2. Spread the Word--Libraries and Other Public Reading Areas --

	``ENLIGHTEN THE PEOPLE GENERALLY, AND TYRANNY AND OPPRESSIONS
OF BODY AND MIND WILL VANISH LIKE EVIL SPIRITS AT THE DAWN OF DAY.''
Thomas Jefferson, letter to Du Pont de Nemours, April 24, 1816.

	As you've begun to educate yourself, you can begin to educate
other folks. One of the easiest ways is to get pro-rights books into
your local library.

	One good approach for a lone activist or a small group is to
``adopt a library'' and focus energy on getting pro-rights materials
into that one venue. The library doesn't have to be the biggest branch
in the area. In fact, the smaller libraries may be more grateful for
your help.

	The books you help supply may be the only pro-gun books in
that library. When students and other persons go to the library to
research the gun issue, they'll find the carefully reasoned material
that you laid out for them. One book placed in one library may, over
time, enlighten dozens of students (and future voters) about the
realities of the right to bear arms.

	At the simplest level, you can simply buy pro-rights books,
and give them to the library. Librarians strongly prefer hardback
books, since they stand up so much better under heavy use. Before
putting down the money to buy the books for a donation, check with the
librarian to make sure that the library would be interested in the
book. Libraries may accept some of the books, and reject others.
School libraries will probably want to review all of the offered
books, to make sure that they are suitable for the relevant age group.

	Of the books discussed in the previous chapter, the ones most
likely to be accepted by libraries would be the hard cover editions
of: The Rights of Gun Owners; The Gun Control Debate; Pointblank;
Under the Gun; Armed and Dangerous; That Every Man Be Armed; Origins
of the Second Amendment; Origins and Development of the Second
Amendment; The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy; Gun Control and
the Constitution; and Armed and Female.

	Donations can also be done on a larger scale. The People's
Rights Organization, of Columbus, Ohio, working with the national
Citizen's Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, bought 25
copies each of three pro-gun books and donated them to the Columbus
Library. The books were Paxton Quigley's Armed and Female, Alan
Gottlieb's The Gun Grabbers, and William Tonso's The Gun Culture and
Its Enemies. The library, which has numerous branches, gratefully
accepted the books.

	Another hard-working group, the Keystone Second Amendment
Association put 130 books in 17 high school, public, and college
libraries in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania.

	Second Amendment Foundation will be delighted to work with you
in library donation projects. SAF can provide you the books at cost
(about 1/3 to 1/2 of the retail price). They may be able to supply
some books for free.

	Libraries are also happy to have magazine subscriptions
donated to them. The NRA magazine American Rifleman is a good choice.
InSights, the NRA magazine for junior shooters, is a fine selection
for school libraries. Because InSights is sent to so many schools, it
has no political content. Some smaller libraries will accept your own
copy of a magazine, once you're done with it. You can just cross out
your name on the subscription label.

	Some libraries, particularly small ones that cater to students
writing reports for school, keep folders on current events such as gun
control (which is a consistently popular student paper topic). The
folders may include pamphlets, newspaper clips, and other
miscellaneous materials. Ask the librarian if there is such a file,
and if you can donate materials for it. The Research Reports and
NRA/ILA brochures mentioned in chapter 1 would be good items to
include.

	Libraries usually have community bulletin boards, as do
organizations such as the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign
Wars. Keep an eye on the bulletin boards and, if the public is allowed
to post materials, stick up a flyer from your local pro-rights
organization.

	Some libraries set up table displays from time to time. If you
see that your library has one, consider offering to set one up about
gun control. Before speaking with the librarian, examine what other
kinds of displays the library has, and try to design something that
fits in with what the library is already used to. The librarian will
probably be more receptive if you can provide a balanced set of
materials, rather than information that just reflects the pro-rights
viewpoint.  Don't worry about letting the public see the other side;
the pro-rights argument, when examined in a logical and careful
manner, is so much more persuasive than the gun control side that
moving the public debate away from emotions and towards reason nearly
always makes converts for the Second Amendment.

	The above advice about advance preparation fits in for just
about everything mentioned in this book: Advance scouting is always a
good idea. Before you write a letter to the editor of the local paper,
read the letters to the editor column, and see what kind of letters
get printed. Before you visit a Congresswoman's office, study her
voting record.

	Not every place where people sit for hours and hours reading
old magazines is called a ``library.'' Some such places are called
``the doctor's waiting room.'' Waiting rooms are an excellent place to
leave pro-rights magazines such as the American Rifleman. Make sure to
cross out your name, so some well-intentioned soul doesn't mail it
back to you, thinking you left it in the waiting room by mistake.
Doctors, dentists, barbers, hairdressers, auto mechanics, and lots of
other professionals all have waiting rooms full of customers desperate
for something to read that's more interesting (and accurate) than a
six-month-old issue of Time.