I listened to Braden’s report on the impact of the Second Press, and his plans as he looks to increase its reach and impact. After hearing the concerns expressed whether we are just “preaching to the choir,” the worry in the comments of being “labeled,” and how we can impact those who disagree with us? I asked myself, “How do we reach outside of ourselves and change people’s minds? What is the purpose of the Second Press? Am I meeting those expectations?”
As a writer, I try to consider my audience. Of course, I know that the audience part of this movement is sympathetic to the cause, so what is the point? The world has changed, as it always does. Technology has expanded the reach in communications, but it has also become more impersonal. We can communicate ideas across the nation and the world, but our communities are more fractured as we rely on the internet more and more. So, the internet’s strength is also one of its weaknesses. In any debate, there is ultimately a necessary personal interaction to thoroughly communicate ideas. We no longer have gathering spots to discuss and debate. The challenge for us is how to “gather” people together to discuss these ideas when communication has become remote and impersonal. The Second press, to me, is the new “meeting place” with the objective of strengthening our arguments by providing the necessary stats and facts along with the philosophical arguments to shape our narrative and give us the tools needed to further the cause of liberty including preserving our Second Amendment.
Now as I have said before I run my husband’s gunsmithing shop. I am fortunate to be in a business where the vast majority of people who walk through our doors agree with me politically and philosophically. I generally don’t worry about offending or upsetting someone. But over time my customer base has changed. This trend has accelerated within my shop and my community. I can compare these trends to my experience with homeschooling, and how attitudes have changed over the last twenty years. These changes parallel the shift within America on firearms and the Second Amendment.
When I first started homeschooling around 1998, I was an oddity. Most people I knew were surprised and shocked that I decided to educate my kids at home, including my mom who was a veteran school teacher. Even strangers felt the need in public to confront and question my choice. One particular moment remains crystallized in my memory. My kids and I were waiting to take the bus from the Colonial Williamsburg Visitor Center down to the historic area. Some tourists decided they needed to question why I chose homeschooling regaling me with the harm I was inflicting on my kids. I remember being a bit angry that these people thought they had a say in how I raised my kids. Yet, I still engaged them in debate and confronted their arguments with logic.
As time wore on, more and more people started home education. At any and every opportunity I advocated for this philosophy: at the grocery store, the museum, with neighbors, and among family. I researched studies, gathered my facts, and joined groups of likeminded people. Now, the attitude towards homeschooling has completely changed with most people I meet. It took engaging with people who disagreed with me, voting for people who supported homeschooling, joining groups that lobbied and defended my parental rights in order to change society’s collective view on homeschooling. I needed the support of other homeschoolers discussing our reasons, ideology, challenges, and observations. This helped change the mind of homeschool opponents, because I fleshed out the arguments and was confident in my opinions. I had the facts. If we as a community did not organize within ourselves and understand the underlying philosophy of our choice and belief, then there was no way we could change the negative view I initially encountered.
This all holds true for the Second Amendment. Over the last ten years, the trends started to change. At first, it was with women. When I first started in the business, I mainly encountered men. When I got my first concealed carry purse there was only one company making them with limited choices. Many men had “secret” accounts for gun buying, in order to keep their wives were unaware of the money spent on firearms. I had to get clearance to leave messages, so these guys wouldn’t get into trouble. But over the last decade more and more women are now gun owners. They now come in for custom work. Their husbands buy them guns for Christmas, Birthdays and Valentine’s Day. These women have taken the steps to defend themselves, their families, and their freedom. Couples go shooting together. New families are growing up learning the importance of the Second Amendment.
These trends have exploded over the last two years. With the uncertainty and unrest over the last two years new gun owners have brought many fresh faces into our shop. Along with a new attitude towards firearms ownership it has also led to discussions about why the Second Amendment matters, and the fundamental philosophy underpinning freedom and our way of life. Our circle grows larger, but we have to understand at our core level why all of this matters. In the end it is not the Second Amendment we are fighting to preserve, but rather what the Second Amendment protects; our God-given rights to self-determination in thought and deed. It is imperative that we have a network where like-minded people can gather, just as it was and is in the homeschooling community. We have to encourage those that view things similarly to vote, speak, and debate these ideas openly with resolve and logic. I am neither Republican or Democrat, because both parties have ignored and violated the Constitution. I have to vote for the person or party who holds most true to the ideals of freedom, and I must call out ideologies that are an anathema to this, no matter what that labels me.
We may just be “preaching to the choir” right now, but as we gain support and strength from each other, more and more people will come into the fold. Every interaction, conversation, moment can be used to spread the ideas valued by us in the Second Amendment neighborhood. I have seen this in my life, my shop, and my community. Americans are coming to the understanding of why our rights are all protected by the Second Amendment. We have seen the numbers. The weak and detrimental policies undermining our freedom further expose the necessity for the Second Amendment, and consequently this community will continue to grow. It is up to us, person to person, to spread the word and have the debate if we really want to grow. No website, blog, or essay can take the place of an engaged citizen. And just like homeschooling is no longer a “dirty word” but rather now seen as a positive choice, so too will gun ownership once again be part and parcel with the American way of life; as natural and normal as it should be.
Preaching to the Choir