podcasting

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My GRPC Presentation

September 24, 2019 by 5 Comments

Another Gun Rights Policy Conference is done and in the books. This year’s conference attendance set a record with over 1,100 attendees. Over 100,000 watched it live on Facebook where it was livestreamed. GRPC set another record with 91 speakers. I was one of the 91 and spoke on the panel that covered using new media to advance gun rights.

Below is my presentation as delivered. In a few days, there will be video up on YouTube of this and the rest of the presentations.

Good Afternoon!

I’m John Richardson of the blog No Lawyers – Only Guns and Money. I’m also a co-host of the Polite Society Podcast.

I had a rude awakening a month and a half ago. I woke to find that Google’s Blogger had taken my blog down and was threatening to delete it. I could not even access it to backup my nine and a half years of work. My blood ran cold at the thought of losing all that work.

I was erroneously accused of violating the terms of service for selling or facilitating the sale of a regulated item. I was put in the same category as drug dealers and other purveyors of prohibited or regulated items.

I immediately appealed and I got tremendous support from the gun rights community. Dave Workman wrote an article for Liberty Park Press. Tom Knighton covered it on Bearingarms.com. People aimed tweets at Google and Blogger. There were posts about it on Facebook. Two days later, I got a email from Blogger saying, in essence, “Ooops. We made a mistake. You didn’t violate anything. So sorry.”

I tell you this story not to gain your sympathy. I tell it to show how we are at the mercy of big tech oligopolies. There have been plenty of stories about gun rights supporters being suspended or banned from Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. You know, like SAF. We have seen the demonetization of firearms-oriented YouTube videos. Thanks to leaks, we know that through the use of algorithms and key word lists there is a conscious effort to suppress our voices in advocacy of the Second Amendment, self-defense, and gun rights.

I got complacent and we as a community have gotten complacent. The social media giants made it so easy to be involved in social media that we forgot something. That something was that if you don’t control the means of getting the message out, it can be turned off at a whim and you are suppressed.

I decided never again. I bought my own domain name and thanks to my friend Bill Chachkes of Firearms Chat Podcast, I was hooked up with a 2A friendly host – Patriot Hosting.

We need to do three things if we want to continue getting the message out. First, we need to control our hosting and not be dependent upon companies that will sell us out in a heartbeat. Second, we need to explore going back to older technology that is beyond the control of the tech oligarchs. By this I mean firearms forums and perhaps even old fashioned bulletin board systems. I should clarify that I’m not advocating going back to 2400 baud modems to dial long distance to a favorite gun board. Finally, seek out and use newer alternatives like MeWe, Full 30, and Declan McCullagh’s “Talki. Ng”.

The late Professor Brian Patrick who spoke at GRPC a number of times called how we communicate the anti-media. He spoke and wrote about this extensively. Professor Patrick credited horizontal interpretive communities and how they communicated for the passage of shall issue carry laws in Florida and elsewhere. In non-social science speak, this means gun rights supporters and potential allies talked to one another, planned their strategies, and organized through the use of newsletters, forums and bulletin board systems outside the notice of the mass media. The key phrase here is that they talked to one another. Moreover, they talked to one another as equals. It was not top-down like our opponents.

You may never want to be a blogger, a podcaster, a YouTuber, or any other type of content creator. Nonetheless, you can help out those of us who are by providing us with leads, tips, and other information. Some of my best blog posts have come due to this. We are all in this together, we are a community, and we all can help one another protect, preserve, and enhance our Second Amendment rights.

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“Be Like Kim Kardashian” – My Presentation At 2017 Gun Rights Policy Conference

October 3, 2017 by 1 Comment

I teased people before my presentation on the Using New Media To Advance Gun Rights panel at the 2017 GRPC that I would be talking about Kim Kardashian.

And I did.

You can read and see my whole presentation below. I do think it is important that we adopt all forms of social media to inform and persuade the Millennials and iGeneration about freedom and the Second Amendment.

Hi. I’m John Richardson.

I have the gun blog No Lawyers – Only Guns and Money and I’m a co-host of the Polite Society Podcast.

In past years I’ve spoken about how bloggers have worked to advance gun rights, how they’ve exposed gun walking in the Obama Administration, and also how we can use new media as a tool to fight the enemies of freedom ranging from the Mainstream Media to the well-funded gun control lobby.

This year when I was putting together my notes for this talk I thought about things like fake news, the bias of the mainstream media, how balanced in their lexicon means always quoting a gun banner in reference to crime, and how ridiculous it is that the media takes anything Gabby Giffords says seriously.

However, last Saturday morning while I was sitting in bed drinking my coffee I watched a report on CBS Saturday which encapsulated what we in the gun rights community need to do: we need to become Social Media Influencers.

Put another way, we need to become like Donald Trump and Kim Kardashian. I know you are probably saying right now that you can maybe understand Trump but a Kardashian? Really?

Think about this – you have a young woman with virtually no discernible talents, with no education past high school, and no employment history to speak of who got upwards of $1 million for merely attending a party due to the attention she draws.

That is social media influence. We may think it is absurd but it is the new reality.

Big business understands this. They have made it a $1 billion annual industry because it conveys authenticity and because it goes around the gatekeepers to put their message directly into the pockets of Millennials and Gen. Z aka the iGeneration.

The reason I care and you should care about reaching the Millennials and the iGeneration is that we are in the long war. If we don’t reach them with the message that gun rights are important, that the shooting sports are fun, and that our opponents are the enemies of freedom, then the Second Amendment will be effectively dead within our lifetimes.

The Millennials and the iGeneration don’t read newspapers. They don’t watch network news. Half the time they’ve replaced cable with Netflix and Amazon Prime. They don’t have landlines and their cell phones are more often used to text than to talk to friends. More importantly, they don’t trust traditional media and they value authenticity. This means they give greater weight to user-generated social media than virtually anything else.

The other thing to understand is that there is New Social Media and Old Social Media. The latter would include things like blogs, podcasts, Facebook, and, to some extent, Twitter. New Social Media is centered on things like Instagram, SnapChat, and Periscope with YouTube somewhere in between the two. To give you an idea of the reach of Instagram as a means of social influence, the Kardashian-Jenner daughters have 410 MILLION followers combined.

So how do you use it?

Number one – download the app to your smart phone and register an account.

Number two – start posting pictures when you take a new shooter to the range. Or alternatively, post pictures from GRPC. Just make sure to put hashtags with them. You know – those little cross-hatched number signs with a word or two after them. Stuff like “#newshooter” or “#grpc2017”.

Number three – if you feel this is beyond what you can do, enlist your kids and grandkids. Take them shooting and have THEM post the pictures to their accounts.

Finally, keep it fun and keep it light. If we need serious, we have people like Alan Gura for the legal stuff, Dr. John Lott to challenge the anti’s statistics, and my friend sociologist David Yamane for studies on GunCulture 2.0.

We can win at this because we are the real grassroots. Social media influence comes from below and not from above. But we need to start doing it NOW.

I will be posting my notes and associated video from the 2017 Gun Rights Policy Conference throughout the week.

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Good For Kenn

February 20, 2015 by 2 Comments

Kenn Blanchard is a Marine veteran, a patriot, a gun guy, and, most importantly, a friend. That is why I was excited for him when I read the press release below sent out announcing a sponsorship by American Built Arms of his forthcoming radio show. Kenn was one of the first podcasters I started following when I first got an iPod. Back then, he was “the black man with a gun” on the “Urban Shooter Podcast”. That morphed into the “Black Man with a Gun Podcast”.

According to the release, Kenn is transitioning from podcasting to live radio with a show called Blanchard Outdoors. If anyone can make that transition, it would be Kenn. He’s that good and I’m really excited for him. I’m glad to see that show archives will be available for download as podcasts. I sure wouldn’t want to miss out.

From the release:

American Built Arms Company, a veteran-owned, built in the U.S.A., manufacturer of firearms and firearms parts and accessories, has partnered with Kenn Blanchard and his new live radio show Blanchard Outdoors.
“We love that Kenn brings years of experience to the outdoor and firearm’s industry and that he wants to bring the joy of the outdoor lifestyle to those who might not have experienced it before. We think this is a great cause and we wanted to help him make it happen,” said Adam Edelman, Co-owner of American Built Arms.
Kenn Blanchard is known for his popular podcast “Black Man with a Gun,” which has been downloaded over 1.3 million times. With Blanchard Outdoors, Blanchard looks to transition from podcast to broadcast. Blanchard wants to use this opportunity to share his love of the outdoors with others and help get people out of the confines of cities and into the wide-open spaces the outdoors provide. The show will feature several co-hosts and a team of expert hunters, fishermen and outdoorsmen sharing their stories, tips and “how to’s.”
“I wanted to be associated with American Built Arms.  I was overjoyed when they agreed to partner with me to launch my new radio show, Blanchard Outdoors.  I really connected with them when we first met. The guys at American Built Arms are cool, innovative and dynamic. They can make almost any firearm related thing you can imagine. I’m grateful that they are making my dream of broadcasting my own outdoors show a reality,” said Blanchard.
The show will be streamed live on the online radio station WBGR Network. It will also be recorded and listeners can download it as a podcast. The show will launch in March 2015.
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Congratulations To Kenn On Five Years Of Podcasting

January 14, 2012 by 1 Comment

Rev. Kenn Blanchard, the Black Man with a Gun, and my brother from another mother, is celebrating five years of podcasting. His Urban Shooter/Black Man with a Gun podcast was one of the first ones that I started listening to on my old iPod Nano and I’m still listening.

I’ve shot with Kenn, I’ve talked with Kenn, I’ve ridden with Kenn, and I’ve eaten with Kenn and he is one of the finest individuals that grace the face of this Earth. We are extremely lucky to have him on our side in the gun rights debate.

You can find his podcast on iTunes or at his podcast website. Make sure to check out his blog and website at www.kennblanchard.com.