r/canadaguns • u/AutoModerator • Jun 06 '22
Weekly Politics Thread
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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '22 edited Jun 07 '22
Our favorite firearms organizations aren't serving us well.
They have been happily taking everyone's money to "fight the OIC", etc. and spitting back messaging that makes their supporters happy, and not moving the needle at all.
Here's the thing: Our sport exists at the pleasure of the electorate. Firearms will never be a 'right'. No government will ever implement that. We borrow a lot of tone from our friends to the south, but it's really the worst thing to do, given that they have the 2A.
If we really want to expand the tent, we need to develop a Canadian-style message to reach the people that matter in Canada.
Because of Canada's situation, members of firearms advocacy groups don't matter much. Messaging that appeals to them, but falls flat with everyone else, achieves nothing.
Who DOES matter? The average urbanite in Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, Montreal.
We need to shift our messaging to appeal to these folks. Primarily, we need to communicate that they will see friendly/familiar faces at the range on a Saturday afternoon. That the range is for them. The firearms community, in short, needs to be adopted by urbanites.
It will feel a bit like that underground band you always liked, that now has all these new fans who you don't think understand or care about the history. It will push away some people. It will change in unexpected ways. But that's the only path forward.
How do we achieve this? We need to:
-Get off our high horse. We're not 'smart' and opponents to our interests aren't 'stupid'. We all have emotions and bias.
-Media train ourselves. Understand that it's not a 'facts game'...it's a 'perception game'.
-The messaging and tone of our firearms advocacy organizations are are way off the mark. We need to demand more from them...or create a new organization.
-Adopt and reflect the views and language of urban Canada. They're the future.
-Forget talking about a 2A style implementation in Canadian law. It's a waste of resources and will push us further away from the other goals stated here.
-Clearly and openly denounce those who violate firearms laws or threaten violence with firearms. This has to be the topline priority, in bold. Canadians are awash in news of American mass shootings and we need to be in front of those stories...not pretending they don't exist. We need to strongly and overtly differentiate ourselves from the US so that laypeople understand that Canada is a very different place than the US. Casual browsers of all our media need to get an open and inviting tone from our communication.
-Shift the outward-facing narrative from lecturing, adversarial tone to inclusivity and invitation. We don't need to "educate" people....we need to welcome them.
I wish I could half bold, don't mean to yell. But wanted to highlight the key takeaways.