We need to reach out to our fellow Americans and help them understand the difference between fact and emotion as it pertains to guns. It is not now, nor has it ever been, enough to preach to the choir.
No doubt. I'm open to suggestions on how this can be done.
6 comments:
Get on the tube. TV. People will not read, most will not listen to the radio, and anyone that reads the paper is usually over 50 and will not change their minds about anything. Either ads, 30 second spots maximum, or a show. I don't mean an outdoor show, those snooze fests of mackinaw and overdone whisperings of Mr. Obvious. A part of a show, like an addendum. Something with snap, quick and visceral, with a handsome hunk and an appealing femme. A house being broken into. Instead of ADT, and running and cringing with the kids by the phone(retch inserted here), a take- charge- kind- of- todays' woman lays an obviously repulsive goblin out full length with a shiny .380, or mebbe a stylishly shown .45. Then she turns to the camera and says, "Senators Schummer and Clinton think he should have his way, not me", while gesturing to the prone goblin. Voice over with graphic of these words end short with, Gun grabbers think a woman raped and strangled in her own home is better than one standing over the criminals body explaining to the police what happened. Maybe a little Dragnet music. Whadya think?
It will take an aggressive ad campaign, and a change to television programming. CSI, Law and Order, and other shows have become decidedly anti gun (except for the "only ones"). That takes a heck of a lot of cash. Oleg already has still images that can be used in magazines and news papers, just need the organization to pay for the advertising space.
What is inexpensive, is to take a non shooter out to the range. I have never seen someone put a hole in the center of a target that was not smiling afterwards.
Sean--we tried a mass media campaign with Citizens of America--professionally produced radio spots that played in every state of the union--with the intent to spread into TV once the necessary $$$ came in--but gun owners would not support it. TV is tremendously expensive--you would need to target via cable for select markets to get the most bang for the buck, but that all presupposes an organization with the skills sets and integrity, and the financing.
JR is right in terms of each of us becoming an ambassador--but that presupposes each of us does the hard work needed to know the subject matter and conduct ourselves as leaders--again, most gun owners have proven time and again that when it comes to doing something, they prefer to "let George do it."
I set my goal of teaching as many new shooters each year as I could in 2000, and so far, I got about 20. I continue that effort. I believe the costs of doing effective ads is not so much, but buying the TV time is the expensive part,Ya? Half to million per, with repeats at 50 large per, off prime time, with prime being 200,000 and up, especially for high prime time. So, for one week of effective propaganda, we're talking 7.5 to 10 million. That's 1 dollar from 10 million gun owners. Pay the piper, $1.10 from each gun owner. Pay the pipers' expenses and actors and film and camera work and yadda yadda yadda, $2.00 yankee money per gun owner. Call it project Duh! Possible?
Not if you're relying on 98% of gun owners to actually step up to the plate and do something besides whine.
Sorry to sound so cynical--years of bitter experience with numerous projects frustrated by apathy will do that to you...
I'm in the FX biz, and would be plenty happy to make some ads or help out for free. I got folks with cameras, and you can find actors and actresses begging to be in something. They're so desperate to work you could probably find a friendly and get the thing done for literally next to nothing.
as you said, the hard part is the money to run it. Hell, for the money involved, you'd be better off submitting to the small film fests, the self distributed movies, and if you were to make it nice and emotional you'd probably have better luck.
I have a feeling that with the handful of owners of media in this country you'd never get it on any TV, even with the money to do so.
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