OSD 49: SHOT Show 2020 and beyond
We had a great week at SHOT Show and can't wait for you to see what comes out of it. Did a bunch of interviews that will be coming out over the next few weeks, plus a podcast episode with Guns Guide to Liberals and NAAGA. And made contacts that will help us — and you — build the cultural groundwork for gun rights as we go into our first full year of operation.
Thanks to all of you who we met, and hope to meet the rest of you before long. What conferences should we go to next? Let us know by replying to this email.
This week's links
PSA's goal is common use
Thanks to this redditor for catching this quote. One of our mantras is that gun rights start with culture, not politics. A key part of that culture is to affordable products that continually remove barriers to entry. Cool to see that Palmetto State Armory is aware of the long-term strategic impact of their approach.
22,000+ people attended the Virginia rally. One was arrested, for wearing a mask.
Despite people's attempts to spin it otherwise, the rally showed all the best things about the gun community, and was a full-throated argument for gun rights. Huge props to VCDL (who organized the rally) and to everyone who put in the work to make this rally the success that it was.
As Frank J. Fleming put it, "One of the amazing things in America is that there are a group of people known for being armed and what they're mainly feared for is that they vote."
Now use this momentum to keep the pressure on in Virginia. This was a milestone, but it's far from over. Onward.
Police interrogation video of Michael Drejka, the shooter in that bad DGU in a Florida parking lot in 2018
You've probably seen the surveillance camera video of the shooting, because it was big news at the time. This is an edit of the important parts of the police interrogation of Drejka. Notwithstanding the (many, many) problems with his decisions, this video is a stark illustration of why lawyers tell you to never talk to the police.
Top Shot champion Chris Cheng joins the board of Operation Blazing Sword/Pink Pistols
Great news for the community.
How Games Are Lying to Us About Silencers
Excellent video from a non-gun source debunking silencer misconceptions. Share this one around. The fact that it comes from a non-gun source will give it a lot more weight with fencesitters.
Anti-Gunner Debate and Range Fun
John Lovell doing outreach with some calm conversation and then some good clean powder-actuated fun.
The Internet of Beefs
This isn't specifically gun-related, but it's an epochally incisive piece on what exactly is happening when people fight on the internet. To fix a system, you must first understand how the system works.
Here's an excerpt:
"The semantic structure of the Internet of Beefs is shaped by high-profile beefs between charismatic celebrity knights loosely affiliated with various citadel-like strongholds peopled by opt-in armies of mooks. The vast majority of the energy of the conflict lies in interchangeable mooks facing off against each other, loosely along lines indicated by the knights they follow, in innumerable battles that play out every minute across the IoB.
"Almost none of these battles matter individually. Most mook-on-mook contests are witnessed, for the most part, only by a few friends and algorithms, and merit no overt notice in either Vox or Quillette. Beyond a local uptick in cortisol levels, individual episodes of mook-on-mook violence are of no consequence.
"In aggregate though, they matter. A lot. They are the raison d’être of the IoB.
"The standard pattern of conflict on the IoB is depressingly predictable. A mook takes note of a casus belli in the news cycle (often created or co-opted by a knight, and referred to on the IoB as the outrage cycle), and heads over to their favorite multiplayer online battle arena (Twitter being the most important MOBA) to join known mook allies to fight stereotypically familiar but often unknown interchangeable mook foes. They come prepared either to melee within the core, or skirmish on the periphery, either rallying around the knights riding under known beef-only banners, or adventuring by themselves in unflagged, unheralded side battles.
"There is no higher honor for a mook than to be noticed by the knights they fight for. As a result, the fealty of the mook is the currency of the manorial economy of the IoB. Mookcoins are mined by knights through acts of senpai-notice-me. Call it proof-of-favor. And on mookcoins runs the economy of the IoB."