Barack Obama has thrown down the gauntlet, and he's done so surrounded by precious little children. If you don't support his gun control measures, you don't care about the victims at Newtown. (Just like if you don't support HSA mandate on birth control, you want to drag women back to the 1950's; if you don't support raising taxes on job creators, you don't care about working Americans; if you don't support endless expansion of food stamp and welfare programs, you don't care about the poor; and on and on; if you don't support raising the debt ceiling without cutting the deficit, you don't care about old people or children with disabilities.)
What is the right response by 2nd Amendment defenders? It is not to have a group of older white men at a podium responding by pounding their fists. Forgive me. I know the men part shouldn't make a difference, but it most certainly does. And pounding fists is my knee-jerk response, too, but it won't work.
The NRA, gun rights advocates, and Congressional leaders who oppose limiting Americans' right to defend themselves should pull together a strategy that is centered around women and their desire to protect their children, their property and themselves. Ok, there can be others--shopkeepers faced with defending their livelihood during riots when police didn't show up and homeowners who protect their property and families during looting after natural disasters when law enforcement was spread too thin.
But women, and the children they defend, are the key. They are the ones who will be placed in jeopardy, in danger, should limits on semi-automatics and magazine capacities become law. Many Americans who buy into the president's fear mongering do not realize that semi automatics include the most popular handguns purchased for self defense in America today. They are guns with multiple rounds and magazines that can be removed. These are guns that DiFi and Obama would love to ban.
The right to self defense, by whatever means necessary when faced with whatever threat may present itself, is a sacred right to Americans. For so many reasons. Many American women have a healthy skepticism of the government's ability to defend them at all times. They want the ability to do it themselves. This, combined with the need to focus on mental health issues (see future post), is the message.
