by Keeva Segal

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal talked about the NSSF program of giving away gun locks to anyone that asks. This program has been underway for some time now. In fact, ASSC started it years ago. I find it interesting that New Orleans, which claims to be interested in safety, backed out, calling the program a sham only after the lawyers got involved. Are actual physical locks a sham? Is an industry GIVING AWAY thousands of dollars of merchandise with no strings a sham? Are the attorneys getting a little nervous about their fantasy payoff? Are the Josh Sugarmanns of this world seeing their house of cards collapse? According to Sugarmann (who runs the Violence Policy Center which is in reality the propoganda branch of Handgun Control), the locks are not about safety and, a locked gun is still a threat. In effect, Sugarmann is now trying to call a good work evil. Quoting from the article, "Mr. Sugarmann argues that even with locks, guns kept in homes create a danger of suicide, accident or other misuse that outweighs any enhanced security."

I assume he refers to the possibility that a person might club themselves over the head or drop the locked gun on their foot. Obviously having gotten what he asked for just a few short years ago, Sugarmann and his cell of rights-stealers are now painting their own efforts as bad and ineffective...mainly because it is hard to raise more money for more salaries, limos and cellular phones without having a big bad wolf somewhere. If they admit that the firearms industry is committed to gun safety, then they lose their own meal ticket - the thousands of citizens that they have scared into donating untold millions of dollars (which they never report on by the way, so nobody knows just how much Sugarmann, Brady and the rest pocket every year).

As a reminder, Sugarmann and his fellow travelers are the same folks that demanded mandatory lock laws. They are also the same folks that applauded the industry's (albeit controversial) voluntary agreement to include a lock with each new gun shipped. Now that it is happening, they are losing a major point in their argument and they are freaking out on it. With each stride, they reveal their actual goal, which we already knew about - a total ban. In fact, Sugarmann, in a rare moment of blunt honesty, recently stated that until all guns are banned, we are all potential victims. Of course, he failed to mention the evil of crime or the perpatrators of these crimes. They are not good points for fund raising and network television appearances.

I mention this because I recently had the privilege of attending the Gun Rights Policy Conference in St. Louis, which was sponsored by the Second Amendment Foundation and Women And Guns Magazine. At the Conference, I took advantage of the opportunity to speak with a number of scholars and activists. And one thing that I learned was that we need to start to fight the evil of gun violence with an equivalent good. In other words, when the school shootings started, a lot of us commented (and rightly so) that armed teachers (a la Israel) would go a long way to prevent this. That view was immediately a flash point for more controversy, and negative to us, no less. Forget for a moment that we are right about this. Forget the examples that we all know (Israel and Switzerland). We need to think this one outside that box.

Why? Because the general public sees (or is told to see) more guns as evil. So, we were fighting the evil of crime with the perceived (note perceived - please do not pummel me, I am only relating the reality) evil of more guns. That led to the disastrous actions in the congress and gave Clinton/Gore/Hillary gang more grist for the anti-gun, anti-NRA mill. Now that we are offering good (in the form of the locks), the anti's have no easy answer, and no pat response. In fact, they have fallen back on the old fashioned method of calling the truth a lie and hoping it sticks. Nobody points out that more gun laws have actually spurred the dramatic increase in these horrific crimes. Nobody mentions that school shootings were rarities in the pre-Clinton/Brady days. And we cannot win with that argument. It will get us nowhere and fast. Sadly, the facts are not part of this debate.

This is the key to winning this battle. Present the general public with good works and good actions to combat the evil of crime, and we begin to win with the general public. After all, who can question providing locking devices to those who want them, especially since we are now doing things "for the children." While this may not sway the national press, who seem to only care about getting Gore into the Oval, it will start to sway the millions of folks who are undecided on the issue. And that is the path to victory. We will never get CNN and the rest on our side. They are too deeply entrenched to be swayed. However, their viewers can be swayed, and at the end of the day, Bernie Shaw only has one vote and one voice, just like you and me.

I am aware that a lot of folks are opposed to the locks on principle, but try to step back from that for a moment and look at the overall reaction. We have finally shaken the antis a little. They are finally scrambling for a response. And, thus far, they have none. Yeah, the locks are offensive to a lot of us, but, then again, I have a safe in my home, and when one of my little nieces comes over to use the pool, the guns go in the safe as a common sense precaution. Since they are not my kids, I cannot be assured that they are gun-intelligent, and therefore take an extra step to ensure their safety. Inconvenient to me, but the right thing to do none the less. Do I like it? No. Do I let my sisters know I have taken an additional VOLUNTARY precaution to protect their daughters? You bet. Every time.

And that is the point. The right thing. Often, the right thing is the hardest and most distasteful thing to do. But, if we all keep doing that, and letting folks know that we are responsible, law-abiding citizens, we have a chance here.

Keep this in mind in your own communities. The fight will be won at the local level, not nationally. With every community that comes to see the industry and gun ownership as a good, we can add another little win to our list. Enough of those little victories will sway the national debate easily. We cannot change the opinion of a nation all at once and the attempt is a Don Quixote like effort. Bear in mind that all politics are local, and so are we. Work locally, and get your community to see this good work. It will spread.

Every time a citizen defends home or self with a firearm (or without one as a matter of fact), make them a local hero. After all, that person just took a criminal out of circulation (jail or morgue - same difference), and they defended the communal security. And those two words are at the heart of it. In the age of NIMBY attitudes, communal security is at the top of everyone's wish list. Show, by living example, how that works. Fight the evil of violent crime with the good of communal security. After all, the children are part of the same community.

Keeva operates the Women's Firearm Network and is webmaster to a number of firearms manufacturers. He can be reached at keeva@mindspring.com or via his website at www.2artists.com.