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I ain't readin' all that shit.

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I ain't readin' all that shit.

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And that's how we lose rights.

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I ain't readin' all that shit.

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I don't need to read a 500 word dissertation to tell me to join the NRA and write my reps.

 

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I don't need to read a 500 word dissertation to tell me to join the NRA and write my reps.

 

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From the way you described it I thought it was a book. Seriously, 500 words?

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I ain't readin' all that shit.

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I ain't readin' all that shit.

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I don't know why but this brought me to tears laughing. I then clicked the link and laughed even harder because I thought the same thing....Thank you

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I ain't readin' all that shit.

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I did a search so I hope this is not a dupe.

It's an AWB on steroids. Here's how to beat it

Well...there it is. We know what's coming, or at least what Feinstein is proposing. It's an "assault weapons" ban, except this time around, it's insanely strict. The standard for an "assault weapon" has now been reduced from 2 features to 1. Standard-capacity magazines have been banned and everything must now be under 10 rounds. Grandfathering is included, but now requires complete and total registration with the ATF, just like NFA items. Transfers of these weapons, even the grandfathered ones, will become illegal. It's an AWB on steroids.

The proposed bill is so incredibly restrictive that, in its current form, it's politically toxic. In its current incarnation, it will not pass even the Senate. However, this bill will hit committees, go through dozens of iterations, and eventually get watered down to something more-politically palatable (perhaps a 1994-style ban). The good news: I think even a watered-down version of the bill can be killed in the House.

To pursue that end, I’ve started this thread for all of us to discuss what we can do to fight this thing. There needs to be some serious organization here, there needs to be a concerted effort that all of us join behind, and we need to stop pussyfooting around in all of these other threads as we quake in our boots in fear. We need to strike while the iron is hot, take the initiative, and shut this thing down before it can even begin. If we all work together, I think we can.

(NOTE: I don’t claim to know nearly as much as you guys about firearms, but I do know about politics, and I do know this is winnable. I hold (a small) public office in my home state, and I worked 2 years for a pro-gun, Democratic Senator here. I’ve been engaged in multiple campaigns and will be running for State Representative within the next 2 years. I’m not an expert, but I think I have some helpful insight to provide the community.)

Listed below are the steps and strategies I see working to win this upcoming battle. I’ll keep the thread updated with other pieces of advice that you guys provide, turning this thread into a sort of crowd-sourcing project to fight any future gun control. Please, come in with a positive attitude and be prepared to FIGHT whatever’s coming. It’s going to require a lot of effort, it’s going to require a little bit of time, but if we all come together and work (and work HARD), we can come out on top.


--------------------------------------------

Step 1: Develop a winning attitude. Before we can even begin this fight, we need to stop being a bunch of defeatists. We need to convince ourselves that an AWB can be shot down, that the 2nd amendment doesn’t have to die, and that regulation/confiscation/bans are not necessarily inevitable if we do our part. That sense of inevitability is not only bad for our spirits, but it’s also discouraging for ourselves and everyone around us. It makes us admit defeat before the fight has even started, makes us less likely to try to do something, and shortens the lengths we’re willing to go to fight this thing. Overall, a defeatist attitude makes everyone less likely to fight and fight hard. After all, if the battle is already over, why should we and those around us even bother trying in the first place?

So please, be positive about this thing, even if it’s just a front that you have to begrudgingly force yourself to accept. That positive attitude will help push all of us forward, and most of all, inspire those around us to follow our example. If people know the fight is winnable, they will actually fight.


Step 2: WRITE, EMAIL, AND CALL YOUR CONGRESSMEN! Despite being #2, THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ANY OF US CAN DO. Like I said, I worked 2 years for a Senator in my state, and this is what they most heavily rely on to make their decisions. They don’t strictly rely on media polls, because not all of those people vote. They don’t strictly rely on protests, because protests don’t necessarily represent their constituency. The #1 most influential factor in a congressmen’s decision-making process is the simple “Yes/No” tally total that they track internally based upon the letters, emails, and calls they receive. The people taking the time and effort to write/email/call are most likely going to vote, and these people are also a part of the congressman’s constituency, making their opinions far more important than whatever is happening in the media. At the end of the day, if we can show that there are far more active gun-rights supporters than anti-gun advocates, we can force the Republican House to hold.

Since I collected these letters, emails, and calls for a total of 2 years, here are the strategies I’ve found most effective for making your voice heard:

Know who your congressmen are! You have 2 Senators and 1 Representative to contact. Both of your Senators and your Representative can be found using the tools located in the top right of http://house.gov/ and http://www.senate.gov/. The NRA also has a great setup for finding your legislators here.

Write, email, and call: do all 3! Every single one of these actions will help encourage your congressmen to vote your way. The way these things are tracked is via a computer system that each and every letter/email/call is recorded into. Space your communications out, because if you do them all in one day, all 3 may be counted as only 1 correspondence. Cumulatively, this should only take you 15 minutes, and like I said, it’s the most important thing you can do. Please write, email, and call your congressmen and tell them to vote NO on any gun control! By the way, if you don’t know how to contact your congressmen, Google their name; all their information (including a form that allows you to email them right on their website) should be on their website. Remember, you can write, email, and call multiple times! (NOTE: letter and email examples provided below to save you time)

Before saying anything else, tell your congressmen exactly how you want them to vote. In literally any correspondence with your congressmen, “Vote NO on any gun control, especially assault weapons bans, magazine capacity limits, and/or registration” should be the first thing you say. If you write a letter, include a subject line below the congressmen’s address stating “RE: Vote NO on any gun control, assault weapons bans, magazine limits, and/or registration.” If you email them, write in the subject line of the email “Vote NO on any gun control, assault weapons bans, magazine limits, and/or registration.” If you call, the first thing you should say is “Hi there. I’m calling to tell Senator/Representative __________ to vote NO on any gun control, especially assault weapons bans, magazine capacity limits, and/or registration.” Why? Because you’ll be speaking with the congressmen’s staff, not the congressmen themselves, and these staffers get hundreds of letters/emails/calls per day. Receiving these letters/calls tends to be very tedious, and if your message is long and hard to follow, the staffers may not accurately record your opinion. Make your opinion clear. Make your opinion short. Say right up front how you want your congressmen to vote, and it will make it easier for the staffers to get that message across.

Make your comments party-neutral! Where I live, all of my congressmen are pro-gun. However, of the 3, 2 are Democrats. Going on a rant about liberals will make it likely that your message gets ignored, so don’t do it. There are a surprising amount of pro-gun Democrats in this Congress, so please, keep your communications party-neutral. Stick to the message: no gun control, no assault weapons bans, no magazine capacity limits, no registration, guns don’t cause crime, etc.

INCLUDE YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS. Some staffers refuse to record your opinions without a name/address, because without your name/address, they can’t tell if you’re a part of their congressman’s constituency or even from the United States. If your letters/emails don’t include a name/address, chances are they’ll be thrown away or deleted before being recorded. Do yourself and all of us a favor: tell your congressmen who you are and where you live!

If possible, please write your own letters. Every congressional office handles its reporting duties differently, but many of them don't honor "form" letters (copied letters that people sign and send in) in the same way they do letters individually written by concerned citizens. The letters provided below may be copied and signed if you'd like, but please, if possible, write your own letters. They carry more weight.

Don't send letters to congressmen or officials that don't represent you! Some people literally write letters to all 535 congressmen, but the problem is, if you're not a part of a congressman's constituency, his or her office staffs will then forward the correspondence to whoever does represent you. This means that office staffs become annoyed by gun-rights supporters, and even worse, the people who do represent you will receive 500+ copies of the same exact letter. Please, only write to your Senators and your Representative, and if you must, the President/Vice, the Senate Majority/Minority leaders, and the Speaker of the House. Not stepping on people's toes (read: congressional staffers) is crucial here.

Step 3: Get other people to contact their congressmen as well. Our voices alone may not be enough. Have your family members, friends, and favorite-gun-shop employees contact their congressmen as well. The more voices we have behind us, the more likely we are to shut this thing down in its tracks. Some tips to encourage people to do this:

Have pre-printed letters on-hand. If someone is moderately pro-gun or apathetic, they probably aren’t going to take the time to write a letter themselves. However, if you have some pre-printed letters on-hand that only require someone to sign their name/address, you’ll greatly increase their likelihood of joining the cause. On these pre-printed letters, do NOT include the address you are sending the letter to, despite that being a standard practice for letter writing. Doing so would mean you’d need at least 3 unique letters for each person to sign (one addressed to Senator #1, one addressed to Senator #2, and one addressed to their Representative). Rather, draft a single letter whose recipient is left unaddressed, of which you can have your friends and family sign 3 copies. (NOTE: copy of pre-printable letter provided below)

Offer to send their letters for them. Just as people may be less likely to write their own letters, they probably won’t send the letters you give them, even if they went through the trouble of filling the letters out. Offer to send the letter for them. Make it as easy for other people as possible. Make it so that all they have to do is sign their name and address 3 times, and that’s it. You’ll do the rest.

Ask your local gun shops if you can leave pre-printed letters at their checkout counter. This is a great way to gather up even more support for our cause. Offer to leave stacks of letters at the gun shop that their customers may sign/address, and don’t forget to remind the gun shop employees that you need customers to sign/address 3 copies. Then, offer to collect the letters at some regular interval (for example, every Friday night) so that you can send them out.

Encourage people to write their own letters. I know I just said to carry pre-printed letters on-hand, which you still should do (sending in a pre-printed letter is better than no letter, after all), but if you can get someone to write their own letters, it's always the preferred route for the reasons listed in Step 2.


Step 4: Join the NRA. UPDATE: After David Keene's appearance on Meet the Press (linked below), and with favorable endorsements from Larry Vickers and other reputable sources, I am confident that the NRA is on our side this time. Additionally, I've read about how the NRA's pressure in 1994 did help influence votes, and that's direct from the congressmen that were in office at the time. Simply put, becoming an NRA member is incredibly important and necessary at this time. They do not favor an AWB and deserve our support. They have a huge influence on how votes are cast in Congress, and with a more robust funding stream, they can do more. (I just hope that Wayne LaPierre is locked in a closet and never allowed to speak at an interview again. )


Step 5: Sign the White House Petition. You can find it here, created by ASH556 here on M4carbine.net. It's the only petition I know of that's grounded in solid, philosophical arguments and doesn't cheapen itself by blaming the problem on drugs or video games. Granted, the Obama administration will ignore it, but it's still an important action nonetheless. After all, similar petitions for an AWB have reached 400,000 signatures and have received significant media attention because of it. Having a comparable number of signatures would help balance the appearance of the debate so it doesn't seem so one-sided against us.


Step 6: Educate yourself on the arguments. Being educated on the arguments against gun control can only help the cause. It will help you convince people to sign letters, it will help you win support during Facebook debates (maybe not from the person you’re arguing with, but from the people watching the argument), and it will make you a better overall supporter of arms ownership. Rather than list all the arguments here, I’d rather provide links that do this job for me (though if you want to read some of the common arguments, they're listed 2 posts below). If you guys have any suggestions, please post them and I’ll add them!

Gun Facts (in my opinion, the #1 source on facts supporting arms ownership)
Stefan Molyneux on Gun Control (great statistics and points to memorize; I advise most to stop watching at roughly 18 minutes, though)
"Why not renew the "assault weapons" ban? Well, I'll tell you..." (an article written by a liberal against gun control)
Larry Pratt debates Piers Morgan (Larry (of GOA) takes Piers to task with facts)
Penn Jillette on The Wendy Williams Show (Penn dispels ignorance with a cool head and great points we should all learn)
David Keene on Meet the Press (Keene (of the NRA) does a great job of talking about the issues against a biased host)
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If we stop acting like a bunch of losers, start writing our congressmen, engage those around us to do the same, and become more-active, more-educated advocates for arms ownership, I really do think we can win. We have a Republican House that we can convince to stand by us. After all, we’re gun owners: we often vote single issue, and we rarely forget who slighted us. The same cannot be said for the other side. Politicians know this, and we just have to work together to remind them.

Always remain vigilant, however. The other side is working just as hard as us, if not harder. We cannot relent on this until this AWB (or whatever it spawns) is killed. We cannot stop writing, calling, getting the community involved, and educating ourselves. This needs to be a near-constant effort, and it needs all of us to be on board. We can win this.

Are you ready for the fight of our lives, ladies and gentleman?

Found this thread from M4carbine.net written by someone who works in public office and worked for 2 years for a pro-gun, Democratic Senator. It contains key items to help fight the new proposed AWB by Feinstein and also has pre written letters for those of you who need it to write your representatives.

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ZOMG THE AWB IS INJECTING HOREMOANZ INTO ITS BUTTCHEEXORZ.  

Um. it's NOT on steroids. OK?

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This is how you beat it.

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So you guys are on board for the AWB?

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Yeah... because our reps really fucking listen...



I seriously wonder where the fuck you people have been the last 4 years.



While the left forcibly rams shit down our throat we all sit writing letters like the fucking UN or something.



Fuck that shit.

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I find reading your signature after these comments to be amazingly ironic.  

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I don't need to read a 500 word dissertation to tell me to join the NRA and write my reps.

 

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Yeah... because our reps really fucking listen...

I seriously wonder where the fuck you people have been the last 4 years.

While the left forcibly rams shit down our throat we all sit writing letters like the fucking UN or something.

Fuck that shit.

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it would be better if you sounded a little more on the ball when you write your reps.

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1. Develop a Winning Attitude.



Ain't that the truth. Many people here talk like some piece of ilk legislation passing is already a done deal.

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Here's the e-mail I sent my reps:

Honorable Senator John Cornyn,

As a registered voter in Texas, I urge you resist the pressure to take hasty action in response to the Sandy Hook school shooting. I would ask that you continue to oppose any bills brought before the Senate which would limit the rights of gun owners, further restrict firearms or create dangerous national gun registries. I thank you for your support and look forward to returning that support during the next election.

Kind Regards,

motown_steve


Short and to the point. Besides, it's not like they're actually going to read it. Some aid is going to scan it and count you as for or against.
 

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There isn't shit that writing an email or putting your name on a .gov website / document is going to do to further your rights. Probably to the contrary.



But you all sit believing that bullshit that we still have a voice and representation. The past 4 years have shown us the opposite.



ETA: TJ wasn't talking about writing fucking letters in that quote



 

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might as well be a form letter. and you're right... they will take it as seriously as one.



maybe you should read the "dissertation" (hint: mine was a few more than 500 words) on TOS and take its advice. unless you'd just prefer to rationalize being lazy.

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Here's the e-mail I sent my reps:



Honorable Senator John Cornyn,



As a registered voter in Texas, I urge you resist the pressure to take hasty action in response to the Sandy Hook school shooting. I would ask that you continue to oppose any bills brought before the Senate which would limit the rights of gun owners, further restrict firearms or create dangerous national gun registries. I thank you for your support and look forward to returning that support during the next election.



Kind Regards,



motown_steve





Short and to the point. Besides, it's not like they're actually going to read it. Some aid is going to scan it and count you as for or against.

 

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This is how you beat it.

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If you'd bothered to read the advice of the person who does this for a living, then you'd understand why composing your letter in that way did you no favors.  

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I ain't readin' all that shit.

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It is precisely what he was referring to. The founders understood that with liberty comes the endless political battle to fight off the relentless attempts to destroy it. Thus a tempestuous sea.  

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I don't need to read a 500 word dissertation to tell me to join the NRA and write my reps.



 

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If anyone had a link to a well written letter that I can copy, I will print some and get guys from work to fax or mail them.

Thanks , I have emailed all mine, lets get off our ass and at least try to do something. Our gun grabbers are organized and eager. Fuck this lets fight back.

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Then don't fuckin say one mother fucking word if they get any ban passed!