I'm working on a gun control petition going door-to-door in Reno and Sparks. Things have started to get ugly. Advice? (self.Reno)

submitted 2 days ago by rbriser

I am employed by an agency that does canvassing for campaigns all over the west coast, most of which are left wing. Our most recent assignment is door-to-door petition work in Reno and Sparks in order to get an effect on the 2016 ballot that, if passed, would require background checks for unlicensed gun sales. My agency has brought in ~200 people on buses from Seattle, Portland, and Tacoma to try to push this through before the deadline on Wednesday.

Although I am unfamiliar with the Reno area, I came here expecting a high amount of opposition in the form of slammed doors and rude refusals. Nevada is a red state and even in uber-liberal Washington this is really just part of the job. What I found strange was the fact that they couldn't just pay people in Reno to do this work. Why was our agency paying to bring people in from Washington and Oregon, 15-12 hours away?

Last night, during a 3-9pm shift, some things happened to my co-workers that have made me think that we were brought in because locals KNOW BETTER than to do liberal canvassing here. One woman was assaulted and mugged right after the sun went down in Sparks. This was only a couple of blocks from where my friend and roommate was working. The cops picked my friend up and told him to leave because they believed a group of people were riding around in a truck looking for canvassers to beat up. At least five of my co-workers were verbally assaulted or followed at night. One woman had a shotgun pulled on her at a door and was then followed by the gun-owner, who had the gun with him in his car. A black co-worker had a pistol pulled on him and put to his head at a door. I have been kicked out of neighborhoods by homeowners, mostly gated communities, screamed at, told to fuck off, and have been greeted by men behind doors holding knives defensively. I understand that no one likes to hear their doorbell ring in the middle of dinner, but we are only doing our jobs. We are not soliciting as we are not selling anything. Everything we are doing is perfectly legal within our constitutional right to free speech.

I opted out of the pm shift tonight because I legitimately fear for my safety and many others have done the same. Most of our problems came up when we started working in Sparks and, although the agency has claimed they are not sending people there anymore, I know of four people who had turf in that area this morning. Locals - what neighborhoods are considered unsafe here in Reno and Sparks? Where would you not want to find yourself alone with a gun control petition after dark? We need your help to protect ourselves while we continue to just do our jobs here. I would hate to see another person threatened or assaulted before I leave.

Quoted:
The anti's have Bloom-Turd backing them and just screwed Washington state, so think they are now unstoppable.

It's crap, but the level of activism we brought to the legislature last year is only a starting point for what we have to do now.
I don't entirely trust NRA to organize this, they are based in DC and "Compromise" a little too often and readily for me.
So we need a NV based Org. (Or volunteer Non-Org.) to coordinate our efforts, one that will NOT take orders from NRA.

Any retired CEO's from large companies among us?
That's the sort of person we need.

Quoted:
We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender!

Quoted:
Hopefully the do not get enough signatures.  According to RGJ, they did
Hopefully they broke the rule against multiple subjects and the entire petition is invalid.I hope so too
Hopefully we can convince our freshly elected reps to do what it takes to quash this.
I think that means they take it up and amend it to be nothing.
I will be attending a republican central committee meting Thursday night and will look up an expert or two.

As to NVFAC, how independent from NRA are they? Not sure, but am working with them on the sales tax thing
As I read it NRA did not do enough in WA. They saw WA as a lost cause, I doubt they see us that way...NSSF likes having SHOT here and SCI loves us.Maybe better to contact GOA? Couldn't hurt

Hopefully the do not get enough signatures. According to RGJ, they did

Quoted:
If you want to see how it will end up take a look at the washington law.  Some of the things that are being considered against the new law are things like allowing your wife or adult child who is at home when you are not to know the combination to the gun safe because that is allowing them access to the guns and you have to have a background check before that is legal. I couldn't let me brother shoot one of my guns because that's against the law and you can forget about our little get togethers that we do now and then, that's all kinds of against the law.

Quoted:
You need a Bloom-Turd mask on the cop.

Quoted:
OK, got an update on the situation.
Some good, some bad if WE don't get it together and act.

Controlling authority for petitions is Article 19, section 2 for anyone who wants to look it up.

Good.
Look for about three pro-gun bills to be introduced and likely passed in 2015.
Beware that the lib's/anti's will try to water down or add anti-RKBA amendments so we cannot take anything for granted.

The bad.
With such a large margin the anti's will probably have enough signatures to put their petition through.
There may be some grounds for legal challenges, lots of skullduggery here, need a lawyer to address that.
One thing to do right away is to document as many cases of the anti's lying to and intimidating signers as possible.
Here in Douglas County one of them was caught on election day telling voters that they had to sign the petition before they could vote!
Sheriff's office was called and that scum was made to leave.
If they did that in a politically active county like mine I have to wonder what else they pulled elsewhere?

NVFAC appears to have a plan, I would like to know more about it.
We will need to coordinate with them.

The 2015 session begins on 2/4/14.
We should plan on having to show up for some of the hearings even though we will have a much "Friendlier" legislature.
The anti's are a smaller force but they are not ALL gone.

Unless enough fraud and intimidation can be proven to get the Bloom-Turd initiative thrown out it WILL be on the 2016 ballot!
It can be beaten but we have to begin our efforts ASAP.
Q3 went down in flames, the effort to defeat it took a year and lots of $$$, so be ready to break your piggy banks to defend our RKBA.

There's more but until we have secure communications I cannot post it here.

Quoted:
And who do you report the intimidating facts to

3. A licensed dealer who agrees to conduct a background check pursuant to this section shall
take possession of the firearm and comply with all requirements of federal and state law as though
the licensed dealer were selling or transferring the firearm from his or her own inventory to the
buyer or transferee, including, but not limited to, all recordkeeping requirements, except that:

(b) the seller or transferor may remove the firearm from the business premises while
the background check is being conducted, provided that before the seller or transferor sells or
transfers the firearm to the buyer or transferee, the seller or transferor and the buyer or
transferee shall return to the licensed dealer who shall again take possession of the firearm
prior to the completion of the sale or transfer.

Quoted:
Where can you see the text?

There should be an exemption for family members and CCW holders too. Not that I am fine with it in those circumstances. But I don't pay for a background check as a CCW holder. Would I if this new ballot question gets passed?

Quoted:
(sarcastic font) sounds very easy to enforce without some sort of registration... (sarcastic font)

Quoted:
If this goes to the 2016 ballot as is, it will surely pass. I'm not familiar with the details of the initiative process, but would it be possible for the Legislature to gut the text of the initiative and pass it as something harmless?

Quoted:
If enough signatures are found to be legitimate, the initiatives would first go to the Legislature, which has 40 days to act on such measures. If lawmakers pass it and the governor signs it, the measure becomes law. If the Legislature does nothing or if the governor doesn’t sign it, an initiative goes on the ballot.

If lawmakers amend the measure, both the original version and the amended measure would go on the ballot. If both pass with more than 50 percent of the vote, the one with the larger number of "yes” votes becomes law.

This is what happened to the no smoking question on the ballot a few years ago.

           

Quoted:
Is that really an arm of NVFAC?
Or something else?
Needs to be vetted, then supported if legit.
$50K is not enough, going to have to do some fund raisers.
Who holds the money has been a question I have wondered about.

Quoted:
Is that really an arm of NVFAC?
Or something else?
Needs to be vetted, then supported if legit.
$50K is not enough, going to have to do some fund raisers.
Who holds the money has been a question I have wondered about.