Originally Posted by zukiphile
...If an activity under discussion is subject to community etiquette, it isn't a right.
Phooey. We live in a community, and people form impressions and make judgments about others. Something may be a right, but how a right is exercised has social consequences.
And it might also have political consequences. Many zoning restrictions arose out of broad community dissatisfaction with the ways in which others exercised what were rights.
It's fashionable to blame politicians. But politicians are interested in getting elected and re-elected. So what it really comes down to is our neighbors, the people in our communities, the people in our towns, the people we work with, the people we see at the mall, etc. If enough of our neighbors, enough of the people in our communities, enough of the people in our towns, enough of the people we work with, enough of the people we see at the mall, etc., don't like guns, and don't trust the rest of us with them, politicians who take anti-gun stands can get elected and re-elected (and bureaucrats who take anti-gun stands can keep their jobs).
So we need to remember that part of the battle to keep and expand our gun rights needs to start with our neighbors, the people in our communities, the people in our towns, the people we work with, the people we see at the mall, etc. We need to engage and include as many of them as we can. Exercising our rights in ways that frighten or antagonize those people won't help our cause.