A Letter to Rhode Island Gun Owners

also, get to their donors.

Not a bad strategy, going after pols in primary voting. Turnout is usually low, and gun owners are generally single issue. Hell, it worked for Bloomberg in Chicago. I’d share this with the NRA, GOA, and SAF as well.

Few people in that part of the country care about gun rights, or any rights and they like it like that. Good night, Rhode Island.

Make sure while you work to remove these ‘d- bags’ from office there is a candidate who plans to run in the fall that is pro gun. If there isn’t your words will be empty threats. Good idea on the donors, how do you go about identifying them?

Politicians count on the short memories of voters. They have rigged the rules so that incumbents have all the advantages and are re-elected some 95% of the time. They know that the voter who is passionate today will be distracted by a shiny object or another issue tomorrow. The strategy you suggest will only work over the long run if the great enough numbers get fed up and vote the bastards out.

I point out how many people were up in arms over Dick’s Sporting Goods and promised to boycott them forever and forever. How many of them have returned to shop at Dick’s because they heard they had some ammo or a rifle on sale?

That is the attitude that politicians count on….sure we are all in the heat of passion today, but how long can it last? History shows it to be not long.

I hope I am wrong. It would not be the first time.

I don’t have any faith in NE liberals and Democrats who want a nanny state and allow themselves to be enslaved by welfare, government assistance and police militarization. They are the ones who run your states. Chicago, New York City, Boston, Providence, the list goes on. The truth is that as long as those cites are full of solidly liberal democratic voting blocks, I am afraid there will be no change until it gets much much worse. The people first have to wake up, turn off their propaganda boxes televisions and vote. Just vote them out. Don’t threaten, don’t negotiate, don’t let the big cities and their enslaved nanny state populations determine our future. Until that happens, no offense intended, but this is just more pissing in the wind. The only people, who’ll read it are the ones who were going to do something anyway. More preaching to the choir

Loving the “Get all up.in their grill” strategy, but not loving the “gun control doesn’t work” tag line. It leaves the door open to all kinds of pious retorts.

A couple of things:

1) A lot of these ideas are good, but should be talked about under wraps not in public. Never let the enemy know what you are doing

2) Attacking at the primaries is a great idea, however, you probably do not have enough gun owners in each district to make a difference. You may be able to pick off one or two, but not many

3) Whatever you do, the media is against you. The protests are great, but you have to keep the high ground and cannot act like the “crazy” gun owners they would like to portray you to be.

4) If you organize, organize early to get the max number of people to go to rallies because giving a few days notice will not get the mass of people you need.

5) When you testify, organize, everyone should have different talking points, talking about the 2a only makes eyes glaze over. If you can find survivors with their story of how without a gun they would not be there to testify, that goes a long way especially if you can get them on the news

6) start a legal defense fund now, in one party majority states, you are going directly to court because really they do not give a crap and that is their strategy anyway because it will take years to drag through the courts. How long did Heller take? 6yrs?

7) Do not underestimate what it takes to get people off their duff to help

8) You have to get in their face before they even have a bill. Organize to go talk to lawbreakers now, find out who is on your side, who is against you and who is on the fence? Do any of them carry?

9) Sign-up on the anti-gun groups boards and find out what they are doing and be ready to counter

10) See if they plan on ramming any of this through via “emergency” provisions and let them. The SCOTUS DOES NOT LIKE TO RULE on legislative matters because it is like making sausage, HOWEVER, there has been a few legal beagles and people who watch SCOTUS who are saying they are getting mighty pissed off that emergency measures are being used to ram rod legislation and may be ready to see a case to put it down.

Finally, it will be a long multi-year slog. 2014 and 2016 battles at the polls are coming. We will all have to fight for a very long time.

You will find that many gun owners are not even registered to vote, start a voter registration drive now and then follow up to make sure they can vote. You may find a few lawbreakers who are on your side, work their campaign and show them if they support you, you will support them.

In short, we can only win back what we have lost only if we get involved. Awake people of the gun, we have much to do. We can no longer be silent and we must active on the front lines of politics no matter how much we disdain that effort.

Interesting strategy. ‘Gun Control Does Not Work’ is simple, concise and to the point. I like. While we write letters and e-mails , and make phone calls on the state level, the same message needs to be heard as a clarion call by those who would create the national standards. President Obama waves the bloody flag on Congress, while the Pro-2A side of the issue strives through blogs, hoping that the reps of the NRA will get the job done, while our positions are trashed with lies and half truths from the established media. Our freedoms are at stake, and people of the gun are greater in numbers than the constituency of the NRA. Sitting complacently, expecting that several representatives of pro-gun groups will get the job done is a fool’s folly. Congress as well as lawmakers at ALL levels need to see and hear the numbers of the people on our side if there is ever to be hope of influencing the outcome of this battle. Legislators across the nation need to hear “gun control doesn’t work. Gun control doesn’t reduce violent crime. Gun control doesn’t stop spree killers. Gun control doesn’t keep us or our loved ones or our communities safe. Gun control doesn’t work. It never has and it never will.”

Robert,
You forget an import part of RI politcs. You can’t protest at their place of business. The majority of the legislators in RI are union organizers, state employees, and school teachers. (No kidding, officers of the State Employees Union, Providence Fire Union, and all kinds of teachers’ union members not only are in the RI legislature, but they get paid by the cities and towns for the time they spend doing union duties and attending the legislature. It boggles the mind.) The people of RI have no representation, they haven’t in a long time. RI is a state, of the unions, by the unions, for the unions.

I agree with you on primaries, but I fear your task is Quixotic, the RI machine is similar to the Chicago machine if not worse. When the union president tells membership to vote for the union vice president in his primary they do. Plus if you protest outside of union halls you will get hurt.

Forget the email/phone calls, as you said, INSANITY.

We should, as you suggest, protest at major donors homes, businesses, kids schools, and wives book club meetings. Show up at the politicians PTA meetings, homes, business, coffee shops. Make them so personally uncomfortable they squirm at the thought of additional gun control. ALSO, make those who serve them so uncomfortable that general vendors deny them service. This is the strategy PETA used and it was VERY successful.

Here’s the catch, this needs to be civil and organized but still function as a “guerrilla” campaign so that Politicians don’t enact some BS law disallowing protesting on public roads, places of business, or schools of public officials. This effort needs to appear sporadic, random, and unpredictable. Think occupy wall street?

The younger population can not be expected to fight this one in large since we are hammered by student loans, wives, and kids. Not to mention that most younger people with the will to fight do not believe in the individual right to own firearms until well they need one, generally when the grow the F up. We need a retired population with more “free time” and less to lose to fight these skirmishes for us.

just my thoughts. yes, its slow in the office today.

Some Pols don’t care if they lose the seat if they have money or connections which they can use the very next day. You have a certain number who will do anything to see guns be banned

Living in a state where you can get to any event in about an hour, you are in a unique position to be able to assemble any where quickly.
Hey, I know, you could call your selves the “60 Minute Men”
Catchy, don’t you think?

I think moving is the better idea… I grew up in RI and have most of my extended family still scattered through RI, MA, CT and ME. As much as I enjoy visiting, I’ll never live in New England again. State and local politics have already coalesced into a self licking ice cream cone, an echo-chamber, a grand self delusion. You can spend your years arguing primaries, lamenting the taxes, and stressing yourself out or recognize that “light blue” or “deep blue” really has no distinction when their is no real opposition. When each census shows a steady stream of population decline for the region, yet the same policies get even MORE strict, it’s like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. All you have is getting off the ship.

5 minute handbook for gun rights advocates:

http://oldsite.vcdl.org/new/RKBA_handbook.htm

Here’s some additional advice, as I’ve been through this in my home state of Connecticut – throw out the NRA ratings. Assume all of them are “F’s” until they tell you otherwise. If you receive the standard, “I respect the 2nd Amendment, but we must also remember those victims…”. Translation: “I’m voting for any and all gun control measures”. Don’t be fooled. Both my State Senator and Representative from my district carried “A” ratings from the NRA. They also both voted for that draconian gun control bill. No politician is safe from the Obama/Biden sphere of influence.

That’s a great Plan A. But have a Plan B…to move. Frankly, federalism is the greater protector of our freedoms than the franchise of our votes. Do your level best, but in the end, let the tyrants preside over a moribund, depopulated wasteland.

Good luck with the move. However, with what is being proposed in the Toomey/Manchin/Schumer amendment, they are working their darnedest to eliminate any regional differences. The language is out:

http://www.pagunblog.com/2013/04/11/we-have-language-on-the-toomey-manchin-amendment/

Taking a cue from the Free State Dino Project eh?

We are registering Republicans in Democrat-controlled areas to Democrats to bring some chaos to the primaries. We may not get a Pro-2A person, but we will show the ones that voted against our rights we will stop at nothing to throw them out on their tyrannical butts.

Gun control = disarming victims

The primaries are a great idea. I’ve been saying for a long time that it is more important to vote in the primary than the general. Most of the districts are owned by one of the parties, very few are truly competitive. (Most US low information voters support ‘their’ party like its a sports team vice a means of selecting their employee. It really is the only chance to throw out an incumbent, ergo-

More than voting, we should be finding and supporting the pro-gun democrat or republican in each district and helping them in the primary. Donations, volunteering to walk precincts, make phone calls, post flyers, push them to our friends relatives etc.

What is the law about open carry in Rhode Island? I ask because if we want to survive, we are going to have to borrow strategies from revolutionaries, and we are going to start to get organized. I like your idea for a show of force, but since we are the minority, we have to borrow a page from the Nation of Islam. Our show of force must be powerful, but completely peaceful. It must be strong, but we must never show rage.

What we need to do is to have thousands show up in suits and ties, and carry black rifles on our shoulders and side arms openly. Thousands. Unloaded if we have to. We have to send the message that we mean business, but we also have to show them that we are humans worthy of dignity. It’s easy to marginalize your enemy into the OFWG stereotype. It’s much harder to do that to men and women who are dressed for business.

Look at what happened during Obamacare. These senators were chased out of their own townhall meetings, and you could see the fear in their eyes as people vehemently, but politely, told them that they would not accept this. What did they do? They went back to Washington and still took the deal. Because that’s who they thought buttered their bread. We have to remind them where their butter comes from.

Robert – As someone who has wasted a considerable amount of time “pissing in the wind” by testifying repeatedly at public meetings, I like all your above ideas, and good for you for heading in this direction. We need to get aggressive, and for heaven’s sake we need to stop worrying about whether we’re going to turn anyone off. Of course we’re going to. But we’re also going to attract a lot of people who weren’t paying attention before, and we’re going to put real pressure on politicians who don’t respect facts and logic.

Good idea but what are the chances anyone who doesn’t crap on the Constitution will even run for office in a Democrat primary?

Who cares about Rhode Island, liberals, low information voters and gays, gays, gays… let that state fall into its demise… all who are pro second amendment, move out…

Valiant effort, but there’s no stopping the tyrannical gears from grinding this country into dust. Only when we hit rock bottom might we bounce back, when people have so deservingly lost all their rights and finally understand first hand.

Don’t forget catchy slogans on your signs such as:

– (Politician X) supports the rape and murder of defenseless women.
– (Politician Y) is trying to pass laws to encourage criminals to kill.
– (Politician Z) puts your children in danger for personal gain.

Be creative, you know, like they do to us.

Stand and fight?? You mean, stand and politely ask not to have another chain clapped on.

Now, if your protests and rallies and flash mobs were armed gatherings… then they might think you’re ready and willing to fight. Without that, their view is: let the people protest, as long as they keep paying their taxes.

Do you have a compelling Pro-2A spokesperson. Someone that saved their kids lives with a DGU and can say “If it wasn’t for my Bushmaster, me and my child would be dead”. You seem to have good responses for the logical arguments but it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to be able to counter their emotional arguments too.

I stopped voting a long time ago. Why would I cast my ballot on an electronic machine, the internal workings of which are controlled by the individuals I want replaced??? On paper ballots, with a recount, you can see the actual paper that was punched. With electronic voting machines, no such transparency.
Mr. Farago, I believe any possibility of a fair election was stolen from us long ago. I’d throw that letter in the trash. Buy an extra bottle of CLP. Make sure you’re powder is dry.

The only way to move politicians is via lobbying and contributions. Nothing else matters to those bastards.

First you form a group, call it Rhode Islanders for The Bill of Rights, or whatever. The more innocuous the better. Second, gather some signatures and form a membership, the more the better, this can be done through social media. Third, gather donations they can come from out of state. Fourth, hire a good lobbyist. Find one with an axe to grind. A lobbyist will put the fear of God in them, in person. They follow everything and know every little detail about these politicians.

The theme should be something like “We have but a single mission. To remove any and all elected officials from office that do not follow the letter of the Constitution and The Bill of Rights.” Campaign on social media and internet video. Press release all of the MSM on everything. Keep it general, still making the 2nd amendment a part of the whole thing. It makes you a less “reactionary” target and makes you look like a group that cares not only about gun owners, but for everyone’s rights. You can get more members that way.

Difficult? You bet! But who do you think you’re fighting against?

Robert, this is a great idea.

I would ask that we carry this to every state, even those that are pro-gun. We need to let our legislators know that we will not tolerate those who seek to infringe on our god given rights.

We need to call them out when they aren’t paying attention to us, and make an example of them in front of everyone how disrespectful playing video games during a hearing really is. We need to point out that they really don’t care, give them a chance to respond or apologize, and then bury them with their actions.

We need to treat them like children, and make sure they understand that any abuse of power for this legislation will garner them a permanent time out from politics.

We should absolutely register as democrats to elect them out. That is an awesome idea.

In fact…. Would it be strategically feasible to all register as Democrats and fundamentally change their party from the inside out? I like it.

I like your ideas, Mr. Farago, and hearing them articulated makes me a bit optimistic for a change. Judging from the tone of the comments, a lot of folks see this as a lost cause. I hope not, because if we can’t vote these people out, ultimately we have lost more than the 2A. We’ve probably lost the country. Maybe the RI battle will be lost, but I believe it could still be a pyrrhic victory for the grabbers, and it seems that fear is the only thing these types understand.

I miss the commenters from before the election that assured us such-and-such democrat would never… I wonder if they still come here, or if they were false flag types who never supported the 2A in the first place. If they truly exist, I wonder how it is we convince them to do something besides vote for straight party line liberals. I would love to see these people speak out, support each other, and force some change on the Democratic Party. Maybe I should go ahead and park that optimism. I have no idea how to appeal to these people.

Robert,
Take a long, deep breath, exhale and bring your fight to Texas. Your efforts will be rewarded as we have some challenges here from gun-grabbers pushing legislation through the state house. We have to accept that our fight to keep our 2A rights must equal or exceed the efforts of those to take them from us. The bookend US coasts are evidently lost to their communist leanings. Texas may be one of the last bastions of “common-sense” put into practice, but does have its challenges, usually originating from the liberal haute-bed of Austin. Come on down, podnah, grab a cold Shiner, and take in the Southern hospitality. You won’t be disappointed.

Yeah, that “we’ll vote you out” thing has worked great with that miserable collaborator Eric Cantor, hasn’t it? I’m not saying don’t try it. I’m asking you what Plan B is.

Rhode Island is owned by the unions. Without support from unions, nothing happens or is allowed to happen. So if you can’t get union support, you’ll just have to buy Rhode Island. Which is doable, since Rhode Island has always been for sale — and cheap.

The part about voting in the democrat primaries is the smartest thing I’ve read in a while. I’d like to see other gun organizations urge their members in democrat-controlled states to register as democrats (if that’s what you must do in your state)to punish the gun grabbers in the primaries. Of course you can still vote Republican in the general election if you wish. — Brilliant.

I’m curious how you go about prosecuting someone (politicians) for treason. I think the sentence should be a BAN from the country……… to Antarctica

Great idea – on the surface.

But, voting against someone in a primary isn’t technically possible. You have to vote for someone else. Here in California, there is no such thing as a pro-2A Democrat. I assume it’s the same in RI.

Well said, Robert. I wish you the best. I’m not sure how successful you’ll be, but I firmly believe it’s worth trying. Work from within the system to enable change to it. Use the tools our Founders gave us.

My fear is that your threats, no matter how specific, no matter how strongly worded or loudly spoken, will fall on deaf ears like they’re doing all over the country. Bloomberg and Obama together have the leverage to prop up exposed/vulnerable policymakers in states where they think they can get absurd gun control passed. And it’s working. Even if they conveniently forget their promises in 2014 (as politicians do), they will have given their cronies enough temporary strength to move the agenda forward another step.

And when that happens, as I believe it will, we’ll be left with few options and none of them will be pretty.

I’ve been in touch with a few state reps who support the 2A and they’re fighting hard to help save our gun rights. Shall issue only exists in a handful of cities, and I’m lucky enough to live in one of the cities where our Chief of Police respects the 2A. I find most of our residents to be good little sheep looking for a handout and screw everybody else. I hope I’m wrong, but we’re screwed with the new gun bills coming through because every one of them is going to pass. They’re going to take our rights away one step at a time until we lose them all. I wish I was moving to Texas.

Well, at least it’s a tiny little state. /sarc

I realized recently that registering Dem and screwing with their primary elections was the ONLY way to make my vote count. In WA I have 2 Dem senators that couldn’t give 2 sh-ts about the 2A. This time when I write them I am going to tell them how I plan to help them move past their political career.

The trick in the primary is to support the crazyest candidate, to increase the odds that the “good guys” can win in the regular election. If only we had a viable third party for those of us fed up with our corrupt 2 party system. I can dream, right?

Moving to save his guns. I see you deleted the other post about you moving and now trying to bring it back up but with a twist to show you are doing it for some righteous reason other than your selfishness and your guns.

Protest with SIGNS! they loves signs. Especially in front of businesses, goverment offices, residences. Randy

As others have noted, the public sector unions (and welfare industry) control the state, including the primaries.

BUT anyone who’s lived in RI knows that most, and probably the overwhelming majority of RI politicians are through-and-through corrupt. In fact, most there run for office just so they can get in line to partake of the corruption gravy train (after all, it is a state with a storied history of the mob, and unions, and you know what you get when you mix those two together).

So to really have an impact, find some folks who know how to investigate dirt — even if they can’t find enough dirt that would convict in a criminal proceeding, they just need enough to signal to the particular politician that they know what skeletons are in their particular closet — and then send anonymous communications along the lines of: “Gee, nice elected office you have there. It’d be a shame if something happened to it, like you voting against Second Amendment rights, causing some disgruntled citizens to feel compelled to turn over to the Feds the information they have about you and _____.”

THAT’s language that RI politicians would understand and respond to!!!!!

Welcome to Texas, Glad to have you.