Help for new gun owners in Chicago?

[Maestro Pistolero]

I would love to see a really smart PR campaign to rehabilitate the image of gun-ownership in this country. Otis McDonald is a great symbol of a good-hearted citizen that just wants to protect his family. We could build on that in Chicago.

Since many of those inner city folks haven't grown up around guns, they really are going to need some help learning some good safety habits and skills. It would be great if they would let the NRA help. No one has more experience with safety training than they do. it might be an opportunity to do some good PR work, both for the right itself, the new gun owners that will emerge and for the NRA.

A commercial promoting the safety training could goes something like this:

Otis McDonald:

"You've made a big decision, you've decided to take responsibility for the safety of your loved ones, but you know that with your precious gun rights comes a lot of responsibility. You don't take this responsibility lightly, and neither do I. The NRA can help. Contact the NRA for information about free firearms safety instruction in your area"

[6114DAVE]

I like it!! Using Mr. Mcdonald is a great idea. However, would he be up to it?

[Maestro Pistolero]

Meh, what could it take to shoot a commercial? The guy's been on TV all week.

[grammaton76]

Problem is that TV stations tend to refuse to run pro-2A commercials. NRA doesn't NOT want to do TV commercials - the stations just won't sell them airtime.

Otis could appear in internet commercials and such though.

[Maestro Pistolero]

the stations just won't sell them airtime.

Wow, isn't there something illegal about that? Don't they sell time to the Brady Campaign?

[the_quark]

Wow, isn't there something illegal about that? Don't they sell time to the Brady Campaign?

They're private entities that can sell their time how they see fit, at whatever price they set. The Fairness Doctrine has been (thankfully) dead since 1987. There's still an "equal time" rule, but it has to do with candidates running for office, only - you can't sell Alice air time, and not her opponent, Bob. But, for general political (or other) advertising, there's no obligation to take advertising from both sides.

[dantodd]

Perhaps a series of posters etc. on bus stop shelters. I'm pretty sure they're owned by a public entity and as such couldn't choose to deny messages with which they disagree.

[FastFinger]

There are plenty of alternate channels to get out the message.

It seems like http://www.illinoiscarry.com/ is active, but so is the city:

Park District Balks at Gun-Rights Group Meeting
Posted by Mick Dumke on Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 10:00 AM

Gerald Vernon says he did everything he should have to obtain a permit to hold a meeting at the Tuley Park field house on the south side. He told the park supervisor he expected 150 to 200 people to attend, filled out the paperwork she gave him, paid a $100 fee, and walked away thinking he'd reserved a meeting room for the evening of June 30. The group that would be convening was Illinois Carry, an organization advocating for the right to bear concealed firearms.

But on Wednesday, a week before the scheduled date of the event, he got a call telling him his permit had been revoked.

Vernon says a Tuley Park official informed him he has to submit a new permit application that will be reviewed before he gets approval for the meeting. But when I contacted the park and asked about it, I was told the event had been canceled altogether.

Says Vernon: "This just sounds a whole lot like Daley's bull****."

Vernon has reasons for sounding impertinent. Mayor Daley's view of guns, gun manufacturers, gun-rights advocates, and people who ask questions about his views of same are well established: he doesn't like them, he doesn't want to hear from them, and he blames them for causing the violence in the streets. Other top city officials, including the police chief and leading aldermen, follow his lead.

In recent weeks the mayor has repeatedly dodged questions about the city's ban on handguns, which the Supreme Court is expected to strike down before the end of the month.

At the same time, Chicago has been in the throes of the annual surge in violence that arrives with warm weather. Some of the most highly publicized recent incidents, including the slaying of a police officer last month, occurred in the Chatham neighborhood near Tuley Park.

"People want the ability to defend themselves and Daley won't let them," Vernon says. "And last weekend we had more than 50 shootings!"

Vernon, a south-sider who teaches at Northeastern Illinois University's Center for Inner City Studies, says he's been in favor of conceal-and-carry laws for years but became more active in the issue after his girlfriend was robbed last year.

The organization has been holding public meetings across the state to discuss its support for gun ownership rights. "We worked our way into Cook County and held a meeting in Lansing with the whole intention of doing them in Chicago," says Valinda Rowe, a spokeswoman for the group. "Where we decide to go is based on feedback. We've been hearing from people in that neighborhood [Chatham], especially after the tragic death of the young police officer—people were saying, 'We need to have this conversation here. We need to be able to protect ourselves.'"

"We wanted to have the event in Chatham as a result of Officer Wortham being killed there and the publicity generated by it," Vernon says.

He says the group figured the best place to hold it would be in a meeting room in the Tuley Park field house, so three weeks ago he went there and told park supervisor Donna Jones what he wanted. "Miss Jones was very helpful," he says. He got a receipt for his payment and thought everything was good to go—until Jones called him on Wednesday to say his original permit had been "rescinded." He'd need to fill out another set of paperwork to apply for a special events permit.

"She said it could be another two weeks and then a committee would review it," Vernon says.

As luck and poor planning would have it, I went to the Tuley Park field house myself Wednesday night. I'd heard about the meeting at a City Council hearing last week, but I mistakenly thought it was scheduled for the 23rd instead of the 30th. Jones let me know that I was a week early—and more important, that the event had been scotched altogether. "It's not going to happen here," she told me.

I asked if she knew why and she said she wasn't sure. "I just recycled their flyers," she said. She walked over to the recycling bin and fished one out. The rest of them remained in the can.

When I reached Rowe she sounded surprised that I'd been told the event was off. She said all she knew was that there had been a "glitch" in the permitting process. "Threw flyers in the bin already! Sounds like she's pretty sure it's not going to happen at Tuley!" Rowe said her group was working on a "plan B" but asked if I had any suggestions. (I didn't.)

I got back in touch with Jones. She was certain there would be no gun-rights meeting at Tuley next week. She said Park District officials had decided that the Tuley Park meeting room couldn't accommodate Illinois Carry, but she wouldn't say who specifically had given her the orders. "You would have to call the marketing director," she said, meaning the Park District press flack downtown.

I got Park District spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner on the phone. She said she didn't know anything about the situation but would look into it and get back to me. So far she hasn't.

UPDATE: I first heard about the planned town hall meeting when Sixth Ward alderman Freddrenna Lyle groaned about it during a City Council hearing. But when I followed up with her Friday, she said she had nothing to do with the decision to yank the permit. "I have never spoken to anyone about this," she says.

Tuley Park is in Lyle's ward. Lyle is a strong backer of gun control but said Illinois Carry should be allowed to hold its meeting. "They want to go into a community touched by the violence because it's an easier sell," she says. "But those people have a right to meet and it's up to us who disagree with them to show up and make another argument."

[dantodd]

Does anyone know if any of the big billboard management companies are gun-friendly? I wonder if there are any friendly businesses that have their own billboards on private property. I'm sure there's a way.

Of course, you could bring the issue up in an anti-Daley political ad.

"Help oust Richard Daley, he's disarmed law abiding Chicagoans for too long. We've restored your gun rights and now we need your help to remove Daley from office. Call 1-800-XXX-XXXX to find out how we can help you can exercise your right to a firearm and how you can help us get Daley out of office."

[7x57]

Of course, you could bring the issue up in an anti-Daley political ad.

You could also, technically, run political ads against Louis XIV as well. With the same result, I think.

7x57

[dantodd]

You could also, technically, run political ads against Louis XIV as well. With the same result, I think.

7x57

My point is that I am pretty sure TV and radio stations must accept political ads. Not sure if that would apply to ads against Dead French Monarchs (doesn't quite have the same ring as The Dead Kennedys)

[FieldsofFire]

Problem is that TV stations tend to refuse to run pro-2A commercials. NRA doesn't NOT want to do TV commercials - the stations just won't sell them airtime.

Otis could appear in internet commercials and such though.

Especially not here in California, and not with the people running the majority of news/TV stations here. Every news piece put together even remotely relating to firearms portrays gun owners in a violent and negative light. It would be really hard to get some pro-gun material on some of these stations.

[dantodd]

Speaking of firearms related ads has anyone noticed the new Jeep ad? They go through a list of "American Made Items" and one of them is Colt Revolvers.

[the_quark]

My point is that I am pretty sure TV and radio stations must accept political ads. Not sure if that would apply to ads against Dead French Monarchs (doesn't quite have the same ring as The Dead Kennedys)

Not true. The only regulation still extant is the "equal time rule", which says if you offer one qualified candidate in a race time (for free or by accepting ads) you also have to offer his opponent(s) the same amount of time under the same terms.