Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Prag and threeper, both adorable, both crawling towards the same goal. Which one is which is for the reader to determine. 

(Think about your choice: it may say more about your willingness to label than about any particular philosophy you think you’re espousing.)

Folks, the whole threeper/prag thing is awfully silly.

Hey, Three-percenters: I’ve met a few of the folks you label “prags,” and their “lines in the sand,” whether they want to discuss them in public or not, are real. To the extent you claim they’re not real, you do yourselves a disservice. Look, I don’t consider myself in either camp, but I’m the guy who’s trying to introduce everybody to the fun and utility of shooting targets at long ranges with specialty pistols. Taking out targets at 660 yards-plus with a pistol — whether elk, prairie dog or an angle iron — has a utility that’s not yet been widely appreciated, wouldn’t you agree? So take that as you will.

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Hey, Pragmatists: to the extent you deny the deterrent effect of a threatened violent response to confiscation, you do yourselves a disservice. As Mike Vanderboegh referenced over at Uncle’s place in his blustery way, in 1998 California’s RINO AG, Dan Lungren, seemed on the verge of mass confiscation of registered semi-autos — rifles that were only registered because he’d previously promised amnesty. That mass confiscation, AFAIK, didn’t happen, and Vanderboegh claims it’s because state and local cops alike told the AG’s office they weren’t about to get shot by angry gunowners doing Dan’s dirty work for him. I don’t know the details of the episode, so Calgunners and others please feel free to enlighten or correct me in comments, but I’d heard before I ever joined Calguns that the cops’ belief, their inference of such a threat, had something to do with it. It’s undoubtedly true that only a fraction of semiautos were ever registered, or turned in, and that this was widely known. That’s true civil disobedience right there, and by hundreds of thousands of California gun owners.

Here’s my point: the threat of violence only gets you so far. It’s great for stopping things at that line in the sand, but it won’t do a thing to advance that line forward one inch.

Now this is Phil’s blog, not mine; he just lets me write things from time to time. I dunno his public position on this sort of “issue” (again, I think the whole threeper/prag thing is ridiculous) — although I know he’s said he’ll never register his guns. You can take that sort of pronouncement any way you like. Publicly, I’d assume it means he’d move to another state if Washington started registering.
I didn’t have that choice. I started buying firearms* long after I was a California resident.

Which is just to say that you fight with tactics that will be effective in the political environment in which you find yourself. Here in California, through bipartisan gerrymandering, we’re as close to a one-party anti-gun state as I think you can get. If you want to see what happens when an oppressed minority in this state threatens the politicians en masse, read A Cautionary Tale. We’re still dealing with the repercussions of that episode. I suspect things would go exactly the same in your state.

Violence has got absolutely squat to do with the advances Calguns has made so far in building the framework to get rid of our unconstitutional laws. Even if you accept Vanderboegh’s point about 1998, that the threat of violence may have stopped confiscation here in California ten years ago — that was ten years ago. What’s it done for us lately? Violent threats may stop government action, but they can’t create the kind of political pressure you need to pass or block legislation, the administrative savvy to gut regulations, the expertise, planning and money to build good court cases that advance the cause, the public support from expanded gun ownership, and the organized political movement you need to reform the law.

So threepers, once you’ve got your battle rifle and gear squared away (maybe including a specialty pistol) and you’re all signed up for the next training class, why not reach out to a prag or two and find out if there’s some organized political activity you don’t know about where they could use your help — your time, efforts, donations, whatever. Then don’t sneer, don’t mess up their plan by doing it your way, just help! What’s the downside?

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Prags, tap a threeper and you’ll get more balls-out 2A enthusiasm than you think you can handle. But you won’t get it unless 1) he knows he’s needed, and 2) you ask. He may not think whatever you’re trying to do will succeed, but he’ll damn sure click a link, place a phone call, or write an email if it’s for the cause. He’s less likely to “scare the white folks” in a way that screws up what you’re doing if he feels connected to what you’re doing. Build organized processes and frameworks to make it easy for him to help you in the way that you need. Calguns does it every day.

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We need everybody, folks. There are too few of us to waste anyone.
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Now, will everybody please stop making a mess in the sandbox? Play time’s over. Gotta grow up now.

*but not my little boyhood collections of full-cap magazines and assorted firearms parts: those I brought with me from Oregon. Wise Californians know whereof I speak 🙂