Writing seems pointless sometimes...
But it normally DOES have an effect.
The congressCritter's gnomes categorize and count up all the mail their guy gets, and the pile usually does get consulted when an issue comes up. Elected officials, motivated to keep their jobs, usually use this as a touch point and reality check.
The problem that has bit us in the butt is that if all of the emails/letters they've recieved are from the millyun misguided mommies, because they had their act together and we didn't, the legislator is going to proceed as if that reflected the will of their constituents.
As for the formulaic feedback we get, that's fine. After all, half the mail we send them is also formulaic to begin with.
Here in NJ, a mere 300 letters derailed a particularly evil little thing going on in the regulatory process, and but for those letters, we would have lost temporarilly blocked full cap mags >15 rounds.
If you choose not to write or vote, you are letting others make the choices for you, and we have all seen the results of that.
Assuming we want to actually DO something, rather than just watch it all swirl down the drain, our individual and collective options here more or less follow a predictable force continuum:
-Writing/Communicating with elected officials
-Voting
-Mass education
-Mass public noise, street protest
-Mass civil disobedience
And ultimately, we'll each individually have to decide whether to just say "buh bye, RKBA, Free Speech, Free Religion, and the rest of the Bill of Rights" or take
-Drastic Measures
Gun owners, I think, are prone to the notion that they can just skip all those steps and decide about Drastic Measures if and when the JBTs come calling.
{sarcasm}
After all, we've got guns, don't we? Why should we worry?
{/sarcasm}
That attitude is a self fulfilling prophecy, and contributes to the odds of being on the nasty end of things somewhere down the road.
As for me, I prefer that the situation de-escalate, and if died happily in my old age without ever having to seriously contemplate Drastic Measures, that'd be fine with me.
Avoiding the necessity for such, if possible, is a laudable goal.
Now, this thread was originally about something quite serious, that of the IRS, enboldened by BRCA, taking steps to seriously squelch both free speech and free association, so lets get back to it, shall we?
