I see. Thank you for the lengthy response to explain. Excellent points made. I appreciate you taking the time to enlighten me.
And yes, i agree completely. Too many want to stay in silos. Missing out on huge opportunities. Like the Bell Canada #letstalk campaign using that Olympian as a promoter. Another missed opportunity.
Collection of reliable data for Stats Canada to process and report on.
But then you also have now the Safety Minister speaking in contradiction to reports completed by his department....(the 2003 and 2018 reports)
"Missing out on huge opportunities" - you picked up on a critical point!!!
If we could have a change in strategy, you look outward from your silo and all you see are new horizons (opportunities). Carefully chosen opportunities that do the most good for others AND shine the most positive light on us suddenly appear.
The Bell initiative on mental health is definitely one of them and since we would be the new kids on the social scene there may be money to be had which NGOs cannot easily access. I communicated with a major suicide prevention NGO here in Canada just last week and they appear to have guarded interest in working with the gun community but don't have enough money.
For my own part I volunteer for Junior Achievement at local schools to deliver modules on the business world. To do so I go to the local RCMP detachment for a criminal record check, present my drivers' licence and RPAL for ID, get fingerprinted, get my clearance letter and off I go to teach for an organization that was nominated for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.
The RCMP staff are impressed that a gunnies takes the time, the teachers appreciate the effort and I can stand with a JA rep for a photo op. Plus teaching the little ones is great fun so it's all good.
Or a couple of summers ago I used our boat to haul around the camera crew for an annual event that introduces people with disabilities to fishing and boats - some of them have never done either. These people are with their parents and most of us who volunteered are hunters as well as fishermen so here we are mixing with the public, spreading the good word about "sportsmen", seeing the smiles on the people having the time of their lives and enjoying a day on the water.
During the pandemic we could have organized to deliver groceries and medicine to seniors, call shut-ins to check in on their well being or any number of unique volunteer opportunities to help people and get our name out there.
With housing being so topical now I'm wondering how to get us involved in Habitat for Humanity and maybe getting someone for HGTV involved as a frontman for us - like Bryan B? But what's the use when nobody in the gun community is interested? They'd rather post over and over how nasty the Liberals are .............
You mention "Collection of reliable data for Stats Canada to process and report on." We have Mauser, Lott and our own Rangebob who are encyclopedias of knowledge and information sufficient to expose Mendicino as a patent liar but our people do not yet have a public platform to do that. We need to get noticed, we need to establish credibility and we need to get the facts out at a teachable moment where people like these three would shine.
But again, there's no interest to prepare the public's mind by tuning in on their frequency.
Here's what we did 25 years ago, nothing different than today: Fed Up II rally
https://www.producer.com/news/antigun-control-movement-plans-parliament-hill-rally/
Here's an article about our opportunity for outreach: Loving communities
https://www.producer.com/farmliving/caring-communities-would-help-make-gun-laws-irrelevant/
Thanks for your interest. The future of guns in Canada will be up to you. This generation lost too much because of fossilized thinking.