"Again, this is not a good public face for political opposition. Once again, context matters. The people getting hysterical about this might be wrong, but I would point out that I got this from an anti-gun twitter feed. They know a public relations mistake when they see one, and this is."
And his comments from the comments section:
"Sebastian Said,
August 17th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
We need to normalize the sight of firearms again. Just why should we hide them away? Is it something to be ashamed of?
Let me rephrase that in a different context.
We need to normalize the sight of female breasts again. Just why should we hide them away? Is it something to be ashamed of?
Personally, I would have no problems in a society where guns and boobies were openly on display, but how do you think Americans would react to a feminist group that promoted the latter?"
How trivial of him. Is this seriously his reasoning? Here is a very vocal gun-rights activist and he's saying we shouldn't openly display our guns, a calculated move designed to de-sensitize the public to the sight of a gun and to make them feel more comfortable around guns, because it's bad PR.
Of COURSE it's bad PR, to those who already hate guns and have an agenda against them. But, we're not trying to change their minds, we're trying to change the minds of the majority of Americans who are still open-minded. Duh.
Besides, is Sebastian ashamed to be carrying guns? Then he has already bought into the emotional argument that guns are evil. One cannot play by their rules and in their stadium and expect to win.
I'm liking Sebastian less and less.
Here is my comment on Mike Vanderboegh's post on this subject:
"That, plus the story of the black guy in AZ with a shouldered AR-15 at the Obama rally thing, and this could be the start of a very GOOD trend, Sebastian. We shouldn't care whether the Left went ape-shit over it - we're not trying to change their minds regarding guns. We're trying to change the minds of fence-sitters. We need to show them that we will exercise our rights, and that no one suffers or gets injured when we exercise those rights.
Think of these open-carry protests as further warnings in the same line as letting congressmen and agency personnel know that we have taken firearm classes, we have caches of supplies hidden across the country, and have our ammo in bandoleers so they can be quickly grabbed and utilized. It lets those in power, on the left and right, know that there are still some Adults in this country. Adults who have the tools to defend against tyranny, and who have the stones to do things like show up at presidential rallies and meetings armed."
Don't listen to Sebastian for advice on gun-rights. Unless he changes his tune, and I would applaud him for it, he is being counter-productive.
