The superhero quotes were not the only poster designs that I had at the March For Our Lives last Saturday. I saved one other design for myself.
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| (Top is a M16, bottom is an AR15) |
I wasn’t about to give this poster design to someone else. I knew it would probably draw attention from any pro-gun folks around… and it sure did.
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| Me holding the sign. |
They tried to trip me up on the history of the two weapons, the difference between them, and what makes something an “assault rifle”. They didn’t expect me to know it, to know about conversion kits, and to know the definition is arbitrary (and that it doesn’t matter since the assault weapon ban reduced mass shootings).
They wanted to know what the “point” of my sign was. They wanted to know its “purpose”. They said it wasn’t informing people. They criticized it because it didn’t educate my fellow protesters.
And on that last point, they were right.
My sign wasn’t a dissertation. It wasn’t an informational handout. Those pro-gun guys weren’t going to be swayed by facts; they’re part of a different “tribe”.
It was designed to do two things:
1. To motivate and inspire those who were at the protest so they’d not only feel energized (as part of our tribe) on Saturday, but would carry that energy forward into further action.
2. To draw the attention of any pro-gun folks at the protest so that I could deal with them so others wouldn’t have to deal with them.
And I’d say that for those criteria, my sign did exactly what it was supposed to do.