Not Just Bigots but Ignorant Bigots...

Following the series of posts by Sebastian of SIH and Joe Huffman on gun control groups blatantly showing their bigotry, it reminded me of a post I did awhile back discussing a study claiming that most opposition to groups like the NRA was based on stereotypes and ignorance.

Statements like this were typical from respondents:

The NRA stands for greed and power. The fact that they promote the availability of automatic firearms to the general public. They talk about it in the context of hunting. What are you gonna hunt with an automatic weapon? It just blows my mind that people can be so greedy and so self-centered and so power hungry . . . they really make their members look bad . . . I think a lot of those folks have really gotten far away from what it means to be human.

The study continues:

...our data indicate that although many of them reported a "strong" familiarity with the NRA, most NRA disidentifiers in our focus groups had little personal exposure to the organizations with which they disidentified
(e.g., none had ever met an NRA member), and gained most of their information from media reports portraying the organization in a negative light. As one informant noted: "I don't know them, and I don't want to. I don't want to legitimate their existence by even acknowledging them. We are so far apart, we probably can't even communicate."

Bigotry and ignorance do seem to go hand in hand, don't they?

As we've become more adept at communication through alternative media and other sources, we've managed to get our message across to a wider audience that no longer relies on 'traditional' or 'mainstream' media making them less likely to volunteer their time or advocate in support of gun control.

This correlates to the steady and continued drop in support for gun control organizations such as the Brady Campaign. Most have been reduced to shells of their former selves, relying on grants from politically motivated foundations and benefactors instead of 'grassroots'.

During the same period, pro-gun groups like the NRA have either maintained their membership levels or increased while the number of firearm owners/firearms in the general population has increased.

The VPC openly admits to using deception to push their agenda while the Brady Campaign blatantly distorts facts to try and get more ineffective laws passed.

With this as our opposition, as long as we stay the course, there is no other possibility but to continue to win the battle for hearts and minds.

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