What we're up against-comments from Delaware "Liberals"

[Cbmarine]

Here's a summary of a later section of Raging Against Self Defense

Communicating with anti-gun people
- Anger and attacks don't work
- Be gentle
- The Mirror Technique: "So you fear if your neighbors had guns, they would use them to murder you. What makes you think that?"
- "What would you do" Technique:
- "You are there" Technique: present a scenario, i.e., wife getting raped. Wait for the cops?
- The power of empathy
- Corrective Experiences
-- 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.
- First hand experience: take them to the range

[fdegree]

..........
- First hand experience: take them to the range

I have to say, I think this is a wonderful approach...if you can convince them to go.  Plus, all of the instruction must be done in a calm, relaxing, non-threatening, non-aggressive manner, with humor injected on occasion, while using a small caliber, simple to use gun.  Not all instructors have the patience and personality for this level of teaching.

My Story:
I was never anti-gun...in the sense that no one should own guns.  But, I had absolutely no personal interest in guns at all.  Then, one day, I found myself on a range, with a NRA instructor, showing me handgun safety, and how to shoot.  He only allowed me to shoot a .22 revolver, the entire time we were on the range.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and purchased my first handgun within 2 months of that lesson.

[Tandem]

"Take them to the range" has been the most effective strategy for me in convincing people that guns are a tool - a fun tool - and that law-abiding owners take safety VERY seriously.  I don't know a single CCDW carrier that is not more conscious of avoiding conflicts, rather than more likely to enter them.

[Moosie]

"I don't know a single CCDW carrier that is not more conscious of avoiding conflicts, rather than more likely to enter them.

Precisely!!! I wish more people understood this. Carrying doesn't mean we're out there to play police officer, or super hero. It's just as you said. We try to avoid conflicts.

Moosie

[robberbaron]

If anything, since I started carrying, I actually go out of my way to avoid an incident. I even left the waiting room at Sears when a dissatisfied customer quickly escalated a confrontation with the service manager. I didn't know what he was capable of and had no intention to find out.

[EricF1983]

Here's a summary of a later section of Raging Against Self Defense

Communicating with anti-gun people
- Anger and attacks don't work
- Be gentle
- The Mirror Technique: "So you fear if your neighbors had guns, they would use them to murder you. What makes you think that?"
- "What would you do" Technique:
- "You are there" Technique: present a scenario, i.e., wife getting raped. Wait for the cops?
- The power of empathy
- Corrective Experiences
-- 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.
- First hand experience: take them to the range

In my personal experience this does work, or at least it did once. A few weeks ago I was talking to someone at work and the topic of guns came up. I told him that I was gun owner, reloader, etc. He was almost totally anti-gun, ok with bolt action rifles for hunting and that was about it.
We go into a very friendly but deep debate and I pretty much went over all those points you made. I had 3 personal experiences that I shared. The first, we were victims of a home invasion about 5 years ago, guy was armed but fled. I wasn't armed so I got lucky. Took the police almost 30 minutes to arrive.
Second, a friend of ours called the police while 4 guys were outside attempting to break in, county PD took just about 15 minutes to get there. Fortunately the perps were still trying to get in when the cops got there so they were caught.
And third, one day we accidentally set off our alarm on a Saturday morning around 8:15am, alarm company never called us and the police showed up at 11:30....
I also asked why he was all of a sudden scared of me even though he never had been in the past. Turns out, he wasn't scared of me after all!

Last week he came up to me and asked again about guns. I explained that I didn't want to debate at the moment then he "admitted" almost shamefuly that he'd gone out to the range, shot for the first time, and bought a Smith and Wesson .38 about a week after our conversation. We've talked a bit about other gun related topics, he's now showing an interest in reloading.
One of the points that he made was that seeing news reports makes the incident feel far from home but hearing an account first person from someone he knew made the event seem more realistic.

[Clarence]

Great story Eric.   The one on one personal touch with an anti gunner that knows you and respects you is such a great way to bring people around.

Most anti gunners are just misinformed and really have only thought about the negative aspects of gun ownership. 

Good for you!!