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Apathy is not an option
John Caile | January 9, 2013 |
With calls for gun control becoming more numerous and more strident, it is increasingly clear that the Obama administration is intent on using any means necessary to restrict the average citizens rights to own and carry firearms. At the local level, anti-gun governors and state legislators are jumping on board, promising (threatening?) significant changes in gun laws.
However, what is at least as disturbing, especially to gun owners, is President Obamas recent signing of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013. Why? Because an important passage (one that would have protected American citizens from indefinite detention) was suspiciously removed from the bill.
Although the significance to gun owners might not be immediately understood, an action such as this is merely an indicator of the intentions of the Obama administration and they are very unsettling. If you are still so naive (or more likely, in denial) that you think YOU have nothing to worry about, then it is long past time for a reality check. Hint: what happens when your arsenal of guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition make you a potential terrorist threat in the eyes of the BATF or worse, Homeland Security?
Ask your friends in Illinois or California what happened when gun owners failed to fight ever-increasing restrictions on guns. I recall a particularly obtuse California hunter who admitted voting for the very politicians who wrote the California assault weapons ban (on just 12 bad guns, you see nothing to worry about here). He was then shocked when his Benelli shotgun appeared on the updated list of prohibited weapons.
Unfortunately, too few gun owners will pay attention to NDAA2013, or theyll just yawn and turn the channel, unable or unwilling to confront the threat that may soon be knocking at their front (or more likely, their back) door.
But apathy is never a winning strategy, yet a significant number of gun owners actually FAILED TO VOTE in the last election. Seriously? Are they out of their minds? This is not a Republican versus Democrat issue I honestly dont care what you thought of Mitt Romney (and I am no fan of his either), but the alternative was electing Barak Obama, the most anti-gun president in history.
Unfortunately, such folks delude themselves that by not voting at all, they are somehow relieved of responsibility for the outcome. Yet nothing could be further from the truth Barak Obama got reelected with fewer votes than he got in 2008. Face it Obama won in 2012 because too many of YOU who would have voted against him stayed home.
Sometimes I get the feeling that gun owners are just as self-destructive as many of the other single-issue voting groups (Pro-Life, Immigration Reform, Gay Marriage whatever). They get so hung up on finding the perfect candidate that they end putting in office someone much, much worse.
No more. As gun owners, we must all hang together, or surely we will all hang separately, as the famous Ben Franklin quote goes. Staying home is simply not an option. And now that the election is over, and we have at least two years before anything changes in the Congress, we have no viable option other than to join the fight. And that means we must ALL get involved.
Surprisingly, it doesnt take all that much work to make a difference. Here in Minnesota, one of the most liberal states in the nation, we finally got a shall-issue handgun carry permit law passed in 2003. We did it by getting involved, by getting friends involved, and by pounding on legislators until they got sick of running into us at every turn.
It is time to make your views known. Loudly. Clearly. Relentlessly. Email, call, and most importantly, FAX your U.S. Congressman and Senator (emails get deleted FAXES land on their desks!). Then find your state legislators. Contact them all.
Or prepare to kiss your rights (and the rights of your fellow gun owners) goodbye
John Caile | January 9, 2013 |
With calls for gun control becoming more numerous and more strident, it is increasingly clear that the Obama administration is intent on using any means necessary to restrict the average citizens rights to own and carry firearms. At the local level, anti-gun governors and state legislators are jumping on board, promising (threatening?) significant changes in gun laws.
However, what is at least as disturbing, especially to gun owners, is President Obamas recent signing of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013. Why? Because an important passage (one that would have protected American citizens from indefinite detention) was suspiciously removed from the bill.
Although the significance to gun owners might not be immediately understood, an action such as this is merely an indicator of the intentions of the Obama administration and they are very unsettling. If you are still so naive (or more likely, in denial) that you think YOU have nothing to worry about, then it is long past time for a reality check. Hint: what happens when your arsenal of guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition make you a potential terrorist threat in the eyes of the BATF or worse, Homeland Security?
Ask your friends in Illinois or California what happened when gun owners failed to fight ever-increasing restrictions on guns. I recall a particularly obtuse California hunter who admitted voting for the very politicians who wrote the California assault weapons ban (on just 12 bad guns, you see nothing to worry about here). He was then shocked when his Benelli shotgun appeared on the updated list of prohibited weapons.
Unfortunately, too few gun owners will pay attention to NDAA2013, or theyll just yawn and turn the channel, unable or unwilling to confront the threat that may soon be knocking at their front (or more likely, their back) door.
But apathy is never a winning strategy, yet a significant number of gun owners actually FAILED TO VOTE in the last election. Seriously? Are they out of their minds? This is not a Republican versus Democrat issue I honestly dont care what you thought of Mitt Romney (and I am no fan of his either), but the alternative was electing Barak Obama, the most anti-gun president in history.
Unfortunately, such folks delude themselves that by not voting at all, they are somehow relieved of responsibility for the outcome. Yet nothing could be further from the truth Barak Obama got reelected with fewer votes than he got in 2008. Face it Obama won in 2012 because too many of YOU who would have voted against him stayed home.
Sometimes I get the feeling that gun owners are just as self-destructive as many of the other single-issue voting groups (Pro-Life, Immigration Reform, Gay Marriage whatever). They get so hung up on finding the perfect candidate that they end putting in office someone much, much worse.
No more. As gun owners, we must all hang together, or surely we will all hang separately, as the famous Ben Franklin quote goes. Staying home is simply not an option. And now that the election is over, and we have at least two years before anything changes in the Congress, we have no viable option other than to join the fight. And that means we must ALL get involved.
Surprisingly, it doesnt take all that much work to make a difference. Here in Minnesota, one of the most liberal states in the nation, we finally got a shall-issue handgun carry permit law passed in 2003. We did it by getting involved, by getting friends involved, and by pounding on legislators until they got sick of running into us at every turn.
It is time to make your views known. Loudly. Clearly. Relentlessly. Email, call, and most importantly, FAX your U.S. Congressman and Senator (emails get deleted FAXES land on their desks!). Then find your state legislators. Contact them all.
Or prepare to kiss your rights (and the rights of your fellow gun owners) goodbye
