on a bus is something that many ordinary people could respond sympathetically to. Does anyone really think that a man arrested for the illegal possession of a gun is likely to produce anything like a similar degree of sympathy in a non-gun owner -- especially after Columbine, Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook?
  
  
• Let's look at the comparison with the Civil Rights Movement graphically. In the days of the Civil Rights Movement:
  
  
  • White folks cared in 1960 when U. S. Marshals had to escort a black girl to school in New Orleans, Louisiana.
    
    
  • White folks cared in 1963 when George Wallace attempted to block the desegregation of the University of Alabama. He was confronted by federal marshals, Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, and the Alabama Army National Guard and forced to step aside.
    
    
  • White folks cared in 1963 when Wallace again attempted to stop four black students from enrolling in segregated elementary schools in Huntsville.
    
    
  • And White folks cared about --
    
    
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  • On the other hand, what do non-gun owners (and many gun owners) think about:
    
    
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