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OK, OK I'm FINALLY Asking U For Advice!
tr fox
Member Posts: 13,856
I have long faulted all pro-gun organizations for asking for donatations from their members, but they NEVER ask those members if they have new or better ideas on how to protect gun rights/citizen rights. They want our money but not our ideas. In my time here on the GB.com forums I have discovered a large number of truly nice people. And most of these wonderful people share not just an interest in guns, but an interest and belief in limited government and maximum citizen rights in ALL areas, not just guns. But while we as a group come together in our beliefs, we then go our seperate ways in trying fight for those beliefs (with the exception of the occasional on-line petition or request for e-mails). In that regard it appears we are wasting, just throwing away, what could be a tremendous strength. If we could only find a way to harness that strength. Then it occurred to me that I was thinking just like the pro-gun organizations in not taking the time to ask if anyone had any good ideas. So I'm asking now.
If we all lived in the same small town and had linked-up such as with this forum, does anyone not believe that we would "own" that town government and there WOULD be a MAXIMUM of citizen rights and a MINIMUM of overly restrictive gun laws?
So, my point is does anyone have any idea of how to harness our power? I have got something working over on the gunrights forum, but it is a mix of internet and old fashioned mail in petition. And since I am not computer/internet savy as many of you are, I don't know how well this idea is going to actually play out. But I will find out soon. But in the meantime, any ideas of how to put us all to work trying to better things?
Quote "Somehow government decided that the Constitutional Bill of Rights has become the Bill of "Suggested" Rights and are to be rationed to the citizens as the power elite sees fit"
If we all lived in the same small town and had linked-up such as with this forum, does anyone not believe that we would "own" that town government and there WOULD be a MAXIMUM of citizen rights and a MINIMUM of overly restrictive gun laws?
So, my point is does anyone have any idea of how to harness our power? I have got something working over on the gunrights forum, but it is a mix of internet and old fashioned mail in petition. And since I am not computer/internet savy as many of you are, I don't know how well this idea is going to actually play out. But I will find out soon. But in the meantime, any ideas of how to put us all to work trying to better things?
Quote "Somehow government decided that the Constitutional Bill of Rights has become the Bill of "Suggested" Rights and are to be rationed to the citizens as the power elite sees fit"
Comments
For a town or city or a state that wants to affect positive change this might work. Meeeting could be held around the time of gun shows or vendor demonstrations in your area.
Just a thought
[8D]
Greg
Former
USMC
ANGLICO
It wouldnt work. we would still be devided on all the rest of the issues, sure we would all agree on the GUN standards, but would be no different than any other community as far as our personal feelings on other subjects, Some would want, Open Porn, others would want Open Drinking, Others would want ETC ETC ETC. and unless everyone agreed on all subjects it aint gonna fly, There is no such EUTOPIA
"It is hard to soar with Eagles when your surrounded by Turkeys"
"I dont care how thin you make a pancake, it still has two sides"
"A wise man is a man that realizes just how little he knows.
I think your post has the right idea. Wish it was fesible for all of us to move to Wyoming and vote enblock. That would handle a state government okay.
Then the other 49 states would pass restrictive laws and then the national government would follow suit.
Is there anything we could do that we are not already doing? The NRA is 3,000,000 strong. Think how much power we could wield if the 65% of all Americans who are gun owners joined.
Last I know of we have 240,000.000 Americans. We even have people on here that bad mouth the NRA.
I push memberships and give discounts in my shop to current members. It's not much, but it's something.
Perhaps, voting out the career politicans would do it. The founding fathers didn't anticipate career politicans and kept the pay low so men would only do it a short time. Who would have thought a man could go through life without doing a day's work?
I wish you luck in your endeavor.
Rugster
"Toujours Pret"
Classic095: I know that even if we all came together as a group, we would NEVER agree on everything. But something I have observed time and time again is that the great majority of pro-gun people share a great number of other good beliefs and values that I find lacking in much of general society. And especially lacking in the government and political canidadates and government leaders. In other words, IMHO the majority of Americans share the good, honest, fair and workable ethics and values but it seems the minority runs the government. And because of that we too often see the bad side of America being expressed.
Just one exaample that is not the best, but I will just throw it out. BOTH politcal parties have been robbing the so-called Social Security Trust Fund. And replacing it with government IOU's that will have to be repaid by our working children. That Social Security money was supposed to be left untouched by government except to pay for the retirees so as not to place the burden of redeeming those government IOU's by the tax dollars of our children. What the government did is trickery and a cruel kind theft not only from the retirees, but from the future generations that will have to work to replace that money. If a private company did something like this to their retirees, someone body would go to prison for such theft. But not when our own government does it and does it in plain sight. This is not the best example, but the only one I can think of right now.
Quote "Somehow government decided that the Constitutional Bill of Rights has become the Bill of "Suggested" Rights and are to be rationed to the citizens as the power elite sees fit"
This forum, while active, is relatively small in terms of its total membership. We may be read far and wide for all I know, but we preach to our own choir regularly around here. And each of us, no doubt, works in his own community on this, as I do. I agree that the NRA wants our money but not our ideas, and yet the pen is mightier than the buck. So I write letters to the editor, and I criticize anti-gun politicos, and so forth. When a provocative letter is published, it goes into thousands of homes, and ripples out from there, at least for the day. I think that is a more effective use of my time than sending extra checks to the NRA. I'm already a life member and committed to vote accordingly and be a small but supportive part of their lobby in Washington D.C. If they ever asked me to come work there, I would consider it. But they don't. So I work in my own way. If you guys come up with anything, I'll consider that too.
T. Jefferson: "[When doing Constitutional interpretation], let us [go] back to the time when [it] was adopted. [Rather than] invent a meaning [let us] conform to the probable one in which it was passed."
Quote "Somehow government decided that the Constitutional Bill of Rights has become the Bill of "Suggested" Rights and are to be rationed to the citizens as the power elite sees fit"
Funny that you should brign this up. A town not far away has to put up with this website. Are things going to improve? I'd bet on it.
www.patheticpocatello.com
Clouder..
Like TR, I've been thinking on this for some time now, and I do have a suggestion for what it is worth.
We are a varied group location wise, and between us we have access to MANY representatives in the federal government. How many of us take advantage of our right to petition them, write to them, make them aware of our views?
My suggestion is to have one of our good writers(we have several here) write up a message conveying our feelings, taking lots of time, for all of us to read and agree to, discussing each point, making changes as we argue it out, until we are all satisfied that it expresses our feelings about gun control the best that can be agreed upon.
We can ALL sign it in some way with replies or whatever works, then each of us can print it and send it to our reps.
We might not be strong enough to change the world, but at least we would be doing SOMETHING, and we'd be doing it as a group, which should strengthen us, bring us closer, give us MORE power.
We might even gain enough "courage" to attack dishonesty in government next. I remember a recent post asking who believed in ANY polititian, and I don't remember any positive answers. Isn't it time we let them know it? Yaaa, I know, they don't really care, as long as they can get in office, but we have the right to at least let them know. Our ancestors died for that right, and I think we should use it. But one step at a time..
Jim
There are no bad guns, only bad people.
1) We each have to go out and bring as many non shooters into the shooting sports as we can. That may mean we also have to set aside our other politics temporarily to do it. Our greatist gains will come from recruiting Democrats and "Liberals" to our ranks. Let them change the oposition from within.
2) We have to police our own ranks a bit. 5 years ago I had a guy who I got into shooting, and he started to get into small bore rifle shooting big time. He decided he wanted to attend a gunshow and see what all the big deal was about. Well I took him along with me seeing a chance to gently educate him a little about other facets of the shooting sports. We got halfway through the show and came accross a table with a couple of our more vocal gun rights activists at it. For a year I had managed to slowly convince this "liberal" that most of what he saw on tv was lies. In less than 2 minutes these idiots managed to convince him that it was really truths and we really were a bunch of paranoid lunatics. I know older guys that have been shooters for years that either sell thier guns or park them in the closet. It's not worth the hassle to them any more. I'm not saying ignore the gun rights issue. I'm saying we sometimes damage ourselves more than we help.
It's time to put the emphasis on the fun aspects of shooting again. A right is only a right as long as it's being exercised. The more people we have exercising that right, the safer that right is.
Woods
It is called
http://www.freestateproject.org/index.jsp
Basically, a group of people have pledged to move to one state (New Hampshire) and overtake its government by voting their own governor and then setting up government for more rights of the citizens and reduce taxation.
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" - Ben Franklin
I'm afraid I don't think much of the NRA anymore, although I am a member, and have been for years. I think they spend more money on recruitment and begging funds from members than they do on the issues. They have also grown too big and seem to be toppling from their own weight. My belief only of course, and I promise I am not trying to start arguments, just stating an opinion.
There are no bad guns, only bad people.
I liked that link whiteclouder provided (thanks clouder) and some I know nothing about how to go about setting up such a website (plus costs?) I will put that idea on hold and conctrate on trying to unite the members here. But I did log that "Pathetic Pocatello" site as one my my favorites and I plan on going back to study it more.
Quote "Somehow government decided that the Constitutional Bill of Rights has become the Bill of "Suggested" Rights and are to be rationed to the citizens as the power elite sees fit"
"It is hard to soar with Eagles when your surrounded by Turkeys"
"I dont care how thin you make a pancake, it still has two sides"
"A wise man is a man that realizes just how little he knows.
I do agree that there has to be a broader view represented other than the hunter/sportsman as the average gun owner. Seems like the NRA has decided to draw the line in the sand there.
Educating the public is the only way to get results. I talked to a man in his sixties who thought the assault weapons ban was for full auto rifles. He was surprised to learn that when they say "auto" they really mean semi-auto and do not clarify on purpose so as to add to the confusion.
Quote "Somehow government decided that the Constitutional Bill of Rights has become the Bill of "Suggested" Rights and are to be rationed to the citizens as the power elite sees fit"
Quote "Somehow government decided that the Constitutional Bill of Rights has become the Bill of "Suggested" Rights and are to be rationed to the citizens as the power elite sees fit"
Why not just brand a number on our foreheads and implant a tracking device in our skulls!
Patience,patience,Bigdaddy...Soon,very soon....Every day the lick-spittles in the media talk up the "Identity Theft" 'problem'...can't have a problem without "fixing" it...
TR; I admire you..I really do.Perhaps 20 years ago there may have been a chance,had there been a few more folks like you..
What you are doing MUST be done..so that very good men can truthfully say..."We tried EVERYTHING..."
There are no bad guns, only bad people.
Quote "Somehow government decided that the Constitutional Bill of Rights has become the Bill of "Suggested" Rights and are to be rationed to the citizens as the power elite sees fit"