My tour of sportsmens groups in Bucks County continues apace, and I’m continuing to sign up volunteers. I have spoken with a club every night this week, except for Monday. Tuesday I spoke at Branch Valley, which has 500 members. Last night to a packed audience at my own club, which has 1100 members. Tonight I speak at Conestoga Rod & Gun Club, a 200 member club. I’ve had a good reception pretty much everywhere. Many gun owners came up to me and told me they were unaware of Congressman Patrick Murphy’s record on guns. Gun owners, overall, seem to be very worried about this election. They ought to be. The stakes are high.
This weekend, the National Director of Sportsmen for McCain will be staying with Bitter and I. We’re glad to help save the campaign some money. He’ll be accompanying me to talk with my club’s archers on Friday, to a military rifle match at Holmesburg Fish & Game in Philadelphia, and we’ll all be headed to the big rally on Sunday at 1PM at Pike Township Sportsmen’s Association in Oley. Should be a productive weekend. We have to deliver Pennsylvania for McCain. I think it’s possible, despite what the polls are saying. I’ve believed since the beginning of this race that Obama will over poll. We have to turn out. If we turn out, we can win. Not only for McCain, but for our state and Congressional races too.
The Bucks County GOP is noticing our activities too, which is good. They are noticing that gun owners are on the ball and doing things in the county. This will attract support from politicians. The worst thing that can happen is for politicians to feel taking a position on gun issues won’t help them any. If they feel that way, they won’t really bother. As Bitter said, the perception of activity matters. Even if you only have a handful of volunteers who are really helping out, that makes a huge difference. Word of mouth gets around, people get involved, the powers that be notice, and before you know it, gun owners in your area are a force to be reckoned with. It doesn’t really take much.
I have been corresponding with Karen Smith, Press Secretary of the Manion Campaign. I was wondering why the 2nd amendment issue is not addressed on their campaign web site, no response yet, although her first reply read:
Maybe others are interested in contacting her directly.
Claude,
We face challenges here in Bucks County. For one, there’s not much of a “gun vote” here. There’s a lot of gun owners, but there’s no organized gun vote that the campaigns can deal with. That’s exactly what I’ve set out to change, and why I’m trying to organize gun owners. You can’t expect candidates to wear the gun issue on their sleeve if it’s not a signaling mechanism to an important voting constituency that “Hey, I’m one of you.”
Politicians are loathe to take a position on something unless they know there’s votes in it. Otherwise you’re at best entering uncharted waters, and at worst a minefield. If you want to see candidates woo gun voters, I would encourage you to get involved with what we’re doing. The Philadelphia area is a hostile media environment for gun owners. I don’t blame Manion for not making a big deal of it. We’ve talked with his campaign, and I can assure you that he’s a good guy on our issue. If we show him that gun owners are on board, and motivated to help get him elected, maybe we can have a seat at the table. But whether we do or not is up to gun owners.
P.S. – I’m editing your comment to remove her phone number. I don’t want to advertise people’s personal information here.