Anyone still want to argue we aren’t in grave danger? The GOP can be counted on not to be counted on. I will join Glenn Reynolds call: we must be heard from.
UPDATE: From Glenn’s post, from one of his readers: “I have heard some talk that passage of new gun control would be a good thing for the Republicans, as it would lead to a repeat of the 1994 midterm elections. I am of the mind that it will only cause more voters that should rightly be in the GOP column to disengage.”
That’s exactly what’s happened to gun voters in New Jersey. They’ve just given up, because neither party will do anything for them. They are largely not a factor in politics in New Jersey. Does the GOP nationally just want to surrender a huge voting bloc? Personally, if the GOP throws us under the bus. I’m done with the issue. At that point it’s got to be a third party.
I have written to my Congresscritters 3 or 4 times since the tragedy in Conn.
I have made it perfectly clear that my vote depends on the way they support the 2nd Amendment.
My next letter will include that I will actively campaign against anyone who does not support the 2nd Amendment.
Give it a rest if you’re writing that often. If they get your name that many times in such a short time period, you won’t be taken seriously. When I did my time interning for a Congressman, there was a little alert that could be set for someone who contacts the office over every little thing all the time repeatedly. If I went to process their letter or phone call, that alert would pop up and they wouldn’t be taken nearly as seriously.
How often should you write if you get no response?
I wrote both my senators after the CT shooting. I got one reply.
I waited another week before writing again to the non-responder.
How much is too much?
They may take a while to respond. This did happen over a holiday. The important thing is that you got your letter in. They might also be licking their fingers and sticking it in the air to see which way the winds blow before responding.
In a situation like this, there aren’t any strict rules. I would say that twice is plenty at this point, and any follow-up should really be in the form of a phone call that expresses your concern that the office is refusing to acknowledge your letters (i.e. a polite message that says they are doing a shitty job of constituent service) as much as it is focused on the specific gun legislation.
Once a solid bill is actually introduced and we have language, I would say that once is fine to begin with, and then contact again only when there’s movement or threat of movement in the relevant chamber.
Should you ask for replies? My House rep has an option for that, and I haven’t been asking since I’m sure his office is very busy right now and I’m also pretty sure he’s a solid vote on our side.
I’ve also been asking him to not return Boehner as Speaker in a couple of days so I thought not putting him on the spot by asking for a reply was best (in fact, that was the first point I made in my short 2nd message, followed by the RKBA and finishing with wishing them all a happy New Year).
Go ahead and ask for a reply next time you respond. Yes, it will be a form letter of some kind. However, it shows that you’re very interested in what he has to say on the subject.
I’ve also written mine, and gotten the ‘form’ responses… NOT impressed with any of them at this point. Oh yeah, Happy New Year… I hope…
I wouldn’t complain about form letter responses yet. There are no bills at this point since the new Congress hasn’t even been sworn in yet. There’s not much that an office can really say at this point since no one really knows what any language will look like until a bill is introduced.
From the Libertsrian Party’s platform:
1.6 Self-Defense
The only legitimate use of force is in defense of individual rights — life, liberty, and justly acquired property — against aggression. This right inheres in the individual, who may agree to be aided by any other individual or group. We affirm the individual right recognized by the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms, and oppose the prosecution of individuals for exercising their rights of self-defense. We oppose all laws at any level of government requiring registration of, or restricting, the ownership, manufacture, or transfer or sale of firearms or ammunition.
I have been a registered Libertarian for years. The only reason I voted all GOP in NC was for gun rights. It won’t take much for the republicans to lose my vote.
Everyone should go and read the email at that site. It is important to read it for what it says and what it implies.
What it’s telling us is not that the GOP is going to stab us in the back…yet. What it’s telling us is that GOP higher ups get that AWB II would be toxic _but_ (being politicians and probably knowing as little about the issue as their opposite numbers in the Democratic party) don’t yet get that a ban on magazines would be toxic too. So naturally (again, being politicians) they see room for wiggling and compromise.
Therefore it is *imperative* that we make them understand that magazine bans are just as toxic to their continued careers. Don’t be rude, don’t be angry – but be firm and inform them. That email totally reads like someone flailing around and about to harm us not in malice but in IGNORANCE – and it’s up to us to fix that.
Tell them a magazine ban is as terminal for their ongoing support as any gun ban. Tell them we expect this to die in committee just like OUR bills did when the Democrats owned the House. Tell them you’ll be there making phone calls for them in ’14 if they hold the line (and follow through on that).
(Oh, and when it comes to strategy, this ‘fiscal cliff’ business can be seen as an opportunity. I’m sure quite a few of them expect to be fending off Tea Party primary opponents in the wake of that. Good. All the more reason for them to want to keep their NRA A ratings).
^^^ THIS!
What’s the preferred language for saying “Do what I want or I will take my energetic support elsewhere?”
Its time for a third party. The dems and gop have their time and have done nothing but line their pockets. How do tell ourselves every election that two choices is the way to go. When I told people that I was voting for gary johnson people said I was wasting my vote. I can honestly say that I voted for a person and not against someone. We need 5% to be a viable party.
There you go being defeatist again. I understand this is a battle we must fight and I will do my part but you keep making these posts that pretty much say that literally nothing we do or say will matter. You seem to almost imply that if all 90 million of us write or call up our congress critters that the left will get to pretty much remove the 2nd ammendment from the bill of rights with the rights support or they will ‘comprmise’. So by extension you’re implying our voices are worthless. You say write your congress critters and be active both locally and online but at they same time imply that they will either ignore you or still pay attention and ban or comprimise on guns anyway.
Your posts like this sound not like you’re panicing, your sounding like a damn defeatist like on some of the places I regular and I as well tell them to get active but what’s the goddamn point for you if you think we have already lost this early on?
And I’m not trying to sound devisive or sound like an asshole but this moping is getting aggrivating and pissing me off I am seeing so much of it. And from a guy who has visited your blog every single day sometimes multiple times a day for the past 6-7 years it’s unsettling. I still do what you do here to my abilites but I don’t make it sound quasi-pointless when I say it others.
How does “We must be heard from” translate into “nothing we do or say will matter.”
If I thought 90 million of us would call, write, or otherwise communicate with lawmakers, I’d be sitting back this New Year’s even drunk off my ass and not at all concerned. I’d be looking forward to a great 2013. But the fact is that most gun owners are not in the fight politically. Those of us that are have to make up for those of us that aren’t. That’s just reality. It’s not defeatism.
Not so sure, Sebastian. Admittedly, I have a small sample but a lot of the folks I was talking to in the line at the Chantilly show were quite pissed and while out to try and get theirs, they indicated they were contacting their representatives. If there was one thing I kept repeating to anyone in earshot is to do that.
If even a quarter of the people in that line and in similar lines around the country did that, it sends a message.
In thinking, if every single one of us who wants to keep our scary looking utility rifles and standard capacity magazines, instead of buying one for $30, donate that to the NRA-ILA. Renew your NRA membership as well but it is the NRA-ILA funds that matter in this fight. If every one of us did that, we bump up the 800lb gorilla to a new weight class and cut him loose. Gun control folks might get in offices to talk and persuade too but they can’t twist arms. The NRA can.
I hope you’re right, but I don’t want to take anything for granted. I feel like people want someone to tell them everything is going to be OK. I really can sympathize. I want someone to tell me that. But no one in the know is telling me that. We really don’t know what’s coming. We have no idea. So all we can do is be ready, and keep the heat on lawmakers.
I think we have some “idea”, or at least Obama putting Biden in charge of a commission is not a call to arms (so to speak) for him. Or not yet, with a January timeframe for action he could be kicking the can just a little ways into the future to see how the polling numbers are after the immediate reaction is over.
Reid is also using a lot of words to say nothing; again, he’s a gun grabber who only recently saw the light, so we’ll have to see.
However none of us who’ve watched them for a while trust the Republican House, or at least the current leadership, which I at least am sincerely hoping gets replaced after Boehner’s bullying in the fiscal cliff mess and the prior purging of conservatives.
It’s possible; the purges send a signal to the conservatives in the caucus that they have little to lose by voting against him and his team, when you send someone to the back bench you can’t demote them any further. Well, I suppose there’s money for campaigns and the danger that the establishment will try to primary them….
The reference to gun owners in New Jersey is very relevant. Back in the early 90s politically active gun owners became the backbone and muscle of the GOP in New Jersey and helped regain the state legislature and the governor’ s office only to have both go very soft in repealing the semi-auto ban. Since that betrayal, the Republicans have become the minority party in N.J. The Republicans always seem to alienate their base in the hopes that they can appeal to the Democrat base.
Yeah 1990 was when I got out of NJ, I saw that things were bad and only getting worse back then. I honestly don’t know why any gun owner would stay there myself, same for California and Illinois.
So a radio show most people have never heard of puts up what he claims is an e-mail exchange from an anonymous source which says we’re going to see “something” move through Congress.
C’mon. This PSH is on par with some of Ladd’s best/worst.
It’s well within what we expect from Republicans nowadays (very very few on either side really care about our cause) and I think it’s somewhat short of PSH. I won’t quite say it has the ring of truth, but it doesn’t have anything that indicated to me it’s not true.
Don’t you have a draconian Assault Weapons Ban to worry about stopping?
Yes, but I have an actual bill in hand, not a questionable e-mail from an unnamed source.
Fear of Power Loss prompts Politicians to attempt to placate the “Council of the Small And Silly” by following Stupid Ideas instead of diong the correct thing or taking the correct paths to change things or to solve any problem!
The difference between Intelligence and Stupidity is Intelligence has it’s Limitations!
It’s good that we’re all getting involved in contacting our Congress Critters; however, we’re going to need to do more. This is more crucial than just our 2A rights.
The registered Independent (and somewhat Libertarian) part of me is about ready to gag but I am seriously getting ready to re-register Republican and get active in the party and try to work towards positive change from within. Having grown-up under the single party rule of Massachusetts, there is no way I will ever formally affiliate with the Democratic party.
I would throw all my support behind a viable 3rd party if I thought there truly was one. Seems like all it’s doing is dividing us as Caesar divided and conquered Gaul. We can gripe about how it all sucks but we also have to ask ourselves if we’re active enough and focusing those resources properly.
Just my 2-cents…
I have been called crazy for wanting to start my own Political Party. It would be Named the TOTS Party. T:Tired. O:OF. T:This S:S….(Stuff). The party Platform wuld be to revert back to the full intent of the founding Fathers. All Fed. Govt. Office Holders, elected or appointed could/and would be removed from office for any Failure to Preserve, Protect, and Defend the Constitution, as writtten NOT as interpreted. All Federal Agencies charged with the Enforcementof Federal Law will Enforce Those Federal Laws in their entirity and not subject to discretiion. No Federal Agency will be permitted to violate Federal Law, for any Reason (as the BATB did the “Gun Control Act of 1968” in its infamous “Operation Fast And Furious” when it supplied Drug Cartels with High Grade “Assult” Rifles and other high grade Combat Weapons!)Concentrete on the concept that Rights and Freedoms come with Responsibilities. The more Powerful the Freedom or Right the more strengent the Responsibility!
I have been informed that this concept is “Politically Incorrect” and that Both Parties would become angry with such a concept. The Media would be Enraged!
So much for the Opinion of a Aged Cherokee Nation Citizen!
For personal action, telephone calls are our most effective, and second cheapest, lobbying tool, particularly if you call His or Her Highness DC office. Letters used to be a close second, but it takes weeks for letters to get through quarantine. By then the crisis is over. E-mail is good for relieving your feelings but not much else.
At the moment one call a month to strongly oppose gun control laws in general or a specific gun bill, with a strong hint that you will not support anyone who supports gun control, is about the max that will not get you on the pest list. Of course, that does not mean that you cannot get someone else to make a call.
You, the wife, children who will be 18 on November 4, 2014, friends, neighbors, co-workers, are just some of those that can and should be persuaded to make a call. Of course, they should use their own telephone, since most offices have software that will read the telephone number and pop up the name of the caller. Too many calls from the same number gets the number on the list.
But don’t forget our paid lobbyists in DC. All of our lobbying groups do yeoman work in hitting up the Great One in person and getting that commitment to vote gun. So do send a few bucks to the ILA, GOA, SAF, and the rest from time to time.
Stranger
I’m on the Left Coast doing what I can at this end. Today’s post:
http://guardamerican.com/index.php/blog/35-politics/440-hitler-gun-control-godwin-s-law-and-america-today
It’s not about Republican vs. Democrat. It’s about Freedom.