Wallew,
I shall respond to your post point by point.
We have no commonality. Huh? NRA GOA RKBA - We have as many 'fanatical' members as they do. Probably more. Have you heard of the TRT?? It's gaining in membership and popularity everyday.
Been to the TRT rallys, etc. The problem is that NRA does not recognize GOA who does not recognize SAF who does not recognize NRA, etc, etc ad nauseum. Read the nasty grams posted on SAF from GOA. Read the vitriol at JPFO over the lawsuit between Jay Simkin and Aron Zelman. All of our groups hate each other's guts.
We have many goals. WE have one goal. And that one goal is backed by the 2nd Amendment. OUR ONE GOAL is to keep and bear firearms. ANY firearms. ALL Firearms.
We have many members of the shooting community that think the rest of us are nuts. They think that the Second Amendment only protects them and not those "other guys" with the black guns. The hunting faction in this country has been a thorn in the side of the patriotic firearms owners for years. They don't support us nor even, in some cases, recognize us. They are too busy having fun to do the real work. They know we are out here to carry their water for them. Why do you think the roles at NRA tanked when they became "too extreme"?
We have fractured leadership. While I might give you a nod on this one, I don't think Charlton Heston would agree with you.
Charlton Heston is the man who went on "Politically Incorrect TWICE and spoke of the "twelve amendments". Had to be corrected by Mahr.
He also went on a Los Angeles radio station and decried the ownership of "assault weapons". The transcripts are posted on the internet.
He went on national TV in the 60s and cried out for gun control and the passage of GCA 68.
They are united and we are suing each other? The only suing going on is Major urban areas suing the gun manufacturers. And the cities are losing, with the exception of S&W agreements signed. And talk about unity. Without the unified gun culture, S&W would still be a viable business, which it is not. Hey, Thomkins can't even find a buyer to take their problem off their hands.
Wrong. Read the matter going on at JPFO. How long has it been since SAF lodged suit against the suing cities? Who has joined that suit? How about the suit recently filed out of Texas against these cities? Hear anything about the NRA jumping to the fore? Susanna Gratia Hupp is an NRA director. Think they'll come to her aid?
They appear at functions to demonstrate together. We won't go on the same dias. Excuse me, but TRT has been facing these types of morons down for more than a year now. FACE TO FACE. And we are winning these confrontations. And guess what? In that group of TRT members are all walks of shooters.
Read again. What I mean is that Sarah Brady, Charles Schumer, Josh Sugarman, and others from various anti-firearms groups will all show up at events, hold hands collectively and vow their alegiance to the cause.
How many time have you seen LaPierre, Zelman, Craig, etc share a dais? They don't! They don't like one another and they think each others groups are "out of step with America".
We ignore those who don't belong? I can't refute this, because I have no idea what you are talking about. With minor exception, EVERYWHERE I have gone to shoot, I have always run into like minded individuals. Regardless of the format. While I don't shoot many of them, I have been welcomed as a stranger at every new shoot I go to. Cowboy action, skeet, trap, IPSC (well, we got a little rough treatment from these folks) and IDPA. But at no time, was I told that I 'didn't belong'.
Read the preceding paragraph. Our side (NRA, GOA, JPFO, etc) treats all groups who are "not ours" as inferior. Name one of the groups who represent us who have joined in any suit that has been brought by any group who is not "theirs". You can't answer that one either.
They have one mantra "take them all" we say "take the other guys". NOT ME. I say MOLON LABE!!! AND I will from now on. Which brings me to you final point.
The hunters who don't own black guns could care less about those who do. Those who are wing shooters couldn't care less about those who own handguns. "I don't own any of those evil guns. They won't be coming for my over and under or my bolt action." These are the people who are costing us the fight because they think it will never come to them.
They have 'reasonable' we have 'compromise'. That used to be true. We have now realized that compromise DOESN'T work. That's why MOLON LABE has replaced "Can't we all just get along".
We have compromised with our pants around our ankles and our hands firmly in place and the antis have given up NOTHING. We are the ones who give and give to attempt to appease those who want more and more hoping against hope that they will go away satisfied. They won't!
So Sorry, but you were not anywhere close. You may believe those issues the way you wrote them. But in the groups I hang out with, I find gun owners becoming increasing tired of all the lies, deceit and fraud perpetrated by the HCI, etc. and are no longer just going to roll over and take it any more. That's where TRT has come from. That's where MOLON LABE! comes from. And that's where TFL's lawsuit against HCI comes from. So, while you may be right, we MAY lose the politcal battle, that's only one battle. Let them try and legislate away our freedoms. Many will just roll over, but as I have said on numerous occasions on numerous threads here and at other boards, if only one percent of the gun owners fight the confiscation of firearms, that will be over 800,000 WELL ARMED and properly trained in firearms usage. And just like in Viet Nam, those thirty years ago, those who are in the right and keep on coming will eventually win the day. I think you actually agree with this one.
You are right. More people are getting involved but many of those are all show and no go. They talk a good game at the gun show or the range but are conspicuously absent from the TRT rallys. Let's see how many of the PACs come to join the TFL suit. NRA? JPFO? GOA? SAF? Don't hold your breath unless you look really great in blue.
See Ya,
J
