If you are new to this newsletter, you may have seen a reference to the Gun Talk Truth Squad, and you may have wondered what that's about. It's about you. It's about how each of us makes a difference in the fight to protect and regain our rights under the Second Amendment. It's a "club," if you will, or more correctly, a way of thinking.
I created the Truth Squad almost two decades ago, before many people had email, and certainly before we could post comments to news stories online. Back in those dark ages, letters to the editor were about the only way we could get our message before the public. So, I asked for volunteers -- people who would write letters to the editor. I wanted to get two volunteers for each state. Boy, did I ever underestimate the frustration and the willingness you had to get involved! I got thousands of volunteers.
Fast forward to present day. News reports are even more slanted, to the point of being just plain dishonest. There's more need for the Truth Squad now than ever before.
Truth Squad operates under the principle that a lie left unchallenged becomes the truth. We challenge every lie. Every slanted story. Every dishonest report. We always call them on it.
I call it the "No Shrug" policy. No longer will we shrug when we see or hear these lies. No longer will we say, "That's just the way it is."
The Truth Squad has thousands of success stories. Some are big, but most are small. We helped get Shaneen Allen out of jail in New Jersey. We also have gotten gun-control PSAs (public service announcements) pulled from radio and TV stations. Often it takes only one or two emails or phone calls, politely pointing out that the message is political, and it's not in the public service.
The No Shrug policy has removed a number of "No Guns" signs when one of our members asked to talk with the manager of a store, and then had a polite conversation about it. Sometimes it takes going to the corporate headquarters, who then straightens out a local manager who decided to put in his or her own policy, which was at odds with the national HQ.
First we were 100. Then we were 1,000. Now we are more than a quarter million!!!
I would ask you to make No Shrug a part of your personal code. Whenever you can, take a moment to drop a line, to offer a comment to a new story online, to actually write an email to the reporter who slanted the story, to offer to take a reporter to the range, to request that a gun-control PSA be removed, to ... Well ... to leave no lie unchallenged.
Thanks to everyone who has made such a difference. Polite people, having conversations, often are much more effective than a few knotheads in a "look at me" demonstration. THIS is how we win.
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