It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

More than two centuries ago, many of our Founding Fathers laid down their lives so that we could be free.  It began in earnest on April 19, 1775, when many brave colonists fought, bled and died on the Lexington green.

It is such an important day in our history, yet how many of us ever celebrate that anniversary?

I have to admit that I haven’t in the past, but that all changed this year.

In the past couple of months, the National Geographic Channel, ABC, NBC and CNN have aired incredibly biased pieces attacking the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

After viewing these shows, one would think that guns are used far more often to kill than to save lives… that most police officers support gun control… that guns are the greatest killer of children in the United States… and that more gun control would make people safer.

Well, I decided that I could just keep complaining about the anti-gun media or that, instead, I could do something about it.

I chose the latter.

The Gift of Lexington and Concord

Since April 19 fell on a Sunday this year, I decided to “celebrate” this historic anniversary with the youth in my church.  (Sunday evenings are the time that we typically hold our teenage meetings.)

Now, before I tell you about how the evening went, let me tell you a little about my congregation.  If you were to walk in the church parking lot, you would instantly discern where most of the attendees stand on politics.

Bumper stickers like “Border control, not gun control,” “Abortion is mean” and “My son is in the US Army” are commonplace.

If you were to spot an Obama 08 sticker, you would quickly determine that it belongs to a visitor.  It’s not that the church frisks people for political ideology or requires its parishioners to hold certain views on candidates.

But, the saying “birds of a feather flock together” perhaps best describes why conservative and libertarian-minded people tend to pick this location for their church home.

With this backdrop, you can better appreciate the results from that Sunday evening.

My plan was to celebrate the history of April 19, to show a video that GOA offers and to do a brief teaching on I Samuel 13 (where the Philistines used weapons control to disarm Israel and subjugate them).

But before I did any of this, I passed out a little quiz so I could see where the parents and their teenagers stood on Second Amendment issues.

Media and Public School brainwashing

The survey results were stunning:

* A third of the respondents did not know that gun control policies around the world over the last 100 years have endangered people’s lives.

* Almost 40 percent did not know that guns are used far more often in the United States to save life than to take life.

* And a whopping 90 percent did not know that the British effort on April 19 to steal the colonists’ guns (a.k.a., gun control) was the immediate event which precipitated the shots fired at Lexington.

Again, these are not the survey results from President Obama’s church back in Illinois.

These are the results from a conservative, suburban church where almost every parent voted against Barack Obama in the most recent election.

Can you see that the media and public schools are doing their job?

Well, there is good news to report.

Teenagers learn that “Gun control = people control”

After giving out the quiz — which can be downloaded here — we discussed the real history behind the “Shot Heard Round the World.”

It was not because the colonists hated paying high taxes.  Truth be told, the colonists paid much lower taxes than we do today.

The American War for Independence began on April 19, 1775 — the very day that British soldiers tried to steal weapons and gunpowder from the colonists in Massachusetts.

The war started because our Founding Fathers did not want the King’s soldiers to confiscate their guns.  Put another way, the war started because of our opposition to gun control.

This was brand new information for a whopping 90 percent of the group.

Following the discussion of the April 19 anniversary, I showed how this method of subjugation is spelled out in I Samuel 13:17-22 and how many other countries have followed this pattern.

I then used a video that GOA offers entitled Innocents Betrayed.  This is an excellent DVD produced by Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership which demonstrates how gun control has been a first step to genocide in many nations around the globe.

I had to warn them ahead of time that the video was rated PG-12, as some of the atrocities depicted can be unsettling for younger kids.

The “Jaws Effect”

We wrapped things up by discussing the actual statistics of firearms use in this country.  It became very clear that a substantial percentage of the youth (and parents) had succumbed to the “Jaws effect.”

Remember the movie Jaws from the 1970s?  How many people were scared to play in the ocean after seeing that movie?

Lots of people were — even though the statistics show that less than 20 people per year are actually killed by shark attacks in this country.  One has a greater chance of dying by lightning, choking on food, drowning, or being killed in a car accident.

The same misconceptions exist towards firearms.  Different studies show that guns are used anywhere from 50 to 80 times more often to save life than to take it.   And yet, the media typically only shows us the heart-wrenching negative uses.

Hence, it is not surprising that a majority of people in a conservative audience thought guns were a “net drain” on our society.

Ironically, I actually used the very first couple of minutes of Guns in America — an anti-gun show produced by the National Geographic Channel.  While the hour-long video is incredibly biased against Second Amendment rights, the show begins with a reenactment of a self-defense story.

That reenactment would be the last time that Guns in America would ever tilt towards the pro-gun direction, but in those two minutes, the show depicts an actual 9-1-1 call with a reenactment of a woman shooting a stalker in her home.

The teenagers cheered when the woman blasted her assailant.

At the end of the evening, I asked the question:  “Would any of you would like to change the answers on your earlier survey?”

A chorus of “YES!” filled the room.

You can do the same

All gun owners can make use of pro-gun media to impact the world around them.  But we have to be willing to think “outside of the box,” and not just wait for someone else to take over a media channel to get the pro-gun view out.

Every gun owner has a sphere of influence.  Have you been using yours?

What if gun owners were to take entertaining, hard-hitting DVDs and show them to their own teenagers?  Or to their youth groups at church?  Or to their kids’ Boy Scout troops?

What about getting the local high school government teacher to show one to his class to generate discussion?  Or even getting a club at the local university to sponsor such a viewing for a similar debate?

Pro-gun DVDs that will turn the tide

GOA offers several DVDs — at http://www.gunowners.com/bookst.htm — to give people the effective tools to counter the type of drivel that the supposedly “neutral” news media have offered up.  For example:

* Michael & Me is a great answer to the tripe that Michael Moore frequently peddles.  Hosted by Larry Elder, Michael & Me shows how the media distorts the positive role of guns in society and provides viewers many vivid examples of how guns save lives.

* Innocents Betrayed (mentioned above) is a DVD which demonstrates how gun control has been a first step to genocide in many nations around the globe.

* Shooting Back explains the story of Charl van Wyk, an ordinary Christian man who became a hero on July 25, 1993 — the day that would become known as the St. James Massacre.  It was on this date that van Wyk shot back at the terrorists who were attacking an innocent congregation gathered in prayer, and saved many lives in the process.

* And, finally, In Search of the Second Amendment is a documentary that explains what the Second Amendment is all about.  In interviewing professors, historians and other authorities, a legal expert presents original historical documents, many of which have never before been filmed. This is the documentary to equip the Second Amendment activist and convince many of those who don’t like guns.

Change the world around you

Here’s how you can use these pro-gun DVDs.  Look for important anniversaries that you can build on — important dates such as the following:

* March 7:  Anniversary of the Bloody Sunday beatings in Alabama

* April 19:  the “Shot Heard Round the World”

* Last Monday in May: Memorial Day

* June 21: Ratification of the Constitution

* July 4: Independence Day

* September 17: Constitution Day

* December 15:  Bill of Rights Day

Or, if you want to build off of current events, the next time there is a nationally-televised shooting, use the Michael & Me or Shooting Back DVDs to show your teenagers or Boy Scouts troop.  Michael & Me gives excellent statistics and good self-defense stories.  Shooting Back shows how a courageous gun owner used his gun to stop a massacre and protect defenseless people.

Or, use these DVDs on campus.  Any of them would generate excellent debate in a school or university setting.

The point is, you can be an effective messenger in countering the drivel that the media is peddling.

It’s bad enough that a liberal teacher’s union controls the education of our kids in the public schools, and that many of them are being brainwashed with politically correct thinking.

But even though supposedly neutral news outlets are peddling the Brady Campaign’s favorite factoids to an unsuspecting public, we can help change the thinking of the next generation.