Nobody gets thrown off of the bus
Sebastian takes to task a collaborator who doesn’t see the point of black rifles. Sebastian makes a great point:
When these people come for your sport, if they already have my AR-15, I’m out of the fight. I do not hunt — I’m a competitive target shooter, and I carry a pistol for self-defense. My interest in preserving hunting is in preserving an important part of the shooting sports. If you, and those who think like you, cause me losing my sport, what interest do I have to fight for yours? When you understand that you are under just as much threat as we are, you’ll give your arrogance and understand we’re on this boat together, so you better pick up a bucket and start bailing, or we’re going to sink.
Sebastian is very active in the RKBA movement. He is, in my opinion, helping to lead the “new media” fight, and showing others (including yours truly) how it is done. He’s right. We are all in this together. No one gets thrown off the bus.
Final tally
I’m back from my conference. It was a great few days. Final tally:
2 new NRA members
1 renewal. A colleague that I have talked guns with a few times. I said “I need you to do me a favor. I need you to join the NRA.” He said, “I did, a few years ago. But they sent me too much mail.” Me: “You can ask them to stop that. And you need to renew.” Sparked a good conversation about the fight to come. He is a smart guy, and fired up.
1 on the fence
2 newbies asking me to take them shooting
All in all, a successful trip.
Oh, yeah, and I got some work done, too.
Geeks with guns
Tech conference final tally:
1 new NRA member
1 on the fence (I’m working on him)
1 newbie ask me to take him shooting.
I was amazed at how many people were openly talking about buying firearms, between the new adminstration and the economic situation…and this was a room full of computer geeks. I told them “get ‘em while you can…and make sure you get some training.”
At a tech conference
I’m heading down to the opening reception. I’ve got at least two colleages I’ve talked guns with in the past. I’m going to make them join the NRA.
Wish me luck.
1+2=3
I got to listen to the first hour of the Guntalk podcast. Tom talked about the idea of the 1+2=3 plan for increasing NRA’s membership numbers. The idea is simple. If every NRA member recruits 2 more members, we will have tripled the membership. So far, I have recruited my two new members. (Thanks, Larry and Will!)
But I’ve decided to up the ante a bit. I took advantage of the discount, and signed up three family members as well. Merry Christmas, folks. You are part of the cause of freedom!
Doing your part
Bitter has announced a NRA membership drive contest. Do your part, folks!
NRA membership discount
Regular readers (Hi Mom!) know that I am fan of Guntalk. Tom has sent out a new Truth Squad bulletin. In it, he lays out the plan for fighting the incoming Obama gun-ban agenda. I think he lays out the stakes pretty well:
If Chris Cox, head of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, walks into a Congressman’s office backed by three million members, it’s one thing. When he walks in backed by 10 million, the reception is totally different. This is pure representative politics. You are sending someone to Washington to represent you. It is the heart of the democratic process in the United States. Right now, the message needs to be clear, and it needs to be backed with political muscle. This is hard ball. It’s a knife fight in a phone booth. To lose is to die. We lose our gun rights if the gun banners succeed in the coming battle.
I’ve said the same thing here. I can’t make it any more plain. Joining the NRA is the single most effective thing you can do to secure your gun rights. And Tom has backed up his words with action. He has arranged for discounted NRA memberships. If you use the link on my sidebar, you will be able to access the discount.
Once you have joined, buy memberships for your friends and family. Christmas is right around the corner. You can buy a membership for $25 with the discount. $15 for a youth membership. If you don’t want the magazine, a membership is a measley $10. Nowadays, that’s like the cost of a box of ammo.
The most important thing you can do now
The day is here. Obama has won. Guns are flying off the shelf. You can’t buy an Evil Black Rifle to save your life.
Before he took it down, his transition website contained this gem (rescued from the memory hole by Google cache.) The important part:
Address Gun Violence in Cities: As president, Barack Obama would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals who shouldn’t have them. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent, as such weapons belong on foreign battlefields and not on our streets
So, stripped of the codewords, here is what President-elect Obama is planning to do:
- Allow folks like Mike Bloomberg access to gun trace data to aid his lawsuits
- Shut down private transfers of firearms
- Enforce “smart gun” legislation
- Ban semi-auto firearms
The single most effective thing that you can do to stop him is this: join the NRA. Do it today. Right now, in fact. Click here. I’ll wait.
You are already an NRA member, you say? Great! Reach out to 5 other gunnies, or other freedom loving individuals, and get them to join. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Here’s the deal, folks. We are in the fight of our lives. The NRA is the biggest pro-gun lobbying organization in the nation. If NRA lobbies Congress as a 4 million member organization, it has a certain amount of influence. If NRA lobbies Congress as a 40 million member organization, it has incredible power. There are over 100 million gun owners in the United States. NRA has 4 million members. That means that there are at least 96 million of you who are letting the rest of us carry you. I’m tired of carrying you.
“But George…I don’t like the NRA. I disagree with them on…”
Don’t care. Join anyway.
“But I’m a member of…”
Don’t care. Great…join them all. But you HAVE GOT to be a member of NRA. This is about numbers.
“They keep asking me for money.”
Quit your bitching. Call them and tell them to stop sending mail. They will put you on the list. Join the freaking organization.
“They’ll never take my guns. I’ll bury them, see, and…”
Quit the macho internet fantasies and do something productive. Spend the $35 and join the NRA.
In fact, if you are too cheap to spend the $35, if your gun rights aren’t worth $3 a month to you…email me, and I’ll pay it for you.
If everyone dropping cash on firearms today would join up…there would be no need to hoard. We would have the numbers to stop the ban before it happens.
I’m going to make a prediction. The AWB will be one of the first things on BHO’s agenda. I’d say we have until March or so to stop this train. Take the most effective, easiest step you can…join the NRA today.
The great debate
Caleb and Bonnie have posted a podcast from their weekly internet radio show on the Mike Vanderboegh kerffullfle here.
I thought it was well balanced and very informative.
Gunbloggers getting down…
A small firestorm is raging over at Sebastian’s place, and it has gotten him down.
The core fight seems to be whether or not it makes sense to work within the political system, or if we have lost the battle for our gun rights and should stand around shouting “Shall not be infringed!!!”.
I’m honestly shocked at this kind of talk. I understand people who have been in the fight for years getting down. I’ve thought about gun rights and been aware of the struggle for about 15 years or so. Look at what we have accomplished in that time:
1) RTC in 40 states
2) Sunset of the AWB. More then that, the AR-15 rifle has become the most popular rifle in America.
3) The SCOTUS pronouncing the right to have a firearm to be an individual right.
4) Perhaps even more importantly…SCOTUS specifically calling out self-defense as a legitimate “reason” for firearm usage.
Let’s be honest….the MSM has controlled the “marketing” around gun rights for years and years. This creates problems such as this silliness which creates a completely distorted view of the “dangers of gun ownership.” There is a more subtle problem, however…like the fact that Hollywood would have us believe that you can walk down to the local 7-11 to pick up a machine gun. The MSM doesn’t control the message anymore.
As I posted yesterday, I think that the most important theing we can do as a culture is to change hearts and minds. The ultimate goal is to make gun ownership unremarkable. We do that by letting people see that gun owners are normal, everyday people. The “SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED!!!” crowd thwarts that. Folks like Tam, Breda, Tracy, Squeaky & Ahab, Sebastian, and Bitter help.
Here is why we will win: the truth is on our side. We don’t have to lie about statistics. The anti-gunners do. We don’t have to control the medium to convince people. The antis do.
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Do your part!
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