USRKBA

How the media shape gun policy

How the media steer the public policy on firearms

After every tragedy with a gun involved there are stages of the media that are much like the stages of grief.

1. Denial:  Not denial of the tragedy, denial that the suspect, victim or both had a gun.  Did government give them permission?  Was it registered?  Because regular people don't have guns and the ones who do don't carry them.  You can observe this in any "event" reporting - stammering "reporters" clamoring for the right gun language to use, and the opportunity to interject their gun questions into the conversation with whomever they can find that will talk.

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A modest proposal on guns

The gun rights lobby has to accept that there are some places that people can't have guns.  For there to be any progress on gun violence, we have to accept this and there has to be compromise.  For example, can't we all agree that people in prison shouldn't have guns?  Common sense right?  So let's get to the compromise part.

First we need to address that compromise is an art of give and take, and both sides have to give.  Gun rights advocates overwhelmingly agree that violent felons should be in prison where they shouldn't have guns.  Now, in the light of the post 9/11, post Heller, post McDonald America we have to come to an understanding that the Brady, VPC, MAIG groups and their members need to compromise, not the gun rights lobby.  When was the last time that any of these police statist groups compromised anything?  That's a trick question because they have never once reached a "compromise" or having achieved a goal, disbanded and gone home.  So, here are some reasonable compromises for the police state lobby groups like the Brady Campaign, VPC, MAIG, etc.

1. ...Bear arms...shall not be infringed.  This is a good place to start.  Bear means carry, wear, employ.  That means citizens can and should have arms with them, on their person.  That's what it says in the Bill of Rights, that's what it means.  So for there to be any meaningful dialog the other side needs to recognize and admit -
   • A permit to carry should be recognized in all states & territories of the United States.  Regardless of whether you support or advocate one form of carry or another, we need to move past this, stop these state by state reciprocity agreements, recognition fights and establish that ALL states shall recognize and honor a permit to carry a weapon just like is done for visiting state & local law enforcement officers.
   • Permits to posses firearms are out the window.  It makes no sense whatsoever to criminalize law abiding visitors to a state for the innocent possession of a firearm because it violates some arcane state law that won't permit visitors to abide by.  There has to be compromise here and there's no further for gun owners to compromise because there's nowhere left for gun owners to go.  So, anti-gun groups you should help us get these laws repealed.
2. We the people, not we the government.  The people formed the government, constituted it, outlined the boundaries and placed restrictions on the government.  The people never delegated special powers, perks, privileges or station to the government and could not delegate to the government that which we did not or do not posses ourselves.  We the people granted a limited set of responsibilities to be carried out within the system of checks and balances.  These responsibilities exist only within the consent of the governed and absent consent, there is no authority.  So, if it is good enough for Congress to pass as a law then it is good enough for ALL of the people to abide by, but we will start with the government from now on.  Let's try out laws on the government first and if they work well there we can consider them for the general population.
3. It's long past time to stop misidentifying the group "First Responders".  Let's cover the basics here.  First responder is the first on scene to take action.  Professional lobbies & politicians love to toss this label around but it's inaccurate, incorrect and in most cases an outright lie.  90% of the time the "First Responders" are citizens who are not affiliated with any agency, fire department, rescue squad, 4H club or Boy Scouts.  They're Citizens.  Good citizens for sure.  So, if police departments, fire departments, ambulance crews or whomever want a label they need to find one besides First Responder.  That one is taken.

So now we need to start with requiring states to honor all carry permits and repeal laws that criminalize firearms possession generally.  The first responders need these critical tools for public safety.

USRKBA & Gunleaders.com

USRKBA is a partnership with www.gunleaders.com.  Both websites are independent but with very similar objectives.  Gunleaders.com is team of independent & unaffiliated pro-RKBA grassroots leadership seeking to focus RKBA efforts.  USRKBA engages RKBA activists of all levels.