You are working hard, already with way too much on your plate, and your local Municipal Marxist makes a motion to pass yet another ordinance restricting your right to carry a gun. You note the time for the public hearing and comments (inconvenient to all but the unemployed) but feel compelled this time to rise to the occasion and see what you can do about it. After all, community activism apparently pays off!
Your gut tightens when you think about getting up to speak. Or, maybe you are one of those people whose gut should tighten at the prospect of crystallizing previously random thoughts into some form of logical, persuasive argument—but they don’t worry about it. They just get up and talk.
You’ll just show up and let everybody else do the talking. No, can’t do that. What if everybody did? You determine that you will, indeed, rise to your feet, grip the podium and hold forth before the governing body. Oh, boy!
What must you know about persuading them? As a lawyer, I’ve learned that lines I thought were great—maybe even of Shakespearian impact—fell flat and the jury decided the case on some little occurrence at trial that I thought was insignificant or even silly. I’ve also learned that we can talk all the reason and law we want and it’s how people feel about it that governs the outcome. That’s not necessarily bad; people’s feelings are comprised in part of their lifelong experiences. It’s just that their feelings are not so apparent. Take your planned Council or Board appearance; they and the opposition will all be talking facts, bullet points, law and practical application of the proposed ordinance. But, what is really going to govern the outcome has little to do with all of that. On the surface, reasoning is happening but, underneath, emotion roils and rules.
So, here are 13 tips that you must know before you prepare your brilliant remarks, one tip at a time.
Tip Number 1) Your mission is to reduce their fear–keep your mission in the forefront of your planning and your words. If loathing of firearms and fear of people who carry firearms motivates anti-gun votes, your mission is to reduce their fears.
Wait a minute! You thought you were taking the floor to make all of the brilliant arguments that strike chords deep within you. Constitutional stuff. Bumper sticker stuff. The stuff we high-five each other over.
You can mouth that stuff but it won’t work. You must know your target audience and define your mission. Please hear this again: Your mission is to calm their fear of expanding the right to keep and bear arms. If you make your mission to change their reasoned conclusions, you will appeal to their reason and you will fail. If they were reasoning, they’d already be on your side, right? Their minds are already made up. Oh, everyone pretends to keep an open mind but at the end of the night, you will probably not persuade anyone there with your arguments. Your own side on the governing body is already for you; they just want to end the night not embarrassed about you. The other side–well, how are you going to change their lifelong worldview applied to firearms in the few minutes allotted to you? You probably won’t, but your appearance and words–done right–shake that hostile worldview just a bit.
Is it really that bad? Yes, but, maybe, just maybe a few have greater respect for the law than they have fear of armed citizens. Maybe you can sway one key vote. Maybe you prepare one member to back off or compromise in a future round of voting. Maybe you impress the audience and cause the opposition to sit back a bit to actually think. Maybe fewer of them show up to fight against you during the next round. Probably not but it’s worth a try. If you don’t show up and push back they will do what they want with your cherished right to keep and bear arms. (Psst: It helps if 200 others show up with you. That creates some fear you can use but we’ll talk about that down below here.)
So, what practical purpose will your speech-making serve? Keep following this thread and I’ll elaborate.
Next tip: Citing the Second Amendment
