We might win, but not with the tired old strategies of the past.
They led us from one compromise to another.
We cannot compromise any more. This has to be the last stand, and we have to be clear and rational.
For two nights everyone's been accusing me of being a troll because I think we should get ahead of the left instead of hunker down and see what we can compromise. Fiddlesticks.
Like I said in some other posts, gun owners may not be a numerical majority, but the hard antis are a very small minority. If we aren't shrill, and can ally with much of the uncommitted mainstream, we can command a superior audience with Congress despite the media. Congress cares about votes. Nothing else.
If we can get a serious lobbying effort with the National Institute of Mental Health, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, etc. to get them aware that gun owners are hard core serious about gun safety, and we're willing to twist the arms of Congress as well as get LaPierre to twist the arms of congress to fund research and services then we'll become friends of the medical community instead of pariah in the medical community.
Here's the carrot excise tax I was talking about. Now, anyone who is so foolish as to think that this two paragraph "White House petition" is anything more an a strawman object to use a talking point is extremely naive. No legislator is going to pass this "just like Michael wrote it." But the idea is to show that we get it that we're concerned about the problem. And they're going to cram it down our throats any way, so lets make it something we control.
http://wh.gov/nTna
Here's some more information about this petition:
$2 Federal Excise on Handguns and Long Guns earmarked for Mental
Health Services
Recent shootings have focused national attention on gun violence. The
dramatic events in Newton, CT involved a young male. The Aurora, CO event
involved a young male. The Tucson, AZ event involved a young male. Others
were the same. And a connecting thread is that these young men were mentally
ill, which is not a condition they voluntarily chose. These are failures of
the nation's mental health system, not failures of gun control.
We should establish a $2 per handgun or long gun point of retail excise tax
earmarked for mental health services to improve the state of the
nation's capacity to identify and treat patients in need. These funds
should not be part of the general fund, and this excise tax funds the benefit
just like hunting licenses fund wildlife management.