STEP 2: INFORM

First off, we apologize for this post having taken a couple days to get together; we had more than a few folks asking where the follow-up to our Step 1 article was yesterday. We understand that in the first few days any amount of radio silence breeds discord and feeds anxiety, but we needed to make sure the course we're plotting is true and optimized to bring about the best result in the long term. To that end, we would like to be clear about the position Calibre hopes to fill over the next four years as it pertains to Step 2, and share some brief thoughts in reaction to the amazing response we've seen to our call for gun owners to present a unified front.

To address the first matter Calibre is, at its core, an independent media outlet catering to Canadian gun owners. Our primary job will be to keep individual gun owners informed about policy, political rumblings, and calls to action they can and should participate in. You will see this take shape in the form of political commentary, our own Action Plan right here, or press releases from agencies or organizations.

Plenty of people have, in an awesome demonstration of the Winston Churchill quote we cited earlier, pointed out that the world we live in now is dramatically different that the world in which previous gun control legislation was passed. We have Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, email, online forums like GOC and CGN, and even new and unconventional media outlets like The Rebel and Vice News with which we can engage gun owners and the general public alike. Also, at the risk of sounding self-serving, we didn't have Calibre then either... but we hardly expect to eclipse the reach of Facebook or Twitter anytime soon (or ever). So our secondary role, in addition to providing you with meaningful insight and commentary on where we are headed as a group, is going to be providing you with easy to use and cohesive media assets that can be deployed on social media, other outlets and even on your car (spoiler alert: stickers!). Because while it's great that we all have this amazing ability to be heard, if we're all shouting different messages, all anyone will hear is an unintelligible cacophony of noise unless we are unified and cohesive in our efforts.

And our tertiary mission will be to work with any and all industry members and organizations to ensure that the messages we are putting out and disseminating serve the efforts going on at the Parliamentary level and the overarching public relations strategy of our community and industry. While we strongly advocate the position that all gun owners join the CSSA to provide our community with the one singular large entity we need representing us on Parliament Hill, we recognize and encourage membership in multiple organizations and clubs, as the differing perspectives provided by multiple groups, clubs, or individuals can always provide valuable input. We will serve as a sort of central repository of information so that these various groups can stay informed on what their cohorts are working towards, and hope that we can provide a common ground among the various entities to ensure everyone is working towards the same common goal rather than at cross-purposes.

"That's all well and good, but what can I do right now?"

While these programs are being developed, we have two strategies we need to enact as a group immediately. First, each and every gun owner out there needs to take to the gun-centric social media pages and the various gun forums and control the internal narratives they see to maintain positive tones, and advance the message of presenting a unified front. Scrutinize everything you say from here on out and ensure you don't include any negative comments, and use as many positive phrases as you can; when someone goes negative simply try and show them the opportunities we're being presented with. Directly ask people if they are a member of the CSSA, and/or any other organizations, because the more that question is repeated, the more it will normalize the idea of belonging to an organization. But most importantly, stay positive, and continue to spread the message of gun owners standing together. Don't let people draw lines between gun owners with terms like "fudd" or "mall ninja," and when you do come across these sorts of debates, insert yourself into the conversation and help our community find common ground. We really cannot afford to be fighting ourselves right now.

We just saw the power of a positive campaign as it swept the Liberals into a majority government, and we would be fools not to apply that lesson ourselves. It will be difficult at times, and there will be the recalcitrant few out there that refuse to band together and continue to speak ill of our efforts to grow one single organization, but remember: For every one person that might publicly decry your message of hope and optimism, there's probably five or ten more reading it in silence and learning from what you have to say. So make it good!

Print Outreach Program

The second thing we are starting immediately is a print media outreach and newswire program for industry and clubs. This program will range from flyers and cards for insertion into firearm packaging at the manufacturer level to material subscription services for gun clubs so that they can have a more informed membership. The logic here is to bring our unification effort and activism efforts off the internet, and into the real world, where gun owners that may not be familiar with the online outlets can be engaged and those that are familiar with the online message can have that message reinforced. And since shooting requires regular trips to the gun shop to buy consumables like ammunition and cleaning supplies, and shooting restricted firearms means regular trips to the range, we can target those areas specifically with printed material in order to raise awareness of our effort. If you belong to a gun club or work within the firearms industry, and want to get involved in this program we invite you to contact Calibre directly about getting involved.

Business obviously not as usual but...

All that being said, we still need to keep the lights on here at Calibre HQ, so over the coming days as you start to see some of our regular content pop back up, do not think that we have abandoned our efforts. We'll report on news when we have some, and we'll seek it out when we think there's something to find, but we won't deal in rumour, scandal, or other baseless negative press. So try and relax, and remember, united we stand. Hell, maybe we should turn that into a hashtag... but we'll leave that up to you folks!