Teaching

Lawyers

If you believe in the 2^nd Amendment, whether you think of yourself as a teacher or not, you are one. Whether you are schooling a liberal politician with your vote or educating a random person with your behavior, you are a teacher. All gun rights activists have a responsibility to teach.

The same thing goes for your defense attorney, should you need one. Your attorney’s job is to communicate to or teach the jury about your innocence. No one in the courtroom, except you, was at the scene when a self-defense shooting went down. It is your attorney’s job to teach a group of 12 indifferent men and women, some who may not even want to be there, about what happened, and educate them on why you should be acquitted.

It is doubtful that you will be able to see your proposed attorney in action teaching before you select him or her. But it may be possible to sit in the gallery of a self-defense trial and see if the attorney will approach your defense in a similar way. If seeing the attorney in action beforehand is not possible, when you get to meet him or her for the first time, you can ask them how they approached a similar case. If the attorney answers you in a dull, monotonous way, that is how he or she will present your case. You want to see enthusiasm and pleasure in getting defendants acquittal verdicts.

Everyone remembers the stuttering attorney in “My Cousin Vinny”. The stuttering aside, his questioning of witnesses was in a dull and monotonous manner. And he was eventually fired after seeing Vinny’s enthusiastic courtroom antics.

Your defense attorney must fight fire with fire. The prosecution will introduce and wave the weapon around for the jury to see. They will show gory autopsy and crime scene photos to each jury member or display such photos on a large screen via PowerPoint for all to see. Your defense attorney must do the same.

Perhaps during your initial questioning of your prospective attorney, the attorney may not yet have all the facts and evidence, but the attorney may be able to describe exhibits from prior cases that might be relevant. In this explanation of previous trials, is the prospective attorney beginning to show enthusiasm about he or she can defend you?

Politicians

And there is no better method of teaching politicians than through lobbying, which is pure teaching. But don’t expect the teaching to be received if you come armed with righteous indignation of our 2^nd Amendment cause. Rather, approach the teaching from the point of view that you can provide what politicians need most…friends. Friends hold fundraisers, pass out literature, post signs, influence others, and most importantly…vote. Many politicians may care very little about our 2^nd Amendment rights. But they care very much about being re-elected.

In the case of many politicians, their secretaries control access to them. Any rude comment to the secretary raises a barrier to accessing the politician. Not to mention the secretary may immediately report your boorish behavior to the politician, further raising the barrier for you to teach the politician.

The politician needs to be taught a message of why he or she must support our cause. And it is equally important for the politician to respect the teacher. And that requires the teacher to dress like a politician. So, leave the camo and tactical gear at home and wear a suit and tie, or at the very least, a button-down long sleeve Oxford shirt and khaki slacks. For the politician to feel relaxed around you, you must dress like him or her.

Keep in mind that if you get the ear of the politician, it will usually be in a small room. Keep all potential distractions at bay. This includes the strong smell of aftershave, body odor, and the like. If the politician is on the opposite side of the issue than you, do not shout and yell to get your point across, as that tends to have the opposite effect where the politician begins to put up barriers between you and them.

Do not insult and abuse the politician, as threats against the politician rarely work. If each party is steadfast in their point of view, it is best to walk away from a disappointing meeting while still being able to communicate.

Everyone Else

Casual conversations are the best way to spread our 2^nd Amendment message. A gun owner wearing an NRA or USCCA shirt in an elevator has a very small class. But if the gun owner is also a jerk, those in the elevator will also believe the gun owner is a jerk. On the other hand, if the gun owner is polite, chances are those in the elevator will look upon the gun owner favorably.

Your goal is to make those around you comfortable, and in doing so, your message will be more apt to be received. To that end, I recently ordered a bunch of T-shirts from Amazon relating to gun instruction. One shirt reads “Dad…Husband…Firearms Instructor…Legend”. The other shirt reads “I’m A Dad & Firearms Instructor…Nothing Scares Me”. In both cases, I received compliments or smiles from strangers.” I wear these shirts when I go to the dentist, when I donate blood, when I get morning coffee at Wawa.