I've been digging around in the computer archives and have had fun pulling parts of magazine articles and columns from years ago. The fight and the message sure sound familiar.
From 2001
Make the Call
Whining doesn't help. It's always better to try to fix things rather than just complain.
In Reno, for the NRA annual meetings, I was preparing for my weekly radio show when the cell phone rang. It was my friend, Ron Willis, a retired detective from Oregon. He was calling from the Portland airport, having just returned from Reno. Ron told me that the agents at the security gate at the Reno airport were confiscating the lapel pins given out by Glock at the big trade show. The pins are about an inch long, made of plastic, and are in the shape of a Glock pistol.
Obviously, these are not weapons. Ron overheard one guard tell another, "Look what I got from the NRA."
Rather than rail about this on the air, I looked up the number for the airport, called, and asked for the head of security. A couple of calls later, I was talking with him, at his home, on a Sunday morning. I told him what was going on, and within minutes, he had called to his employees and told them to stop taking the pins.
One of the better tools to bring out when things are going wrong is to ask to speak to the manager. It often works.
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From 2004
(I still like this story. The "Million Mom March" was the predecessor of "Moms Demand Action.")
This story told by a good friend is a great example of one-on-one lobbying. He was leaving a restaurant after
taking the daughter of friends to lunch to say goodbye as she prepared to leave for college. “John” saw a woman wandering around the huge parking lot, looking confused. He offered to help, and I guess he did not represent the appearance of a threat since he had a beautiful teenage girl with him.
Now, John is well-mannered and polite, and he drove the woman around the parking lot, giving her air-conditioned relief from the summer sun until they found her car. They exchanged pleasantries, and he noted that the woman had a Million Mom March bumper sticker on her car. Unable to pass up the chance to do a bit of education, John got out of his car and went over to the lady, opened the door of her car for her, and wished her a good day. She thanked him effusively, and just before he closed her car door, John said, “And by the way, you should know that I am a life member of the National Rifle Association. Have a nice day.” And with that, he gave her a big smile.
He was met with a look of horror as though she had seen a monster.
Well, it was a good effort. We all should do what we can to show through our actions that gun owners are responsible, polite, and civil members of society, despite how the media would characterize us.
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September 2000
Put me in Coach, I'm Ready to Play
"Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it."
The person who first said that sure is smarter than I am. One thing is for sure . . . you guys and gals are ticked off!
At least eight years ago, Dad and I began discussing the idea of building a small group of folks who could write letters to newspapers in our area. We knew, instinctively, that the letters section of papers is a good way to reach the public. It's not perfect. Sometimes the paper edits the letters to change them. Often, they don't run the letters at all. Both problems, however, are best handled by writing good letters -- short, direct, topical, and often with a twist.
How to do it? We thought of contacting people who already were writing good letters in newspapers around Louisiana, but the effort involved in a mailing list didn't seem worthwhile. We hoped to build a list of two dozen letter writers, to start, and end up with two writers in each state. This was, of course, before email.
Even three years ago there weren't enough people with internet access to make it work, but in the year 2000, email rules. So, I shot off my mouth, and look what it gets me.
In January, I created the "Truth Squad" and announced it on Gun Talk. Radio listeners responded, and the TS was born. When I mentioned it in this column, however, it was like touching off a double load of Bullseye powder! Shooters frustrated with the biased, twisted, partisan media coverage of gun issues said YES, show me how and where, and I'll do it!
The two dozen writers I hoped to find now top 1,000, and it grows each day. I send email to the list, including sample letters to be used in writing newspapers. The Truth Squad members rewrite, alter, change, cut, lengthen, or otherwise personalize the letters, put their names on them, and send them to newspapers around the country. The ability of TS members to write good letters continues to amaze me, and it must be making an impression on editors, because papers nationwide run the letters. In addition, TS members send ME sample letters for consideration, and I recycle some of them to go out to the entire list.
A group of 1,000 activists might not impress political veterans, but this is different. This isn't 1,000 people writing Congress, even though that's worthwhile. This "squad" doesn't carry rifles; it carries megaphones. The megaphone is the newspaper, which magnifies their voices a thousand-fold. ~ Tom
(Update: In mid-2018, the Truth Squad now numbers around 350,000.)
Tom Gresham
Author, outdoorsman, gun rights activist, and firearms enthusiast for more than five decades, Tom Gresham hosts Tom Gresham's Gun Talk, the first nationally-syndicated radio show about guns and the shooting sports, and is also the producer and co-host of the Guns & Gear, GunVenture and First Person Defender television series.
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