OPERATION SELF-DEFENSE
Net Detectives Helping to Change Public Awareness

by Robert A. Waters
Author, The Best Defense: True Stories of Intended Victims Who
Defended Themselves with a Firearm.

We're doing a better job than ever of tracking and reporting self-
defense stories that involve the legal use of a firearm.
KeepAndBearArms.com is archiving them for use by activists. I'm doing
deep research on quite a few for my next book. And we're planning the
next step on how to use these stories, to be announced later.

But how many of these events are we missing due to lack of combined
efforts and consistent focus? And what can we do to make sure we
catch every last one of these events in our bid to put them to
effective use?

It's simple. We can work together as a team, each of us covering a
very small, manageable base, and blanket the entire mainstream media,
online and offline, and net every last armed self-defense story that
gets covered.

To that end, I'm in the process of setting up an informal group of
activists to monitor online newspapers for stories of armed self-
defense. When you volunteer, it will take just a couple of minutes
per day. But your work may be crucial in turning around the gun
debate, and we can only fully accomplish this task by working as a
team.

What I'm asking is for you to bookmark the "local news" section of
two daily online newspapers. Then check that section each day for
self-defense stories. I've bookmarked 30 newspapers, and I scan them
for stories every day -- consistently. It takes me only about fifteen
minutes a day.

You may search some newspapers for months without finding a single
self-defense story, but please keep looking. Every day. For instance,
one of the newspapers I check each day is the Chattanooga Times. In
1999, there were only 19 homicides in Chattanooga. Two of them were
self-defense shootings (both were "justifiable homicides" of home
invaders who were killed by homeowners). Had I given up I might have
missed those stories. Of course, many self-defense stories aren't
published at all, but our job is to scour the local papers for those
stories that are published.

Please note that editors don't always write headlines that indicate
someone used a gun in self-defense. For instance, if I see a headline
that reads, "Murderer Captured in Brentwood," I check it out.
Although it's likely that the police captured the murderer, it
sometimes turns out that an armed citizen either made the capture and
turned the bad guy over to the police, or helped lead police to the
suspect. This information may be buried deep in the story. (Once
you've done it a few times, instinct will tell you which stories to
click into and read.)

The importance of these stories cannot be over-emphasized. A loose
coalition of writers, editors of major news organizations, television
producers, and politicians have expressed an interest in receiving as
many of these stories as we can find. They have enlisted my help to
get that information, so your work will help get this information to
people in power who care, see things our way, and can do something
constructive to bring the issue to light. I'm also forwarding every
story I receive to KeepAndBearArms.com to make sure you find out
about them -- and that they get archived. There is (finally) a
movement by some in the media to publicize these stories. Partner
with me to help them find out about every last publicized self-
defense story we can flush out.

Self-defense is the one pro-gun issue that has the power to pull
large numbers of people to our side. It is such an emotionally-driven
issue that the gun-banners won't even debate it. Bring it up and they
run for cover, spewing lies about such events being "rare" or "non-
existent." (I've been collecting these stories for only a few years
and already have developed a database of nearly 6,000 cases.) The
anti-gunners know that they can only lose on this issue. Up to now,
the mainstream media has been a willing accomplice in keeping these
stories secret. Now, however, this is becoming more difficult, and I
predict that this will begin to change in the coming year -- with
your help.

To show the power of this issue, newspapers occasionally poll their
readers concerning attitudes toward armed self-defense. In every poll
I've seen, more than ninety-five percent of the public say that they
would shoot someone in self-defense. That, my friends, is unharnessed
power waiting to be tapped. Think about it. On most issues, Americans
are split down the middle: affirmative action; abortion; school
choice. Even the death penalty, one of the most popular political
issues among Americans, has only a seventy percent approval rating.

I can't emphasize enough the importance of finding as many stories as
possible.

I'd like to cover every newspaper in the country. However, since
there are close to 10,000 of them, we'll never get them all. But if
only 100 activists volunteer to check two online newspapers each day,
that would add substantially to our database.

I'm offering to coordinate this effort (with a volunteer assistant)
so that our efforts don't overlap. In addition to having you choose a
newspaper that you read everyday, we may assign you a second paper to
check. Remember, you don't have to wade through the whole newspaper
for these stories, only the local section. This will be an ongoing
effort throughout the months and years.

If you're interested in becoming a volunteer activist in this cause,
you may contact me at the following email address.

bestdefense357@yahoo.com

Thank you, and I'm always open to suggestions. To begin with, let's
cover these major papers by accessing their online news archives on a
daily basis. Pick two and tell me which two you've picked so I can
mark them off the list. If you'd prefer to stay local, no problem.
Just pick any two online newspapers and send me your name and the
names of the two newspapers you will monitor each day -- so I know
that base is covered.

For a complete list of newspapers, go here:
http://www.newspapers.com/npcom1.htm
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