It’s an unfortunate fact that many people seem bound and determined to make pro-gun voices feel as isolated as humanly possible. The stigmatization of gun ownership is a real phenomenon that we see every time someone gets the cops called on them because they happen to be carrying a gun or when a kid’s pictures from the range get them in trouble at school.
It’s happened way too often.
The problem with it is that man is a tribal creature. We need community. Most people go crazy in isolation, so if you stigmatize something to the point that no one will talk about it, you can eventually push people to subconsciously change their opinions to some degree or another to closer align with those they believe predominate in their community.
We need opportunities for community, to connect with others in the real world, and to find opportunities to contribute to the cause of defending the Second Amendment.
We need things like the 2A Freedom Festival, or 2AFF, held in Summerfield, Florida on February 24th.
I touched on a bit about this earlier this month, talking about a food drive held at the event, but I haven’t talked about the event itself, mostly because there was so much going on that it took me a bit to really process it all.
See, this wasn’t my first year attending, but each year seems to be bigger and better.
Put on by my friend, Kevin Sona, the event has speakers, of course, and vendors, but there’s more to it than that.
First, let’s talk about the speakers for a bit. Here’s a list of speakers:
- Stephen Shives – Runaway Campers And Candidate for Florida House District 27
- Shirley Watrel – FL State Director Of Women For Gun Rights
- James Phillips – The Firearm Firm
- Ryan Chamberlin – Florida H.D 24 Representative
- Patrick Collins – The Gun Food
- Michael Piwowarski – Host of Arms Room Radio
- Lucretia Hughes – FallBack Productions Women For Gun Rights
- Chance Johnmeyer – Founder Of Recall Florida
- Amanda Suffecool – Eye On The Target Radio and NRA Board Of Director
- Stephen Willeford – Southerland Springs Texas Baptist church Hero
- Thomas King Jr. – Florida Firearms Academy
- David Katz – Katz and Philips and The Firearm Firm
- Jared From The YouTube Channel Guns And Gadgets
- Erich Pratt – Gun Owners Of America
Oh, and there was some guy named Tom Knighton who hopped on the microphone for a bit as well.
Now, look at that list of speakers for a moment. Men and women, black and white, and from across the entire realm of the Second Amendment community. Pretty much everyone was available and open to chatting. Eager for it, even.
Then we had a free lunch provided by Mike’s Other Place Deli And Dogs for everyone in attendance–did I mention that the whole event was free? It was, as was lunch–and those hotdogs were pretty damn tasty, for what it’s worth.
Hosted at Runaway Campers over the last several years, it was a unique opportunity to meet up with old friends and make new ones. Having the opportunity to meet people as varied as Stephen Williford from Sutherland Springs and Jared from Guns and Gadgets was great for me and for a lot of other people.
I want to give a special shoutout to Runaway owner Steve Shives. Yes, he’s running for office, but he’s been donating the use of his property for several years, well before he announced his candidacy for anything. He’s someone who believes in our right to keep and bear arms, as did the other speakers.
Look, I challenge you to go to an event like this and walk away not fired up at the opportunity to defend our rights.
More importantly, you cannot walk away from such an event and feel like you’re alone in the world in valuing the Second Amendment. It’s not physically possible.
We need more of this.
