Since publishing the previous post (link) about forging new alliances in the shooting community, I've been discussing these ideas with a number of people and am working on talking to as many people as I can. Today I spoke with Michael Woodland of Munitions-Weapons Tactical (link) about this.
Note: M-W Tactical is also on Facebook under M-W Tactical (link) and Twitter as @m_wtactical. This organization offers firearms instruction in Columbia, South Carolina, with alliances generally on the East Coast. Formerly stationed at Fort Benning, Michael is a competitive shooter who contributes regularly to Kenn Blanchard's excellent "Black Man With A Gun" podcast. He is on the leader board on that site (link). I have enjoyed a lot of interesting articles from him regarding a variety of topics, related to handguns, the AR platform and various aspects of shooting.
I would like to thank Michael Woodland for taking the time to talk to me today. As we discussed, I am inviting him to critique the content of this blog post and comments about our discussion before making it generally public.
These were the questions I asked and Mister Woodland's responses:
What have your interactions in the gun community been like? Do you feel that you have been welcomed as a shooter?
MW responded that he has been welcomed as a shooter but that he has encountered some negative comments when his comments took a tack that people didn't like. For example, when discussing firearms he has suggested it would be a good idea for shooters to have some training beforehand and was subsequently called a communist.
As we talked further, he also commented about the odd way in which gun events are presented. For example, if somebody commits a violent crime with a gun, it's always presented with a focus on the gun and its availability and not the character of the person who committed the crime. This seems odd because a crime using a truck as a weapon focuses on the crime and not the weapon used. He commented that he does not support gun control...that attacking the second amendment is also an attack or leads to attack on the other amendments in the Bill of Rights.
Final thought: what is their agenda after the guns have been gotten rid of?
How can the gun community reach out to a variety of shooters?
MW responded that the gun community as a whole has been welcoming. There have been negative interactions, e.g. at competitions or range trips, that might be classified as the group wanting a shooter's money but looking for a chance to disqualify them or get them to leave.
For example, he was recently at a range in South Carolina with about 6 other black folks and the rangemaster was just hovering around and watching them, despite the fact that shooters were acting with full safety discipline.
How can we collaborate politically to protect our rights, given that the simple suggestion of "voting Republican" might not be workable for all people?
MW suggested that he would rather see people voting according to their individual interests than voting on a party line basis. One example that he gave was on healthcare....that we as a society ought to make sure that people who can't afford it can still get it.
Why limit your choices be restricting your vote to a single party?
Mister Woodland's final message was the necessity to knock down the walls of racism. That it's not about white shooters or black shooters but solidarity AS shooters. We have to open up dialogues about that.
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