3. Letters to the Editor ``TO THE PRESS ALONE, CHECQUERED AS IT IS WITH ABUSES, THE WORLD IS INDEBTED FOR ALL THE TRIUMPHS WHICH HAVE BEEN GAINED BY REASON AND HUMANITY OVER ERROR AND OPPRESSION.'' Thomas Jefferson, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, 1799. One of the best things a gun rights defender can do is write letters to the editor of his or her local newspaper. More people read letters to the editor than read the editorials written by professional columnists. Letters to the editor are a unique chance to influence thousands of people. How to Do It One excuse people offer for not writing is ``I'm not a good writer'' or ``I don't know enough to write.'' Well, you don't have to be an outstanding scribe to get published in the local newspaper. If you have even a minimal amount of common sense, you have what it takes to write a good letter. After all, you understand the right to bear arms better than do the people who write for Newsweek and the Los Angeles Times. Much of what those ``professional'' writers do is reprint propaganda from Handgun Control Inc. You can do better than that. Free literature available from the NRA and the Second Amendment Foundation will give you all the data you need for a good short letter. (The free literature is discussed in chapter 1.) Your hometown newspaper may be biased against guns in its news and editorial sections, but that doesn't exclude you from getting a good letter printed. Many editorial pages welcome letters that challenge the viewpoint in the rest of the newspaper. Here are some key words to remember when composing your letter. If you keep these words in mind, you'll get published: Short. 100 words or less. That's enough time to convey one or two ideas. Long letters have a much smaller chance of being published. Even if you're responding to a long diatribe against guns, stick to one or two important points, rather than trying to rebut everything. Type the letter. This isn't mandatory, but it does help. Otherwise, write long-hand. In either case, double space. Clear. Express a forceful opinion on one side of the issue. Don't waffle. This one should be easy. Prejudiced. Don't be. Never say anything that is racist, sexist, homophobic, or displays any other prejudice. Prejudice instantly kills a letter, and brings all gun owners into disrepute. Focus. Emphasize our positive side. Tell the people the facts which support our case. Avoid personal attacks on opponents. Tact. Honey catches more flies than vinegar. For example, if a news story misstates the facts about guns, you letter doesn't have to start out: ``Your rotten paper has once again proven that it is a biased mouthpiece for bleeding-heart liberal Commies.'' Instead, the letter can gently offer to ``clarify'' a point that wasn't fully discussed in the news article. The softer you talk, the better people can hear you. One at a time. If you're lucky enough to live in a town with two competing daily newspapers (there are only 16 such cities left), only write to one paper at a time. Add a p.s. note to your letter saying that you are sending the letter to only this paper. Papers prefer that their material be exclusive. Wait ten days, and if you don't hear from the first paper, send the letter to the other paper. Wait. Here's one situation where a waiting period actually does some good. If you've been published in a paper recently, wait 30 days before sending another letter to the same paper. The Letters to the Editor section is a community forum; papers don't want any one person to appear too often. Address and phone number should be included at the top of the page. Papers often call to confirm a letter before printing. Peg. Hang your letter on a news peg. This is very important. If you write a letter in response to a recent news story or editorial, the paper will be more likely to print it. There's nothing the media loves so much as printing stories about the media. Even criticism of the media gets lots of print space, since (from the viewpoint of the media, four-year-olds, and similar types) negative attention is way better than no attention at all. Sign the letter. Never send an anonymous letter. Nor should you sign your letter ``Ed Barnhill, NRA Member.'' The fact that you're an NRA member won't make the letter more persuasive to people who didn't agree with you already. If you want to add something to the signature block, add something that will show the readers that you're a responsible member of the community, e.g. ``retired teacher, farmer, homemaker, doctor, etc.'' (Don't sign the letter ``Ed Barnhill, etc.,'' unless your name is actually ``Ed Barnhill, etc..'' ) Finally, write the letter so that a person who didn't read the original article can still follow your argument. For example, a letter might read: A recent editorial (``Stop the Slaughter,'' April 22) claimed that ``Drug dealers can walk into a store and walk out five minutes later with a machine gun, no questions asked.'' Actually, no-one can buy a machine gun in five minutes. Five months is more like it. Machine guns have been strictly regulated by federal law since 1934. To buy any fully automatic firearm, a person needs to get a federal license which requires fingerprints and a background check, and takes many months of paperwork. Before we enact even more gun controls, people should understand how many we already have. If you follow these ten rules, about 1 in 5 of your letters will get published. That's a success rate to be proud of, and you'll be making an important contribution to the debate. Your chances of being published, by the way, are better in smaller newspapers, since there's less competition from other writers. The odds you will get published in the New York Times are better than the odds that you will get struck by lightening--but not a lot better. Your prospects in the Staten Island Advance are much better, and your odds in a smaller paper are better still. And remember, it's the readers of the smaller papers who, since they're more likely to live in smaller cities, may be more receptive to the pro-rights message. Advanced Techniques While the above rules are mandatory (if you want to get published), below are some suggestions that, although not essential, will be helpful. Newspapers are written by generalists, who understandably cannot familiarize themselves with every issue. Thus, reporters and editors look for material from people who are well-known experts on a particular subject. In the letter-to-the-editor context, your letter will be more persuasive to the editor (and likely to get printed) if you can cite authoritative sources. For example, the sentence ``gun control never works'' is merely an assertion. More persuasive is the sentence ``According to the Wright-Rossi study for the National Institute of Justice, there is no evidence that any current gun controls have worked.'' Likewise, instead of saying ``The authors of the Constitution supported an individual right to bear arms,'' supply a one-sentence quote from James Madison or Thomas Jefferson discussing the individual right. Alternatively, when you offer a statistic, put the source of the statistic in parenthesis: ``While Mr. Meddlethorpe claims that `the record murder rate proves the need for gun control,' the murder rate today is lower than it was in 1981. (FBI Uniform Crime Reports.)'' Don't worry if citing authority makes the letter a little too long; the editors can always cut it if they want. And it's all right to bring in personal experience. Newspapers always like printing ``eyewitness'' accounts; so if one of the reasons that you think semiautomatics should remain legal is that you frightened off a burglar with one, tell your story. Newspapers love to find inconsistencies--two government agencies undercutting each other's work, or a Senator's actions contradicting his words. So if you can find an inconsistency and point it out, go right ahead. As with every other thing you write, the first sentence is the most important, so write it carefully. Make a copy for yourself to keep (but if you don't have ready access to a copy machine, just mail the letter, rather than letting it sit in your jacket pocket for ten days until you find a photocopier). Mail the letter the day after you write it. Letting it cool gives you time to retract any intemperate remarks, and gives you an extra day to think about the letter, and perhaps find some refinements. As Thomas Paine observed, the best writing comes from warm passions and a cool temper. Does it Matter? Even letters that don't get published make a positive impact. The young newspaper staffer who is in charge of editing the letters to the editor page will one day be running her own editorial page at some newspaper. Your letter may be one of the few pro-gun arguments she is exposed to all year. Most media types don't hate guns out of genuine conviction. It's simply a cultural prejudice of their environment. Some people, if exposed to the facts, will gradually reconsider their viewpoint. Like everything else in the paper, published letters to the editor are also read by the rest of the newspaper's staff, including reporters and editors. Letters about a particular subject may convince the reporters and editors that the gun issue is important to the readership, and deserves thorough, frequent coverage. Will a published letter really matter? You bet. A 1989 issue of the Yale Law Journal contained an article by Sanford Levinson called ''The Embarrassing Second Amendment.'' Levinson, one of the top Constitutional law professors in the US, wrote that liberal academics (himself included) should face up to the overwhelming evidence: The Second Amendment really does guarantee an individual right to bear arms. Levinson's article dealt a tremendous blow to the silly theory that the Second Amendment is only a guarantee that states can have a National Guard. (The theory never caught on with ordinary people, but had been popular in the academic community.) Professor Levinson's piece cites a number of letters to the editor of ordinary newspapers. In fact, it was Levinson's reading of letters in his local newspaper that made him realize that huge numbers of people really care about the Second Amendment--even though most law professors don't. Levinson began to consider that maybe the letter writers were right, and the law professors were wrong. Professor Levinson isn't the only person influenced by letters to the editor. Except for the front page, the letters section is more widely read than any other part of the newspaper--even the editorial page. Congressional staffers follow letters to the editor in the Congressperson's home-town newspapers as an important gauge of public opinion back home. Although Congressional staffers will likely have read your published letter, send them a copy anyway. If your letter praised the Congressperson, send her a copy, even if it wasn't printed. She'll appreciate the fact that gun owners are standing by her, and will therefore be more likely to stand by them. Op-ed Pieces Once you've established a good track record as a letter writer, consider trying to write opinion pieces for your local paper. The general rules discussed above for letters apply for most op-eds too. Total length should be 650-750 words. Going even slightly above the limit seriously impairs your chance of getting published. Before submitting a piece, call your newspaper's opinion page, and ask for their guidelines regarding op-ed submissions. If you're a university or high school student, your situation is somewhat easier, since most school newspapers are eager to publish student writers.