Always be nice. Really, really nice.

Open Source Defense breaks down the steps to make something that once was forbidden and illegal into something normal. They list four steps: Forbidden, Aberrant, Accepted, Unnoticed. The move from the second to third step caught my eye: 

 “Aberrant→Accepted: this requires first and foremost that gun owners be smart. This is the transition that people fail to make because they allow themselves to be guided by what feels good instead of what delivers results. See more on this in “OSD 65: Diving headfirst through the Overton window” and “OSD 176: Don’t force people to have an opinion”, which get into the hit-and-miss history of open carry protests.” 

Smart is a good word to use there, but I would also add the word “polite.” Guns project lethal force. That’s what they do. As such, that ability to end a life makes some people nervous around guns, and honestly, that’s not a bad thing. We should be cautious with things that can end a life, be it a car, a pistol or a nuclear reactor. The fact is, a gun in the hands of a jerk behind the trigger is a bad thing for everybody. Nice gun owners, however, make guns nice for everyone. 

Look, when Uncle Ben told Peter Parker that with great power comes great responsibility, it wasn’t just a good line in a movie, it’s also the gold-plated truth. Owning a firearm is a right, but every right comes with a responsibility. Never forget that.