stingeragent wrote: . .......
The suit and tie approach does not work with MDA and other groups. You can walk in wearing a suit and tie and a holstered handgun, and they will IMMEDIATELY categorize you the same as if you had walked wearing shorts and a tank top with an ar15 on your back. Your dress code, your politeness, etc, in no way effects their view of you. It is the firearm you carry, be it a pistol, a shotgun, or a rifle which causes them to pass judgement. Look at any of these peoples motto's, or their "missions". No where does it say, we don't want anyone carrying a gun that isn't wearing a suit and tie. They are scared of guns, and they do not want to see a gun, and do not want anyone to have a gun. PERIOD. If you think any of that is false, go look on any of the thousands of comments on the MDA facebook page.
Think of this as a continuum. There are purists at each extreme, and everyone else in between. These true purists are relatively few but tend to be the squeaky wheels fabled in story, song and verse. The media lives and breathes on sensationalism. Nobody watches ordinary people going about their business on the 10 o'clock news.
There are people genuinely afraid of guns. Like many other fears, there is no talking them out of it. My mom was afraid of snakes, pictures of snakes, talk about snakes, to the point that we used the term "s-word" in her hearing if it had to be mentioned at all. She was otherwise a sweet, intelligent woman, a pillar of her church, adored by everyone who knew her, but she just couldn't think about snakes. Similarly, some are afraid of flying, irrationally so, but there they are. Life can be hard for these people.
Fortunately, when it comes to their irrationality, they generally have little influence politically. They have attention, but not influence.