Another e-mail forwarded to me today .....
This is absolutely the best letter I've seen from one of "the converted." Anybody think that full-blown, no-compromise activism can't do the trick? Call Colorado's Governor & ask him what it feels like to buck the pro-freedom folks in Colorado.
We recently did a full-blown slam dunk on the political process here.
Kudos to Rocky Mountain Gun Owners in the political arean! & Tyranny Response Team for kicking up the activism. Go Team!
Stay tuned & film at 11.
"This was sent to us (RMGO = Colorado state affiliate of GOA) on Saturday:
To CSSA (CO Shooting Sports Assoc./NRA's state affiliate),
I'm an avid hunter, shooter, and general firearms enthusiast. But what I saw at the Republican State Convention and the Adams
County Republican Convention has made me rethink supporting CSSA.
I attended my precinct caucuses for the first time this year, hoping to join the ranks of gunnies in Adams County and be led to victory by the political savy of the NRA's state organization, CSSA. Instead, I saw bumbling fools, none of whom knew anything more than did I (at least I am willing to admit it).
I have watched the legislature for several years, and heard the cries of the Shooting Association about how Gun Owners Association is hurting our cause. For a while I believed it, but I remained skeptical as liberal after liberal got the nod from NRA/CSSA. That got me thinking.
Then, Bill Owens got elected. He wasn't forthcoming on his gun views, but all the muckety-mucks at CSSA told us to just do as we were told and vote for him. We did, and boy did we get our reward.
But I thought that was just an honest mistake. I gave these people the benefit of the doubt again, noting that all of these so-called political experts have dozens of excuses for the compromises of the politicians.
Then I had the chance to see one of hese "political experts" in action in Adams County.
CSSA Legislative Director Bill Dietrich was a delegate to the Adams County Republican Assembly. I watched from afar as I saw Dietrich glad-handing with every elected official, treating them all with the same lavish kissing, licking and polishing of their boots, regardless of how they treat our gun rights. His political treatment
of our enemies made my stomach turn.
I thought for sure Dietrich would be a part of the conservative State Legislative campaign for the House District he lives in. When I inquired, I was told he wouldn't commit -- he seemed to be on the fence, despite the fact that any Political Science 101 graduate could tell that the establishment of the party didn't want the
conservative candidate and was lining up to support the liberal.
When Dietrich ran to be a delegate to his own House District, he didn't make it: heck, he was lucky to get the one vote he did
control -- his own!
Astounded that the "Legislative Director" of such a powerful organization couldn't win at the lowest level of political chess, my
growing uneasiness was proven last Saturday at the State Convention.
The Colorado State Shooting Association did have a booth, but that is about it. There they stood, like deer caught in the headlights, as Gun Owners took the offensive. Rather than sit in the duck blind whining about how cold it is, the real political operators in this state had laid out a plan, and played it to perfection -- while CSSA was caught flat-footed.
I couldn't help but join in on the fun. It was open season on the politicians who have played so many games with our rights, and
there was no bag limit.
Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, the group CSSA had dismissed as "politically ineffective" and an "embarassment" ignored the do-
nothing CSSA and went about their business.
What I had heard about RMGO was that they were in it for the money and the prestige, but what I saw confirmed that it was
CSSA that has the questionable motives.
CSSA seemed hell-bent on defending oliticians, not forcing them to live up to their oath of office. I'd heard RMGO's Dudley Brown on the radio, saying that other gun groups are more worried about getting invited to the next cocktail party and being buddy-buddies with lawmakers. I used to think it rhetoric: I now know it to be fact.
I have heard over and over again that as an organization, Gun Owners isn't effective because they ask for too much: there is no
way, I was told by the CSSA chiefs, that we could possibly defeat these gun controls, so let's just settle for half of them.
I, along with hundreds of others at the State Convention, wasn't comfortable screaming at the Governor or standing up by the stage in defiance, but I was damn glad someone had the guts.
But that wasn't the only thing that happened at the State Convention.
RMGO obviously knew what CSSA hadn't a clue about: there is more than just a media battle at the convention.
RMGO had been handing out a "slate" of pro-gun delegates as well as a "Do not vote for these turkeys" list. When I saw Owens and
Greenlee topping this anti-gun slate, I knew that RMGO wasn't pulling any punches.
I got the slates too late to hand many of them out, so I just took hem to my seat to use as a kind of cheat sheet. Damn the
torpedoes, I was going to vote with the real gun activists whether we would win or lose.
I signed up with RMGO that day, and got an e-mail from them this week: our entire slate had won, and few of the anti-slate even made
it as alternate. RMGO had not bitten off more than they (now, we) could chew. The politician that CSSA had been excusing for anti-gun votes (one of the many in their past history, but the only current legislator on RMGO's anti-slate) didn't make it.
I write this letter to you because I told it to a number of people my views and was urged to write it all down, as it might have credibility coming from a third party. I hope no one else makes the mistake of trusting political strategy to those unqualified and unable to make bold plans, or enact them with any precision.
I have shot with many CSSA members, and see the value in their programs. I have also now seen RMGO's tactical command of politics, and the forces that guide politicians.
Gunnies often demand for "unity in the gun movement." That is what I am pleading for right now: unity in a proven strategy, one
that was proven effective at our State Convention.
My simple suggestion to the two gun groups in Colorado is this...
do what you do best.
CSSA: run the shooting programs. Get out of politics.
RMGO: Keep kicking the politicians' asses.
Signed,
A person with too many friends in CSSA to float this letter with my
name on it.
cc: exdir@rmgo.org
------- End of forwarded message -------"
This is absolutely the best letter I've seen from one of "the converted." Anybody think that full-blown, no-compromise activism can't do the trick? Call Colorado's Governor & ask him what it feels like to buck the pro-freedom folks in Colorado.
We recently did a full-blown slam dunk on the political process here.
Kudos to Rocky Mountain Gun Owners in the political arean! & Tyranny Response Team for kicking up the activism. Go Team!
Stay tuned & film at 11.
"This was sent to us (RMGO = Colorado state affiliate of GOA) on Saturday:
To CSSA (CO Shooting Sports Assoc./NRA's state affiliate),
I'm an avid hunter, shooter, and general firearms enthusiast. But what I saw at the Republican State Convention and the Adams
County Republican Convention has made me rethink supporting CSSA.
I attended my precinct caucuses for the first time this year, hoping to join the ranks of gunnies in Adams County and be led to victory by the political savy of the NRA's state organization, CSSA. Instead, I saw bumbling fools, none of whom knew anything more than did I (at least I am willing to admit it).
I have watched the legislature for several years, and heard the cries of the Shooting Association about how Gun Owners Association is hurting our cause. For a while I believed it, but I remained skeptical as liberal after liberal got the nod from NRA/CSSA. That got me thinking.
Then, Bill Owens got elected. He wasn't forthcoming on his gun views, but all the muckety-mucks at CSSA told us to just do as we were told and vote for him. We did, and boy did we get our reward.
But I thought that was just an honest mistake. I gave these people the benefit of the doubt again, noting that all of these so-called political experts have dozens of excuses for the compromises of the politicians.
Then I had the chance to see one of hese "political experts" in action in Adams County.
CSSA Legislative Director Bill Dietrich was a delegate to the Adams County Republican Assembly. I watched from afar as I saw Dietrich glad-handing with every elected official, treating them all with the same lavish kissing, licking and polishing of their boots, regardless of how they treat our gun rights. His political treatment
of our enemies made my stomach turn.
I thought for sure Dietrich would be a part of the conservative State Legislative campaign for the House District he lives in. When I inquired, I was told he wouldn't commit -- he seemed to be on the fence, despite the fact that any Political Science 101 graduate could tell that the establishment of the party didn't want the
conservative candidate and was lining up to support the liberal.
When Dietrich ran to be a delegate to his own House District, he didn't make it: heck, he was lucky to get the one vote he did
control -- his own!
Astounded that the "Legislative Director" of such a powerful organization couldn't win at the lowest level of political chess, my
growing uneasiness was proven last Saturday at the State Convention.
The Colorado State Shooting Association did have a booth, but that is about it. There they stood, like deer caught in the headlights, as Gun Owners took the offensive. Rather than sit in the duck blind whining about how cold it is, the real political operators in this state had laid out a plan, and played it to perfection -- while CSSA was caught flat-footed.
I couldn't help but join in on the fun. It was open season on the politicians who have played so many games with our rights, and
there was no bag limit.
Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, the group CSSA had dismissed as "politically ineffective" and an "embarassment" ignored the do-
nothing CSSA and went about their business.
What I had heard about RMGO was that they were in it for the money and the prestige, but what I saw confirmed that it was
CSSA that has the questionable motives.
CSSA seemed hell-bent on defending oliticians, not forcing them to live up to their oath of office. I'd heard RMGO's Dudley Brown on the radio, saying that other gun groups are more worried about getting invited to the next cocktail party and being buddy-buddies with lawmakers. I used to think it rhetoric: I now know it to be fact.
I have heard over and over again that as an organization, Gun Owners isn't effective because they ask for too much: there is no
way, I was told by the CSSA chiefs, that we could possibly defeat these gun controls, so let's just settle for half of them.
I, along with hundreds of others at the State Convention, wasn't comfortable screaming at the Governor or standing up by the stage in defiance, but I was damn glad someone had the guts.
But that wasn't the only thing that happened at the State Convention.
RMGO obviously knew what CSSA hadn't a clue about: there is more than just a media battle at the convention.
RMGO had been handing out a "slate" of pro-gun delegates as well as a "Do not vote for these turkeys" list. When I saw Owens and
Greenlee topping this anti-gun slate, I knew that RMGO wasn't pulling any punches.
I got the slates too late to hand many of them out, so I just took hem to my seat to use as a kind of cheat sheet. Damn the
torpedoes, I was going to vote with the real gun activists whether we would win or lose.
I signed up with RMGO that day, and got an e-mail from them this week: our entire slate had won, and few of the anti-slate even made
it as alternate. RMGO had not bitten off more than they (now, we) could chew. The politician that CSSA had been excusing for anti-gun votes (one of the many in their past history, but the only current legislator on RMGO's anti-slate) didn't make it.
I write this letter to you because I told it to a number of people my views and was urged to write it all down, as it might have credibility coming from a third party. I hope no one else makes the mistake of trusting political strategy to those unqualified and unable to make bold plans, or enact them with any precision.
I have shot with many CSSA members, and see the value in their programs. I have also now seen RMGO's tactical command of politics, and the forces that guide politicians.
Gunnies often demand for "unity in the gun movement." That is what I am pleading for right now: unity in a proven strategy, one
that was proven effective at our State Convention.
My simple suggestion to the two gun groups in Colorado is this...
do what you do best.
CSSA: run the shooting programs. Get out of politics.
RMGO: Keep kicking the politicians' asses.
Signed,
A person with too many friends in CSSA to float this letter with my
name on it.
cc: exdir@rmgo.org
------- End of forwarded message -------"