Recently the topic of gun control has been coming up everywhere. Being a supporter of the 2nd amendment myself and an advocate of less government there is no surprise what side of the argument I am on. My question is though: is “argument” the correct term? Cannot we have an intelligent discussion about the topic?
Too many times when this subject comes up people get into heated debates and let their emotions take hold. What I try to tell my fellow 2nd Amendment supporters is we must find common ground with people who are on the side of gun control. One way to go about this is to ask them a few simple questions to see exactly where they stand on the issue.
A few questions you can ask are:
-What are you feelings about guns in this country?
-Why do you feel that way?
-Have you ever had an experience with a gun? -etc
If you engage the person this way instead of throwing random facts out or treating them like they are an idiot you may actually get somewhere. In order for this to be effective you actually have listen to what they say. Let them speak and ask them more questions.
We must note that there are two major types of anti-gun people or should I say two types of reasoning behind the belief. From what I have seen the two types are: 1.) Peaceful people who want to see less violence in the world, and 2.) Figures of authority who think it’s ok for you to not have a gun, but ok for them to have a gun, or as in the case of politicians, ok for people protecting them and their family to be armed.
Most of the people we come in contact with on a day to day basis are in the first group I mentioned. These are everyday people who through love of their fellow human beings are against guns and the violence wrongly associated with them. It is important to note that they have this stance based on their concern for others’ well being. It is important because they differ vastly from people in the second group. People in the second group believe that they are better than the average citizen. They believe that they and their families are more important and are some how privileged. This way of thinking is very dangerous to the American way of life. A way of life where everyone is supposed to be equal and the people are supposed to have the real power.
The other issue is people in the second group are using people from the first group. They use their compassion and love for fellow humans against them with fear. Which brings me to my main point. Most anti-gun people have the feelings they do toward guns because of misplaced compassion due to fear and misinformation. Once you realize this you know where to start.
The goal here isn’t to change people’s opinions, but just to get them to open their minds. Show them how fear and propaganda from the second group could be effecting them negatively. Show them how the second group doesn’t really want to abolish guns, they just want to take them out of the hands of average citizens(who in many cases are safer than most with a firearm). Remind them how the second group would never give up guns themselves for protection of their family or property.
If this post helps just one person it was worth my time!!
Topics I plan on talking about soon include: How to talk to anti-gun people about the differences between assault weapons, assault type rifles and the need for these weapons and high capacity magazines for the average citizen.
more laws, more problems. 
Great post. So many people on the anti gun side have no first hand experience with firearms. One good way to turn an anti gun person into a pro gun person is to invite them to the shooting range and let them try target shooting. It has a positive effect on changing attitudes.
Thank You! You are so right! Mis-information or ignorance can easily be wiped out with a day at the range!
I do like your calm and balanced approach to these emotive matters 🙂 Not living in the US it can be difficult to have a balanced view of such matters, even though I do believe those responsible citizens who wish to and have by virtue of the 2nd amendment every right to own and bear arms. We don’t have that right here and I have never encountered a “real live gun” 1st hand to be honest! I would like to have the experience but I guess many of us are a little afraid of guns if we are honest. It’s different when they are a part of your everyday life and it is perfectly normal to armed and dangerous! lol 😉
Yes I agree this is an unique situation which American citizens face. Most citizens I encounter who posses guns are normal everyday people. They always tell me that they hope they never have to use their guns on a person. They do enjoy target shooting occasionally, but they mostly are armed just in case.
The problem I see in this country as opposed to other countries I have visited is this: In America most of the population has so called “freedom.” We have a lot of rights and choices we are free to make. The powers that be realize this and also understand that the people have the real power(mob rule as in the roman times). So these intelligent “elites” (I will call them for the purpose of this) have devised a way to control the majority of the population. There are many forms of control they deploy, but I’ll talk about the main two that I see:
First they use currency, or lack thereof. What I really mean is debt. (That is actually how they control a lot of the world, but that’s another story). So you have average American “Joe Citizen” with a wife and a few kids. He has to work 40-50-60 hours a week to maintain the American lifestyle. Even if he is unhappy with the state of affairs he has no real outlet to demonstrate or protest because he has to work. If he doesn’t work he will not make money and loose his “comfortable” lifestyle.
Secondly they use fear. I touched on this in my other blog post. TV and the News here in the States is notoriously full of fear mongering. Some people get so wound up that they don’t want to leave their house.
So now put it all together. You have “Joe Citizen” who works way to much of his life away just to support his family. He is unhappy with what is going on in his country with no real outlet to express his feelings. He turns on the news and it’s all doom and gloom. When you add it up on a large scale you see a large percentage of the nation that is wound up tight.
Now you throw in a natural disaster in the mix and stuff goes bad very quickly. As seen after Hurricane Katrina. Also seen during the LA riots in the early 90s. I admit there are a lot more examples of people coming together in times of crisis, but the fact remains that in this country there have been well documented accounts of civil unrest. Unrest that took days to quell.
So when I see people asking:”Why do people need these weapons?” I kindly respond:”Well everything is going great now, but what about tomorrow?”
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