We haven’t hit that “dot com bubble†yet with gun culture, because since 1994 (or even earlier…) our culture hasn’t been based around expanding our rights and welcoming new people into the fold, it’s been built on fear and defensive warfare that bitterly clings to what few rights we had left.
We’re on the cusp of something truly wonderful here. Let’s not let past fears ruin it.
I tend to agree with Kevin. I’m an optimist on gun rights, but a pessimist on nearly everything else. Trump is doing a great job helping to expand gun rights into key Democratic demos! All we need is another one or two justices, and we’re probably set for a bright future.
It’s a shame to hear about Bearing Arms. I don’t think that really has any bearing on overall trends in the gun world. I think it does reflect the loss Bob Owens, who basically built that brand.
“Trump is doing a great job helping to expand gun rights into key Democratic demos!”
I’m just throwing this out for thought and not because I’m committed to it as an argument: When gun rights were embraced by key “key Democratic demos” in the 1960s, it arguably contributed to the modern gun control movement. (I won’t say “conceived” the movement, because of course the assassinations contributed heavily to it.) That embrace at very least provided a lot of lubricant for gun control.
You don’t have to talk to anyone in the gun rights community very long, to get them to admit they believe gun rights only belong to right-thinking people like themselves.
I know for sure that embrace of gun rights by certain demos in the past has at very least divided the pro-gun camp against itself, and I also have experience with (ironically, right-leaning) legislators using it to manipulate members of the gun rights community to support incremental gun controls, or at least to tacitly accept them without resistance.
“You don’t have to talk to anyone in the gun rights community very long, to get them to admit they believe gun rights only belong to right-thinking people like themselves.”
You seriously believe this. Thank you.
Folks, take a good look. This is a classic example of projection. You’ll never see a better one.
Trump is doing a great job helping to expand gun rights into key Democratic demos!
Which the NRA is fighting against.
“Which the NRA is fighting against.”
Can you imagine the National Republican Apologists stuck with a bipartisan issue? Or worse yet, an issue that had ceased to be an issue?
When I was a kid the March of Dimes was focused solely on eradicating polio. Then Jonas Salk came along and eradicated polio. The March of Dimes came close to going belly-up, but managed the pivot to birth defects, this time choosing a malady that will never be completely eradicated.
Sad about BearingArms.com too.
I think we have a bright future too. We are winning. We have a lot of work to do, but we changed the culture, and that will hold for awhile.
“We have a lot of work to do, but we changed the culture, and that will hold for awhile.”
What I worry about is whether the gun issue has been tied too irrevocably to “culture war” issues, so that if there were a backlash against any of those (the culture hasn’t changed on everything), they would drag the gun rights issue down with them. I have used the metaphor before of, “throwing the baby out with the bathwater.” Such things are not necessarily rational in how they go down; our association with the culture war is not completely rational.
More immediately, I fear that a significant backlash against Trumpism will have that effect. Except for reversing Obama’s lead ammo ban on federal land, Trump has yet to do much for gun rights, yet the NRA has arguably tied itself inextricably to him since the day he officially became the Republican candidate.
Too bad the democratic party is completely controlled by anti-gunners… who was the NRA supposed to endorse, Whetherman???
The modern democratic party HATES gun rights.
“who was the NRA supposed to endorse…?”
Since when is the NRA or any group required to endorse anyone?
I’ll always stipulate that for me, “endorse” apparently has a much different, stronger connotation than for most people. It should imply drop-dead, take-it-to-the-bank, almost-no-reservations recommendation. Not, “well, we guess this turd may polish up a tad better than that other turd.”
I have long been an advocate of the gun rights community just sitting on its hands, endorsements-wise, through more elections. Just saying “enforce existing laws and get tough on crime,” and reciting a little rote about the constitution and the founders, should never be worthy of an endorsement by themselves. Having actually provided some deliverables for the cause at some point should be a minimum requirement for “endorsement.” Instead, we’ve been faithfully delivering votes in return for bullshit and blather, and you know what? The pols of all parties have noticed, and give us not much more than we ask for. It would be comical if it weren’t tragic.