I wrote the following this past July 4th weekend, after what was considered a hopeless fight to stop AB50, a bill to ban anything .50BMG in California. I was told to forget it, there was no point, get out of California while you can. I went to gun shows to distribute fliers, and was chided, blatantly derided, from FFL dealers and shooters alike, fellow NRA and CRPA members included. I handed out over 3000 fliers at several shows, detailing AB50 along with all CA legislature address and phone numbers, revised for every step the bill advanced. It passed in all of the lop-sided committees, through the House and the majority of the Senate. Most 2nd Amendment activists termed it to a bureaucratic hospice, neatly prepped for Davis' jiggling rubber stamp. I was mad as hell; I saw unsrupulous dealers advertising 50BMG rifles and ammo as "BANNED 1/1/04" to make a quick sale, yet AB50 was not even fully through the system! Nobody cared. What could I do? So I acted as a hub to receive faxes and letters from all across the state and around the country, offering to forward them for free by fax and mail to all 80 CA Senate Members. I made it easy for their voice to be heard. By the end of the 4th of July weekend, I had sent over 1800 individual faxes, running 9 fax machines to complete the process. By weekend's end, I was punch drunk from emailing, faxing, re-writing, transcribing, and mailing hundreds of letters. I was hoping I hadn't made a fool of myself, "wasting" my holiday weekend.

The following was the thank you letter I wrote on Monday to those that contributed. By Tuesday, AB50 was defeated. The thousands of faxes & letters were cited as having been influential to the last minute change of heart.

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All across the horizon, bursts of multiple colors briefly lit the sky like a flickering Technicolor sun that quickly dripped away to return the pallet to black. I could only imagine the prerequisite "Oooooh!" that came with the upward glimmering streak of the rocket, followed by the required "Ahhhhh!" from the audience on the ground. People were enjoying Freedom. In an empty office, from an 11th Floor window, I watched Independence Day 2003 over the roar of several fax machines. It is from this building that on a daily basis, I can look out across the Century City scape and be reminded of those that would rather crush Freedom because of their hate, jealousy, and ignorance of the concept of Freedom itself.

Here in Century City stand two towers at the southern most corner of the skyline. Century Plaza was designed by New York World Trade Center designer Minoru Yamasaki. It is intentional that they resemble the World Trade Center identically, on a smaller scale. I walk past them everyday. I see them outside my office window every minute and at every glance.

www.seeing-stars.com/ImagePages/CenturyCityTowersPhoto.shtml

Not too many people know the above. They are so close in appearance, that on a clear day while standing close to the base, one can not avoid recalling the horrible images of video that ran perennially on the hour on 9/11/2001. The images of what happens to steel, concrete, glass, and flesh when large jets hit the side of a skyscraper were injected into our sentiment and shall remain there for the rest of our lives. Even the residual haunt that displaces our fondest memories, is an invasion on our Freedom; the time spent on this nightmare and its memory attempts to rob me of my Freedom. It takes up the space and time I use to recall my favorite memories and dreams. Because of that intruding memory alone, I will dedicate myself to preserving Freedom wherever I can find it, and installing Freedom in places it can't be found.

As a kid, I put a set of playing cards in the spokes of my Schwinn just to believe that some day I would enjoy the Freedom of a brand new American made Harley; some where in my garage is a frame and several boxes of parts that will one day make 3/4th's of something that resembles a motorcycle. I lobbed a "jitterbug" popping across the surface of the local lagoon just to see a Largemouth top-water, however the day usually ended with me being ripe with sunburn and toting a pail of a few measly Blue-gill. I spent days, maybe years, of my life honing the engine and edges of a 1968 Chevelle just so I could cruise it from Ohio to California, plunging East into a prevailing Westward wind, hoping to make a life on my own and know the same Freedom to roam that the wind enjoys. Now I seem to be stuck in Los Angeles, work 9 - 7 everyday, live in a box called an apartment, and it's amazing when I drift a few hundred feet off the path I take to and from work everyday. I traveled west to the "Golden State" where surely I was going to be a millionaire. But here I am; a lowly "thousandaire". I'm not complaining; I've still got Freedom. But there are those that would try to take that away from me.

The "those" that would call me a terrorist for owning a certain type of rifle would shriek to call me blasphemous if I were to turn the table and call them Fascist. They would be right to call it an insult and disrespectful to the thousands that have died under the regimes of Hitler and Mussolini, if I were to label any fellow American as a Nazi. However, it is tough for me to think of any other comparison when such careless politicians rape and molest the very fibers on which the Bill of Rights are printed, just to promote their political campaigns. The banning of guns was the first order on the agenda of the Nazi party to bind their control over the rights of those that they represented. Now our own politicians are following the first steps of such an agenda and I am supposed to ignore history? Even recently, when the Taliban were asked what was the first and most important step taken to gain complete control, they stated "we took away all of the guns". This wasn't something I heard through a news blip or read on some conspiracy theory website, this was a personal interview on CNN, which I saw with my own eyes.

Take away the guns. And these politicians want to call me a terrorist? In consideration of the thousands that died in those two towers, isn't this label of potential Terrorist by our elected politicians just as equally insulting to the American people as my reference to their political actions being similar to Nazism? By banning or registering my guns haven't they sent a message that they believe their own law-abiding constituents are confirmed terrorists? Are they actually comparing me to Osama Bin Laden? Al Quaeda? The IRA or the ETA?

Like all Americans, I still plug away. It's not the pursuit of the "American Dream" that makes us Americans rather it is the "American Way" to dream. To any one of us, the "American Way" can have a million different avenues and connotations. It only happens because of Freedom. We are the most innovative and advanced nation in the world because of Freedom. We think bigger and better because of Freedom. We are better designers and engineers because of Freedom. When we can't call the chips down because there weren't any chips to begin with, we still have a better way of looking at life because of Freedom. We accept all colors, creeds, and cultures because we share the common bond of wanting Freedom. When somebody intrudes on our Freedom, we fight back for Freedom. That too is the "American Way."
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CALIFORNIA: THE SIMON/DAVIS ELECTION WAS THE WORST VOTER TURN-OUT IN CALIFORNIA HISTORY, BY BOTH REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATS ALIKE. IF EVERY GUN OWNER IN CA HAD SIMPLY VOTED THAT DAY, WE WOULD CURRENTLY HAVE A GOVERNOR THAT HONORS 2ND AMENDMENT RIGHTS AND NEARLY 20 LESS GUN CONTROL LAWS DAVIS APPROVED. THIS RECALL IS YOUR SECOND CHANCE, YOUR "SECOND AMENDMENT" CHANCE. VOTE!  VOTE McCLINTOCK!

Thank you, R.H.

All of us that go to Angeles shooting ranges, and members of BH thank you.  We owe you alot.