Keep and Bear Arms

Pro-capping the News

Ya gotta interpret and report with your slant.

by Angel Shamaya
Director, KeepAndBearArms.com

Many news items that hit the press have in them the seeds of victory. This past weekend, I was given a few minutes to address a group at the Second Amendment Foundation's fantastic Gun Rights Policy Conference, and one thing I urged people to do was to alter anti-gun or neutral news to give it a pro-self-defense slant before reporting it to people within their spheres of influence.

That's what I do. For example...

In one report on the web today, we see a headline that says, "Gun Related Expulsions Down." In this news report, we are told that

"A report issued by the Education Department showed there were 3,523 expulsions of weapon-toting students in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and four U.S. territories in the 1998-99 school year. That figure is down 4 percent from 3,658 the previous school year. Some 46.6 million students attend U.S. public schools from kindergarten to 12th grade."

I like when they give us raw data. From their numbers, my take on this report follows:

"7/1000^ths of one percent of students in the entire nation and the governed federal territories were expelled for weapons in the 1998-1999 school year. Considering just how many gun owning families there are, this is quite a low number, actually. We should be happy that, by and large, our students are not turning to crime even though the Hollywood media is glorifying violence at every turn. The fact that 99.993% of our students are behaving so peacefully is truly invigorating, and we look forward to seeing that profoundly high number increase through means that both attack criminal activity while preserving the rights of free citizens."

Then there is the story about UK criminals using poisonous snakes to frighten subjects (can't quite call them citizens, can we?) into handing over their money.

But I guess we don't really need to rewrite that one. The UK folks have been handing pro-self-defense people in America plenty of ammo to support our cause, pretty much on a daily basis. Let's just be glad we don't have to use snakes to defend our homes and our lives. One can't help but wonder why the subjects in the UK have accepted such a fate, but I guess that is what they wanted for themselves and their society.

My primary reason for writing this brief note is to ask for people with a knack for writing and reporting to start culling the news and putting a pro-self-defense, pro-liberty, pro-RKBA, positive slant on what you find in the media. We will publish even short "reframing" articles where you turn an article upside down to get the positive side of the event known. It's time that we begin to take every anti-self-defense article apart at the seams and present it how we see it.

Stick your articles right here.

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Written By:	Angel Shamaya
	Pro-capping the News Ya gotta *interpret and report with your* slant.** by Angel Shamaya Director, KeepAndBearArms.com Many news items that hit the press have in them the seeds of victory. This past weekend, I was given a few minutes to address a group at the Second Amendment Foundation's fantastic Gun Rights Policy Conference, and one thing I urged people to do was to alter anti-gun or neutral news to give it a pro-self-defense slant before reporting it to people within their spheres of influence. That's what I do. For example... In one report on the web today, we see a headline that says, "Gun Related Expulsions Down." In this news report, we are told that "A report issued by the Education Department showed there were 3,523 expulsions of weapon-toting students in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and four U.S. territories in the 1998-99 school year. That figure is down 4 percent from 3,658 the previous school year. Some 46.6 million students attend U.S. public schools from kindergarten to 12th grade." I like when they give us raw data. From their numbers, my take on this report follows: "7/1000^ths of one percent of students in the entire nation and the governed federal territories were expelled for weapons in the 1998-1999 school year. Considering just how many gun owning families there are, this is quite a low number, actually. We should be happy that, by and large, our students are not turning to crime even though the Hollywood media is glorifying violence at every turn. The fact that 99.993% of our students are behaving so peacefully is truly invigorating, and we look forward to seeing that profoundly high number increase through means that both attack criminal activity while preserving the rights of free citizens." Then there is the story about UK criminals using poisonous snakes to frighten subjects (can't quite call them citizens, can we?) into handing over their money. But I guess we don't really need to rewrite that one. The UK folks have been handing pro-self-defense people in America plenty of ammo to support our cause, pretty much on a daily basis. Let's just be glad we don't have to use snakes to defend our homes and our lives. One can't help but wonder why the subjects in the UK have accepted such a fate, but I guess that is what they wanted for themselves and their society. My primary reason for writing this brief note is to ask for people with a knack for writing and reporting to start culling the news and putting a pro-self-defense, pro-liberty, pro-RKBA, positive slant on what you find in the media. We will publish even short "reframing" articles where you turn an article upside down to get the positive side of the event known. It's time that we begin to take every anti-self-defense article apart at the seams and present it how we see it. Stick your articles right here.