You Want to STOP the NRA? Do this!

If you want to make a change, you must have understanding...  
emotional arguments never accomplish real change!

If the students involved in the Parkland shooting REALLY want to make their lives count, then they need to focus their energy first on understanding, then on action.  I will tell you this, the NRA is scared of kids!

The first thing they must recognize is the NRA is a religion.  Once they grasp and accept this, then they can start to develop a strategy.  What they need is to understand all the benchmarks of a religion.  After they unpack this, the lights start to shine.

Nothing makes an organization shake in its boots more than knowing how it works!  Students need to watch the Leah Remini series on Scientology!  Sorry any Parkland students involved in Scientology, but time to get out of that cult.  This is exactly what we are dealing with!

If I was in leadership with these students, I would get these young minds organized--this is why these movements never amount to much, organization.  However, while the energy is high, this group of students and then those around the country can unite together and take the NRA down.  The motivation is strong right now!

It is NOT good enough to keep saying the same things that have been said mass shooting after mass shooting.  You know there has to be some NRA person thinking, "Wow...when will someone get smart and understand how we really work!  Thank goodness for stupid and lazy people!"

HELLO..."KNOCK KNOCK" students of Parkland?  Anyone listening??

After the Leah Remini series, go over how the tobacco lobby was brought to their knees.  You will find much of the same religious philosophy.  Then see how the NRA uses these same strategies.  From what I have witnessed from these students, they can handle the intellectual research needed.  They defiantly can handle the communications.

Teachers of Parkland, you cannot do this at school, 
but you sure can meet in some church or town hall!  

You have a very short window of time before these students fall back into routine.  They want to do something, but they are kids and without mobilization, strategy and intelligence their energy will deflate quickly.

The NRA has become too big and powerful and needs to be humbled!  My main contention is they pretend to be something they are not, and in this case, present themselves like a false religion.

Let's look at how the NRA works;
First, this is a VERY religious organization and needs to be seen for what it is.  You need people who understand religion to guide you here.  You need a religious apologist to give you insights.  This is called, "apologetics."  Trust me here!

The NRA has built a movement that has convinced its followers that gun ownership is a way of life, central to one’s freedom and safety, that must be defended on a daily basis.  Did you hear that...a way of life!  That is religious talk. PURPOSE

The NRA has successfully used NRATV as a new innovation into the culture that the NRA has nurtured for decades. Every minute, the network pumps out a message that can be delivered regardless of external events:
Liberal elites want to take away your guns and freedom. Terrorists and criminals lurk everywhere and you need to know how to defend yourself. And by the way, look how cool guns are and how powerful they make you feel!

Like the tobacco industry, the NRA has been cultivating an image of guns as a source of freedom and cool, with the extra value of protection from grievous harm.  Did you hear that, IMAGE.

Understanding Habits
Gun familiarity comes mostly from family habits, and fewer families are carrying on gun traditions. What better way for the NRA to resupply the gun users pool than to strip the nation’s laws of obstacles to gun purchase, use fear of crime to motivate potential gun buyers, and to desensitize the nation’s majority of non-gun owners to the sight of civilians packing heat?  Did you hear that, FEAR.

Multiple reports show that gun ownership linked to higher rates of homicide, suicide and accidental shooting deaths; and statistically, a gun is more likely to be used to settle an argument rather than stop a crime.

By using PURPOSE, IMAGE and FEAR the NRA surgically 
has preached their religious message to convince people they need guns!  
This is about religion folks!

The Unique State of Florida--Ironic?
The march of “stand your ground” laws has followed a similar pattern. The NRA’s success in Florida in 2005 spurred similar efforts; 24 other states have adopted laws that generally allow people to use deadly force in public places without any duty to retreat. Another seven states have extended this principle to a limited degree outside the home, like motor vehicles or places of employment.

Florida has indeed been the gun lobby’s test kitchen: In 2006, state law was changed to exempt from the public records law the revelation of the names of concealed carry permit holders. In 2008, gun owners won the right to bring guns to work if they kept them locked in their cars, and the license period was lengthened from five to seven years. In 2010, adoption agencies were barred from finding out whether prospective adoptive parents owned guns. In 2011, medical professionals were barred from asking patients about whether they had guns at home; a violation could result in the loss of their license to practice medicine.

Few places have seen the National Rifle Association wield its might more effectively than Florida, where it has advanced a sweeping agenda that has made it easier to carry concealed weapons, given gun owners greater leeway to shoot in self-defense and even briefly barred doctors from asking patients about their firearms.

In Florida and other states across the country, as well as on Capitol Hill, the N.R.A. derives its political influence instead from a muscular electioneering machine, fueled by tens of millions of dollars’ worth of campaign ads and voter-guide mailings, that scrutinizes candidates for their views on guns and propels members to the polls.

States, Not National
Most gun regulations are state and local, not national; because state politics rarely garners significant public attention; and because conservative voices often hold sway in state capitals. Spearheading that effort was the spread of the concealed handgun carry movement.

Not surprisingly, NRA membership has grown since it began pushing its agenda in states, even though gun ownership overall has declined. In the early 1990s, the organization had about 3 million members. Ten years later, it had swelled to 4 million, where it remains today. The point of this furious legislative activity is that it has nothing to do with real criminal threats, or the failure of existing self-defense laws, and everything to do with the NRA’s political muscle.

In fact, the recent spread of these laws coincides with record low and declining crime rates, with improved policing, and declining gun ownership. Nor does it have anything to do with “gun rights.” As the Supreme Court ruled in 2008 when it established for the first time in history a personal right to gun ownership under the Second Amendment, the right pertained specifically to personal protection in the home. The Court specifically protected “long-standing prohibitions” pertaining to gun ownership and use – the very laws that the NRA has labored to dismantle.

The Republican Party as "Their Team"
Gun rights, specifically concealed carry, Norquist argued, changes Americans into being more likely to be on “his team,” the Republican Party.

President Obama, the gun lobby’s Darth Vader du jour, signed legislation to allow gun carrying in national parks and on trains.

More guns in the hands of Americans—including in public places like bars and school parking lots, as recent conceal carry bills have expanded “gun rights” into new areas—means more Republican voters. If policy is determined only by partisan advantage, then of course the rational move is to oppose any gun safety reforms, even if doing so leads to more deaths.

It’s not the contributions...it’s the ability of the N.R.A. to tell 
its members: Here’s who’s good on the Second Amendment.

Far more than any check the N.R.A. could write, it is this mobilization operation that has made the organization such a challenging adversary for Democrats and gun control advocates

The N.R.A.’s impact comes, in large part, from the simplicity of the incentives it presents to political candidates: letter grades, based on their record on the Second Amendment, that guide the N.R.A.’s involvement in elections. Lawmakers who earn an “A” rating can count on the group not to oppose them when they run for re-election or higher office.

The organization’s calculation is that its money is better spent on maintaining a motivated base of gun rights supporters than on bankrolling candidates directly.

1. Understand what you are up against, a religion!
2. Know how this religion works
3. Dismantle its message, state by state by getting other high school students motivated
4. Use their own language
5 Create attack ads like the tobacco lobbyists did...dismantle the image.
6. For get about adults, you are targeting high school students-the NEXT generation!
7. Threaten all companies that are being funded by the NRA
8. Play the game--use emotion to your advantage.  Get moms on board!
9. Have a one-year plan!
10. When you go public-TV, etc, be focused!  Hit below the belt, EXPOSE their strategy
and appeal to kids--tell them they are being brainwashed like a religious cult!

Time to READ up to GEAR up!

The following was used to support this article:

The True Source of the N.R.A.’s Clout: Mobilization, Not Donations

Inside the Power of the N.R.A.

Why the NRA Always Wins: It’s not the money. It’s the culture

NRA Board Member Explains Advocacy: Gun Ownership Makes People More Republican

What Critics Don't Understand About Gun Culture