United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- Perhaps one of the most difficult situations a Second Amendment supporter will deal with that does not involve tragedy is dealing with a gun owner who has been taken in by the nonsense that comes from anti-Second Amendment extremists. Quite frankly, Second Amendment supporters need to re-think how they handle these situations.
Don’t get me wrong, the gun owner who promotes the agenda pushed by anti-Second Amendment extremists is doing everyone – including himself – a lot of harm. The first thing to understand is that the deceived gun owner has been taken in by a host of lies and penetrating that bubble of falsehood is crucial to any effort to win him over.
The epithet “Fudd” gets thrown around a lot. But ask yourself, has the target of that epithet ever changed his mind after having it (and other forms of verbal abuse) hurled at them repeatedly?
If anything, the result of hurling epithets and unleashing verbal abuse isn’t changing anyone’s mind or getting them to stop what they are doing. Oftentimes, they will double down.
Don’t just take my word for it, ask yourself this: Did you ever change your mind after the epithets and verbal abuse that anti-Second Amendment extremists have unleashed, whether at you personally or via the media with the usual smears we’ve seen? Or did you end up more determined to keep fighting for what you thought was right?
Or let’s look at Biden’s blunders with regard to Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, if you want to see a concrete example of how the vicious rhetoric from anti-Second Amendment extremists helped to save the very filibuster they sought to destroy.
The fact of the matter is that the gun owner who anti-Second Amendment extremists have deceived needs to come to the conclusion himself to some extent. If anything, the best approach will be to do everything possible to show the deceived gun owner that the characterizations that have come from anti-Second Amendment extremists, whether politicians or activists are lies.
People who feel they have been lied to and lied about tend to be disinclined to listen to those who they feel did the lying. Once they come to that realization vis-à-vis anti-Second Amendment extremists, they will be more receptive to our arguments. Second Amendment supporters need to ensure that any pretext to paint them in a bad light is so flimsy that it is easily seen through.
The fact is the stakes in the upcoming midterms include the Second Amendment. It is essential that Second Amendment supporters work to defeat anti-Second Amendment extremists via the ballot box at the federal, state, and local levels.
About Harold Hutchison
Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.