By Rod Morse
Who owns a gun today? Women and minorities are the fastest growing segment of armed america. These new gun owners are entering unfamiliar territory, and traditional gun owners can at least meet them halfway. New gun owners have lots of questions about living an armed lifestyle. My friend Amanda Suffecool has a suggestion. Our local gun-group can produce a concealed carry fashion show. This is why you should.
Do you want to attract more women and minorities to your club? Do you want more young people at your events and fundraising activities? Here is your opportunity to back up your words with actions.
Put on a concealed carry fashion show that looks like the audience you want rather than the audience you always have.
You might want young moms to carry and join your club. Put them in the show. You can attract 21 year-old college students and 61 year-old grandmothers the same way. Put them in your show.
Do more than tell new gun owners that they are a welcome part of Armed America: show them. “We look just like you.”
I’ve convinced some of you, but others might object that you already know how to do things the way you’ve always done them. I understand. No one will criticize you if you serve the same old overcooked chicken and green beans at your annual banquet and fundraiser again this year. That is an easy decision that meets expectations. The problem with doing what you’ve always done is that you’ll get the results you’ve always gotten. Why settle for that? In this case, it is easy to try something different. Amanda Suffecool wrote the book about producing your own concealed carry fashion show. (You can get it from Amazon.)
Amanda is a shooter, and she wrote the book with us in mind. This nuts-and-bolts how-to manual, identifies the people, positions, tasks and decisions you need to make your event a success. Events like this have been done before, and we all can learn from her experience, the good and the bad. You can plan for success and avoid unnecessary surprises.
There will be surprises. For example, you were going to invite the local news media, weren’t you? What will you do with the media that shows up uninvited? That is one of many things for which you have to plan.
A concealed carry fashion show does more than demonstrate methods of concealed carry for men and women. It can recruit new members into your club and can be entertainment for existing members. The show can be a fundraising event for your organization. You can showcase local vendors and promote their products. A fashion show does that and something important as well.
A concealed carry fashion show communicates what responsible gun owners in your community look like. You get to make that statement rather than accept how you’re usually portrayed in the media.
This book is more than a few notes Amanda scribbled down or a catalog of lists. It is a 150 page book complete with illustrations. She gives us the dos-and-don’ts she’s learned from producing several shows. There is even a DVD available so we can see what other people have done and what we might want to borrow. You can do it, and welcome all of armed america to your next event.
