My question is, are we winning the "public sentiment" war? I worry that perhaps we are not."public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed. Consequently he who moulds public sentiment, goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be executed."
At least measured by permit holder statistics, the pro-2nd people are a small percentage of the population. And because governments inherently will never be in favor of allowing people independence of force, it's an orphan issue politically, only kept alive by a grass roots movement. The 'Pubs pay some lip service to it, but mostly it's supported (or not) by individual politicians. Against this we see an enormous, well-funded propaganda machine that plays to the fears of the hoplophobes. Hollywood, when not getting rich off violence porn, pushes the gun control message. In nearly every metropolitan area in the US, semi-public urban policy groups promote gun control as the answer to inner-city crime and violence. Banning guns is now presented as a public health issue- a supreme propaganda victory for the antis.
So far at least, the Pro-2nd long-term strategy seems to be "win 2nd Amendment battles, show guns aren't so bad, and eventually the people will come around". The passage of Shall Issue help debunk the "blood running in the streets" scenario promulgated by the antis. The willingness of pro-2nd people to rally and politically organize has given the politicians pause. But my guess is that there will always be a hardcore percentage of hoplophobes who will always fear and dislike guns, not matter how widely they're otherwise accepted. The war will be won by which side can get the broad middle on their team; 3% of the population never forced 97% to do anything. If it's just permit holders against everyone else, we'll lose.
What can we do to win the "public sentiment" war?
