Most gun owners need to disassociate themselves from the extremists

Minneapolis Star-Tribune ^ | April 25, 2003 | Bob Johnson

[Shooter 2.5]

In his first post he stated that he gets notices from the GOA.

I can count on numerous times members of the GOA have openly criticized the NRA right here on this website. I would suggest the members quit mentioning the NRA and simply explain how well their group is doing. In that way, gunowners may feel the need to join their group based on their trackrecord.

Maybe you can explain to the GOA members that we have to work together. After repeating that on numerous occasions, they don't seem to listen to me. You might have better luck.

You might also have a discussion with the webmaster over on keepandbeararms.com. My email with suggestions for working together didn't seem to have an impact there either.

Out of curiosity, I even thought about sending a email to Larry Pratt and see if this is an official strategy in order to pull paying activists from the other gun groups.

The next time a GOA member implies that the NRA is working for gun control, I'll ping you and perhaps you can help straighten the person out.

Calling a group "no compromise" doesn't necessarily make it so.

Thanks for the support.

[Eastbound]

"There is no threat to losing our right to own guns for sport."

A D-Minus for such an infantile propaganda attempt. Back to the woodshed for a good butt blisterin'.

[THUNDER ROAD]

A classic “Divide and conquer” technique.

You got it RJL !
Just like the current socially engineered
program about NEOcons and PALEOcons .
We are watching a Real Propaganda Program
in action, with that one .

.....THUNDER......

[Dec31,1999]

England, Australia, Canada, California; register weapons and it leads to illegality and confiscation.

It's all about taking guns away from white, Protestant, Christian men, and it's almost complete. (Most Christian blacks and other minorities already live in cities, where there that has already been taken care of.)

[Dec31,1999]

Repeate after me: The security of a free state does not need defending from hordes of deer.

But those deer have Lyme disease!

[Dec31,1999]

One final comment on this thread:

The Marxist Democrats want to prohibit private ownership of guns for one important reason: It's the only way to take over and end, once and for all, freedom of speech, which they hate more than anything.

Now that they are losing the battle in America, but have won in most of the world, they see this as the Mother of all battles!

[Dan from Michigan]

There is no threat to losing our right to own guns for sport

Dumbass. I'll repeat it for you Bob. You are a dumbass. Take a look at a place two states south of you in Illinois.

[sit-rep]

Thumbs down...

[FreedomCalls]

"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."

-- Barry Goldwater.

[Travis McGee]

[from occupied ga]

I can count on numerous times members of the GOA have openly criticized the NRA right here on this website.

Gosh, I wonder why < /sarcasm>

and simply explain how well their group is doing

Well here ya go

Maybe you can explain to the GOA members that we have to work together. After repeating that on numerous occasions, they don't seem to listen to me.

If you don't want gun control, then it isn't to your advantage to work with an organization that helps pass it and support it (instant background check and project exile to name but two NRA supported gun control initiatives.)

[dhuffman@awod.com]

Project Exile for one

[Shooter 2.5]

Without the NRA, the instant check would have been a fifteen day waiting period and you know that.

Your childish attacks on the NRA are nothing but a move to make paying gun activists move from one organization to another.

Motivate the 95% of the gunowners who are sitting on the sidelines and I might be impressed.

[from occupied ga]

Without the NRA, the instant check would have been a fifteen day waiting period and you know that.

Yes, but they went at the wrong end. Rather than fight the background check, they made it easier which has two downsides

1. People need to be inconvenienced by it or there won't be enough resentment to get it repealed and
2. computerizing it makes it much easier for the government to create and keep a permanant registration list which the FBI and ATF are doing now

Your childish attacks on the NRA are nothing but a move to make paying gun activists move from one organization to another

Totally wrong - I'm trying to get people to STOP supporting gun control. Anyone who belongs to the NRA and believes that they're a hard line pro-gun organization needs to be aware of the fact that they will compromise the the anti-gunners ever chance they get.

Motivate the 95% of the gunowners who are sitting on the sidelines and I might be impressed.

Impressing you is at the very bottom of my priority list. You seem to think that I give a rat's ass what you think. I don't. You and the other NRA apologists are blind to the truth. You keep talking about working together with the NRA. What a joke. The only way to work together with the NRA is to follow their anti-gun compromise doctrine to the letter. It's their way or the highway. The reason that I and other pro gun activists criticise the NRA is that to work with the NRA is to embrace their doctrine of pre-emptive surrender. So no, I can't work with them unless they are willing to work with me and they ain't.

[Shooter 2.5]

So no, I can't work with them unless they are willing to work with me and they ain't.

You might not be able to work with them but even when the NRA took a neutral stand on the trigger lock law, the CSG website was STILL calling for help from the NRA members.

Are you totally incapable of doing ANYTHING without mentioning the NRA?

Pathetic.

[Taxman]

Dear Mr. Johnson,

What part of ". . . the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be inFRinged." do you not understand?

Sincerely,

An "Extremist" who believes the US Constitution means what it says and cannot be parsed.

[from occupied ga]

Are you totally incapable of doing ANYTHING without mentioning the NRA?

On Friday, last day of the GA gnl ssy sesion Lt Gov. Mark Taylor started calling all of the rural democrats and the squishy republican saying that the NRA representative, John Thomas, was sitting in his office saying that the NRA was opposed to the self defense amendment to SB1 and that if any legislator wanted confirmation they could talk to the NRA rep in his (lt gv's)office. The NRA fights hard to sell us out, so yes, I'll mention them on the enemies list.

[Shooter 2.5]

This is the comment FROM YOUR ORGANIZATION'S WEBSITE:

Meanwhile, the NRA is still on the sidelines. They're scared anti-gunners will claim they're against children. The NRA lobbyist told the House Judiciary Committee the NRA is neither for the bill nor against it. Of course anti-gunners are saying "the NRA is not opposed to HB197" which is only half the truth.

You seem to have the same opinion as the anti-gunners. More pathetic.[hint:stop digging]

[ZULU]

"As a gun owner, hunter and sportsman, I'm concerned about a common misperception: the belief that gun owners are a monolithic body of people who all march to the tune of the National Rifle Association."

In numbers, there is strength and the NRA is the only reason private citizens still enjoy their Second Amendment Rights, diluted as they may have become.

"As legislators debate the measure that would put more concealed, loaded handguns onto our streets, they should not assume that most gun owners would be happy with a looser permitting system. Some very misguided policies are propounded in our names, and many common-sense measures that would protect all of us are never enacted -- all out of fear that gun owners will exact their revenge at the polls if our interests are not defended."

The more politicians fear to abdrige our Constitutional Rights, the safer and stronger our Republic becomes.

"The unfortunate truth is that those gun owners who speak the loudest represent only one rather extreme element of the gun-owning population."

I don't believe it is an extreme position to allow law-abiding citizens the right to carry a firearm for their own self-defense. That's what the Second Amendment is all about. It has NOTHING to do with hunting, target shooting or gun collecting.

"The rest of us do not support the notion that our community will be safer with thousands more gun-toting citizens carrying concealed, loaded handguns."

Speak for yourself.

"Nor do we believe that military-style combat weapons should be marketed to the general public."

The sole purpose of the Second Amendment was to assure familiarity with military style firearms by the general public. As a matter of fact, there was a federal program to provide law-abiding citzens with surplus military firearms and ammunition (DCM) until fairly recently killed, I believe, under the Clinton Administration.

"Most of us do not fear reasonable regulation. We support background checks, maintenance of good records, manufacturing safety standards, and measures that make guns inaccessible to children."

Wrong. Most gun-owners support reasonable regulations - like restricting carrying of firearms in certain areas, and keeping firearms out of the hands of criminals. "Maintenance of good records" - what does that mean?? Allowing the government to know exactly WHO has HOW MANY and WHAT KIND of firearms to make it easier at some time in the future to confiscate them? "Manufacturing safety standards.."?? As long as the projectile comes out of the muzzle when I pull the trigger, that is all the safety I need, or anyone else. "..measures that make guns inaccessible to children."??? Theonly measure I approve of to keep guns oout of the hands of children is parental responsibility. And I believe young children should, at an early age, under adult supervision, be taught the safe sand proper use of firearms.

"Hunters are among the most responsible of gun owners. We store, care for and use our firearms properly. We treat them with respect because we know their power and understand their danger."

No argument there.

"The "we vs. they" mentality that suffuses our discourse on firearms not only serves to polarize and paralyze discussion. It is just plain fiction."

He is misinformed. It is the gun-confiscation fanatics of the media and the political world and the misguided religious world who have created the them versus us scenario, not gun-owners or the NRA.

"It's time for gun owners to disassociate ourselves from the extremists who argue that any attempt to sensibly regulate firearms takes us down the slippery slope toward confiscation. There is no threat to losing our right to own guns for sport."

The Second Amendment has nothing to do with "sport". Also, if the writer cared to check, the anti-gun crowd is just as adament about outlawing and regulating black powder guns as about modern weapons - he should just visit New Jersey or the Massachusetts Legislature.

"The real threat to gun owners is the same threat hanging over the rest of the population ..... "

He's right only that far. The real threat to the rest of the population is the insidious incremental attrition that is destroying ALL our constitutional rights, not just the Second Amendment - destruction by legislating courts and judges, pandering politicians and myopic special interst groups, NOT organizations like the NRA.

"Bob Johnson, owner of a national investment banking firm, lives in Farmington."

My guess is, like Sean Penn, Barbara Feinstein, etc, this guy has a concealed carry permit.

[from occupied ga]

Website was updated on 2/12. My information is as of 4/25. So don't think you've "scored a point" (since you seem to be more interested in this than the truth) just by quoting from out of date material.