Thread by @dandcaldwell

David supports red-flag laws and banning open-carry, which would make it harder to defend your family and property. His issue is increasingly with gun rights, not “gun idolatry”.

However conservative gun culture needs to change, just not in the ways David wants. More in 🧵👇

https://twitter.com/davidafrench/status/1650135454400782337

Conservative gun owners should not just simply be armed citizens, but should strive to be EFFECTIVE armed citizens who can defend themselves and their families without support from an increasingly hostile and incompetent security state.

The current moment requires nothing less.

What do I mean by “effective armed citizen”?

First and foremost, you must be able to effectively employ your firearms. This means regular training and knowing the capabilities of your weapons.

Regular dry/live fire is an absolute must. Set standards and train towards them (ex: draw from holster and put a round on target at 7 yards in under 1.5 seconds).

Know your zeroes, holds, max effective ranges, and mechanical offsets for each one of your guns.

There is a ton of good firearms knowledge on YouTube and other platforms. Companies like @TREXARMSKYDEX have posted whole classes online. There are a plethora of good training companies now (ex: @Green_Ops_Inc) that offer courses at reasonable prices.

No excuse not to train!

Know your local gun laws inside and out. Know when to shoot and not to shoot. If God forbid you have to use your weapon in a self-defense situation, remember the cops and local DA aren’t automatically your friends, even if you are in a conservative community. Get a lawyer!

If you buy a gun and don’t also buy equipment that will enable you to effectively employ that gun, you may as well have just bought a brick.

For example if you bought an AR-15 but no sling/weapon light, your new rifle you probably dropped $1k+ on is practically worthless.

Don’t waste $ on Gucci gear that you don’t know how to use or which limits your training budget. If you can afford things like body armor, actually train with it.

Who cares if someone makes fun of you at the range? They can’t laugh when they are dying from a sucking chest wound!

Beyond establishing a better gun training culture, conservatives also need to jettison some outdated mental models around encouraging gun ownership among other groups, particularly those on the political Left.

Conservatives should oppose all new gun laws because they will be primarily weaponized against them by the security state - FBI, ATF, etc.

But they should no longer applaud gun ownership among groups who are at best hostile to their values and at worst want to exterminate them.

I and many other conservatives use to embrace the idea that the more individuals on the Left who owned guns the better because that would help strengthen overall levels of support for gun rights. It seemed to make sense on a surface level, at least prior to 2020.

But groups like Rainbow Reload, the black nationalist NFAC and the Marxist Redneck Revolt don’t care about the Constitution or the 2nd Amendment. They want to destroy our institutions, our culture, and even the nuclear family. They are not allies on anything - even on gun rights.

.@TuckerCarlson did a great segment on this issue a few weeks ago that is worth watching: foxnews.com/opinion/tucker…

So what should be done about this? Just like many gun manufacturing or training companies won’t do business with the ATF or FBI, conservative gun companies shouldn’t do business with these groups. Don’t host them at training facilities, sell them guns, ammo, or gear, etc.

If a gun company wants to prioritize short-term profit over the long-term interests of the largely conservative gun community, then they should be boycotted and shunned. This tactic has been effectively used against companies that have gotten weak-knee’d around new gun laws.

I think @LucasBotkin has articulated his approach to this issue as an owner of gear company very well and would encourage others to watch some of his IG videos on this topic.

Finally, shooting is fun and a great way to build community! I have brought probably over a dozen of my colleagues to the range over the last year and helped some of them buy their first guns. If you have the knowledge, skills, and capacity to train other others, do it!