Smurfslayer
Member
Today I heard back from an aide to a member of Congress concerning getting legislation amended for pro-gun purposes. I would prefer not to identify the aide, and Congressman, but suffice it to say that they are a SOLID pro gun force in Congress.
They told me that it would be almost impossible to get any kind of <pro gun> provision attached to legislation at this point given the current circumstances of active debate in Congress, and impending Christmas break. This promted me to consider recent events in our time in which Congress had a heated debate on a particular issue and in the end the bill was passed with attachments... Every year's budget, '86 FOPA, 1st attempt and subsequent passing of the manufacturer's protection bill... Universally, all of these events have one thing in common, added provisions were bad for us.
Why is that? Are Feinstein, Boxer, Schumer, Lautenberg and their ilk better paliamentarians? Are they smarter? Are they more evil than the pro gun legislators are good?
I have a theory that it isn't that they are smarter, more evil, or better at paliamentary procedures, rather, they themselves are believers, surrounded by believers, lobbied by believers and they are willing to do the bidding of a small constituency no matter what the consequence. Why won't our supposed 'allies' in Congress do this?
Probably because as a constituency, we are relatively less vocal than the antis. Yes, that's right, we're less vocal, less involved and too easily divided. We're too "busy" on the internet, and on email lists to pick up the phone and call our congressional delegation or get on their website and drop them a note. It's like we're playing a poorly executed football game in which we get a lot of penalties called on us, basically handing the game to the "antis".
Perhaps we're disenchanted, feel disenfranchised, or we're just plain too lazy, but for whatever reason, with only 3 years left of a Republican presidential administration in which we have both houses of Congress, and we have only one positive development to show for our work -the AWB was allowed to sunset. True, the manufacturers got immunity, but that did exactly zip for gun owners. Nada. Nothing. The only reason for this that makes sense that I can think of is that we are not expecting enough from our allies in Congress.
<soapbox>
We should make it a THR new years resolution to contact our elected reps. at least 3 times in the new year to advance the pro gun cause. It's not enough to simply vote against gun control when it comes up. It's not enough cast a periodic vote for something the NRA-ILA supports. It's not even enough to vote for everything NRA-ILA supports. It will be enough when restrictions on the rights to keep and bear arms begin to fall. But, if we don't put the pressure on those in Congress, that will never happen.
</soapbox>
They told me that it would be almost impossible to get any kind of <pro gun> provision attached to legislation at this point given the current circumstances of active debate in Congress, and impending Christmas break. This promted me to consider recent events in our time in which Congress had a heated debate on a particular issue and in the end the bill was passed with attachments... Every year's budget, '86 FOPA, 1st attempt and subsequent passing of the manufacturer's protection bill... Universally, all of these events have one thing in common, added provisions were bad for us.
Why is that? Are Feinstein, Boxer, Schumer, Lautenberg and their ilk better paliamentarians? Are they smarter? Are they more evil than the pro gun legislators are good?
I have a theory that it isn't that they are smarter, more evil, or better at paliamentary procedures, rather, they themselves are believers, surrounded by believers, lobbied by believers and they are willing to do the bidding of a small constituency no matter what the consequence. Why won't our supposed 'allies' in Congress do this?
Probably because as a constituency, we are relatively less vocal than the antis. Yes, that's right, we're less vocal, less involved and too easily divided. We're too "busy" on the internet, and on email lists to pick up the phone and call our congressional delegation or get on their website and drop them a note. It's like we're playing a poorly executed football game in which we get a lot of penalties called on us, basically handing the game to the "antis".
Perhaps we're disenchanted, feel disenfranchised, or we're just plain too lazy, but for whatever reason, with only 3 years left of a Republican presidential administration in which we have both houses of Congress, and we have only one positive development to show for our work -the AWB was allowed to sunset. True, the manufacturers got immunity, but that did exactly zip for gun owners. Nada. Nothing. The only reason for this that makes sense that I can think of is that we are not expecting enough from our allies in Congress.
<soapbox>
We should make it a THR new years resolution to contact our elected reps. at least 3 times in the new year to advance the pro gun cause. It's not enough to simply vote against gun control when it comes up. It's not enough cast a periodic vote for something the NRA-ILA supports. It's not even enough to vote for everything NRA-ILA supports. It will be enough when restrictions on the rights to keep and bear arms begin to fall. But, if we don't put the pressure on those in Congress, that will never happen.
</soapbox>
Seriously, you can't take a defeatist position and have any reasonable expectation of victory.
