This past Friday, I talked with Susie Jones, a reporter from WCCO Radio, about the Gun Grab Summit in North Minneapolis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, I’m stuck in a bit of a conundrum, myself.\u00a0 On the one hand, I do <\/em>seek a civil, grown-up dialog.\u00a0 As a gun owner, I have a vested interest in making sure my “tribe” – the law-abiding gun owner – acts in a way that credits the responsibility that God gave us and that our Founding Fathers recognized in the Constitution (a responsibility that the record shows we’re really, really good at meeting).\u00a0<\/p>\n I also have kids.\u00a0 And a granddaughter.\u00a0 Violence is an awful thing.\u00a0 Protecting against violence is one of the reasons I would <\/em>be a gun owner, hypothetically.<\/p>\n So curbing violence – with guns, knives, axes, fists, cars, sex organs and every other kind – is Job 1 for me, and for every law-abding gun owner I know.\u00a0<\/p>\n On the other hand?\u00a0 It’s hard to stay adult and civil when dealing with “ProtectMN”, the Joyce-Foundation supported astroturf group that has been campaigning against guns – as opposed to violence – under several names for a couple decades now.\u00a0<\/p>\n Part of it is that the group – its’ leader, Representative Heather Martens (DFL HD 67A), speaking as a leader and as an individual – has never, ever uttered a solitary substantive word of truth on the gun issue.\u00a0 Ever.\u00a0 Seriously – you can tell Ms. Martens is lying when you see her lips move.\u00a0 She is the most disingenuous person anywhere in Minnesota public life.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yes, worse than Carrie Lucking.\u00a0<\/p>\n We are constantly reminded that we need to have a “Dialog” about gun violence.\u00a0<\/p>\n And “Dialog” requires honesty.\u00a0 So I’m going to be honest.\u00a0<\/p>\n Monologue And Backstory<\/strong>:\u00a0 The key to “Dialog” is, of course, discussion between two divergent-to-dissenting points of view.\u00a0 Otherwise, all you have is a monologue.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, in his conversation with WCCO’s Jones on Friday, <\/span><\/span><\/a>“ProtectMN”s Leroy Duncan flatly denied that anyone was told not to show up at the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n But at least one executive from the Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance responded to ProtectMN’s invitation to Friday’s event; I reprinted Heather Martens’ response to that GOCRA offical here the other day<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, this is what ProtectMN put up on their Facebook page the other day.\u00a0 Read it and tell me…:<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s time to stop letting our critical national debates be handled by lunatics, and by corporate lobbyists. It\u2019s time for us to take up the mantle of civics and citizenship again, beyond our narrow self-interest.<\/p>\n We need to have a real discussion about the civic duty of gun ownership sooner, rather than later. It\u2019s time for the grownups to start talking, and more importantly, to take action.\u201d<\/p>\n The MN Gun Violence Summit will consist of \u201cgrown-ups\u201d talking about how to make our communities safer and reframe the debate about gun policy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n …if all of that Alinskyite framing (“lunatics”, “grown-ups”) sounds like someone looking for a dialog?\u00a0<\/p>\n