Okay everyone. Something was recently brought to my attention. Some people over on Arfcom are working on getting a grassroots "movement" going to protect our 2A rights. It's spreading like wildfire to other forums, and there are already a large number of people on board from around the country. Here's the thread for reference (big thanks to Rodbender for bringing this to our attention):
AR15.COM :: Forums :: Wanna stop a future AWB? Then get your butt in here now!
Alan and I have both pledged our participation in this venture. Right now it is only in the initial planning stages, so details are still sketchy at this point. It is my understanding that a website/forum is currently in the planning stages, a specific name for the group is still being determined, and an outline of some of the general goals is being organized I believe. I'm not really sure exactly what to call it at the moment, so I will just refer to it as "the movement". Basically, the intended purpose of this movement is to tie all gun/enthusiast forums, 2A rights groups (NRA, GOA, JPFO, etc), people from the firearms industry, and any/every other person we can all into one cohesive group. One extremely great thing about this movement is people are starting to see that we really have to change tactics on the anti's and start adopting their approaches to things. Doing so would be sort of "guerrilla" activism if you think about it. We NEED to start taking advantage of all of the modern media and alternative media available to us today (Youtube, Myspace, blogs, Facebook, etc etc), and we need to appeal to people's emotions. The average person in this country is so inundated with negative sentiments towards firearms because the media is so saturated with them every single day. WE need to start saturating everything with positive sentiments and start educating people so they are able to see the facts.
The one major factor that I think is overlooked too often is the percentage of firearms owners that even participate in doing something (no matter how small) to protect their 2A rights. According to the NRA there were roughly ~80 million gun owners in this country as of last year I believe. Out of those 80 million, we have approximately 4.3 million members in the NRA, and I'm not sure how many in the other 2A rights groups out there. We need to drastically increase the level of participation gun owners are taking in protecting their 2A rights. If we can all just starting working together, just think about it! Roughly 80 million people is a serious force to be reckoned with. The mass mail campaigns to politicians, massive protests that could be held, etc etc.......it would make any other activist group pale in comparison. We can do it people! All we have to do is work together. All it takes is an hour here and there for a protest, 20 minutes here and there for a letter to your senator, etc etc. Many of us already do these things, however the real key here is getting large groups of us working together and on the same page. One or two people doing their own thing doesn't have nearly the same effect that a massive group can. Just think about that one letter some of you right to your senator or representative. Now what if there were 1,000, 5,000, or even 10,000 letters right behind that one! Things like that really stand out and can make a big difference.
Long story short, I would really like to see a lot of support from our member base. It's everyone's decision of course. This being such a big state, it would really help if we could have people in at least every major city that are willing to participate in mailing campaigns, protests, etc etc. What we will also need is one person on this forum that will serve as a representative for the entire forum to this "movement". It is my understanding that representatives will be the primary ones involved with this group, and then they will inform the constituents of their respective forum, 2A rights group, etc on the current plan of action, tasks that need to be done, etc etc. It makes much more sense that way because things would be considerably more convoluted if you had say 1+million people on a single forum, and everyone has a different opinion about how to get the job done. Currently, I have considered being this representative, however with my current schedule I'm not quite sure if that would be fair to everyone as I haven't had much free time lately and I definitely don't have time to travel around much either. If anyone is interested, please chime in or feel free to PM/email me and let me know. Lets get the ball rolling people and lets start making our great state and our country proud!
AR15.COM :: Forums :: Wanna stop a future AWB? Then get your butt in here now!
Alan and I have both pledged our participation in this venture. Right now it is only in the initial planning stages, so details are still sketchy at this point. It is my understanding that a website/forum is currently in the planning stages, a specific name for the group is still being determined, and an outline of some of the general goals is being organized I believe. I'm not really sure exactly what to call it at the moment, so I will just refer to it as "the movement". Basically, the intended purpose of this movement is to tie all gun/enthusiast forums, 2A rights groups (NRA, GOA, JPFO, etc), people from the firearms industry, and any/every other person we can all into one cohesive group. One extremely great thing about this movement is people are starting to see that we really have to change tactics on the anti's and start adopting their approaches to things. Doing so would be sort of "guerrilla" activism if you think about it. We NEED to start taking advantage of all of the modern media and alternative media available to us today (Youtube, Myspace, blogs, Facebook, etc etc), and we need to appeal to people's emotions. The average person in this country is so inundated with negative sentiments towards firearms because the media is so saturated with them every single day. WE need to start saturating everything with positive sentiments and start educating people so they are able to see the facts.
The one major factor that I think is overlooked too often is the percentage of firearms owners that even participate in doing something (no matter how small) to protect their 2A rights. According to the NRA there were roughly ~80 million gun owners in this country as of last year I believe. Out of those 80 million, we have approximately 4.3 million members in the NRA, and I'm not sure how many in the other 2A rights groups out there. We need to drastically increase the level of participation gun owners are taking in protecting their 2A rights. If we can all just starting working together, just think about it! Roughly 80 million people is a serious force to be reckoned with. The mass mail campaigns to politicians, massive protests that could be held, etc etc.......it would make any other activist group pale in comparison. We can do it people! All we have to do is work together. All it takes is an hour here and there for a protest, 20 minutes here and there for a letter to your senator, etc etc. Many of us already do these things, however the real key here is getting large groups of us working together and on the same page. One or two people doing their own thing doesn't have nearly the same effect that a massive group can. Just think about that one letter some of you right to your senator or representative. Now what if there were 1,000, 5,000, or even 10,000 letters right behind that one! Things like that really stand out and can make a big difference.
Long story short, I would really like to see a lot of support from our member base. It's everyone's decision of course. This being such a big state, it would really help if we could have people in at least every major city that are willing to participate in mailing campaigns, protests, etc etc. What we will also need is one person on this forum that will serve as a representative for the entire forum to this "movement". It is my understanding that representatives will be the primary ones involved with this group, and then they will inform the constituents of their respective forum, 2A rights group, etc on the current plan of action, tasks that need to be done, etc etc. It makes much more sense that way because things would be considerably more convoluted if you had say 1+million people on a single forum, and everyone has a different opinion about how to get the job done. Currently, I have considered being this representative, however with my current schedule I'm not quite sure if that would be fair to everyone as I haven't had much free time lately and I definitely don't have time to travel around much either. If anyone is interested, please chime in or feel free to PM/email me and let me know. Lets get the ball rolling people and lets start making our great state and our country proud!