I just received some disturbing news about this year’s SHOT Show (Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show) from a well respected member of the firearms industry. The mainstream media will be at the 2013 SHOT Show in force with the express purpose of furthering their anti-gun agenda.
There will be a tremendous amount of hostile media at SHOT Show this year. Major “news” outlets, including CNN and NPR have been contacting exhibitors to secure interviews, and you’d better believe that they are not going to be there to get the scoop on the latest muzzle brake or concealed carry purse. Their only purpose will be to humiliate and shame those of us in the firearms community and they will be working very hard to coax us in to speaking to them so they can use our words against us.
Here’s the best advice I’ve heard to counter this unwelcome infiltration: DON’T SPEAK TO THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA AT SHOT SHOW. My friend in the industry made some suggestions that I’d like to pass on – Be polite, and rather than say “no comment”, just tell them that you are busy and can’t talk right now. Do not forget that these people are not reasonable people and do not want a discussion. Please realize that despite your best efforts, there is no answer or statement you can give that can’t and won’t be used against all of us.
Those of us that will be at SHOT Show legitimately will be there to learn, make and renew connections and do business. The anti-gun media will be there to confirm their preconceived notion that none of us are rational human beings.
If you know anyone that will be going to SHOT Show next week, please let them know about this unsettling development. And remember that the best (and likely only) way to mitigate the damage the anti-gun media plans to inflict upon the firearms community is to ignore them.
UPDATE: The mainstream media’s plan to bash SHOT Show and vilify the good people at NSSF is already underway. This ridiculously inaccurate article from The Guardian was posted online just a few hours ago.
7 responses so far ↓
1 matt // Jan 10, 2013 at 1:48 pm
I think the best answer woild to kindly say i belive in the 2A in its entierty. Thank you and move on
2 Steve // Jan 10, 2013 at 3:35 pm
I’m a very liberal but pro-gun person, but I think ignoring the media completely may not be the best answer. You know regardless of what the majority of the people at SHOT do, there will be a few folks with no sense who want to give the media their two cents, and will likely embarrass lawful gun-owners.
In that case, you may as well speak with the media, just make sure you aren’t bringing a knife to a gun fight, so to speak. Know your facts, know that the questioner probably doesn’t know basic facts like the difference between semi-automatic and automatic, between a magazine and a clip, and know that anyone interviewing you probably will ask infuriatingly stupid questions.
Know that assault weapon is a legislative term; the only thing that is an assault weapon is what we say it is(semi-auto with detachable magazine and 2 of any 5 largely cosmetic features like batonet lugs). Semiautomatics constitute the significant majority of firearms in the U.S.
Know that mass shootings are not becoming more common. We just hear more about them since the growth of 24 hour news networks like Fox and CNN and the need to produce constant states of crisis to boost ratings. http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/are-mass-shootings-really-on-the-rise/ A person is more likely to drown in their bathtub than be killed in a mass shooting.
Rifles of all types including ‘assault weapons’, are used in less than 3% of gun crimes. You are more likely to be murdered with a blunt object than a rifle. The real cause of most gun violence in this country is semiautomatic handguns used in gang/drug violence. (the same type of gun Senator Feinstein has a permit for). http://www.volokh.com/2013/01/03/are-blunt-objects-more-common-homicide-weapons-than-rifles/ Want to really reduce gun violence in America? Decriminalize some drugs.
Liberals say we never talk about guns after shootings. This is an outright lie. We talk about gun control all the time, and as a country we decide we dont want it. Liberals just dont like the outcome of that conversation. Public support for gun control has consistently dropped since the 70’s.
Magazine size does not seriously impact the effectiveness of shooters. Anyone who has any experience with their gun can reload a magazine in a few short seconds. This is not enough time to tackle a shooter or anything like that. The Tuscon shooter wasn’t stopped when he reloaded, he was stopped when his gun jammed.
The number of guns owned in this country has continued to rise over the past few decades, while gun violence has continuously and significantly declined since the beginning of the 90’s. The end of the assault weapons ban did not see the massive rise in violence liberals predicted. Liberals love to point at how gun ownership is declining. Gun ownership is still around 50% outside of cities, where gun ownership is often made much more difficult by local laws. Even in cities, gun ownership is close to 50% among self-identified Republicans and conservatives.
Most gun control laws in this country have their basis in racist policies, first regarding freed slaves, and then regarding civil rights workers seeking to protect themselves during the civil rights movement, and the black panthers seeking to protect themselves from what they saw as a racist and violent state police system. Banning semiautomatics and ‘assault weapons’ has the greatest negative effect on those small in stature, frail, handicapped or elderly, as they are often easier to shoot and control and require less strength than alternatives like revolvers, pump-shotguns and bolt-action rifles. Also, the fasting rising segment of gun owners are women.
Gun free zones simply tell criminals where they will be able to inflict the most damage with the least resistance. Almost all mass shootings occur in gun-free zones for this very reason.
Looking at Newtown specifically, if a killer is willing to murder his own mother to get a gun, he’s probably going to get a gun, regardless of what controls you put in place.
Not all liberals hate guns, only those who accept the state monopoly of force. I, as I said, am a liberal. I’m in law school to be a union lawyer. I am an Occupy Wall Street activist. I like government regulation, i want government to educate my children, provide universal healthcare, and support the elderly and disabled. I don’t want it to warrantlessly wiretap my phone, gather my emails in its NSA databanks, indefinitely detain me, use drones to observe my movements, or have its police stop me because of the way I look, and beat me if I dont genuflect well enough. Government force is the greatest threat to liberty. Next time a liberal tells you guns are unnecessary to protect us from tyranny, ask them if the citizens of Weimar Germany saw what was 10 years down the road. Next time the tell you an AR-15 can’t oppose the U.S. military, as them about the Afghans opposing the Soviet Union, or Chechen rebels, or the Viet Cong.
Or just say to them, “hey liberal, how are you going to overthrow our capitalist overlords without guns?”
3 NRAVA // Jan 10, 2013 at 3:52 pm
Was recently at the Nations Gun show in Dulles VA, Which I have been to many many times before. There was no less that 5 different media outlets there and I have never seen one before in the 20 previous trips to that show. No one was giving interviews!
4 Capitalist Pig // Jan 10, 2013 at 4:25 pm
A Huffington Post anti-gun writer has chimed in, probably prodded by a paid press release from the anti-rights Violence Policy Center.
5 Mild Bill // Jan 10, 2013 at 9:39 pm
Remember during the Gulf War the use of children to keep amunition stores from being bombed Saddam using children as hostages, Hamas using schools to shelter their launch sites for their rockets going into Israel. These are tactics used by a ruthless enemy as described in Sun Tzus’ Chinese Art of WAR. These people who are trying to disarm the average law abiding American are not nearly as stupid as they lead us to believe. Obama IS NOT STUPID even though he looks and sounds like it. The reason he appeares that way to the average American is his real intentions that do make sense are not apparent. If he really cared about a strong debt free well defended industrious America with responsible self defense avaliable for all responsible citizens he would not be doing exactly what destroys all these things. Go to you-tube and look at The Muslim Brotherhood in America, look closely at the Quran study about why are we the Great Satan. After you have done that, what Obama is doing will make perfect sense to any body. Bankrupt America, weaken the military, choke the court system with Obama Care and use school children and lunatics to disarm Americans by creating a safe place for a coward with a gun to do as he chooses. No Obama is not looking out for America HE”S HELPING THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD. Help the kids and get rid of Obama!!!!!!
6 Mild Bill // Jan 10, 2013 at 10:09 pm
By the way I agree with Matt, why underestimate or tell your enemy what he already knows. And if by chance you do tell him something he dosen’t know then you just compromised your own position. A lot of people know how to say nothing, few know when.
7 Walls of the City // Jan 11, 2013 at 9:06 am
fair warning and good advice…
Once again, I will not be attending SHOT Show (mostly because I will be saving up money for a significantly less exciting trip in the hopefully-near future), but those of you who are going should bear this in mind:…