By Kit Perez
Every time some jackass decides he needs to go shoot a bunch of people for whatever reason, the rest of us are subjected to the 24-7 news coverage about how guns are bad, mmmkay? People who have never held a gun and couldn’t tell you the difference between an AR-15 and a 1911 are suddenly experts, their perfectly coiffed heads bobbing predictably as they spout the talking points about how guns are evil, gun owners are evil, and we need to just Take All The Guns because No One Needs Them and They Are Killing Machines and Holy Balls, Martha, It Might Kill Us All By Itself.
Predictably, gun owners often respond with some rhetoric of their own, usually something about cold, dead hands and whatnot. Gun owners aren’t stupid, we yell. We aren’t evil. We are regular folks! We are PATRIOTS! The memes come out too, don’t they? I’ve seen so many memes with the word “sheepdog” in them on Facebook in the last 24 hours that I thought perhaps the AKC hijacked my feed. I’ve even seen some posts that are such skillfully constructed guilt trips they put my mother to shame. I know you’ve seen them. “I have my gun and you want to take it from me but at least I CARE ABOUT YOUR RIGHTS, EVEN THOUGH YOU OBVIOUSLY DON’T.”
We have a right to be angry. The vast majority of us are safe; we train with our weapons, we understand the moral and legal implications that come with pulling our gun if we choose to carry it or own it. We are emotionally stable, we are not mentally ill; we are not, as the media would have you believe, raving lunatics just wandering around waiting for the day that the mall has enough people in it to have some fun with. In fact, we’d be the people who would stop such an act, if we could—even at the cost of our own lives. That’s what we sign up for when we agree to carry a gun in our everyday lives. We agree to protect those around us, and to train so that we are as effective as possible at doing it. Somehow, though, we always get painted with the same brush as the murdering psycho, and that makes us mad. Rightfully so.
There’s just one problem. There ARE stupid gun owners. There ARE idiots who own guns.
Don’t get me wrong: I am all about the exercise of the right to carry a firearm. I carry, my husband carries, and most of the people I know carry. I am against firearm restrictions and against the so-called “common sense” gun control. I believe, in fact, that firearm ownership and use as both a self-defense tool and especially a government-limiting tool is not something that is only our right as Americans, I believe it’s our right as human beings. We have the right to defend ourselves; to survive and to be free. Guns, like it or not, help make that possible.
All of that being said, I also believe as gun owners that we need to police our own. If you’re on a range and you see someone acting like an unsafe moron, you call them out. (You DO call them out, right?) It’s no different anywhere else.
Perhaps even more important than policing each other is policing ourselves. We are all human, we all get a bit stupid at times. But we’re also adults, and whether we want to admit it or not, we represent gun owners when we carry, when we go to the range, even when we’re on Facebook speaking as a gun owner. We are ambassadors, so to speak, to the public about gun ownership and what it means to own weapons–and we don’t have to shoot anyone to help along the stereotype.
As veterans or even patriot civilians, we tend to be a bit rough sometimes. We’re used to being mocked and attacked and even persecuted for what we believe and are willing to stand for, and we end up having The Attitude. You know what that is. It’s the thing that causes you to wear your “I’m the Infidel Your Imam Warned You About” shirt to the local 7-11 ONLY because you know it’s owned by Muslims. It’s the thing that causes you to post a series of memes that effectively say “You are a worthless human being because you don’t own guns and I will end up having to save your worthless rear” on your sister’s Facebook page because she’s scared to have guns in the house with her kids. It’s the thing that causes you to openly carry the biggest handgun you own, in a hugely flashy holster, ONLY because you like to walk into places that don’t allow guns and make a loud stink about taking your business elsewhere. In short, you like to poke the dragon, only because it’s fun.
There’s another truth to be seen here. We can hurt our own cause. No one likes to talk about that, and people who bring it up tend to get mauled by the mob and accused of “bootlicking,” but set your feelings aside for a moment and think logically. It’s not about rights or anything else, it’s about understanding the space you are working in and operating effectively.
1. We need public support. We need people to see us as the good guys, because we are. We need people to not only understand that we are not a threat to them, but to want to join us.
2. Every member of the public that we can ‘convert’ to being a trained gun owner is a) one less victim, b) one less slave, c) one more potential ally.
3. Every trained gun owner who chooses to act responsibly, maturely, and with grace and class has the potential to create MORE trained gun owners who act responsibly, maturely, and with grace and class.
See where I’m going here? 
Am I telling you to curtail your rights? Of course not. Exercise them or lose them! Am I telling you to stop open carrying? Absolutely not. However, we can all benefit from a bit more self-discipline when it comes to how we act as gun owners whether we are carrying in public or not.
Rather than jumping on a social media thread to rant and rave against anyone talking about gun control, maybe stay off the crazy threads where nothing gets accomplished except propaganda for the other side. Put your energy into working in your local community to help dispel some of those incorrect notions. Instead of pouring out all your expletive-laden frustration at your TV, get some of your buddies together and do some community service while carrying. If you do carry openly, remember that the gun on your hip draws attention, and your conduct does and will affect how people view others who carry as well.
Let people see you and your fellow gun owners doing good things in your neighborhoods and communities. You need them to see you as the good guy. So be that guy.
We can’t stop the media from painting us as crazy. We can’t stop the President himself from talking about gun control at every opportunity. We can’t stop some folks from believing that no one should have guns. We can’t even stop every episode of gun violence, even though we’d like to. What we CAN do, however, is make sure that we aren’t enjoying the stereotype a bit too much and furthering it every chance we get. We can ensure that the people around us, in our neighborhoods and our communities, are given a chance to see us for what we really are: mature, responsible people who are willing to give our own lives in the defense of others, who are willing to teach, to mentor, to help pass on that mindset and those skills to empower others for both their own defense, and for the greater cause of liberty.