Our friends at NSSF are taking some technological steps to fight media bias and inaccurate reporting, which we’ve been seeing a lot more of lately than usual. One of their steps was to create a media resource on so-called “assault weapons”, which is a pretty handy reference guide to use if you’re trying to explain to someone the difference between the mythical assault weapon and an actual fully-automatic weapon. Obviously, with the potential for a new assault weapons ban, it’s important to be able to educate people on what an “assault weapon” really is, and why a ban on an imaginary and loosely defined class of weapons is a largely ineffectual and emotionally based gesture.
The second item from NSSF is the new blog that they’ve started – called Aiming for Accuracy. One of the authors is a friend and all around good guy. I hope that the NSSF blog will grow into a valuable resource for gun owners, shooters, and hunters to use to help educate our fellow gun owners as well as the all important “middle ground” demographic.
One of the things that excites me about NSSF starting up these pro-gun and informational resources is that so far, NSSF hasn’t been demonized in the media like NRA has. While you and I know that NRA isn’t some evil right-wing lobby trying to put guns in the hands of 8 year-old children, you wouldn’t know that from watching CNN or MSNBC. I once in a political discussion cited a fact I had pulled from NRA’s website, and crosschecked on my own. To my shock, my liberal friend/opponent said “that’s from NRA, I don’t believe anything they say” and then simply refused to hear any further discussion. Now, while that’s obviously a sign of a close-minded person, the media demonization of NRA is something that we have to deal with on a regular basis. For the record, I’m not saying that NRA isn’t a valuable resource – they’re the most effective political organization at protecting our right to keep and bear arms, and they have been and remain my primary source of information on 2nd Amendment issues. NRA has and is doing a fantastic job out there, and I want them to keep up by all means necessary.
But that doesn’t change that I’m glad to see NSSF stepping in and providing these resources; the message is the same, but at least until the media decides to crucify NSSF as well, the messenger is a little different – and I’ll take any advantage I can get.
Someone should ask Paul Helmke if a Thompson submachine gun is an “assault weapon”, particularly since it predates actual assault rifles…