geekWithA.45
Moderator Emeritus
Sidebar:
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I spent 1/2 an hour composing this in response to this closed thread: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=205461, and I'm posting it, because it directly salient to a certain pervasive theory.
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I think the anti NRA portions of that rant might have had more credence 5 years ago, but as it stands, it's behind the times.
The the tipping point occured in March, of 2004.
It's a long story, I will try to make short for people who are new to the scene, or who weren't intimate with the details.
This is when the rough and tumble fight in the Senate took place over the AWB.
I took 4 days off work, watched every minute on C-Span, liveblogged the whole sordid thing, and tracked every detail of every communique from every group that had a dog in the race.
My contacts in the NRA deny my take on it till they're blue in the face, but what I _observed_ was that the NRA that went into that debate was very, very different from the NRA that came out the other side.
They began with silence. There was a lot of weaseliness going on in there. It was well known that they wanted lawsuit pre-emption, (which we eventually got anyway) to pass as their legislative priority, and their position was that any anti gun poison pill amendments would be stripped out in the committee that reconciled the house and senate versions.
This wasn't good enough for me, and it wasn't good enough for a lot of other people. There's plenty of evidence to suggest that the NRA had played with exactly this sort of fire in the past, and had gotten burned in the process, taking us with them.
People forget quickly, but whether the AWB lived or died was truly a watershed moment. If it lived, RKBA's path towards being legislated out of existence was assured, and if it died, it would represent the federal high water mark of gun control for our generation.
What was at stake, what was in question, was whether future generations had any right to even dehorned military pattern arms AT ALL.
EVERYONE with a dog in the race knew it, except, apparently, the NRA that for all appearances was proceeding pretty much biz as usual.
We, the People, largely aided by the Internet, in what may well be the first effective use of it in the defense of American liberty, hammered BOTH our Senators, AND the NRA.
At first the NRA ignored us, but we kept generating the faxes, calls, and emails.
Then they gave us the weakest of assurances that _of_course_ they were against the AWB, but notably, suspiciously, DID NOT COMMIT TO ITS DEMISE AT ALL COSTS.
We kept hammering them, making it clear that their credibility with their membership and the world was at stake.
Gradually, grudgingly, communications from them became more and more firm, until finally, they DID COMMIT THEIR FULL INTENTION TO THE DEMISE OF THE AWB, NO MATTER WHAT.
Not only did they finally say that, THEY MADE IT HAPPEN.
The vote on the AWB amendment PASSED. DiFi did a disgusting jig on the floor of the senate, and then she, Kerry, Kennedy and Schumer all went out to lunch to celebrate. That was the moment of the famous "four horsemen" picture:
This was their moment of VICTORY.
They HAD WON.
Listen to her gloat:
http://www.senate.gov/~feinstein/sound-bytes/040302-AWB_post-vote_remarks.mp3
But during lunch, something happened.
Decisions were made in Fairfax, pagers went off, and when they returned from lunch to vote on the whole bill package, Senator Larry Craig of Idaho, member of the board off directors of the NRA, stood up like a titan of old and torpedoed his own bill with these words:
This bill, the last, best chance to make the AWB the PERMANENT, SET IN STONE law of the land, died then and there, 90-8.
The tide turned then, for America, and the NRA.
-----------
I spent 1/2 an hour composing this in response to this closed thread: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=205461, and I'm posting it, because it directly salient to a certain pervasive theory.
-----------
I think the anti NRA portions of that rant might have had more credence 5 years ago, but as it stands, it's behind the times.
The the tipping point occured in March, of 2004.
It's a long story, I will try to make short for people who are new to the scene, or who weren't intimate with the details.
This is when the rough and tumble fight in the Senate took place over the AWB.
I took 4 days off work, watched every minute on C-Span, liveblogged the whole sordid thing, and tracked every detail of every communique from every group that had a dog in the race.
My contacts in the NRA deny my take on it till they're blue in the face, but what I _observed_ was that the NRA that went into that debate was very, very different from the NRA that came out the other side.
They began with silence. There was a lot of weaseliness going on in there. It was well known that they wanted lawsuit pre-emption, (which we eventually got anyway) to pass as their legislative priority, and their position was that any anti gun poison pill amendments would be stripped out in the committee that reconciled the house and senate versions.
This wasn't good enough for me, and it wasn't good enough for a lot of other people. There's plenty of evidence to suggest that the NRA had played with exactly this sort of fire in the past, and had gotten burned in the process, taking us with them.
People forget quickly, but whether the AWB lived or died was truly a watershed moment. If it lived, RKBA's path towards being legislated out of existence was assured, and if it died, it would represent the federal high water mark of gun control for our generation.
What was at stake, what was in question, was whether future generations had any right to even dehorned military pattern arms AT ALL.
EVERYONE with a dog in the race knew it, except, apparently, the NRA that for all appearances was proceeding pretty much biz as usual.
We, the People, largely aided by the Internet, in what may well be the first effective use of it in the defense of American liberty, hammered BOTH our Senators, AND the NRA.
At first the NRA ignored us, but we kept generating the faxes, calls, and emails.
Then they gave us the weakest of assurances that _of_course_ they were against the AWB, but notably, suspiciously, DID NOT COMMIT TO ITS DEMISE AT ALL COSTS.
We kept hammering them, making it clear that their credibility with their membership and the world was at stake.
Gradually, grudgingly, communications from them became more and more firm, until finally, they DID COMMIT THEIR FULL INTENTION TO THE DEMISE OF THE AWB, NO MATTER WHAT.
Not only did they finally say that, THEY MADE IT HAPPEN.
The vote on the AWB amendment PASSED. DiFi did a disgusting jig on the floor of the senate, and then she, Kerry, Kennedy and Schumer all went out to lunch to celebrate. That was the moment of the famous "four horsemen" picture:
This was their moment of VICTORY.
They HAD WON.
Listen to her gloat:
http://www.senate.gov/~feinstein/sound-bytes/040302-AWB_post-vote_remarks.mp3
But during lunch, something happened.
Decisions were made in Fairfax, pagers went off, and when they returned from lunch to vote on the whole bill package, Senator Larry Craig of Idaho, member of the board off directors of the NRA, stood up like a titan of old and torpedoed his own bill with these words:
This bill, the last, best chance to make the AWB the PERMANENT, SET IN STONE law of the land, died then and there, 90-8.
The tide turned then, for America, and the NRA.
