Raging against self defense

http://www.jpfo.org/ragingagainstselfdefense.htm
Raging Against Self Defense:
A Psychiatrist Examines The Anti-Gun Mentality
By Sarah Thompson, M.D.

"You don't need to have a gun; the police will protect you."

"If people carry guns, there will be murders over parking spaces and
neighborhood basketball games."

"I'm a pacifist. Enlightened, spiritually aware people shouldn't own guns."

"I'd rather be raped than have some redneck militia type try to rescue me."
How often have you heard these statements from misguided advocates of victim
disarmament, or even woefully uninformed relatives and neighbors? Why do
people cling so tightly to these beliefs, in the face of incontrovertible
evidence that they are wrong? Why do they get so furiously angry when gun
owners point out that their arguments are factually and logically incorrect?

How can you communicate with these people who seem to be out of touch with
reality and rational thought?

One approach to help you deal with anti-gun people is to understand their
psychological processes. Once you understand why these people behave so
irrationally, you can communicate more effectively with them.

Defense Mechanisms
Projection

About a year ago I received an e-mail from a member of a local Jewish
organization. The author, who chose to remain anonymous, insisted that
people have no right to carry firearms because he didn't want to be murdered
if one of his neighbors had a "bad day". (I don't know that this person
is a "he", but I'm assuming so for the sake of simplicity.) I responded by asking
him why he thought his neighbors wanted to murder him, and, of course, got
no response. The truth is that he's statistically more likely to be murdered
by a neighbor who doesn't legally carry a firearm1 and more likely to be
shot accidentally by a law enforcement officer.1

How does my correspondent "know" that his neighbors would murder him if they
had guns? He doesn't. What he was really saying was that if he had a
gun, he might murder his neighbors if he had a bad day, or if they took his parking
space, or played their stereos too loud. This is an example of what mental
health professionals call projection - unconsciously projecting one's own
unacceptable feelings onto other people, so that one doesn't have to own
them.3 In some cases, the intolerable feelings are projected not onto a
person, but onto an inanimate object, such as a gun,4 so that the projector
believes the gun itself will murder him.

Projection is a defense mechanism. Defense mechanisms are unconscious
psychological mechanisms that protect us from feelings that we cannot
consciously accept.5 They operate without our awareness, so that we don't
have to deal consciously with "forbidden" feelings and impulses. Thus, if
you asked my e-mail correspondent if he really wanted to murder his
neighbors, he would vehemently deny it, and insist that other people
want to kill him.

Projection is a particularly insidious defense mechanism, because it not
only prevents a person from dealing with his own feelings, it also
creates a world where he perceives everyone else as directing his own hostile feelings
back at him.6

All people have violent, and even homicidal, impulses. For example, it's
common to hear people say "I'd like to kill my boss", or "If you do that one
more time I'm going to kill you." They don't actually mean that they're
going to, or even would, kill anyone; they're simply acknowledging anger and
frustration. All of us suffer from fear and feelings of helplessness and
vulnerability. Most people can acknowledge feelings of rage, fear,
frustration, jealousy, etc. without having to act on them in inappropriate
and destructive ways.

Some people, however, are unable consciously to admit that they have such
"unacceptable" emotions. They may have higher than average levels of rage,
frustration, or fear. Perhaps they fear that if they acknowledge the hostile
feelings, they will lose control and really will hurt someone. They may
believe that "good people" never have such feelings, when in fact all people
have them.

This is especially true now that education "experts" commonly prohibit
children from expressing negative emotions or aggression. Instead of
learning that such emotions are normal, but that destructive behavior needs
to be controlled, children now learn that feelings of anger are evil,
dangerous and subject to severe punishment.7To protect themselves from
"being bad", they are forced to use defense mechanisms to avoid owning their
own normal emotions. Unfortunately, using such defense mechanisms
inappropriately can endanger their mental health; children need to learn how
to deal appropriately with reality, not how to avoid it.8

(This discussion of psychological mechanisms applies to the average person
who is uninformed, or misinformed, about firearms and self-defense. It does
not apply to the anti- gun ideologue. Fanatics like Charles Schumer know the
facts about firearms, and advocate victim disarmament consciously and
willfully in order to gain political power. This psychological analysis does
not apply to them.)

Denial

Another defense mechanism commonly utilized by supporters of gun control is
denial. Denial is simply refusing to accept the reality of a given
situation.9 For example, consider a woman whose husband starts coming home
late, has strange perfume on his clothes, and starts charging flowers and
jewelry on his credit card. She may get extremely angry at a well-meaning
friend who suggests that her husband is having an affair. The reality is
obvious, but the wronged wife is so threatened by her husband's infidelity
that she is unable to accept it, and so denies its existence.

Anti-gun people do the same thing. It's obvious that we live in a dangerous
society, where criminals attack innocent people. Just about everyone has
been, or knows someone who has been, victimized. It's equally obvious that
law enforcement can't protect everyone everywhere 24 hours a day. Extensive
scholarly research demonstrates that the police have no legal duty to
protect you10 and that firearm ownership is the most effective way to
protect yourself and your family.11 There is irrefutable evidence that
victim disarmament nearly always precedes genocide.12 Nonetheless, the
anti-gun folks insist, despite all evidence to the contrary, that "the
police will protect you", "this is a safe neighborhood" and "it can't happen
here", where "it" is everything from mugging to mass murder.

Anti-gun people who refuse to accept the reality of the proven and very
serious dangers of civilian disarmament are using denial to protect
themselves from the anxiety of feeling helpless and vulnerable. Likewise,
gun owners who insist that "the government will never confiscate my guns"
are also using denial to protect themselves from the anxiety of
contemplating being forcibly disarmed and rendered helpless and vulnerable.

Reaction Formation

Reaction formation is yet another defense mechanism common among the
anti-gun folks. Reaction formation occurs when a person's mind turns an
unacceptable feeling or desire into its complete opposite.13 For
example, a child who is jealous of a sibling may exhibit excessive love and devotion
for the hated brother or sister.

Likewise, a person who harbors murderous rage toward his fellow humans may
claim to be a devoted pacifist and refuse to eat meat or even kill a
cockroach.14 Often such people take refuge in various spiritual disciplines
and believe that they are "superior" to "less civilized" folks who
engage in "violent behavior" such as hunting, or even target shooting. They may devote
themselves to "animal welfare" organizations that proclaim that the rights
of animals take precedence over the rights of people.15 This not only allows
the angry person to avoid dealing with his rage, it allows him actually to
harm the people he hates without having to know he hates them.

This is not meant to disparage the many wonderful people who are pacifists,
spiritually inclined, vegetarian, or who support animal welfare. The key
issue is not the belief itself, but rather the way in which the person
experiences and lives his beliefs. Sincere practitioners seek to improve
themselves, or to be helpful in a gentle, respectful fashion. They work to
persuade others peacefully by setting an example of what they believe to be
correct behavior. Sincere pacifists generally exhibit good will towards
others, even towards persons with whom they might disagree on various
issues.

Contrast the sincere pacifist or animal lover with the strident, angry
person who wants to ban meat and who believes murdering hunters is justified
in order to "save the animals" - or the person who wants to outlaw self-
defense and believes innocent people have the obligation to be raped and
murdered for the good of society. For example, noted feminist Betty Friedan
said "that lethal violence even in self defense only engenders more
violence."16 The truly spiritual, pacifist person refrains from forcing
others to do what he believes, and is generally driven by positive emotions,
while the angry person finds "socially acceptable" ways to harm, abuse, or
even kill, his fellow man.

In the case of anti-gun people, reaction formation keeps any knowledge of
their hatred for their fellow humans out of consciousness, while allowing
them to feel superior to "violent gun owners". At the same time, it also
allows them to cause serious harm, and even loss of life, to others by
denying them the tools necessary to defend themselves. This makes reaction
formation very attractive from a psychological point of view, and therefore
very difficult to counteract.

Defense mechanisms are normal. All of us use them to some extent, and their
use does not imply mental illness. Advocates of victim disarmament may be
misguided or uninformed, they may be stupid, or they may be consciously
intent on evil, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are "mentally ill".

Some defense mechanisms, however, are healthier than others. A safe general
rule is that a defense is healthy if it helps you to function better in your
personal and professional life, and unhealthy if it interferes with your
life, your relationships, or the well-being of others. Young children
utilize projection and denial much more commonly than do healthy adults. On
the other hand, "if projection is used as a defense mechanism to a very
great extent in adult life, the user's perception of external reality will
be seriously distorted."17

Defense mechanisms are also frequently combined, so that an anti-gun person
may use several defense mechanisms simultaneously. For example, my
unfortunate correspondent uses projection to create a world in which all his
neighbors want to murder him. As a result, he becomes more angry and
fearful, and needs to employ even more defense mechanisms to cope. So he
uses projection to attribute his own rage to others, he uses denial that
there is any danger to protect himself from a world where he believes he is
helpless and everyone wants to murder him, and he uses reaction
formation to try to control everyone else's life because his own is so horribly out of
control.

Also, it's important to remember that not all anti-gun beliefs are the
result of defense mechanisms. Some people suffer from gun phobia18, an
excessive and completely irrational fear of firearms, usually caused by the
anti-gun conditioning they've been subjected to by the media, politicians,
so-called "educators," and others. In some cases, gun phobia is caused
by an authentic bad experience associated with a firearm. But with all due respect
to Col. Jeff Cooper, who coined the term "hoplophobia" to describe anti-gun
people, most anti-gun people do not have true phobias. Interestingly, a
person with a true phobia of guns realizes his fear is excessive or
unreasonable,19 something most anti-gun folks will never admit.

Defense mechanisms distort reality

Because defense mechanisms distort reality in order to avoid unpleasant
emotions, the person who uses them has an impaired ability to recognize and
accept reality. This explains why my e-mail correspondent and many other
anti-gun people persist in believing that their neighbors and co- workers
will become mass murderers if allowed to own firearms.

People who legally carry concealed firearms are actually less violent and
less prone to criminal activity of all kinds than is the general
population.20 A person who has a clean record, has passed an FBI background
check, undergone firearms training, and spent several hundred dollars to get
a permit and a firearm, is highly unlikely to choose to murder a neighbor.
Doing so would result in his facing a police manhunt, a trial, prison,
possibly capital punishment, and the destruction of his family, job, and
reputation. Obviously it would make no sense for such a person to shoot a
neighbor - except in self-defense. Equally obviously, the anti-gun person
who believes that malicious shootings by ordinary gun owners are likely to
occur is not in touch with reality.21

The Common Thread: Rage
In my experience, the common thread in anti-gun people is rage. Either
anti-gun people harbor more rage than others, or they're less able to cope
with it appropriately. Because they can't handle their own feelings of rage,
they are forced to use defense mechanisms in an unhealthy manner. Because
they wrongly perceive others as seeking to harm them, they advocate the
disarmament of ordinary people who have no desire to harm anyone. So why do
anti-gun people have so much rage and why are they unable to deal with
it in appropriate ways? Consider for a moment that the largest and most hysterical
anti-gun groups include disproportionately large numbers of women, African-
Americans and Jews. And virtually all of the organizations that claim to
speak for these "oppressed people" are stridently anti-gun. Not
coincidentally, among Jews, Blacks and women there are many "professional
victims" who have little sense of identity outside of their victimhood.

Identity as Victim

If I were to summarize this article in three sentences, they would be:

(1) People who identify themselves as "victims" harbor excessive amounts of
rage at other people, whom they perceive as "not victims."
(2) In order psychologically to deal with this rage, these "victims" utilize
defense mechanisms that enable them to harm others in socially acceptable
ways, without accepting responsibility or suffering guilt, and without
having to give up their status as "victims."

(3) Gun owners are frequently the targets of professional victims because
gun owners are willing and able to prevent their own victimization.

Thus the concept of "identity as victim" is essential. How and why do
members of some groups choose to identify themselves as victims and teach
their children to do the same? While it's true that women, Jews, and
African- Americans have historically been victimized, they now participate
in American society on an equal basis. And other groups, most notably
Asian-Americans, have been equally victimized, and yet have transcended the
"eternal victim" mentality.

Why, for example, would a 6'10" NBA player who makes $10 million a year see
himself as a "victim"? Why would a successful, respected, wealthy, Jewish
physician regard himself as a "victim"? Conversely, why might a wheelchair
bound woman who lives on government disability NOT regard herself as a
victim?

I would argue it's because the basketball player and the physician believe
that their identities are dependent on being victims - not because they have
actually been victimized, but because they're members of groups that claim
victim status. Conversely, the disabled woman was probably raised to believe
that she is responsible for her own success or failure.

In fact, many people who have been victims of actual violent crime, or who
have survived war or civil strife, support the right of self-defense. The
old saying is often correct: "a conservative is a liberal who has been
mugged."

Special Treatment and Misleading Leaders

Two reasons for these groups to insist on "victim" status seem likely.
First, by claiming victim status, members of these groups can demand (and
get) special treatment through quotas, affirmative action, reparations, and
other preferential treatment programs.

Second, these people have been indoctrinated to believe that there is no
alternative to remaining a victim forever. Their leaders remind them
constantly that they are mistreated in every imaginable way (most of them
imaginary!), attribute every one of life's misfortunes to "racism" or
"sexism" or "hate crimes", and dream up ever more complex schemes for
special treatment and favors.22 These leaders are the ones who preach that
the entire Black experience is slavery and racism, or that Jewish history
before and after the Holocaust is irrelevant,23 or that happily married
women are really victims of sexual slavery.24

Likewise, the NAACP is suing firearms manufacturers to put them out of
business,25 and is especially opposed to the inexpensive pistols that enable
the poor to defend themselves in gang-ridden inner cities. The
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposed evicting anyone who dares to
keep a tool of self-defense in any of its crime-infested housing projects.
Jewish leaders, especially those in the politically correct "Reform" branch,
preach that gun control is "a solemn religious obligation",26 contrary to
the teachings of their sacred scriptures and their own history.27 Law
enforcement agencies falsely teach women that they are safest if they don't
resist rapists and robbers,28 while women's organizations advocate gun
control, thus rendering women and their children defenseless.

Victimhood is good business for organizations that foster victim status. As
victims, the members depend upon the organization to protect them, and the
organization in turn relies on members for funding and political power. In
the interest of self-preservation, these organizations work hard at
preserving hatred and bigotry and at keeping their members defenseless - and
therefore dependent.

Anti-gun groups love victims!

From my observations, pro-victimhood is a feature of all of the anti-gun
special interest groups, not just the ones mentioned here. Every
organization that supports gun control apparently wants its members to be
helpless, terrified and totally dependent on someone else to control every
aspect of their lives. It doesn't matter whether it's a religious, racial,
ethnic, political, social, or charitable group. From Handgun Control, Inc.
to the Anti- Defamation League to the Million Mom March, they all want you
to live in fear. In this scheme, soccer moms are "victims" just as much as
are inner-city minorities.

If these organizations truly cared about the people for whom they claim to
speak, they would encourage safe and responsible firearms ownership. They
would help people to learn how to defend themselves and their families so
that they wouldn't have to live in fear. They would tell everyone that one
of the wonderful things about being an American is that you have the right
to keep and bear arms, the right to defend yourself, and how these rights
preserve the right to be free.

The psychological price of being a victim

In our current society, victimhood has many perceived benefits, but there
are some serious drawbacks. Victims tend to see the world as a scary and
threatening place. They believe that others treat them differently,
unfairly, and even maliciously - and that they are helpless to do anything
about it. This belief, that they are being mistreated and are helpless to
resist, generates tremendous rage, and often, serious depression.

But for victims to show rage openly can be dangerous, if not outright
suicidal. For example, a battered woman who screams at or hits her attacker
may provoke worse beatings or even her own murder. And a person who
successfully defends himself loses his status as "victim." For someone whose
entire identity is dependent on being a victim, the loss of victim
status is just as threatening as loss of life.

So, unable psychologically to cope with such rage, people who view
themselves as victims: (1) use defense mechanisms to displace it into
irrational beliefs about neighbors killing each other, and the infallibility
of police protection, and (2) attempt to regain control by controlling gun
owners, whom they wrongly perceive as "the enemy".

Say NO to being a victim!

But no one needs to be a victim! Quite simply, it's not very easy to
victimize a person who owns and knows how to use a firearm. If most women
owned and carried firearms, rapes and beating would decrease.29 Thugs who
target the elderly and disabled would find honest work once they realized
they were likely to be looking down the barrel of a pistol or shotgun. It's
nearly impossible to enslave, or herd into concentration camps, large
numbers of armed people.

Communicating with anti-gun people
How can you communicate more effectively with an anti-gun person who is
using unhealthy defense mechanisms? There are no quick and easy answers. But
there are a few things you should keep in mind.

Anger and attacks do not work

Most gun owners, when confronted by an anti-gun person, become angry and
hostile. This is understandable, because gun owners increasingly face
ridicule, persecution and discrimination. (If you don't believe this, ask
yourself if anyone would seriously introduce legislation to ban African-
Americans, women, or Jews from post offices, schools, and churches. Even
convicted felons aren't banned from such places - but peaceful armed
citizens are!) But an angry response is counterproductive.

It's not helpful to attack the person you're trying to persuade. Anything
that makes him feel more fearful or angry will only intensify his defenses.
Your goal is to help the person feel safe, and then to provide experiences
and information that will help him to make informed decisions.

Be Gentle

You should never try to break down a defense mechanism by force. Remember
that defense mechanisms protect people from feelings they cannot handle, and
if you take that protection away, you can cause serious psychological harm.
And because defense mechanisms operate unconsciously, it won't do any good
to show an anti-gun person this article or to point out that he's using
defense mechanisms. Your goal is gently and gradually to help the person to
have a more realistic and rational view of the world. This cannot be
done in one hour or one day.

As you reach out to people in this way, you need to deal with both the
illogical thought processes involved and the emotional reactions that
anti-gun people have to firearms. When dealing with illogical thought
processes, you are attempting to use reason and logic to convince the
anti-gun person that his perception of other people and his perception of
firearms are seriously inaccurate. The goal is to help him to understand
that armed citizens and firearms are not threats, and may even save his
life.

Reversing Irrational thoughts
The Mirror Technique

One approach that can be helpful is simply to feed back what the anti-gun
person is telling you, in a neutral, inquisitive way. So, when replying to
my anonymous e-mail correspondent (above), I might respond, "So you fear if
your neighbors had guns, they would use them to murder you. What makes you
think that?" When you simply repeat what the person has said, and ask
questions, you are not directly challenging his defenses. You are
holding up a mirror to let him see his own views. If he has very strong defenses, he
can continue to insist that his neighbors want to murder him. However, if
his defenses are less rigid, he may start to question his position.

Another example might be, "Why do you think that your children's
schoolteachers would shoot them?" You might follow this up with something
like, "Why do you entrust your precious children to someone you believe
would murder them?" Again, you are merely asking questions, and not directly
attacking the person or his defenses.

Of course the anti-gun person might continue to insist that the teachers
really would harm children, but prohibiting them from owning guns would
prevent it. So you might ask how using a gun to murder innocent children is
different from stabbing children with scissors, assaulting them with
baseball bats, or poisoning the milk and cookies.

It's important to ask "open-ended" questions that require a response other
than "yes" or "no". Such questions require the anti-gun person actually to
think about what he is saying. This will help him to re-examine his beliefs.
It may also encourage him to ask you questions about firearms use and
ownership.

The "What Would You Do?" Technique

Once you have a dialogue going with an anti-gun person, you might want to
insert him into a hypothetical scenario, although doing so is a greater
threat to his defenses, and is therefore more risky. You might ask how he
would deal with a difficult or annoying co-worker. He will likely respond
that he would never resort to violence, but "other people" would, especially
if they had guns. (Projection again.) You can then ask him who these "other
people" are, why they would shoot a co-worker, and what the shooter would
gain by doing so.

Don't try to "win" the argument. Don't try to embarrass the person you're
trying to educate. Remember that no one likes to admit that his deeply held
beliefs are wrong. No one likes to hear "I told you so!" Be patient and
gentle. If you are arrogant, condescending, hurtful or rude to the anti-gun
person, you will only convince him that gun owners are arrogant, hurtful
people - who should not be trusted with guns!

Defusing Emotional reactions
The "You Are There" Technique

Rational arguments alone are not likely to be successful, especially since
many people "feel" rather than "think". You also need to deal with the
emotional responses of the anti-gun person. Remember that most people have
been conditioned to associate firearms with dead toddlers. So you need to
change the person's emotional responses along with his thoughts.

One way to do this is to put the anti-gun person (or his family) at a
hypothetical crime scene and ask what he would like to have happen. For
example, "Imagine your wife is in the parking lot at the supermarket and two
men grab her. One holds a knife to her throat while the other tears her
clothes off. If I see this happening and have a gun, what should I do? What
would happen next? What if after five minutes, the police still haven't
arrived?"

Just let him answer the questions and mentally walk through the scenario.
Don't argue with his answers. You are planting seeds in his mind than can
help change his emotional responses.

The Power of Empathy

Another emotion-based approach that is often more successful is to respond
sympathetically to the plight of the anti-gun person.

Imagine for a moment how you would feel if you believed your neighbors and
co-workers wanted to kill you and your family, and you could do nothing at
all about it except to wait for the inevitable to occur.

Not very pleasant, is it?

This is the world in which opponents of armed self-defense live. All of us
have had times in our lives when we felt "different" and had to contend with
hostile schoolmates, co- workers, etc. So we need to invoke our own
compassion for these terrified people. Say something like, "It must be awful
to live in fear of being assaulted by your own neighbors. I remember
what it was like when I was the only (Jew, Mormon, African-American, Republican) in
my (class, football team, workplace) - and even then I didn't think anyone
was going to kill me." It's essential that you sincerely feel some
compassion and empathy; if you're glib or sarcastic, this won't work.

Using empathy works in several ways. First, it defuses a potentially hostile
interaction. Anti-gun people are used to being attacked, not understood, by
advocates of gun rights. Instead of an "evil, gun-toting, extremist", you
are now a sympathetic, fellow human being. This may also open the door
for a friendly conversation, in which you can each discover that your "opponent"
is a person with whom you have some things in common. You may even
create an opportunity to dispel some of the misinformation about firearms and
self-defense that is so prevalent.

This empathy technique is also useful for redirecting, or ending, a heated
argument that has become hostile and unproductive. It allows you to escape
from the dead end of "guns save lives" vs. "the only reason to have a
gun is to murder children." With empathy you can reframe the argument entirely.
Instead of arguing about whether more lives are saved or lost as a
result of gun ownership, you can comment on how terrifying it must be to live in a
country where 80 million people own guns "solely for the purpose of
murdering children".

You should not expect any of these approaches to work immediately; they
won't. With rare exceptions, the anti-gun person is simply not going to "see
the light," thank you profusely, and beg you to take him shooting. What you
are doing is putting tiny chinks into the armor of the person's
defenses, or planting seeds that may someday develop into a more open mind or a more
rational analysis. This process can take months or years. But it does work!

Corrective Experiences
Perhaps the most effective way to dissolve defense mechanisms, however, is
by providing corrective experiences30. Corrective experiences are
experiences that allow a person to learn that his ideas about gun owners and
guns are incorrect in a safe and non-threatening way. To provide a
corrective experience, you first allow the person to attempt to project his
incorrect ideas onto you. Then, you demonstrate that he is wrong by your
behavior, not by arguing.

For example, the anti-gun person will unconsciously attempt to provoke you
by claiming that gun owners are uneducated "rednecks," or by treating
you as if you are an uneducated "redneck." If you get angry and respond by calling
him a "stupid, liberal, socialist", you will prove his point. However, if
you casually talk about your M.B.A., your trip to the Shakespeare festival,
your vegetable garden, or your daughter's ballet recital, you will provide
him with the opportunity to correct his misconceptions.

If you have used the above techniques, then you have already provided one
corrective experience. You have demonstrated to the frightened, anti-gun
person that gun owners are not abusive, scary, dangerous and sub-human
monsters, but normal, everyday people who care about their families, friends
and even strangers.

As many gun owners have already discovered, the most important corrective
experiences involve actually exposing the fearful person to a firearm.
It is almost never advisable to tell someone that you carry a concealed firearm,
but there are ways to use your own experience favorably.

For example, if you're dealing with an anti-gun person with whom you
interact regularly and have a generally good relationship - a coworker,
neighbor, church member, etc. - you might indirectly refer to concealed
carry. You should never say anything like "I'm carrying a gun right now and
you can't even tell," especially because in some states that would be
considered illegal, "threatening" behavior. But you might consider saying
something like, "I sometimes carry a firearm, and you've never seemed to be
uncomfortable around me." Whether to disclose this information is an
individual decision, and you should consider carefully other consequences
before using this approach.

First-hand experience

Ultimately, your goal is to take the anti-gun person shooting. Some people
will accept an invitation to accompany you to the range, but others are too
frightened to do so, and will need some preliminary experience.

First, you want to encourage the anti-gun person to have some contact
with a firearm in whatever way feels most comfortable to him. Many people seem to
believe that firearms have minds of their own and shoot people of their own
volition. So you might want to start by inviting him simply to look at and
then handle an unloaded firearm. This also provides you the opportunity to
show the inexperienced person how to tell whether a firearm is loaded
and to teach him the basic rules of firearms safety.

Encourage the newcomer to ask questions and remember that your role is to
present accurate information in a friendly, responsible and non-threatening
way. This is a good time to offer some reading material on the benefits of
firearms ownership. But be careful not to provide so much information that
it's overwhelming. And remember this is not the time to launch into
anti-government rants, the New World Order, conspiracy theories, or any kind
of political talk!

Next, you can invite your friend to accompany you to the shooting range.
(And if you're going to trust each other with loaded guns, you should
consider yourselves friends!) Assure him that no one will force him to shoot
a gun and he's free just to watch. Let him know in advance what he will
experience and what will be expected of him. This includes such things as
the need for eye and ear protection, a cap, appropriate clothing, etc. Make
sure you have a firearm appropriate for your guest should s/he decide to try
shooting. This means a lower caliber firearm that doesn't have too much
recoil. If your guest is a woman, make sure the firearm will fit her
appropriately. Many rifles have stocks that are too long for small women,
and double-stack semi-autos are usually too large for a woman's hand.

Remember that just visiting the range can be a corrective experience. Your
guest will learn that gun owners are disciplined, responsible,
safety-conscious, courteous, considerate, and follow the rules. He will see
people of all ages, from children to the elderly, male and female, enjoying
an activity together. He will not see a single "beer-swilling redneck"
waving a firearm in people's faces.

In my experience, most people who visit a range will decide they do want to
try shooting. Remember to make sure your guest understands all the safety
rules and range rules before allowing him to handle a firearm. If you don't
feel competent to teach a newcomer to shoot, ask an instructor or range
master to assist. Remember to provide lots of positive feedback and
encouragement. If you're lucky, you'll recruit a new firearms enthusiast.

But even if your guest decides that shooting is "not for him", he will have
learned many valuable lessons. He will know basic rules of firearms safety,
and how to clear a firearm should he need to do so. This may well save his
life someday. He will know that guns do not fire unless a person pulls the
trigger. He will know that gun owners are friendly, responsible people, not
very different from him. Even if he chooses not to fire a gun ever
again, he will be less likely to fear and persecute gun owners. And who knows - a few
months or years later he may decide to become a gun owner.

Why these techniques do not always work

You should remember that you will not be successful with all anti-gun
people. Some people are so terrified and have such strong defenses, that
it's not possible for someone without professional training to get through.
Some people have their minds made up and refuse to consider opening them.
Others may concede that what you say "makes sense," but are unwilling to
challenge the forces of political correctness. A few may have had traumatic
experiences with firearms from which they have not recovered.

You will also not be successful with the anti-gun ideologues, people like
Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein. These people have made a conscious
choice to oppose firearms ownership and self-defense. They almost always
gain power, prestige, and money from their anti-gun politics. They are not
interested in the facts or in saving lives. They know the facts and
understand the consequences of their actions, and will happily sacrifice
innocent people if it furthers their selfish agenda. Do not use these
techniques on such people. They only respond to fears of losing the power,
prestige and money that they covet.31

Conclusion

By better understanding advocates of civilian disarmament, and by learning
and practicing some simple techniques to deal with their psychological
defenses, you will be much more effective in your efforts to communicate
with anti-gun people. This will enable you to be more successful at
educating them about the realities of firearms and self- defense, and their
importance to our liberty and safety.

Educating others about firearms is hard work. It's not glamorous, and it
generally needs to be done one person at a time. But it's a very necessary
and important task. The average American supports freedom of speech and
freedom of religion, whether or not he chooses to exercise them. He supports
fair trials, whether or not he's ever been in a courtroom. He likewise needs
to understand that self- defense is an essential right, whether or not he
chooses to own or carry a gun.

Dr. Thompson is Executive Director of Utah Gun Owners Alliance,
www.utgoa.org and also writes The Righter, www.therighter.com, a monthly
column on individual rights.

Notes

1 Lott, John R., Jr. 1998. More Guns, Less Crime. University of Chicago
Press. Pp. 11-12; Proposition B: More Security Or Greater Danger?, St. Louis
Post-Dispatch. March 21, 1999.

2 Lott 1998, Pp. 1-2.

3 Kaplan, Harold M. and Sadock, Benjamin J. 1990. Pocket Handbook of
Clinical Psychiatry. Williams & Wilkins. P. 20.

4Brenner, Charles. 1973. An Elementary Textbook of Psychoanalysis (rev.
ed.). Anchor Books. Pp. 91-93; Lefton, Lester A. 1994. Psychology (5th
edition). Allyn & Bacon. Pp. 432-433.

5 Brenner 1973. P. 91.

6 Kaplan and Sadock 1990, p. 20; Lefton 1994, p. 432.

7 Talbott, John A., Robert E. Hales and Stuart C. Yudofsky, eds. 1988.
Textbook of Psychiatry. American Psychiatric Press. P.137.

8 "Kids Suspended for Playground Game." Associated Press. April 6, 2000.

9 Lightfoot, Liz. "Gun Return to the Nursery School Toy Chest." The London
Telegraph. May 22, 2000. Kaplan and Sadock 1990, p. 20; Lefton 1994, p. 433.

10 Stevens, Richard W. 1999. Dial 911 and Die. Mazel Freedom Press.
[Analyzes the law in 54 U.S. jurisdictions]; see, e.g., Bowers v. DeVito,
686 F.2d 616, 618 (7th Cir. 1982) [no federal constitutional right to police
protection.]

11 Kleck, Gary and Gertz, Marc. 1995. Armed Resistance to Crime: The
Prevalence and Nature of Self- Defense with a Gun. Journal of Criminal
Law &
Criminology. Vol. 86 (Fall), pp. 150-187.

12 Simkin, Jay, Zelman, Aaron, and Rice, Alan M. 1994. Lethal Laws. Jews for
the Preservation of Firearms Ownership.

13 Kaplan and Sadock 1990, p. 20; Lefton 1994, p. 433.

14 Brenner 1973, p. 85.

15 Veith, Gene Edward, Jr. 1993. Modern Fascism: Liquidating the
Judeo-Christian Worldview. Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing. Pp. 39-40
[fascism exalts nature, animals and environment].

16 Japenga, A. 1994. Would I Be Safer with a Gun? Health. March/April, p.
54.

17 Brenner 1973, p. 92.

18 Kaplan and Sadock 1990, p. 219.

19 American Psychiatric Association. 1994. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition. P. 410.

20 Lott 1998, pp. 11-12.

21 Most American gun owners are not violent criminals and will not be
potential killers. "The vast majority of persons involved in
life-threatening violence have a long criminal record and many prior
contacts with the justice system." Elliott, Delbert S. 1998. Life
Threatening Violence is Primarily a Crime Problem: A Focus on Prevention.
University of Colorado Law Review. Vol. 69 (Fall), pp. 1081-1098, at 1093.

22 Sowell, Thomas. 2000. Blacks and bootstraps. Jewish World Review
(Aug.14). http://www.jewishworldreview.com

23x Wein, Rabbi Berel. 2000. The return of a Torah scroll and confronting
painful memories. Jewish World Review (July 12).

24 Dworkin, Andrea. "Terror, Torture and Resistance".
http://www.igc.org/Womensnet/dworkin/TerrorTortureandResistance.html

25 Mfume, Kweisi, speech at the 90th annual NAACP meeting, July 12, 1999.
http://www.naacp.org/president/speeches/90th%20Annual%20Meeting.htm

26 Yoffie, Rabbi Eric H. Speech supporting the Million Mom March, May 14,
2000. http://uahc.org/yoffie/mmm.html

27 "If someone comes to kill you, arise quickly and kill him." The Talmud,
Tractate Sanhedrin. 1994. The Schottenstein Edition. New York: Mesorah
Publications. Vol. 2, 72a.

28 Rape and Sexual Assault, Dean of Students Office for Women's Resources
and Services McKinley Health Education Dept., University Police, University
of Illinois; Hazelwood, R. R. & Harpold, J. 1986. Rape: The Dangers of
Providing Confrontational Advice, FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. Vol. 55, pp.
1-5.

29 Lott 1998, pp. 78, 134-37.

30 Frank, Jerome D. 1961. Persuasion and Healing. The Johns Hopkins Press.
Pp. 216-217.

31 Richardson, H. L. 1998. Confrontational Politics. Gun Owners Foundation.
1

JPFO: Anti-Gun People Suffer 'Mental Condition' 106
U.S. Newswire
24 Oct 10:44
JPFO: Psychiatric Analysis Shows Anti-Gun People Suffer 'Mental
Condition'
To: National Desk
Contact: Aaron Zelman of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms
Ownership Inc., 800-869-1884;
e-mail: jpfo@execpc.com;
Website: http://www.jpfo.org

HARTFORD, Wis., Oct. 24 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following
was released today by Jews for the Preservation of Firearms
Ownership:

Irrationally fearing both their own feelings and the
motivations of their neighbors, many anti-gun people lapse into
psychological defense patterns. These patterns, according to
Sarah Thompson, M.D., lay the foundation of the anti-gun
mentality. Dr. Thompson, a psychiatrist and author, detailed
these observations in the Fall 2000 issue of the Bill of Rights
Sentinel, published by Jews for the Preservation of Firearms
Ownership (JPFO). "Defense mechanisms distort reality," notes
Dr. Thompson. "The common thread in anti-gun people is rage."

Dr. Thompson's article, entitled "Raging Against Self
Defense," explains that many people are terrified not only by
the risk of crime but also by their own angry feelings. To bury
these scary thoughts, some people project them onto other people
and inanimate objects. Beliefs that other people will attack
without warning, or that firearms are the cause of violence, are
two results of this emotional defense mechanism known as
"projection."

Another defense mechanism typical of the anti-gun mentality
is "denial." Because of their anxiety about helplessness and
vulnerability, some people flatly reject any facts that suggest
any need to protect themselves. "It can't happen here" is the
typical expression of denial.

Reacting to Dr. Thompson's findings, Aaron Zelman, executive
director of JPFO, noted: "It always seems strange that some
people actually oppose the right to self-defense. These
psychological insights help explain why some Americans can't
understand the right to keep and bear arms. They are suffering
from a mental condition." Hatred of guns and gun owners flares
up, Dr. Thompson finds, because anxious anti-gun people see the
very existence of firearms as proving self-defense is necessary.
Anti-gun people have psychologically denied the need for
self-defense, but firearms ownership shatters their illusion. So
they conclude that the gun owners must be the violent menace.
"Rosie O'Donnell proved the point," commented Zelman. "She said
she wanted all gun owners thrown in prison, regardless of
whether those owners committed any actual crime. That sort of
unthinking rage against responsible firearms ownership could
only come from someone with some kind of emotional problem."

Studies show that firearms are used well over 5,000 times per
day to stop or deter crimes. "You can't reasonably deny that
firearms save lives, " Zelman said. "You would have to be crazy
to want to make it harder for innocent people to protect
themselves."

Dr. Thompson's article is posted at http://www.jpfo.org.

KEYWORDS:

GUNS/FIREARMS

-0-
/U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/
10/24 10:44

--
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be
construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." --9th
Amendment to the United States Constitution.
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution,
nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States
respectively, or to the people." --10th Amendment to the United States
Constitution.