SAK
Regular Member
imported post
I posted this on our forums and felt the need to post it here as well:
http://www.icarry.org/ftopict-1921.html
I've been thinking about this a lot recently, and then I started reading a book that has confirmed what I've been thinking.
This isn't going to be a very fun topic, but it will be necessary for us to cover if we are to "grow" as a community - meaning the gun owners in Illinois and Wisconsin, and the rest of this country. We need to take responsibility for the situation with the gun laws. We are responsible in many ways.
If we only look to external factors like blaming the politicians, blaming the media, blaming George Soros and the people who fund gun-banning, we will not make much if any progress.
The bad news:
We need to take responsibility for letting things get out of hand with laws regarding self-defense, gun ownership, and everything else. These laws were passed right in front of us, and we didn't take the time and energy to stop or prevent it. We were too busy with our lives, and it crept up on us slowly, little-by-little, until one day we all woke up and said "OK, enough is enough...this is out of hand." We are reaping what we have sown. By not keeping on the little things when they popped up here and there, they've now all piled up and have made it very hard for us to defend ourselves, our families, and our freedoms.
THE GOOD NEWS:
The good news is that by accepting responsibility for what has happened, and acknowledging that we are the only ones to blame for it (all that's necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing...) now we can actually change it. You can't snap your fingers and get politicians out of office. But by changing our perspective from that of VICTIMS to that of responsible citizens who decide our own future and take responsibility for what we LET other people do to us (and stop LETTING them do it!), we can instantly change the way we look at the problem and therefore the way we look to the solution.
Our solutions should come first from inside. I'm not talking trendy pop psychology or quick-fix personality changes. I'm talking deeply considering from a principles and character standpoint who we are and why we're in this situation. This type of thinking isn't popular because it forces us to take responsibility instead of blaming external forces all the time, and forces us to change what we do not simply by using this "technique" or that "technique" but by looking at things different and looking at ourselves different in a long-term point of view.
This may seem pretty deep for gun rights, but can you disagree that it is us who have let things get this way? I know what we're up against, believe me, but even then I know that if 1% of gun owners got active we'd have Vermont-style carry in a year.
Are you ready to take responsibility and change the way you look at the problem? Knowing that we're all to blame, can we step up to the plate together and fix it? I think we can.
Albert Einstein wrote:
I think this is a liberating realization really. The more this realization sinks in, the more we can break the habits of bad-talking the politicians, the media, the Daleys and Doyles and Bradys and Bloombergs, and man-up to the fact that it's us, it always has been, and it always will be. The Founding Fathers of this country knew it, and they did something about it. Now is our time.
Let's encourage one another to get involved, do whatever you can, stop complaining and whining and break the habit of identifying with ourselves as victims, and start identifying ourselves as the ones who can change it.
I posted this on our forums and felt the need to post it here as well:
http://www.icarry.org/ftopict-1921.html
I've been thinking about this a lot recently, and then I started reading a book that has confirmed what I've been thinking.
This isn't going to be a very fun topic, but it will be necessary for us to cover if we are to "grow" as a community - meaning the gun owners in Illinois and Wisconsin, and the rest of this country. We need to take responsibility for the situation with the gun laws. We are responsible in many ways.
If we only look to external factors like blaming the politicians, blaming the media, blaming George Soros and the people who fund gun-banning, we will not make much if any progress.
The bad news:
We need to take responsibility for letting things get out of hand with laws regarding self-defense, gun ownership, and everything else. These laws were passed right in front of us, and we didn't take the time and energy to stop or prevent it. We were too busy with our lives, and it crept up on us slowly, little-by-little, until one day we all woke up and said "OK, enough is enough...this is out of hand." We are reaping what we have sown. By not keeping on the little things when they popped up here and there, they've now all piled up and have made it very hard for us to defend ourselves, our families, and our freedoms.
THE GOOD NEWS:
The good news is that by accepting responsibility for what has happened, and acknowledging that we are the only ones to blame for it (all that's necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing...) now we can actually change it. You can't snap your fingers and get politicians out of office. But by changing our perspective from that of VICTIMS to that of responsible citizens who decide our own future and take responsibility for what we LET other people do to us (and stop LETTING them do it!), we can instantly change the way we look at the problem and therefore the way we look to the solution.
Our solutions should come first from inside. I'm not talking trendy pop psychology or quick-fix personality changes. I'm talking deeply considering from a principles and character standpoint who we are and why we're in this situation. This type of thinking isn't popular because it forces us to take responsibility instead of blaming external forces all the time, and forces us to change what we do not simply by using this "technique" or that "technique" but by looking at things different and looking at ourselves different in a long-term point of view.
This may seem pretty deep for gun rights, but can you disagree that it is us who have let things get this way? I know what we're up against, believe me, but even then I know that if 1% of gun owners got active we'd have Vermont-style carry in a year.
Are you ready to take responsibility and change the way you look at the problem? Knowing that we're all to blame, can we step up to the plate together and fix it? I think we can.
Albert Einstein wrote:
I think this is a liberating realization really. The more this realization sinks in, the more we can break the habits of bad-talking the politicians, the media, the Daleys and Doyles and Bradys and Bloombergs, and man-up to the fact that it's us, it always has been, and it always will be. The Founding Fathers of this country knew it, and they did something about it. Now is our time.
Let's encourage one another to get involved, do whatever you can, stop complaining and whining and break the habit of identifying with ourselves as victims, and start identifying ourselves as the ones who can change it.