It's been a couple of days, perhaps to few to yet tell what will happen down the road, likely not much I suspect, but despite the lurid predictions seen on telecasts, read in newspapers, and heard on the radio, re the sun set of The Assault Weapons Ban, the sun still rises in the A.M., as well as shining during the day, even here in Pittsburgh, not generally known as the sunniest of places.
What we saw, the sun set of this assault weapons ban, is the end result of a lot of time and effort, as well as some amounts of money, spent by interested parties, people who felt abused by the Assault Weapons Ban, as well they were, and who opted to do something about it. Unfortunately, as seems always the case, there are/were a lot of both Freddie and Fredricka Freeloaders, fellow gun owners, though unfortunately the type that will shed bitter tears, after the fact, but who will never take the small trouble to send an e-mail, write an ordinary letter, or even make a phone call to their ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES, the gentlemen and ladies at city, state and national levels, who sometimes unwisely, make law. A lot of the above mentioned don't vote either, because they all just know that "their vote doesn't count". It sure as hell doesn't, when it isn't cast.
The reasons or rationalizations that one hears from Freddie and Fredricka are somewhat varied, while being singularly uniform in nature. The ones that I've heard over the years, you've probably heard them too, run as follows. I can't write, I don't have time, I don't know who "they are", "they" presumably being their "elected things", or I don't know their address or phone number, The NRA, which all to often they are NOT members of, won't let them (there is that ubiquitous them again) do that, or I'm afraid of getting on some "list", as if they weren't already on "some list".
Yes, I know, it does sound pretty slim, but I personally have heard that line of thinking more than once, as I'm fairly certain you too have. By the way, not everyone who owns guns is an NRA Member, for one reason or another, nor is NRA membership required. I happen to be a Life Member of NRA, and have been since 1973. That aside, I've never been in complete agreement with things they have done, or with things they haven't done. There are other organizations, and the unaffiliated individual can still call their elected things. Point is that the freeloaders don't even call.
O.K., the freeloaders are always with us, and I don't know any way that those who worked to defeat the Assault Weapons Ban, and or other examples of gun control idiocy can separate the freeloaders from the undeserved benefits that arise from the efforts of others, benefits that they too now enjoy. It might be nice to so do, but I cannot say how this might be accomplished. It would be nice to be able to fly without having to bother with some damned airline, but I can't do that either.
At this juncture, readers might be wondering as to the point of this rant. Point follows immediately. Possibly, just possibly, some of the freeloaders, presented with the foregoing might perhaps undergo a change of heart, realizing that at some point in time, they will be no more free rides, and that their hands on the oars might well make the difference. Maybe I'm simply a dreamer, but sometimes, dreams come to pass, and perhaps this one will too. I certainly hope so.
What we saw, the sun set of this assault weapons ban, is the end result of a lot of time and effort, as well as some amounts of money, spent by interested parties, people who felt abused by the Assault Weapons Ban, as well they were, and who opted to do something about it. Unfortunately, as seems always the case, there are/were a lot of both Freddie and Fredricka Freeloaders, fellow gun owners, though unfortunately the type that will shed bitter tears, after the fact, but who will never take the small trouble to send an e-mail, write an ordinary letter, or even make a phone call to their ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES, the gentlemen and ladies at city, state and national levels, who sometimes unwisely, make law. A lot of the above mentioned don't vote either, because they all just know that "their vote doesn't count". It sure as hell doesn't, when it isn't cast.
The reasons or rationalizations that one hears from Freddie and Fredricka are somewhat varied, while being singularly uniform in nature. The ones that I've heard over the years, you've probably heard them too, run as follows. I can't write, I don't have time, I don't know who "they are", "they" presumably being their "elected things", or I don't know their address or phone number, The NRA, which all to often they are NOT members of, won't let them (there is that ubiquitous them again) do that, or I'm afraid of getting on some "list", as if they weren't already on "some list".
Yes, I know, it does sound pretty slim, but I personally have heard that line of thinking more than once, as I'm fairly certain you too have. By the way, not everyone who owns guns is an NRA Member, for one reason or another, nor is NRA membership required. I happen to be a Life Member of NRA, and have been since 1973. That aside, I've never been in complete agreement with things they have done, or with things they haven't done. There are other organizations, and the unaffiliated individual can still call their elected things. Point is that the freeloaders don't even call.
O.K., the freeloaders are always with us, and I don't know any way that those who worked to defeat the Assault Weapons Ban, and or other examples of gun control idiocy can separate the freeloaders from the undeserved benefits that arise from the efforts of others, benefits that they too now enjoy. It might be nice to so do, but I cannot say how this might be accomplished. It would be nice to be able to fly without having to bother with some damned airline, but I can't do that either.
At this juncture, readers might be wondering as to the point of this rant. Point follows immediately. Possibly, just possibly, some of the freeloaders, presented with the foregoing might perhaps undergo a change of heart, realizing that at some point in time, they will be no more free rides, and that their hands on the oars might well make the difference. Maybe I'm simply a dreamer, but sometimes, dreams come to pass, and perhaps this one will too. I certainly hope so.
