From: Neil Francis, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Let's look for a minute at conventions. If a bunch of rather sad UK
>sciernce fiction fans can hold multiple ( and highly sucessfull )
>conventions throughout the country
So what is the difference between rather sad science fiction fans and
rather sad shooting fans then?
Well - the public look upon the former as harmless overgrown kids with a
kind of fondness. And of course empathy as the vast majority of us were or
are actually closet SF fans but don't have the bottle to admit it. They
look on the latter as half baked fantasists who are only just tolerated as
long as they stay behind their range fences and keep out of sight & mind.
Was Press and PR mentioned in the same paragraph as discussing self defence
(obviously with guns as that is the convention theme) and archaic documents
as The Magna Carta, Bill of Rights and Blackstone? Does anyone think that
this will help move the public's perception of shooters into the fondness
and tolerance of the SF camp?
PR is a very relevant issue with shooting. Most of the time I was just
convinced that shooters were just ignorant of the way the vast majority of
the public viewed them - therefore continued to act in the same way to
their own detriment. Lately I have come to think that it is not this but
they are actually ignorant of being ignorant of how the public view them.
The problem is abstracted to a higher level and is therefore harder to solve.
Is anyone aware how the UK public perceive shooters and shooting? Doesn't
anybody think that holding a gun rights convention and having an agenda
item of self defence will be perceived negatively by the UK public?
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Neil Francis
Trowbridge, UK
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[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Which is why I said don't invite the press. GCN can whinge on
about it and so on, but if you refuse to talk to the press there
is little they can report. Having a convention is not for the
benefit of the press or public relations. It is rather how
to tackle various issues, including I would think the press
and public relations. The one in the US that Stuary was
talking about likewise didn't have some sort of massive
press conference at the end, and neither do the MMM conventions
in the US either.
I have to say quite honestly that while I understand the concerns
of people about self-defence (you only have to go to the website),
I don't think it will cut any ice with the majority of the shooting
public. If someone wants to give a presentation on it, I see
no reason not to do so, but as I said before people who shoot
centrefire rifles are a tiny minority of the shooting public, so
on that basis an even smaller minority of shooters aren't going
to get very far. I'm sorry, but that is the political reality
at the moment. And I'd be more than happy to do the presentation,
BTW, I'm just not under any illusions about the impact of it.
Steve.
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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