Are American Gun Owners a Bunch of Fools?

The American gun owning public is being duped again, just like we were duped the two weeks before the election when we were convinced that Romney was ahead by several percentage points. The media, including our “friends” at Fox, Drudge, and other “conservative” outlets, are attempting to sell us the concept that the “assault weapon ban” legislation can’t pass, and this is a lie. We are told that Bill Clinton sternly warned his party that they will be punished in the mid-terms, and that the NRA is “too powerful” for any real legislation to make it through congress. This is also a lie. Behind our backs, the political machine is crafting public opinion in what have become the majority voting blocks to convince national and state legislators that they are safe for the next election… and they are safe. American gun owners didn’t show up in force for the last election, and we are not feared as a voting block any longer. Don’t be a fool and believe it when they tell us we can’t lose. We are going to get beaten again if we don’t act. And this time it isn’t a slippery slope. This time they are going to outlaw an entire class of guns with no loopholes.

If you are on the GunsAmerica email list, or you are clicking in from the website, you are probably a gun owner of some type (or you are desperately trying to buy your first gun before they ban them), and you may feel that we are “preaching to the choir.” But there is also a 90% chance that YOU HAVE NOT CONTACTED YOUR LEGISLATORS to let them know that you are strongly against any kind of weapon ban, or any increase in our national or state gun laws whatsoever.

You are silent, because you think it is someone else’s job. But it is your job, and you have to make yourself be heard. Call and email your legislators today.

The NRA came into this fight almost a month late and their response has been anything but well received. Even though President Obama’s kids are guarded by armed guards in schools, and even though Dianne Feinstein actually possesses one of San Francisco’s few concealed carry permits, the very sane suggestions of the NRA have fallen on mostly deaf ears. The media , including Fox, has beat up Wayne Lapierre and is inflating every shooting incident in the country right now, trying to keep the gun control energy as high as possible, so that the legislators will have the courage to vote against the wishes of the majority of their constituents. The only way they can do this is their constituents, meaning YOU, remain silent.

You must call and write your legislators today. Let them know that you know who they are. You know their name, and you will remember how they voted come election day. Don’t just use the web form, and don’t just call their Washington, DC numbers. Call their local numbers and tell their staffers that you and ever gun owner you know will be watching them, and funding their opponents if they vote for this ineffective and stupid legislation. At some point you have to take action, and you have to go that extra step, and now is the time.

Most gun owners, like most of America, are ignorant to world history. Most people don’t know that Kristallnacht, the famous “night of broken glass” in Germany in 1939, was actually a gun roundup. It is considered the beginning of the Holocaust, but what most people leave out is that Hitler published sweeping gun confiscation legislation on November 11, 1938, the day after the famous Nazi rioting. You will find the same gun confiscations in the pages of the dictatorial and murderous takeovers of China, Cambodia, Ukraine and throughout history. The first thing every government spinning out of control does is register the guns. Then they round up the guns. Then they declare martial law, putting the military in charge. Do you feel like America has been heading in the right direction? Do you wonder why “prepping” has become more popular than NASCAR? The government knows that America is a powder keg waiting to pop, and they are trying to use a manufactured crisis to take away your guns.

In President Obama’s speech, which took place right in the middle of SHOT Show of course, he played to “law abiding gun owners,” specifically calling out to our petition that we all signed at the beginning of this crisis. The President actually had the nerve to say that this wasn’t about politics and the tactics of a dictatorial regime, despite the fact that rifles, including AR-15 and other magazine fed rifles, are only used in a tiny percentage of gun violence. He even admitted this during the debates. He was appealing to middle class casual gun owners and hunters. They want us to turn on ourselves. They want the old hunting crowd to say “I don’t know why anyone would need a gun like that,” or “why would you need a magazine with more than 7 rounds.” They want the Ipad generation to fall into lockstep with their ideals, and for the old hunting crowd to back them up. We saw it at SHOT Show. Hunters are historically traitors to the 2nd Amendment, and this will be no different.

The people who outvoted us this past November don’t believe in the Constitution. The Ipad generation believes what they see on TV. While all those TV personalities hire armed guards and carry guns themselves to protect their own life and property, they are building public opinion against our 2nd Amendment freedom to keep and bear arms. The Ipad generation doesn’t understand the nature of mankind, and the implicit design of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The Holocaust was 60 years ago, not 600 years ago YOU TOUCHSCREEN ADDICTED IDIOTS. This isn’t about President Obama. It isn’t about what happens next month or next year. The 2nd Amendment must be preserved if our freedom is to be preserved. If we give anything today it will be the next thing we give at the next crisis, then the next thing we give at the next crisis, until we are all defending ourselves with airguns like they do in European Union today. Please contact your legislators today

I have contacted my state's congressmen (women, actually) and both senators through multiple sources and petitions.

I would advise all of you to do the same.

It is absolutely vital that all of our voices be heard, loud and clear.

I have received form letters back from a number of them and responded with a personalized letter than I drafted myself. I am going to reproduce it here, in case any of you want to use it, in part or in whole:

Dear Congressman/woman:

I appreciate your response, but must correct your thinking on several matters about which many of your colleagues are incorrect as a matter of fact and logic.

Background checks are already conducted by every Federal Firearms Licensed (FFL) dealer as a matter of current law, and they are conducted as a matter of course during each and every sale of a firearm, new or used by such dealers.

In addition, the notion of a gun show loophole is a false one. Every firearm sold by a licensed dealer at gun shows in New Hampshire and in every other state is, and must be accompanied by the signing of Form 4473. This form contains name, address, date of birth, government-issued photo ID number, National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) background check transaction number, make/model/serial number of the firearm, and a short federal affidavit stating that the purchaser is eligible to purchase firearms under federal law. Lying on this form is a felony and can be punished by up to five years in prison in addition to fines, even if the transaction is simply denied by the NICS.

Private (interpersonal) sales of legally-owned firearms between individuals have always been excluded from Federal regulation, as a proper respect for property rights and the 2nd Amendment both demand. Any attempt to regulate such sales would be impracticable without a level of government intrusion inconsistent with any reasonable concept of freedom, and would be impossible to enforce absent a police state atmosphere. And, as is the case with all gun laws, it would negatively impact law-abiding citizens almost exclusively.

High capacity magazines are presently owned by millions of Americans (including myself), and are of enormous utility in providing sufficient protection in the face of a mortal threat, especially one from several sources. Any attempt to ban them would be largely ignored - especially by criminals. The weapons that make use of such magazines are highly various, ranging from modern sporting rifles (falsely termed "assault weapons" by anti-gun activists, who mistake them for fully-automatic weapons of the kind carried by our military, or else willfully ignore the difference) to many commonly-owned semi-automatic pistols, which millions of us depend on for home security and self-defense every day.

I urge you to think about these matters in a calm and dispassionate way. Please do not give in to the rank emotionalism that pervades too much of our popular culture with regard to firearms.

As a long-time weapons owner, a concealed-carry permit holder, and as a father too, I am deeply saddened and troubled by what happened in Connecticut last year. But I also realize that such incidents are exceedingly rare and have actually been declining over time, regardless of media coverage that seems to make people think otherwise.

We do not have a "gun" problem in America - 99.95% of all firearms owners do not use their weapons in criminal activities.

We do, however, have a deep and abiding cultural problem: the glorification of violence in our entertainment industry, including a broader disregard for the value of human life.

We also have a crime problem: too many career criminals are walking the streets owning to inadequate enforcement of existing laws and lax judicial standards for punishment in cases of recidivism.

We have a personal responsibility problem: too many people in America willfully ignore their duties to themselves, their families and their fellow citizens by engaging in harmful and negligent behavior. Rampant drug abuse is one example. Having multiple children without providing support and care for them in a stable family is another. Not properly securing firearms in the home is sometimes, another.

Finally, we have a public mental health problem: for over forty years, a determined legal movement to de-institutionalize the mentally ill has resulted in city streets that are increasingly unsafe and a lack of proper diagnosis and treatment for those incapable of discerning right and wrong and reality from fantasy.

Let us address the real problems in our society and not take a politically "easy way out" that will in fact only affect the vast majority of decent, upstanding and law-abiding citizens who not coincidentally, stand ready to assist both the law enforcement community and our fellow citizens every single day.

I am proud to be an armed American, as is my birthright. I have 80 million brothers and sisters who feel the same way. Let us grieve for the children lost in Connecticut as we should, but let us find better ways of stopping such awful events without losing our freedom.

Thanks you for your consideration,

(Name)

(Address)

Here is the response I received from districts congresscritter. Pathetic, he actually states he violate our second amendment.

Dear Mr. xxxxxxxxxxx:

Thank you for contacting me regarding Second Amendment Rights’ and gun violence. I appreciate learning your views.

Like many Americans, I am concerned about preserving our constitutional rights to own firearms. As you know, the majority of gun owners in America are law-abiding citizens who responsibly maintain firearms for personal protection or personal hobbies.

However, the tragic deaths of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut plus several other mass killings involving deadly firearms suggest a need for policymakers to consider limiting the proliferation of assault rifles and high-capacity magazines, completing thorough background check on all gun sales, preventing the trafficking of guns, and working with mental health professionals and law enforcement to keep guns out of the hands of those who may cause us harm. Enacting sensible gun laws that fully considers the time in which we live would place our country on a path to more responsible gun-ownership and decreased gun violence.

As more gun control proposals are put forth, I look forward to working with my Congressional colleagues to thoughtfully consider the measures that take appropriate action.

Very truly yours,

G.K. Butterfield
Member of Congress

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