Marketing CCW/OC & firearm rights to the masses

[Yellowfin]

Something hit me when I woke up this morning, one of those sudden epiphany ideas from out of nowhere. Can the pro 2A movement use fashion?

Soon enough we as the gun rights movement will make bigger strides into reintegrating with pop culture. We MUST if we are to win. That's not optional, that's not hypothetical, that's an absolute flat out reality. We just lost a national election to an opposition that communicates through the lines of pop culture to reach the vast majority of the population. To fight off the encroachments of the anti gun movement, we need to market gun ownership and daily carry to the people who think we're just weekend hobbyists--to whom in their minds, and to our detriment at the ballot box, that the 2nd Amendment is largely irrelevent to them and to modern society, at very least for 70% of the population and 5 to 6 days a week. We can't win in the long run being the small minority that gets lucky just often enough. We have to be in the business of growing our ranks, eventually with the goal of making more of us than there are of our enemies.

Thus as now we have the problem of communicating our ideas, defending our rights before a culture unaware, uninvolved, and unused to it yet have it before them plainly to see as we promote it. We have open arms (in several senses) for them, but then as now have a considerable gap in marketing to them vs. to us who are already on board. I haven't seen many if any gun and gun organization ads in non-gun/outdoors magazines, but you know sooner or later we're going to need to have that happen. Rather than Ruger and Smith and Wesson competing against each other for the same market, shouldn't they be competing for dollars not currently spent on either?

Currently new firearms owners get into it by word of mouth or stumbling onto it blindly. We have a problem of cultural isolation to some degree or another. But what if that were to be broken? Would it be possible to get brand names everyday average people recognize into the works? I was reading on another site that Virginia may rule that concealed carry on campus might not be legally protected, but open carry may be. Combine that with the Wisconsin situation and you have a whole new market that creates an awareness of firearms that didn't happen before. Campus carry in other states as it may develop will do the same. So will recognizable brands work their way in, possibly be enticed by our side to work with us?

We have our arguements, our legal cases, and hopefully our new public policy---can we use fashion, too? Fashion seems to be a rather powerful motivator to the public. People spend money and publicly display stuff because of brand identity. It accomplishes what WE want to do: display in a way to be noticed in a powerful and positive way, make others notice and be drawn in, and most importantly do likewise.

Is it a silly idea? Perhaps not. Crocs were shoes for boating, now they're on lots of feet that seldom if ever leave dry land. Costa del Mar sunglasses were/are for chasing marlin and cobia and bonefish--now they're sold at least half the time to someone who's never fished a day in their life. North Face--do I even need to elaborate on that one? Likewise the reverse--does $700 on a few pieces of leather sewn together make any sense at all? Slap the name "Coach" on it and it somehow does. So why not have a nice holster that goes with it? I don't know what possesses anyone to drop $200 on a shirt, but slap Versaces on the tag and people will ask where you got it and by the end of the week they're wearing it too. A Dolce and Gabbana 1911? (Holy *&^# would that be expensive!) Or just plain Levis for soft shotgun cases. Why not when there's a Harley Davidson Zippo in the pocket of the same pair of Levis jeans you're wearing that you just -HAD- to buy, even if you don't ride one?

We're going to need to start communicating with the public in a way that isn't being done. Wouldn't it help to speak in a language they listen to?

[wa3ra]

Dude, didn't they tell you NOT to drink the water in California?

Actually, well-placed 'fashion' PR couldn't hurt...

[restojunkie1967]

Interesting concept...my only question would be what "designer types" are out there that would lend their already inflated brand's to the 2A movement?