DAY ONE: What will YOU change?

[Thin Black Line]

Are you going to get an NRA membership?

How about joining other orgs in your community so you can get involved
both at the local and state level?

How many letters will you write?

How many community forums will you attend in person?

Are you going to educate antis in a nice way by being pleasant, cordial and
offering to take them target shooting?

At this point, I'm going to have to lean back on the "old-fashion" methods of
raising community awareness. When I checked THR, I noticed all discussion
of this morning's OFFICIAL WHITEHOUSE POLICY has apparently been made a
verbotten topic since any thread opened on it is closed. Ironically, I must
add that members were then directed to an Activism thread which didn't
exist:

the activism thread on this topic is here http://thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=421684

(LOL...sigh...to be expected I guess...and how Kafka-esque I might add).

So how are you going to change the FEAR that you woke up with this morning?

(BTW, MODERATORS, don't confuse "damage control" with your own FEAR.
If there's a supposedly offending post, delete the post. Information can be
passed along and ideas generated without locking and/or making entire threads
disappear. Don't misuse your own power.)

I'll bet the antis who monitor this site are having a really great belly laugh
this morning at the complete DIVIDE AND CONQUER response that gun-owners
are wilfully doing to themselves. It's really going to make their job easier if
"we" keep this up.

Have we already lost this fight on day one?

I'm asking these questions because it seems the so-called "leaders" on our
side grabbed the towel as soon as the bell was rung. (It was the "I've got
mine already" response that I saw leading up to 1994).

Yes, get off the couch. Call some friends. Get together.

Think long-term. Ignore the "I've got mine already" people and plan for the
next generation --or two and three.

 

[CoRoMo]

Continuing down the same course that I have been on since about September. That is where my direction was altered when I saw how things were apparently going to play out, rather than today. Today is not dissimilar to yesterday.

 

[RDak]

Sounds corny but I'll just keep doing what I have to to keep the 2nd Amendment alive and well.

I'll write Congressmen/women, the President, etc.

We all know that Obama will attempt to bring back the Clanton years. His pick for Attorney General clued me in on that fact.

Eric Holder told the Senator from Oklahoma that he saw loopholes in Heller that would allow him to pursue what I call "infringements".

In fact, Holder's mindset is to find any "weakness" in Heller, supra, and attack our 2nd Amendment rights accordingly IMHO.

So, I will continue to write, call, etc.

 

[Lightninstrike]

FWIW I put my membership application in the mail for KSRA today.

 

[John828]

What will I do on Day ONE? Well, I got a second date with a gal who is neutral on the gun issue. I gently and imperceptly probed on the first date. Conversation at that point went something like this (out of context of course,)

Her: I have a dog for security.
Me: Why not get a pistol?
Her: Oh no. I don't care if other people have them, but I could never.
Me: Cool, where do you want to eat?

I just wanted to feel her out on the gun issue and a few others to see if there were any red flags. So far I have only seen a few yellow lights and mostly green.

Today we are venturing out into a national forest where we are watching the sunset before dinner. The spot I chose is deliberately beyond a few places others have used for plinkling. Another subject I can nonchalantly talk about. Third date if there is one will be a "girly" choice for her benefit, then after that to the range if she is up for it.

I am already a member of the NRA, and I send e-mails pretty regularly.

Got a question on the effectiveness of the e-mails though. I always get the same standard auto-reponse, but I never get any real personal response. Are these e-mails just read by staffers and do the reps and Senators themselves ever get them?

 

[HexHead]

I didn't wait until today. In the past week or so I've written my state legislators as well as my Senators and Congressman on a variety of gun related topics. I also upgraded my wife to a Life Member of the NRA.

 

[Bubba613]

What will I do?
Nothing. My life is not dependent on whatever suit occupies the White House. I will go to work as usual. I will work honestly and with integrity, as usual. I will hunt for bargains and saleable merchandise as usual. I will combat the hyped panics that crop up on these boards, as usual.

 

[WarHall]

Interesting Question.

I suppose I will OC more often. I seem to do it more often than I would have dared to, and it's odd, nobody seems to notice. I have a ccw, so I guess I'm 'covered' if it is partially concealed by a shirt or jacket (It is winter, after all). Wether this will create hassles for me or not I don't know. I suspect eventually it will, though. Try to get people used to the idea, since there are more Kali's coming here than before..

 

[The_Shootist]

I mailed $ 100 to the GOA!

 

[Thin Black Line]

The Great Depression and Guns

Oh, regarding the 1934 act passed during the Great Depression:

The transfer tax of $200 placed on the transfer of firearms controlled by the Act was roughly equivalent to five months' salary in 1934.

BTW, how much crime did that really control? The criminal types back then
[like now] weren't going to register their guns. This was the fedgov showing
that it was supposedly "doing something" about crime. Of course, it put more
restrictions on the law-abiding.

What's past is prologue!

 

[FatGeek]

I plan on joining a local conservation club to have access to a range closer to home, and plan on taking as many newbies shooting as possible. Also plan on taking as many of those new shooters to an Appleseed shoot as possible. $50 for a Saturday, $75 for Sat/Sun(plus ammo), they get rifle training that would be difficult or impossible to obtain otherwise as civilians, and their addiction begins. Please read the information on Appleseedinfo.org, and consider attending and taking as many people as possible, meetings are being scheduled more frequently and in more places making it easier to attend.

Call friends (shooters and non-shooters), Get together as often as possible (Appleseed is perfect for this), Take the "I've got mine already" thought and spread it, Help as many other people as possible to "get theirs", and ASAP.

 

[John828]

Thin Black Line,

Your prologue to the thread was nice but I fear for the safety of the thread. If you have not yet joined APS, this would make for a great discussion over there.

 

[heron]

Thanks for the link, John, it looks like an interesting forum.

Oh, btw -- I didn't change anything yesterday, but I did sign up for three years with the NRA about a week ago; my first ever membership with them.

 

[Walkalong]

continuing down the same course that i have been on since about september

2007

 

[John828]

The link is also up in the top right hand corner of every THR page--look for the APS. I joined yesterday so I could rant about the MSM creaming their pants over the coronation/inauguration. I knew I could not do it here without a lock, so I went to there. There are some pretty free flowing discussions over there. I don't particularly like switching back and forth between forums, but a man has to do what a man has to do.

 

[Thin Black Line]

Thanks, John, I figured this would still work here since it's about educating
gun owners. In this case it's a mix of guns, historical precedent, how a
bad economy can raise crime rates, a liberal administration's response to
such crime, and then all of us law-abiders get re-classed as a result.

BTW, the spoiler shot has already been intentionally made.

I would be happy if this entire thread was engraved in stone and then proved
wrong later. Really. However, I'm just using history and the past responses.

I would be extremely pleased to see someone use history of which I'm not
aware to show us how to address in an appropriate way. Yes, extremely pleased.

 

[moooose102]

I'd better leave it at that, before I end up on a watch list.

to late, you already are, just like the rest of us.

 

[LightningJoe]

There's not very much that can be done. Sociology is a more dismal a science than economics. Something can be done about economic problems (sometimes), but there's really nothing you can do if your society is flying into a mountain.


No one who is an adult right now will ever be happy with America again (if they ever were). Someday, there will be a generation born that won't remember the old America and to them what's left of this country may seem fine. But people old enough to remember America at her zenith will be painfully aware of her decline and diminution.


30 years from now, America will be a very different place. Don't expect the gentle descent into decrepitude that we've seen in Europe. America's transformation will be spectacular.

 

[Kind of Blued]

I taught three little girls (all <10) how to shoot a pistol.

Or, depending on each one's age, how to at least keep their finger of the trigger, then pull it when they wanted "it to go bang".

 

[buckeye8]

I happened to pick up my CCW license today.

And yesterday, as a matter of fact, I joined the NRA. To be precise, I clicked the 'submit' button on the NRA website as Obama was being sworn in. Guess I just needed the visual barf to convince me once and for all that it was time to stop putting off the NRA thing. I wonder how many of us joined yesterday?) I can only afford the $10 membership, but it's better than nothing.

 

[Lightninstrike]

Good on ya buckeye. +1

 

[JWarren]

More "bragging" than changing...

I'm going to a fundraiser tomorrow night to hear Newt Gingrich speak.


-- John

 

[Omaha-BeenGlockin]

Stock up on primers--powder--dry goods and water.

Then hunker down for the coming civil war.

Oh wait---guess I didn't change anything---been doing that for the last year or so.

 

[jeff-10]

Joining as many gun rights groups is great however I would recommend the NRA first. I know it takes a lot of heat here but in the end its the 800lb gorilla, old and distinguished (as far as US organizations go) and most of all has clout. Join them. Make sure they stay the course.

 

[Defense Minister]

I just joined the NRA for the first time, too. Signed up for 5 years about a week ago. I also plan to start supporting the Oregon Firearms Federation soon.