10. Speeches and Debates

``GUARD WITH JEALOUS ATTENTION THE PUBLIC LIBERTY. SUSPECT EVERYONE
WHO APPROACHES THAT JEWEL.'' Patrick Henry.

Style

	Begin to establish a bond with the audience by relating an
experience of your own which the audience is likely to have shared.

	Wear a suit and tie (just a suit, if you're female). Surveys
of college students show that they have more intellectual respect for
professors who dress professionally, rather than the ones who dress
casually.

	Instead of writing the speech word for word, jot down key
words and topics that you can glance at as you go along. It's much
more fun to hear somebody who's speaking instead of somebody who's
reading aloud. Keep your sentences short, remembering that things
presented orally must be simpler than things delivered in writing.
Make sure that your speech has a beginning, a middle, and a
conclusion. Maintain eye contact with the audience as much as
possible. Instead of looking over the audience's heads, focus on one
particular person, and speak directly to her. Of course make sure to
keep changing the person you focus on. Practice, practice, practice
your speech before you deliver it to the audience.

	One obvious audience for speeches is gun clubs or hunting
clubs.  But don't overlook other potential audiences. For example,
groups such as Rotary Clubs have weekly luncheon meetings, always with
a new speaker. Same for the Kiwanis, for women's clubs, and for the
League of Women Voters. Many would be glad to have someone address
their group about a topic in the news.

	And bring along some written materials to hand out to
interested people afterwards. Membership flyers from your local gun
rights group are a good choice, as is any of the educational material
discussed above chapter 1.

Substance

	Choose one topic for a short speech. It's much easier to write a
good, powerful speech on a single subject, than to try to cover the
whole field. A single topic might be ``The Truth about So-called
Assault Weapons'' or ``What the Second Amendment Means'' or ``Why
Concealed Carry Permit Laws Are a Good Idea'' or ``Why Waiting Periods
Don't Work'' or ``Because the Police have no Legal Obligation to Protect
Individuals, People Need the Ability to Protect Themselves.''

	In addition, gear the topic to the audience. If you're
speaking for a gun club, the audience might appreciate a fairly
``advanced'' topic, such as how waiting periods set the stage for gun
prohibition.  In contrast, an audience of Rotarians might want an
elementary introduction to the Second Amendment, or a discussion of
the importance of self-defense and responsible gun ownership in
today's high-crime society.

	As with virtually every other type of persuasive
communication, concrete examples work well. If you're talking about
waiting periods, discuss the people who couldn't get a gun to defend
their families during the Los Angeles riots because of California's
15-day waiting period.

Debates

	Most the same rules applicable to speeches apply to debates as
well. One major difference is that you'll have much less time to
develop your points.

	In debates (and in general), try to stay focused on the
pro-rights positive agenda, instead of attempting to rebut
point-by-point every argument made by your opponent. If your debate
opponents says something like ``The gun nuts want semi-automated
plastic machine guns firing cop-killer teflon bullets to be sold to
children without a waiting period,'' it would take you 15 minutes to
rebut each of the charges contained in the single sentence.

	Instead, keep the debate on our positive issues, with which
the vast majority of people agree with us: using force to defend home
and family is morally legitimate; because the police cannot protect
everyone, people should have the option to protect themselves;
criminals are afraid of and deterred by armed citizens; gun controls
affect only criminals, and distract politicians from genuine solutions
to crime.

	Except in front of an audience of lawyers or similar group,
don't spend a lot of time on Constitutional issues. You can make the
point that your own state Constitution (in most states) as well as the
federal Constitution guarantee a right to bear arms, and the US
Supreme Court re-affirmed the individual right in the 1990
Verdugo-Urquidez case. But in general, non-lawyer audiences are more
likely to be persuaded by practical arguments than by legal ones.