Unhappy New Year!
Anti’s work hard in December to ruin the futurE
Do you want any of these Democratic party hopefuls in the White House? The time is now
to help prevent it from happening! Photo: CC BY-SA 2.0 by DonkeyHotey
In case you didn’t get the memo, there is no “holiday cheer” among gun prohibitionists toward the tens of millions of law-abiding American gun owners whom they desperately want to disarm.
They’re working on it right now, while you’re busy doing your Christmas shopping or partying with your pals.
Gun-grabbers traditionally use late November and December to meet with friendly anti-gun politicians and put together new gun control measures to be introduced in January or February as state legislatures convene.
We need to counter this by putting together pro-rights bills. Fight fire with fire and be prepared for the “long haul.” For liberal anti-gunners, politics is a contact sport. We gun owners need to be the defensive or offensive line, rather than the football.
Their “holiday cheer” comes in the knowledge they’re eroding your rights a little bit at a time. If you’re not working with your legislators right now, you’re running in second place in a game where there is, as the late Bill Jordan observed, no second-place winner.
Their strategy is simple and proven and this is where Second Amendment activists — if you aren’t one, better become one fast — play a critical role. It’s up to gun owners to defend their rights, and it doesn’t mean just sending 10 bucks to the NRA or some state-level gun rights organization, then insisting you’ve done your part.
This coming year is going to be critical because it’s a presidential election year. All brakes are off. Anti-gun activists want to destroy the Trump presidency, especially his efforts to balance the federal courts with pro-Second Amendment conservative judges and justices.
Here’s an activist’s checklist:
• Make sure you’re registered to vote and do likewise for anyone in your household of voting age.
• Make sure you know your state legislators. Send them a Christmas card or some other holiday greeting and spell their names correctly. Get acquainted. Find out his/her office telephone number and email address.
• If there is an opportunity to meet for a short chat, wear business attire. You’re not going to a hunting camp or the gun range, but to a serious business meeting during which you need to have your facts straight in order to educate the lawmaker and his/her staff representative. Know the person’s name, too, because you’ll be working mostly with them.
• Keep an eye on legislative preview stories in your local newspaper and during evening news broadcasts. Be alert for any reports of pre-filed legislation dealing with guns.
• Get a calendar and circle the dates your state legislature convenes. Also, if you live in one of the primary states, find out the dates of your Democratic primary and pay attention to some of the significant events.
• Watch for notices of upcoming holiday season “Town Hall” events with your member of Congress. Be sure to set aside the time to attend one of these, and take a friend or two.
Know The Primary Schedule
The Iowa Caucus is Feb. 3 followed a week later by the New Hampshire primary. These two events will likely thin the herd and provide some indication of who the front-runners will be as we head toward the Democratic National Convention next summer where Donald Trump’s challenger will emerge.
According to a schedule published by Wikipedia, March 3, 2020 is “Super Tuesday,” when primaries will be held in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia. One week later comes the mini-Super Tuesday with primaries in Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Washington, along with the North Dakota “Firehouse Caucus.”
March 17 gives us primaries in Arizona, Florida and Illinois, and all three are important states in the presidential election.
On April 28, primaries are scheduled in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. This is three weeks after the April 7 Wisconsin primary. Remember, Hillary Clinton lost in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, and Democrats haven’t forgotten. They will not be taking those states for granted ever again.
Remember State Courts
Take a hard lesson from Washington State gun owners. Their lethargy has allowed the election of liberal justices to the state’s Supreme Court.
This court ordered the restoration of anti-gun Initiative 1639 to the November 2018 ballot after it had been removed by a Superior Court judge for not meeting the requirements of state law. This was one of the most extreme gun control measures in the nation, and the result for Evergreen State gun owners has been nothing but trouble.
Take a lesson from President Trump as well. Work with other activists to recruit conservatives to run for judge positions, including state appellate courts and the state Supreme Court. Work to get them elected.
Judgeships are non-partisan, but study up on those judges presently on the bench. Find out who endorses them.
Check Legislative Candidates
State legislators will be up for election in the fall of 2020. Your state has some sort of public disclosure or elections commission. Go to their website and find out about your state lawmakers. See who contributes to their campaigns. Are they Republicans or Democrats? Pay particular attention for contributions from gun control groups (i.e. Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, or some offshoot of Moms Demand Action).
Defending your Second Amendment rights is a full-time enterprise, not something you do one Thursday evening every month at the local gun club. Don’t sit back and count on some national organization to do the fighting while you sit back in the easy chair watching reruns.
The late Neal Knox used to open his speeches to various groups with the phrase “Hello, Gun Lobby.” He was right. The “gun lobby” isn’t some organization in a brick building back east — it’s every one of you, working together, doing the heavy lifting.
Just think of it this way. You are the only thing standing between the likes of Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Eric Swalwell — and the other gun grabbers now running for president — and the rights of your children and grandchildren.
