What Americans need to hear
I’m going to be painfully blunt.
- Don’t get cocky about the Second Amendment. It is a towering advantage, but it is not a force field. We’ve already seen prosecutors and judges try to “work around” Heller and Bruen. The Canadian path – ledger, freeze, prohibit, compensate, criminalize – can be translated into American bureaucrat-ese. Some states, like California, Colorado, and New York, are already trying.
- Stop thinking of politics as a season. Politics is a calendar you live by, not a holiday you visit. If a lawmaker takes a bad vote in March and you wait until October to get mad, you’ve already lost. The moment a politician hurts you via a record vote, you start building the case to make them feel it—mail, text, digital, earned media, door hangers, the full stack. Don’t wait until the next election. Make them feel the political pain now.
- Organize like an adult. I love the guy who shoots 3,000 rounds a month. Frankly, I am that guy some months. But volume of ammo fired isn’t volume of pressure, nor is it really even helpful to the fight for our Second Amendment freedoms. Join, volunteer, donate money and time, collect names, and get your people trained on how to move votes. Lone wolves burn out. Packs win.
- Refuse the divide-and-conquer trap. I loved it when Rob and I discussed this: If you hunt, fight for the pistol competitor. If you carry, fight for the skeet shooter. The attempt to separate “acceptable” from “unacceptable” gun owners is the oldest trick in the playbook. Don’t fall for it. If you won’t stand for the guy with the AR, don’t act surprised when they come for your lever gun later.
- Learn the language of consequences. Politicians don’t learn from lectures; they learn from losses. Making a bad vote costs them time, money, sleep, and maybe even the seat.
By Taylor Rhodes
