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I get paid to give advice to politicians. Writing speeches, op-eds for the newspapers, newsletter material, policy statements, press releases - the whole gamut. I have some free advice for the President to further his gun initiatives.
1 - Play to the middle and forget about the NRA and its supporters. They oppose the very concept and the details simply do not matter since they will lie, distort and outright pervert what your are advocating for. Play to the great middle of Americans who respect hunting rights, who respect the need for a weapon for self defense, who respect sporting activities with a firearm, and who simply want something done about both the proliferation of guns in our society and the use of them.
2- Go on the road and take this message to the American people. Make it a pro-hunting, pro self defense, pro sporting and pro responsible gun owner pitch. Use local people who have a good gun record like Senator Joe Manchin in West Virginia in making local appearances.
3- Expose some of the more sinister motivations of the gun crowd who are 100% opposed to his initiatives with a clear, no holding back, direct onslaught of language showing them to be potentially dangerous extremists who have precious little in common with the vast majority of Americans. We hear over and over and over how guns are needed in case we need to fight the government. Use that. Use it often. Shout it loudly and shout it often that we will not allow gun policy to be dictated by people who believe that gun laws should always have an eye on providing equal firepower to go up against soldiers of police officers should the day of the right wing revolution come. Use those folks and that sort of extremism to drive a wedge between the responsible hunting and self defense Americans and those who feel they need to build their own armories when they someday have to man the barricades and want to make sure they are packing enough power to kill the soldier boy or police officer from down the street.
4 - Go back and do number 3 again and again and again. Use film clips of the more radical folks through surrogates going on news and talk shows to show "this is what we are up against." Ask the American people - "are you going to let these extremists speak for you and dictate gun policy so they can be armed for revolution?"
5 - Expose the finances of the gun corporations, the NRA, and the entire gun culture. Show that they are in this for a profit and that is their motivation above all else. They are more than happy to see the proliferation of guns in our society because it means money in their pockets. And if more guns means more negative effects from guns, that is a price they accept.
6- Announce a national memorial to be constructed in Washington DC in honor of the innocent victims of gun violence and involve the public by asking for donations to begin planning and building it. I would use the Viet Nam veterans Memorial as the model for the idea and concept. A stark wall with names upon it although I would go for something high and looming overhead rather than the sprawling design of the VN memorial.
7 - Show the connection between right wing politics and gun politics. This should be done by surrogates rather than the President himself. Demonstrate how the right is using the issue to push other issues which are to the detriment of the American people and its all part of a package and agenda.
8 - Try to get commitments from Hollywood and the gaming industry to act more responsibly and tone down the volume on violence they use in their products.
9 - Take the NRA suggestion of more armed guards in the schools and run with it to Congress asking them to support it and fund it. And publicly challenge the NRA to lobby for it with members of Congress who are supportive of their agenda.
10 - Announce a national mental health summit at the White House and bring in state governors and appropriate professionals to shine the spotlight on how much of the mental health care system has been savaged over the last couple of decades in the drive for smaller and cheaper government and we must begin to turn it around on the state level.
But above all else, do not let this moment evaporate. This must be a top priority just like health care was for the first two years of the administration.
1 - Play to the middle and forget about the NRA and its supporters. They oppose the very concept and the details simply do not matter since they will lie, distort and outright pervert what your are advocating for. Play to the great middle of Americans who respect hunting rights, who respect the need for a weapon for self defense, who respect sporting activities with a firearm, and who simply want something done about both the proliferation of guns in our society and the use of them.
2- Go on the road and take this message to the American people. Make it a pro-hunting, pro self defense, pro sporting and pro responsible gun owner pitch. Use local people who have a good gun record like Senator Joe Manchin in West Virginia in making local appearances.
3- Expose some of the more sinister motivations of the gun crowd who are 100% opposed to his initiatives with a clear, no holding back, direct onslaught of language showing them to be potentially dangerous extremists who have precious little in common with the vast majority of Americans. We hear over and over and over how guns are needed in case we need to fight the government. Use that. Use it often. Shout it loudly and shout it often that we will not allow gun policy to be dictated by people who believe that gun laws should always have an eye on providing equal firepower to go up against soldiers of police officers should the day of the right wing revolution come. Use those folks and that sort of extremism to drive a wedge between the responsible hunting and self defense Americans and those who feel they need to build their own armories when they someday have to man the barricades and want to make sure they are packing enough power to kill the soldier boy or police officer from down the street.
4 - Go back and do number 3 again and again and again. Use film clips of the more radical folks through surrogates going on news and talk shows to show "this is what we are up against." Ask the American people - "are you going to let these extremists speak for you and dictate gun policy so they can be armed for revolution?"
5 - Expose the finances of the gun corporations, the NRA, and the entire gun culture. Show that they are in this for a profit and that is their motivation above all else. They are more than happy to see the proliferation of guns in our society because it means money in their pockets. And if more guns means more negative effects from guns, that is a price they accept.
6- Announce a national memorial to be constructed in Washington DC in honor of the innocent victims of gun violence and involve the public by asking for donations to begin planning and building it. I would use the Viet Nam veterans Memorial as the model for the idea and concept. A stark wall with names upon it although I would go for something high and looming overhead rather than the sprawling design of the VN memorial.
7 - Show the connection between right wing politics and gun politics. This should be done by surrogates rather than the President himself. Demonstrate how the right is using the issue to push other issues which are to the detriment of the American people and its all part of a package and agenda.
8 - Try to get commitments from Hollywood and the gaming industry to act more responsibly and tone down the volume on violence they use in their products.
9 - Take the NRA suggestion of more armed guards in the schools and run with it to Congress asking them to support it and fund it. And publicly challenge the NRA to lobby for it with members of Congress who are supportive of their agenda.
10 - Announce a national mental health summit at the White House and bring in state governors and appropriate professionals to shine the spotlight on how much of the mental health care system has been savaged over the last couple of decades in the drive for smaller and cheaper government and we must begin to turn it around on the state level.
But above all else, do not let this moment evaporate. This must be a top priority just like health care was for the first two years of the administration.
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