What do you do to defend the second amendment and your gun rights?

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joey93turbo

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It seems like lately the pressure from anti's is growing stronger and their gaining more support, with more and more anti-gun laws passed. I know everyone here is pro-2nd amendment but what do you really do to help protect the 2nd and your gun rights?

I asked myself this question and I was disappointed with my answer. I call or write my legislators, I try to stay away from anti businesses, I'm a member of the NRA, and I educate people about guns and/or take them shooting with every chance I get. I just don't feel that this is enough compared to what the anti's are doing. They've really got alot going for them, given the stigma of guns and the the way the media portrays them. It's definately an uphill battle for us.
 
I have written my Senators and Congressmen on the AWB issue, joined the NRA and keep my membership up and got my CHL.

Secondly, I try to train my LEO's who work under me, 17 Federal Officers, to respect the rights of armed citizens.

My contribution.

Edit: I also vote...usually Republican...or the lesser evil.
 
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defend the 2A.....

nod only have i joyned the NRA, but i rite lotz' aledurs to muy congrusmin n i uze spel czech 2; soai ken guit my poin nacross. :cool:
 
I belong. NRA, GOA, CRPA, IDPA
I Vote.
I write my representatives.
I speak out thru the websites I manage.
When the gungrabber do something that makes me mad I write a check. :cuss:
I could do more, but I am just too lazy.

K.
 
Membership of most of the usual organizations ... letter writing - and pre this last election a not insignificant amount of dollars to said organizations. Right now - can't donate much more due to overdoing it!

I now teach NRA courses and hope this helps bring folks in - and so spread the word at every opportunity. I battle anti's at every opportunity too! (politely).
 
I just got back from a meeting I organized for 25 people where we heard an NRA director speak and then watched the second half of the NRA debate. Rebecca Peters is one scary chick.

Every day, honestly, something. 10-20 hours a week, most weeks.
 
I CCW. Im a member of the NRA. Give donations to NRA. Buy guns. Defend gun rights in personal contacts with agginners. Explain misinformation about gun control and the AWB to the uninformed.
 
I'm a member of the 3 groups listed in my sig. I write, e-mail and call my State and Federal Reps. I plan on getting as many CHLs as I can just to push the numbers up and make the stats look a little better.

WT;
The National Guard is only a SUBSET of the "Militia" that was created in the early 20th Century. It has little or nothing to do with the Militia mentioned in the Second Amendment, and as it is a "select corps" of the Militia, it repersents a concept that many of the founders were opposed to. The National Guard is a FEDERAL force. If you doubt that, ask some of the Guardsmen in Iraq how they like "State Service".

That said, I support and respect the Guard and its members. It is as genuine an act of patriotic service as joining the regulars. I get really chapped when I hear these twits who refer to Army Guard and Air Guard members as "draft dodgers". Who was at Bata'an and Normandy and Anzio?
 
Sadly I dont do much.I only make 10 bucks an hour at my job so money is real concern for donating or anything.I am a member of the NRA and am soon joining a gun club where hopefully I will meet up with some other gun enthusiast and learn where to go from there.I have not written my Senators and Congressmen like IM sure I should be doing.Pretty much everything I know about guns I have learned on my own.I have took 3 NRA safety classes and feel better doing it.I have done very little so far but hope in a month or so to get on a more serious level.This is a great thread for somebody like me who doesn't even know where to start.
Also I am a Democrat at mind but a Republican by heart "If that makes any sense" :)
 
The proverbial straw, today

After grousing to my wife and cow-orkers for some time about politicians and the laws that we have to put with (but never doing anything about it), today I called 3 different senator offices and wrote letters to 9 legislators, and corresponded with the OSBA about their support of the bill (Oregon SB 335).

I'm trying to make plans to go to the committee meeting and add my own comments to the record (or whatever).

After seeing what you were doing (and that you still didn't feel you were doing enough), I'm humbled (and reminded) that I still have plenty of room for improvement.
 
Frankly, it’s overwhelming.

Like many of you, I am a member of pro-RKBA organizations (NRA and CRPA) and gun clubs, write to my “representatives” (hopelessly anti-gun Democrats and the occasional, safely gerrymandered Republican), and try to educate people when the opportunity presents itself, but the right to arms is not the only one of our freedoms I’m worried about. All of our rights are under almost daily assault, and none are truly safe. I do my best to defend them all, within the limits of my time, resources, and endurance.

So far, I’ve met with far more failure than success. Just the other night, I was having a discussion about Social Security reform with some of my family members. Other than my wife, I couldn’t get any of them to even grant that it was a good idea, in theory, for people to be able to control their own retirement funds.

If I can’t convince my own family of something so simple, how can I sway strangers’ opinions on something as historically and politically complicated as the right to keep and bear arms?

On this very forum, support for that right varies from absolute to nominal. I may as well forget about our other rights here. Many times, I’ve tried vainly to explain the importance of these rights, but most of the membership supports at least some degree of infringement.

Very few people seem to understand that all rights and liberties are interdependent. To weaken even one is to weaken them all.

~G. Fink :(
 
Well, along with writing my congresscritters, I tithe. 10% of what I spend on firearms, shooting, and reloading I donate to NRA, GOA, GOC, or CRPA depending on my whim :eek: I commend it to all... :what:

Tom
 
Chet, money has nothing to do with it. Join your state group and volunteer to work for them or the NRA. Money is necessary, but so is the time it takes to get someone involved. Offer to work a table someplace, or ask if there's any filing that can done or data entry or something. Most anti-gun groups have some housewife with a liberal arts degree being paid to do this, if not a full staff in some states, but most pro-gun groups are volunteer based which means someone has to do this stuff. When I say I do this 15 hours a week, I'm not talking about attending rallies and fighting the big battles, I'm talking about sitting here this morning wondering when I'm going to find time to get this expense stuff put together to send to Jeanne before the end of the month so she won't kick my ass and make us lose our tax-exempt status, or proof reading something or putting together info packets, or whatever. Boring stuff, necessary stuff. It won't cost you a dime to help whoever is doing this, because I guarantee you someplace, someone is doing this and if its not done, we all suffer.

An hour a month can be more help than you realized. An hour a week would be incredible.

This can be won.

Politicians want votes. Letters and such are wonderful and necessary. But go up there..call your legislator and tell them you'll be at the Capitol and ask if you can have a few minutes of their time. Talk to them. If they're opposed to guns, be extra careful to be polite and explain what you believe and why you think so. Tell them you belong to whatever organizations you do, because that mention gives those groups strength when they go to talk to your legislators. If you're a registered Democrat, you have more power than some of us Republicans, because the only way to get this out of the political realm is to make sure Dems know its a losing campaign issue and the only way we can do that is if *Dems* tell them. Me telling a Dem I'm not going to vote for them because of their stance on guns isn't gonna have that much effect. You doing it might.

Ok, rant off. Time to get to the day job.
 
Very few people seem to understand that all rights and liberties are interdependent. To weaken even one is to weaken them all.
Click to expand...

Amen to that! We are uniquely fortunate, in the U.S., to have a Bill of Rights which spells out the basics. It's not just a lawyer's playtoy, but it's written in plain English.

What I do:

1) Memberships as spelled out in my sig line. We're lucky enough to have a VERY good state association in Texas, but every state has an NRA affiliate which needs support from pro-gun citizens. NRA also has an email alert which is very useful - when they give you a number to call, it's time to call.

2) In our times the best protector of civil rights seems to be the courts. If you get a call for jury duty, read over the Bill of Rights the night before, and remember that it's the supreme law of the land, no matter what the judge says. I myself am a lawyer, and I've been training up to do some pro-bono defense work.

3) I haven't found that arguing with people works very well - maybe because I'm too argumentative. But I do keep a supply of the Granda Jack comic books around, as well as a stack of copies of the Senate subcommittee report which was reprinted by Accurate Press, and I give them away whenever I find a good audience.

4) I vote, and I wouldn't tell anybody not to, but voting clearly isn't enough.
 
State Associations

My state associate (TSRA) has a list of links on their website at http://www.tsra.com/related.htm.

The California association looks pretty good - see http://www.crpa.org/ .
They say their membership is only 60,000, which isn't a lot.

From http://www.kc3.com/Links/state__local_organizations.htm
I see a link to
http://www.ossa.org/. (Oregon State Shooting Association)

If money is an issue these associations may offer a cheaper membership which does not include their magazines - it can't hurt to ask, the worst they can say is no!
 
"If I can’t convince my own family of something so simple, how can I sway strangers’ opinions on something as historically and politically complicated as the right to keep and bear arms?"

One method, and it's fun,is to take them to the range. Introduce them to fun shooting. Have them shoot easy targets with a .22. Treat it as a public relations event. Make sure they have fun. Do NOT talk about gun rights, the Second Amendment, etc. Just let them have fun.

I strongly believe there is nothing we can do that is more effective than introducing nonshooters to the FUN of shooting.
 
I belong to the NRA, write letters to local, state, and federal politicians (my representative, for example), and discuss RKBA issues with people I know. But the older I get the more I feel there is more I should be doing. Not sure where that will lead yet...
 
One method, and it's fun,is to take them to the range. Introduce them to fun shooting. Have them shoot easy targets with a .22. Treat it as a public relations event. Make sure they have fun. Do NOT talk about gun rights, the Second Amendment, etc. Just let them have fun.
Click to expand...

Good point! I do that a lot, but I was forgetting how important it is. I find that going over the safety rules carefully and seriously, at the range or beforehand, is well received, at least by women - helps to reassure them that we aren't berserkos!
 
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