Hip-Hop, Country and the NRA Lifestyle

[AGCR]

One of the most troubling aspects of the NRA is its blending of 2A politics with regressive social causes. In this article, I take on a lighter related topic, their fondness for country music...
https://occupy2a.wordpress.com/2016/02/05/countryhip-hop-and-the-nra-lifestyle/

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[edison bulb]

Hi AGCR,

The article is great and touches on an issue that the NRA needs to address. The NRA does a "cherrypicked version of America" in many ways. The unfortunate consequence is that it can alienate gun owners and Second Amendment supporters that don't fit the mold. Some of my friends who are gun owners and CCW are LGBTQ and racial minorities; none of them are NRA members. Some are not because they don't realize the importance of supporting political groups that protect the 2A; others because they have deep ideological issues that the NRA overwhelmingly represents -- namely, as you say, regressive social politics -- that run contrary to their own lives. I do think the NRA is slowly adapting to the needs of people to be represented in their literature. See Colin Noir for example. But this needs to speed up immediately, with more diversity in the gun ownership spectrum.

PSU Students for Concealed Carry
https://sites.google.com/site/psuconcealed/

 

[41Slinger]

I feel the same way about the generalization of all democrats being labeled as liberals when in reality there are a ton of very conservative democrats out there who I think continue to vote democrat just because that's what they've always done, I used to be one, now I'm pretty much a one issue (2A) voter unfortunately.

 

[Heywood]

Yes, they should do their best to stack the background of their shoots with tokens just like the lefties do.
I've never understood the thought behind social engineering.
If people naturally gravitate towards something and others do not, it doesn't mean those that don't are unwanted. They're like kids that sit on the porch watching the others play and lament the fact that they aren't included, never knowing that if they just walk out and introduce themselves they would be welcome.
i feel a greater misdeed is done by the assumption of ill will do to a "lack of diversity" than the lack of diversity itself.

 

[edison bulb]

AGCR -- Do you ever check your inbox? I tried sending you a PM, but it is full.

 

[AGCR]

AGCR -- Do you ever check your inbox? I tried sending you a PM, but it is full.

Oh, god, I haven't updated anything on here since 2007 and am enough of a technophobe I haven't messed with deleting messages. I will try to get on that. Thanks!

 

[AGCR]

Yes, they should do their best to stack the background of their shoots with tokens just like the lefties do.
I've never understood the thought behind social engineering.
If people naturally gravitate towards something and others do not, it doesn't mean those that don't are unwanted. They're like kids that sit on the porch watching the others play and lament the fact that they aren't included, never knowing that if they just walk out and introduce themselves they would be welcome.
i feel a greater misdeed is done by the assumption of ill will do to a "lack of diversity" than the lack of diversity itself.

If the NRA truly wants to represent American gun owners, why wouldn't it portray itself the way America looks? It's social engineering to make a photo montage, and then actively be sure its all homogenized. Diversity is just acknowleging reality. I don't take it as ill will necessarily, just social incompetence for an organization that could do a lot more to represent American shooters, who I'm very well aware, don't all look the same, love the same or enjoy the same music.

 

[rick benjamin]

The NRA already represents American gun owners.
You aren't a member, so you don't get to vote.
The NRA is not into homogenizing. We are diverse in all things.
Thanks, btw for revealing your politics and leaning.
Occupy the 2nd Amendment
A Leftist View on Gun Politics by Ross Eliot,
Editor and Publisher of American Gun Culture Report
So, you think you can slide in and occupy the 2nd Amendment?

 

[Pops1911]

Well, I am a Native American - Eastern Cherokee and I belong to the NRA. Works for me. IMHO the 2A trumps all of the identity politics out there. donadagohvi nigada...[see ya'll later in Cherokee]

 

[Caveman Jim]

So let me get this right, the minorities aren't joining the NRA because the NRA does not have pics of those minorities or endorse different music preference on their website?
Did I get that right? I'm still cornfused.....

 

[Chee-to]

Hmmmm, seems to me there's many a hip-hop an rap shooters out there....

 

[AGCR]

The NRA already represents American gun owners.
You aren't a member, so you don't get to vote.
The NRA is not into homogenizing. We are diverse in all things.
Thanks, btw for revealing your politics and leaning.
Occupy the 2nd Amendment

So, you think you can slide in and occupy the 2nd Amendment?

Actually, I am an NRA member. That's why the get the magazine I was critiquing. Also, leftists occupied the 2A back before the NRA ever got involved. If you look back at the old legal battles in the '20s and earlier about disarming non-whites, it was leftists who defended the universal right. The NRA had better things to do, apparently.

 

[AGCR]

So let me get this right, the minorities aren't joining the NRA because the NRA does not have pics of those minorities or endorse different music preference on their website?
Did I get that right? I'm still cornfused.....

The NRA can do whatever it wants. However, if it wants to be a national organization pushing goals that people other than right wingers will ever sympathize with, it should promote itself the way the nation actually exists, not some imagined reality.

 

[Brutus57]

I feel the same way about the generalization of all democrats being labeled as liberals when in reality there are a ton of very conservative democrats out there who I think continue to vote democrat just because that's what they've always done, I used to be one, now I'm pretty much a one issue (2A) voter unfortunately.

Not to be an jerk but I'd really like to hear about some conservative Democratic politicians above the county level? They used to exist. It seems these days they vote strict party lines and always to screw the tax payer and restrict personal liberties. Except for POT, they love the ganja.

Brutus Out

 

[AGCR]

Not to be an jerk but I'd really like to hear about some conservative Democratic politicians above the county level? They used to exist. It seems these days they vote strict party lines and always to screw the tax payer and restrict personal liberties. Except for POT, they love the ganja.

Brutus Out

I think what you're describing is a general national polarization that's been going on for some time. You can see it reflected, for example, with a Conservative Democrat like Joe Lieberman leaving the party to, say, Jim Jeffords quitting the Republicans. As far as screwing us, well, I've never seen one side better or worse in the big picture.

 

[Heywood]

Well from a right wing libertarian heathen point of view. The NRA is not welcome in those circles, ask 1000 fill in the blanks that self identify as fill in the blanks first and foremost, (which is the real problem here in my opinion) what they think of the 2A or the NRA in particular and you will see why they do not waste their time pandering. I lay this at the feet of the left who demoniszes guns, gun owners and the NRA. Their isn't a leftist pol that doesn't demonize the NRA at every chance they get when campaigning for new laws, YOU are at fault for lack of diversity, not me or the NRA.
In the future, I recommend that you write to the magazine and perhaps you could send them a nice picture of a "gay" gun owner who is also an NRA member. Be sure to point out what makes them represent being "gay" so they can explain to their readers as I'm sure if they had a picture of a "gay" NRA member, lefites would blast it as being stereotyping or insensitive or what ever...
Don't take this the wrong way, I am happy to see diversity amongst gun owners but diversity for diversities sake is psychotic.
Us right wingers don't do well with hyphenated Americans, most of us feel that is what causes the fractures in our society in the first place. To ask us to celebrate it is counter to all we wish for and I believe it is counter to what most leftist groups supposed intentions are.

 

[Caveman Jim]

The NRA reaches out to gun owners, I didn't know that minorities need to be courted like perfume or clothing merchandisers.
If you are a gun owner or even a non gun owner but a 2A advocate, they care not what ideology future members are as long as they join to support like minded folks.

 

[Heywood]

The NRA reaches out to gun owners, I didn't know that minorities need to be courted like perfume or clothing merchandisers.
If you are a gun owner or even a non gun owner but a 2A advocate, they care not what ideology future members are as long as they join to support like minded folks.

I think that is a little to simple for some....

 

[AGCR]

The NRA reaches out to gun owners, I didn't know that minorities need to be courted like perfume or clothing merchandisers.
If you are a gun owner or even a non gun owner but a 2A advocate, they care not what ideology future members are as long as they join to support like minded folks.

As I noted before, the NRA can do what it wants, and if it to is misguided enough to believe only courting white conservatives is the ingredient for a successful US national movement in the 21st century, it's welcome to try. Because I take the 2A seriously, I want to see groups defending it who aren't fighting against reality. Diversity for any sake isn't psychotic, it's simply acknowledging that reality.

 

[AGCR]

On a further expanded point, some folks seem to think there's something wrong with the NRA recognizing the diversity of America in it's self presentation. As it happens, I'm very well aware how that can become a self fulfilling cycle because of my experience working in low-income housing. Because there is such a long history of legal segregation in America through restricting housing by race, it turns out that even if there isn't a WHITES ONLY sign on the apt building, as long as advertising for it shows ONLY white people, it has the same effect. Racist landlords soon discovered this and used the tactic to prevent people of color from moving into their units, to the point where laws had to be changed, so it now actually violates federal housing codes to advertise housing using any exclusive ethnic or racial group. That's helped a great deal in integrating US society. Same thing with the NRA or any group. If all your photos show white people, anyone different, because of the history of institutional racism, is likely to see it as a whites only welcome sign. So, they can do whatever, but for a national group to last, it can't deny what the American social reality is and effectively protect rights that, I for one, take seriously.