Mobilizing Social Media for Political Leverage

It has been less than five months since I began publishing all the stories of armed self-defense in one place to make them easier to find. It has been less than three months since I established a facebook page to promote these stories using social media. In this short amount of time, we have published over 346 separate instances where the presence of a gun in the hands of a responsibly armed citizen had a direct contribution in stopping 174 burglaries, 127 robberies, 103 assaults, 73 murders, 12 domestic assaults, 9 rapes, 3 auto thefts, and 1 sexual assault (numbers do not add up to 346; some things are double counted, i.e. a burglary sometimes turns into an assault or murder prevention when the intruder is armed and caught by the homeowner).

Obviously, these numbers surprise a lot of people; most of these stories never make it on the national news. They have generated enough interest to attract 40,000 unique views since late December 2012 and attract nearly 400 followers on the facebook page. This is promising and I have no doubt that the number of people actively following these stories will continue to grow exponentially due to social media.

Unfortunately, contrary to popular belief, our laws are not decided on facebook. Starting this month, I will select the most popular story, print that story on a postcard, and send it to each member of the United States Congress, as well as the White House. In a digital age, we often underestimate the power of a piece of snail mail.

I will continue to do this each month, selecting the most popular story from that month and sending that story out as well.

So what do I need from you? Two things:

1.) I need to know what the most popular story truly is for that month. What story will have the most impact on our law-makers in Washington? In order to vote, please "like," "share," or tweet your favorite stories. There is a counter on the side of each story that allows anyone to see which stories have received the most social media interactions.

2.) I will be setting up a paypal donate button to help cover the cost of printing, postage, and website maintenance. This is not a money making opportunity for me. If more money is donated than is needed for a monthly mailing, I will do bi-weekly mailings or add all 50 governors to the distribution list as well. A full accounting of how funds are used will be published monthly.

You can donate by using the button below. It is 100% secure with Paypal: