TGO David

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Not really. The local shops still can't buy in volume like the big retailers, online or otherwise, can. The reason to support local shops isn't price-point. We should support them for quality of and variety of services offered.

@KahrMan I've never even heard of that one. If it tastes as good as it looks, though!

Go ahead and show me where I labeled anyone. Meanwhile I'm sitting here asking myself why you're barking so loudly against this.

YEP. The younger generations are increasingly blind to differences. This is a good thing.

You may not care who wields a weapon but do you care if everyone feels welcomed at the Second Amendment table? What are your thoughts about blacks, Latinos, Muslims, gays, lesbians, transgenders and anyone else who doesn't look, talk, worship, live or vote like you grabbing hold of the Second Amendment and exercising it as well? Do your actions bear out your feelings and thoughts? A key point that *I* thought came of the conversation was the realization that the NRA and a lot of other groups are trying to make themselves more inviting and inclusive and then seem to be at a loss when "the other people" actually believe them, take them up on it, and show up. You can almost see the, "Oh hell... they actually showed up!" look on their faces. It's both hilarious and sad at the same time. I go to the shooting range a lot. Pretty much weekly, if I can. Maybe it's just the range I go to and the fact that it's squirreled away in a rural corner of my county, but the vast majority of the shooters there every single time are men. White men. There's one rough and tumble older black USMC vet that shows up and brings a variety of toys with him each time, but he's the exception to the norm. He's probably the 1% as far as I've noticed. Women show up, but usually accompanied by a male shooter who is there to "instruct" them. It's always the same old stuff, too. The male shooter knows everything and runs his mouth the entire time. The female shooter listens attentively, gets frustrated, and often leaves with a look on her face that I suspect means she's going to give up on learning how to properly use a handgun, let alone be accurate with it. It burns my ass to the point I've said something to the guy on more than one occasion, and thought it was going to come to a fight the last time I did it. The point I really want you to consider is this: We're not as inclusive and diverse and welcoming as you think we are. Even TGO, which is a small microcosm of the Second Amendment world, is insanely biased toward the male population. We've got a few women who browse, and even fewer that post, but the statistics here favor the XY-Chromosome pair. We shouldn't assume that it's because women don't know how to use computers. We might assume that they don't have much use for the fact that they aren't treated as equals in gun circles. Ever been to a gun shop? Ever watched a female consumer get mishandled by the dope behind the counter? Need I say more? So back to your previous statement, I actually WANT YOU TO CARE about who owns a gun. But in the positive way. We all need to be ambassadors of the Second Amendment, not just indifferent to whether the black single mom who needs a gun to protect herself and her children from the drug dealers down the street feels safe buying a gun or asking for training gets what she needs. I really want people to think about this. Being inclusive isn't a passive activity. And until we figure that out and learn how to do outreach, the pool of voters in favor of keeping the Second Amendment around is going to shrink with the passing of each generation.

^^^ YES!

Regardless of gender, race, religion or sexual orientation, the Second Amendment is an acknowledgement of a base right that all people have to defend themselves against aggression. Last week, I had the chance to sit down with our very own @Tiffany Johnson and Aqil Qadir from @Citizens Safety Academy to talk about what it really means to be welcoming to more folks in the 2A Community. The voter demographic is changing dramatically in the United States. Even if you set aside partisan politics, you can see a change in the things that are important to the younger generations coming up behind us. Corporations hiring for jobs are already seeing the shift in values among Millennials and Gen-Z'ers, who care less about how much money they make and more about how much their employer does for the community and what social programs they support. These "kids" take those values with them to the voting booth and very few of them are being raised to appreciate and respect firearms. Many of them view guns negatively. A few might become supporters of gun rights after a negative experience opens their eyes, but others will be galvanized against guns as a result. Racially, the United States is visibly becoming less white. Is that blunt? YES. But the Caucasian demographic is no longer the majority the it was for the first 200 years of our nation's history. The failure to see that sets-up Second Amendment supporters for larger failures with significant missed opportunities and jeopardizes fundamental freedoms. If you have any doubt of that, consider how many of our nation's restrictive gun laws have origins in 1968 California where legislators began tearing away the right to bear arms because of the civil rights movement. Or how many laws in states like Illinois and New York and New Jersey hurt the inner-city residents the most. You know... the ones who statistically need access to firearms the most for their own protection. You might also be surprised to hear what role the NRA played in that. This is a pretty heavy subject and one that I suspect a lot of folks either (a.) assume we're already doing a fine job with, or (b.) haven't really given a whole lot of thought to. Tiffany and Aqil are hilarious, brilliant and fearless and are passionate about breaking down barriers and busting up stereotypes. I had a BLAST talking with them and think you all might enjoy listening to the conversation. At the very least, I hope that it challenges you. https://www.shootersnation.com/podcast/016-tiffany-johnson-on-widening-the-2a-tent-diversity-and-inclusion-in-the-firearms-community/ PS: Yep, that's totally a spectrum of paracord for the background. Tactical Diversity.

I've got a sensitive question for all you dudes who identify as "fellow pro-2A ladies" Welcome, Tiffany!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads, step-dads, grand-dads and great grand-dads out there. Hope you guys have an excellent day!

Were you able to get in touch with them?

Yep! I'll work on getting that set up for everyone again.

TGO folks; I just wanted to offer a vote of confidence for Aqil and Tiffany, particularly as they are a new vendor here on TGO. I recently had the good fortune to attend a civilian medical class at their office in Murfreesboro, taught by Dr. Sherman House. While Sherman did a fantastic job teaching us about hemorrhage arrest techniques (aka "Stop the Bleeding"), Tiffany, Aqil and the others at Citizens Safety were absolutely top notch contributors and participants, and extremely welcoming hosts. I have had the extreme pleasure of speaking with Tiffany several times lately on a variety of subjects and can tell you that you're not very likely to find a more engaging and sharp-minded person of her talents and background without a very difficult search. She is passionate about bringing more people into the 2A community and equipping them to defend themselves and those that they love. I hope you'll both welcome Citizens Safety to TGO and give serious consideration to training with them. Their Basics course would be ideal for anyone that you know who is looking to become proficient, or even for YOURSELF to reaffirm the basics and get a good gut-check on what you think you already know.

I'll wear a cup over a cup. I don't want to be shot in the jimmy.

If your eyes get worse, Doug, I'm going to need to know which days you're at the shooting range so that I can be elsewhere.

I can maybe go a little larger with that font if need be. Does it need any tweaking?

He's not in Knoxville but I suspect you could do a phone consultation with John Wells here in Nashville and he could take care of you across the Internet / by mail. John is extremely knowledgeable on this subject. @John Wells

It's not really a big problem, Doug. I think some folks just live to complain. Have you tried the new Theme that I set up for larger font? Does it help you?

I also changed the font to Google's "Montserrat" for the larger style, as it seems to be easier on the eyes too. I may change the default font to this for the other theme, albeit in a smaller size.

^^^ This practice of using larger font sizes in individual posts is what I want to try to avoid. Help me help you, so that we can stop this. It's not been a terribly big deal to me but some folks have complained in the past and I've just simply told them to get over themselves and find something else to worry with.

OK, so I made the default font very slightly larger and I set up an option for those of you who need a bigger font. If that latter part describes you, scroll to the bottom of the screen and find where it says Theme followed by Privacy Policy. Click Theme. Then choose the theme called "TGO Larger Font". Hopefully that font is larger enough that it works for you. If not, let me know and I will increase it slightly. I would rather work on this than have a bunch of inconsistent font sizes in posts.

Yes, IPB reverted to using the system font size which is determined by YOUR individual computer. I'm probably going to make a larger font version of the TGO theme so that some of you can switch to using it rather than making the font inside of your individual posts larger like @bersaguy. What y'all probably don't realize is that when you do that, it makes the font huge for everyone else -- including those of us who prefer smaller fonts.

YouTube shut down several gun-related channels this weekend. Brownell's is just the most mainstream of them. Bottom line is that YouTube is very anti Second Amendment and wants us off of their platform.

Risk Aversion is a good way to describe it. For me, I will add that it also is aversion to having to talk about it with someone. As much as I enjoy chatting with you all about guns here, I have a general dislike for unwanted social interaction and absolutely don't want to have to discuss the presence of my firearm with some random individual at the local grocery. The older I get, the more I prefer my circle to consist of my immediate family, our dogs and maybe a few people who aren't related to me.