Month: October 2009

Looking up in New Jersey

Chris Christie has been in a dead heat in the polls, but some newer ones show he might be retaking a lead. I think it’s going to depend on turnout in the Garden State, so lets hope turnout for our side is high next week. Aside from the gun issue, it’ll be important in putting the brakes on the Dem agenda in Congress to have them lose both NJ and VA.

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A Strategy Toward Acceptance

Ride Fast has a question:

What I would like to hear from Mr. Cramer and others who support not openly carrying, is just how do we acclimate people to open carry without actually open carrying? Or is Mr. Cramer advocating we give up on open carry altogether? I can’t support that and never will.

I would ask why acclimating people to open carry is an important goal for the gun rights movement? Because doing that really only benefits the small number of people who want to openly carry. To me that’s a step 36 thing, when we’re on step 12.  Ride Fast talks about the path that motorcycling took from being frowned on to being accepted, and I largely think shooting will proceed in roughly the same way, but you have to bring the culture a lot farther along than it currently is before your average person, who has no familiarity with guns, and the people who own them, is going to look favorably on people openly carrying heaters in urban and suburban settings. Let me explain how, in my view, you normalize gun ownership:

  • Everyone knows a gun owner. Your friends and family all know you’re a gun owner, and a shooter. Most of your coworkers know this too. This is probably has the most impact, because they know you, and hopefully don’t think you’re a nut. I don’t advocate gun owners hiding in the closet. We have to talk about it. Especially to people we know.
  • People can see shooting in the media. Shows like Lock & Load by R. Lee Ermey, and Mail Call prior to that, and even shows that aren’t necessarily about guns, like Mythbusters, have done quite a bit already. Shows like like Michael Bane’s Shooting Gallery have helped bring shooting to larger audiences, and help dispel the myths even a lot of gun owners have about guns.
  • People see shooting in the popular culture. There’s a gun shop and or shooting range in your neighborhood. Your favorite magazines have gun ads in them. There’s shooting games at the video game counter. Movies portray gun ownership positively. We’ve both lost and gained a lot here. I think it’s one area we need to work more on.

I know some will chide me for not seeing open carry within the latter category, but as I’ve said, open carry doesn’t paint a clear picture for the ignorant. Let me explain:

  • Someone at the checkout counter doesn’t know you from adam. If they are inclined not to be upset at the sight of a gun in a public place, they will probably think you’re police, or a security guard. If they are a more hysterical type, they might imagine the worst. This doesn’t help normalize carry, because you don’t convey context.
  • Most individuals do not understand why someone would carry a firearm openly in a public place. Most people wouldn’t understand why you’d want to carry a gun at all. More outgoing, brave types, who aren’t hysterical about the gun, might ask. I agree this is a good opportunity for outreach, but how many that don’t ask walk away thinking the worst because they don’t have context to put it in?

I also think it’s a mistake to suggest that we have to normalize guns in society. That is incorrect. We have to normalize gun owners. Whether you like it or not, the person down at the Stop and Shop does not know you are normal, does not know what a great dad you are, does not know you attend church regularly, does not know you regularly practice with your side arm, likely doesn’t know you can pass a background check, and obtained the firearm perfectly legally. All they see is someone with a gun, and that’s the extent of the context.

Your friends, family, coworkers, fellow congregationalists, what have you, know who you are and (hopefully) think you’re a fine upstanding fellow. Those are the people you need to reach out to, and I think that’s about the best outreach one can do. That’s going to make a whole lot more difference than being a person in public with a gun, and not much else in the way of context.

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Quote of the Day

From Scott in Phoenix AZ:

Despite that I think Clayton is GENERALLY wrong about this issue, I am sad to see him attacked with such viotrol. Frankly if I saw some of these posters openly carrying I would be afraid based upon their willingness to assault people verbally for no reason. Gun owners should not be attacking each other over disagreements as minor as this.

Disagreeing with Claytons opinion is anybody’s right, but calling him names, or “stupid”, is bad manners and STUPID. Clayton is a well-published historian, as noted he is cited in HELLER, he was also instrumental in bringing down the guy (forget his name) [Michael Bellesiles -Seb] that wrote the fraudulent book about how guns weren’t commonly owned at the time of the revolution. So arguing with him about history is a dubious proposition.

And no, Cramer is not like “Zumbo”. Clayton has not made remarks that call into question his devotion to the cause of gun-rights like Zumbo did. No, Clayton just stated his opinion that he thinks the open-carry movement may not be the best way to advance the cause of gun-rights. He doesn’t say open carry should be illegal, or not to do it, just that in his opinion “in-your-face” tactics like those of the PA open carry movement may alienate non-gun owning citizens.

I think he’s wrong (and exchanged some pleasant emails with him about it) and that the benefits of the movement outweight the potential alienation of anybody (and I doubt that will happen much anyway). The benefit of course is that we get the average citizen used to seeing arms in the hands of ordinary citizens – not just the cops and crooks. I think Claytons liking the movement to that of the Gay Pride movement is a stretch.

That said, the movement should not be stupid about it – plan their actions carefully and make sure the people doing the open carry don’t include some of the posters on this thread.

I couldn’t agree more. It is a relatively minor tactical disagreement. Until someone comes out and declares that open carry should be illegal, or calls open carriers terrorists, there’s no need for people to get all bent out of shape that not everyone thinks it’s the best face to put forward.

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Dumbest Gun Parts

Tam nominates the chamber loaded indicator as the dumbest. It’s certainly dumb, but if you look at the CLI on Bitter’s Massachusetts compliant SIG P239, it’s just a small notch drilled into the base of the chamber so you can see brass through it if there’s a round in it. It’s actually kind of handy because can just look to see if there’s brass in the chamber rather than press checking. Now, there are definitely some dumb CLIs out there, such as the one on the Ruger Mk.III, which in early version had a “feature” that it could discharge the round if dropped. It certainly makes the pistol harder to clean too.

But overall, I’m going to have to go with Caleb that magazines disconnect safeties are still the worst in my book, only because I’ve had them take guns down. Conceptually, I think Tam has a point, because it encourages a poor mental attitude when handling a gun, but practically I’ve always found magazine disconnect safeties more obnoxious. From a user interface design perspective, to draw an analogy to software engineering, you generally don’t want cripple your experienced users for the sake of novices. Magazine disconnects violate that rule, while the CLI doesn’t.

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