One of the unexpected benefits (or … “benefits”) of running for office is that I am now on the e-mail distribution lists of more lobbying groups than you can shake a stick at. Among them, the California Rifle and Pistol Association. I would like to work with them — and their opponents — to find a middle ground on gun control issues. That would ideally allow sports hunters and home-defenders the use of such weapons — but also help us keep guns out of the hands of people, largely in urban areas, that use them criminally to terrorize their neighbors.
(I don’t know how to do that, by the way — but I do know how to figure out if it’s possible at all by facilitating serious and open discussion among opposing parties, which is what I’d try to do if elected.)
A “bad guy,” perhaps — but not bad enough to make THIS list!
I didn’t respond to the CRPA’s candidate questionnaire because it seemed to me that offering such a productive and moderate approach to them right now was pointless. Maybe they’d talk to me if I am elected, but in the meantime they’ll get everything they want out of my opponent Bob Huff (who, along with Sharon Quirk-Silva’s opponent Chris Norby, is one of the few state legislators to get the CRPA’s highest grade.) I understand that they would prefer someone who would always fall in line with them; I won’t try changing that which I cannot change.
Anyway, I still get (and usually read) their e-mails. A recent one captured my attention especially well, with it’s title “It’s time to identify the bad guys…” When people with guns start to “identify bad guys,” I pay attention — because you don’t know what might happen next!
Here’s most of their e-mail. (I’ll happily publish one from an opposing group as well if they want “equal space.”)
WE MUST KNOW WHO WE’RE FIGHTING IF WE EXPECT TO WIN THE FIGHT…
Unjust legislative attacks on lawful firearms owners continue! Based on legislation CRPA has been fighting in Sacramento, it is clear that anti-gun legislators and their wealthy supporters are still intent on banning the private ownership of firearms and ammunition! Anti-gun legislators remain obsessed with their belief that they know what is best for society and that they should dictate how other people live their lives! Well… it’s time to identify the bad guys…
To prevent anti-firearms bills from becoming law, your CRPA has successfully stopped legislation before it reached the Governor’s desk. That is the sole objective of CRPA’s Legislative Program, to stop bad legislation before the Legislature can pass it! Every day your CRPA’s full-time Lobbyist, Tom Pedersen, communicates with anti-gun legislators and their staff, using every weapon in his arsenal to convince these ill-informed politicos to stand up for the citizens’ constitutional freedoms – rather than trampling on them! At the same time, your CRPACounsel for Litigation and Local Affairs, Chuck Michel,monitors local legislative efforts and files appropriate litigation against the state, counties, or cities that pass unconstitutional or illegal ill-conceived local gun control laws. Tom and Chuck represent CRPA’s lethal right cross and damaging left jab.
We have provided a listing of people, organizations and businesses who have identified themselves as anti-gun… This new exclusive CRPA list includes those who are known to provide support for anti-firearms rights causes. This is not a complete list of those who oppose your gun rights, but it is a significant beginning and it will be updated periodically with your assistance. This brand new list of both anti-gun people, organizations, and businesses is being sent to you in appreciation for your past support of CRPA’s lobbying activities in the state capitol. The enclosed list is the result of a combined public awareness effort on behalf of the CRPA, the NRA and other Pro-Second Amendment organizations. If you have any suggestions regarding possible additions or omissions for the anti-gun list, please note and include them with your generous contribution. It is only through effective, vigilant CRPA representation in Sacramento that our proud heritage of firearms rights can be protected from those in government who would seek to take them away and to disarm the public!
Bad guys! That’s like, “villains,” right? Let’s see who the gun rights advocates put in their cross-hairs! (Is there a better way to put that? Or is it exactly the right way to put that?)
So, if you’re from the American Academy of Pediatrics or the Anti-Defamation League or the National Association of Police Organizations or the National Spinal Cord Injury Association or the United States Catholic Conference or MANY, MANY MORE, rest assured that you are ON THEIR LIST! And if you’re an anti-gun corporation like A & M Records or Crown Central Petroleum Corp. or the Kansas City Royals or Southwestern Bell Telephone or Stoneyfield Farms Yogurt and MANY, MANY MORE, know that THEY ARE ON TO YOU!
And, if you’re one of the 37 “Journalists Who Actively Editorialize In Favor Of Gun Control Laws” that they identify by name, don’t worry too much — it’s not like they labeled you as “Comparatively Soft Targets” or anything like that, so I’m sure that no one will get the wrong idea just because you’ve been labeled as a “Bad Guy.” That would surely be a shame.
*Dr. D., You are a very good example on why the Democrats never get the Conservative voters to support any of you. As Life Members of the CRPA and in fact Life Benefactor Members of the NRA….we can say this: Try talking with your supposed enimies. Until the LGBT folks finally figured out that they needed to do for others…..there public support was nil and none. Now, they are included in everything because they did some outreach to a variety of groups that didn’t include “the Usual Suspects”.
At least do yourself a favor and call those CRPA people and ask for a face to face
interview to fill out your questionairre. Show you have a pair. Hey Garden Grove isn’t that far away…is it?
They want to know your position on personal freedoms ., i.e., the 2nd Amendment and freedom of speech. Are you afraid of telling them what your positions are on these things? If so, you might want to withdrawn from running for anything….now or in the future!
If nothing else, interview THEM and find out WHO they do support!
Why? I could read what they were asking me well enough. My answers were generally “no” or “possibly under certain conditions” or “you have a point but I think there’s a better way to achieve this.” They don’t want to hear anything but “yes.” I don’t blame them for that; they’re powerful lobbyists, after all. I’ll certainly talk to them if I’m elected, but at this point there’s no point in wasting either of our time. It would just lead to mutual digging in of heels.
As I said, Huff and Norby are two of their favorites. I know who they support.
It was fun working with Debbie Cook back in 2008. We were meeting in her living room one morning, Joe Shaw was helping run her campaign. He looked through a stack of papers and said, “Oh here’s the NRA questionnaire, you probably don’t feel like bothering with it. What’s your position on gun control, anyway?”
Debbie answered “Anything to thin the herd.” The room full of nice liberal ladies gasped.
Later we discussed whether she REALLY had to go to the “Duck-a-thon,” a corny HB event that politicians need to be seen at. She really didn’t want to go but Joe convinced her she had to.
I asked, “What is your position on guns at the Duck-a-Thon?” And she just laughed.
Oh shit. I gotta get to work. (posted from the Starbucks right near Regatta Cafe)
It’s so obvious that the NRA and similar organizations are nothing but fear mongering groups that use the gun fetishists for fund raising. There is still the fear, apparently, that Obama’s out to take away people’s guns, without a shred of evidence that he’s anywhere near a proponent of gun control–hell, I wish he were. But facts don’t get in the way–so the gun paranoiacs just keep sending in the money. What a deal.
*Rapscallion – actually Romney is a lot scarier by a damn site than Obama. Obama understands the volatility of the gun issue and has dealt with it with great elan. A lot of really bad stuff under Clinton. Obama is playing it cozy and we are supporting him hands down – hardly folllowing any “fear mongering” dude!
The NRA has tied its hamstrings to Bob Barr and the deep deep south. We get lots of members from down south. This is called politics…as if you didn’t know. George Allen is a better example of a loyal NRA supporter that doesn’t go over the top at every opportunity…… We hope he wins in Virginia.
What concerns me here, by the way, is less gun policy over all then the idea of sending out a de facto “enemies list” to a bunch of armed supporters, some percentage of which are apparently also psycho. (I don’t paint everyone in CRPA or NRA by that brush, by any means — but I do read the papers.)
“George Allen is a better example of a loyal NRA supporter that doesn’t go over the top at every opportunity……”
Do you mean George “Macaca” Allen ? I think that he went over the top with that remark.
I hope that he loses. It rightly ruined him in 2006.
Add to that …. “George Allen kept a noose and a Confederate flag in his office and anyone who would insult the African-American and Latino people of Virginia this way is not fit to hold office.”
Don’t bet the ranch on this guy winning. Virginia is still considered the South, but it’s no Alabama. The demographics in the Commonwealth are changing.
*Just goes to show……a Conversative that listens and learns….as opposed to the Governor’s of South Carolina and Wisconsin.
“Are you ready for some football……………………….?????” We think he still has the country and western vote….and that will be enough.
*Also he probably has one of those chrome plated hand grenade lighters….for his desk. Executives love weird stuff on their desks…like those perpetual motion hanging chrome balls that bang together….who
would have those? He for sure has a signed photo of Ronald Reagan and of Redskin QB Sonny Jurgenson…..above his desk as well.
Sonny was a class act, but that was along time ago.
D.C. loves the ‘skins good season or bad, but most of the voters don’t remember the redhead, and most everybody around the beltway has a chrome plated hand grenade or 50 cal round.
Allen is down in the polls of likely voters 43 to 51%. It’s an uphill battle, but he could do it.
He will get the hillbilly vote, no doubt about it, but there a lot of progressives moving into the “country” areas out near the Shenandoah and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Also a lot of the military that always voted for the Republican candidate are pretty pissed off at how that party has abandoned them. Their vote is not a sure thing like it used to be.
Virginia had him for a Senator before, and they were not that impressed, that’s why he lost to Webb.
Allen will also be a warrior against women with his anti-abortion stance, vaginal probes etc, and that is half the vote right there.
I’ll be surprised if he wins.
*Good points all……we do wish him well. He has a great “likeabilty” factor going for him…..if he doesn’t get too “over confident” at just the wrong time. We won’t have to wait long…eh?
Like I said, the NRA wants your money. They get it by promulgating fear. It’s a racket.
*Rapscallion,
True or untrue…..there are times we do wonder, but on the other hand – who are you going to trust to support the individual right to keep and bear arms in this country? We doubt that any other organization could do it. Don’t forget, although an oligarchy of massive proportions…the NRA is responsible to its various State Organizations and has been around since 1871 in/from the State of Ohio…….now with over 4 million members, headquartered in Virginia – you do have admit that it is certainly one of the larger Special Interest Groups in America. In fact, we can think of no other National Organization that has that many members. From Eddie Eagle – which teaches young kids how to handle or deal with firearms responsibly to literally hundreds of various programs which support Olympic Shooters and private citizens wanting to improve their marksmanship and safety handling. Whittington Center is a typical example. They do not like the Brady Law or Sarah and her ilk – that firmly believe without question that it was “the gun” not Hinckley that shot her husband.
Remember this – every time someone picks up a so-called assault firearm and attacks helpless civilians – they are nothing but terrorists, much they same that are killing our troops in Afghanistan and other places. They are not “Law Abiding” and need to be dealt with – with “Extreme Prejudice”. Holmes was certainly not an NRA member as you know….nor Nadal nor the bad guys in Kabul that killed our kids there are they were trained. Nor of course, the guy that shot Gabrielle Giffords or the Norweigen nut case mass murderer.
What we are suggesting is – it is not simply the NRA’s fault for the bad conduct going on in the world.
I’m not suggesting that it’s necessarily the NRA’s “fault” for any wrongdoing, but they do have fault for keeping the level of paranoia about gun control foremost in the minds of its members, and they pay hefty dues to the organization. Thus, we have easy access to guns with unreasonable firepower that is no good to anyone except for mass shootings.
To the gun culture, they are the keepers of the torch of freedom, as they will turn back the ravaging hordes of the government when the Bradleys come thundering down the street. No matter that in most countries where political protest is a way of life, such as France, England, Spain, etc., the government has not governed by a coup and folks are much less worried about having several hundred guns and thousands of rounds. To say the gun is not a major factor in the killings we see regualrly occurring is to avoid facts, in my opinion.
*Gun ownership in this country will be argued for another 200 years…we are sure. The truth of the matter is – that very much like insurance, you never need it….until you need it. Home Defense from or in a bad neighborhood, Home Defense to counter both domestic intimidation and for the very small possibility of supporting Homeland Security are what made the Arab Spring possible and why firearms in the hands of a nutso need to have the probability of firearms in the hands of consciously intelligent prior service citizens in the unlikely event of political insurrection….local or national.
This is called deterence….which the Founding Fathers believed in. In the words of Jonathan Winters in his Whistle Stopping album: “We don’t need a President that believes in God – We just need a President that knows that if he screws up; God will get him!”