We are winning the culture war

by John Boch

We, as gun owners, are winning the cultural war against those who would legislate away our right to keep and bear arms.

These do-gooders who seek to render us defenseless “for our own good” would, in reality, only be inadvertently setting us up to recreate past tyrannies.

Our forefathers lived in a time when the common man was debarred the use of weapons.  That era was more commonly known as the Medieval times where the strong victimized the old and the weak, men victimized women and innocent people were defenseless.  Only the lowest of low-information voters would support a return to the Middle Ages.

How do I know we are winning this culture war?

I know we are winning because of images like this one, of a young girl after firing a real gun.

I see this expression countless times while teaching shooting skills to kids and adults.

Many of these people were former members of the “I’ve never shot a gun” cohort that the gun control advocates cherish so deeply.

Gun banners depend the fear of the unknown in people who have never owned or shot a gun.  These non-gun owners can most easily be influenced by fear and emotions-based arguments about guns.

I met an example of this last year in a middle-aged public school principal from near Peoria.  Adamantly opposed to guns and gun ownership, she steadfastly refused to allow her husband to have any guns in the house.

Her husband brought her to our NRA personal defense class in Spring 2012 with the promise of a Hawaiian vacation afterwards.  We thought she was kidding when she mentioned this in the introduction, but she was quite serious.

She battled her fears of guns, trembling as she picked one up.  Soon after the first few shots, she was crying.

She spent much of that afternoon crying up near the classroom while our instructors took turns trying to assuage her concerns.

After some one-on-one instruction before class the next morning, she reluctantly participated in some of Sunday’s shooting exercises.  We didn’t lose her completely, but at the time I considered it a failure.

Months later, my now-wife and I saw her husband at the Springfield gun show.

He was beaming as he told us how his wife had enjoyed her Hawaiian trip and now, not only was she allowing him to bring his guns into their home, but she had gone to Gander Mountain and bought herself a small-frame snub-nosed revolver that she said fit her hand well.

Her husband told us that she had also convinced a couple of her fellow anti-gun teachers to accompany her to a “Women on Target” class at the Chillicothe, IL gun club.

Here’s a woman who went from a visceral fear of guns to a gun owner herself, bringing along a couple of her formerly gun-fearing co-workers into the world of safe and fun firearm shooting events.  Suddenly, I realized what I had considered a failure months before was indeed a monumental success.

Since then, the education professional woman has bought a second handgun.

This isn’t limited to anecdotal instances.

Nationally, opposition to a ban on handguns is a historically high levels and support for such a prohibition is at near-record lows.

George Soros and Michael Bloomberg may have piles of money to buy influence and spread misinformation and lies, but we have truth and science on our side.

Virtually every person we introduce guns to in a positive manner is one less voter and supporter of gun control.

Gun ownership is empowering, especially for those who are weak or otherwise unable to resist younger or stronger predators in our society.

Wise and prudent men and women recognize that the benefits of gun ownership are plentiful and can be potentially life-saving as well.

This is where you come in:  Take people in your circle of friends out and let them experience the fun and excitement of safe shooting.  Show them how guns work.

Doing so will pay dividends well beyond our lifetimes.