By CTSheepdog
Greetings from The Constitution State, though at times over the past year I have questioned whether that proud name is valid any longer. For those who live outside Connecticut, you may think challenges to our state’s residents’ natural, individual, US and state Constitutional rights to keep and bear arms are something that only popped up in the wake of the tragedy in Newtown in late 2012. However, serious restrictionist gun control goes back over 20 years, the most visible example – an “assault weapon” ban – put into place in 1994 . . .
That law, and much of the state’s restrictionist legislation has been promoted and lobbied for by Connecticut Against Gun Violence or CAGV. While representing itself as seeking “common sense” gun violence reduction, CAGV’s efforts invariably have more impact on law-abiding gun owners than on suicides or illegal gun use – causes that are responsible for over 95% of all gun injuries and deaths in Connecticut.
Does that sound more broadly familiar? If so, as you might guess, the majority of the gun restrictions promulgated by CAGV inevitably impact lawful, non-urban gun owners with little to no impact on those major causes of gun violence. As for CAGV’s idea of what constitutes “common sense”, in early 2013 they published their own gun law proposal that would have prohibited possession of all “assault weapons” as well as magazines of more than 7-round capacity with no grandfather provision. It would required existing firearms and mags to be either sold out-of-state, surrendered to LE or destroyed, with no compensation to owners. Do you now have a sense of what CAGV represents?
So now we need your help. In the wake of Newtown, a myriad of anti-rights organizations have arisen in Connecticut with the March for Change being the most visible, particularly via social media. The media-smart moms of March for Change brought social media sophistication to CAGV’s efforts that was previously lacking, but more on that in a moment.
As some of you may know, on Saturday April 5th, a massive gun-rights rally will be held in Hartford. This rally has caught the attention of CAGV/March for Change who plan to mount a virtual counter-rally via social media. Naturally, they know better than to call for a real, on-site counter-rally as they will be far outnumbered by Second Amendment supporters. Instead, they plan to bombard both Connecticut state legislators with phone calls as well pollute social media with messages in support of their anti-civil rights cause.
From an email this week to CAGV supporters:
| Things are heating up – and we need your help to respond!!Gun rights activists are holding a rally at the Capitol on Saturday, April 5, to protest the requirement that they register their assault rifles and high capacity magazines. They are demanding that the historic law we passed last year be repealed by May 7 or state-provoked chaos and violence could result; and they are targeting for defeat all legislators who voted yes on that bill.
They are even going so far as to encourage their supporters to attend the rally carrying handguns. |
Yes, the hoplophobes at CAGV are concerned that 2A rally attendees might actually exercise their right to carry handguns. They apparently haven’t counted on how many will have rifles slung over their shoulders, too. Evil “assault weapons” out in the open – oh my! The key point is that CAGV is asking their minions to use a particular social media tool to send out the following social media message all at the same time via use of this tool, Thunderclap:
Yes, yawn, a few thousand tweets and FB updates are nothing compared to the thousands of live human beings who will physically rally in Hartford that day. Usually such “noise” can be ignored but after I posted about this in a local CT forum, another forum member and outspoken supporter of gun owners’ rights decided two can play the social media game. Thus, to counter CAGV’s effort, Connecticut gun owners rights advocacy group, Connecticut Carry, has taken this idea and turned it on its head by starting its own Thunderclap.
As posted by Rich of Connecticut Carry:
Anti-rights groups have announced that they will protest a gun rights rally planned for April 5th using social media and creating a ‘thunderclap’.
Our response is to counterattack. We will need help from every single person reading this to make a thunderclap that makes their efforts look petty and silly.
First:
Go to the linked site and choose to ‘support’ this campaign with any of the following that you have an account for: Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr.
This costs you NOTHING. All you are doing is granting permission for the well known, secure site to post the message you see on that page to your social media account on April 5th at 12:00pm. It is easy as a few clicks to embarrass the anti-rights cultists that are hurting gun owners in Connecticut.
If you don’t have an account on one of these sites, please consider starting one. Social media is a very important tool for us.
Second:
Spread this link as far and wide as possible. The supporters currently say ‘of 250’. We do not plan to stop there. We will be increasing this number as we progress. There is no upper limit to our campaign.
People do not need to be in Connecticut to support this campaign, invite all of your friends, family and organizations in whatever states they might be in to crush these collectivists. Share this post with everyone on your friends list, and email to your contacts.
Your rights-supporting brothers and sisters in Connecticut really appreciate your encouragement via the Stand Strong Connecticut effort. Now I ask TTAG readers to consider further reinforcing us by clicking the links above and getting involved in this effort. For those of you who are not on social media, at least share these links with the like-minded who may be. Let’s make this viral as a show of nation-wide support for those of use who are dealing with the indignities of gun restrictionists’ laws in “The Constitution State”. Many thanks.
Singed up 🙂
Great idea. This is a really easy way to show support. Took me about 5 seconds to sign up.
How much you wanna bet the the pro gun out numbers the anti gun by 3 to 1?
So far it’s like 1.5 to 1. If you go to the Thunderclap homepage: https://www.thunderclap.it/?locale=en
both campaigns are “trending”.
Done and done
No, thanks. Too late. CT is a cautionary tale now for other states to rebuild their houses out of brick, instead of straw and sticks. The wolves are coming, people. Watch as CT’s rights are stripped from citizens like flesh stripped from bone. Watch as CT is eaten alive by its Democrat overlords, the same ones CT voters couldn’t be bothered to get off their butts and vote to keep from high office. You had your chance to stand up, speak out, and assert your rights. You forfeited. Too bad, so sad. All that’s left is the crying.
Wow. There are many of us here, choosing to fight on the actual front lines. You suggest leaving us behind because you feel comfortable so far from the front? Cowardly doesn’t even began to do justice to someone who leaves people behind in battle.
Hate to break it to you, friend, but you are not on any “actual front lines” by signing Internet petitions. Your Kony 2012 routine will accomplish absolutely nothing.
This place is now laughable; “if you try to take our guns, we’ll get on the Internets and click on stuff”.
Don’t feed to the troll
I hate to agree but feel I have to. The other side has the numbers and no politician is going to stick his neck out for gun rights and expect to keep his job or win an election. Just imagine the ads running against him.
The time to act was 20 years ago. When the first gun laws went in and no one lost their seat it only encouraged more of the same.
There was no Internet, much less social media, 20 years ago. We change with the times.
Don’t you think that’s kind of harsh and self defeating?
I am not sure how pointless irrelevant remarks help this or any cause. Running away is always easier. Many of are here standing and fighting.
Jonnie boy – Talk to my paw.
I don’t have a cell phone that has tweeting capability , but I am with ya’ll in mind and heart . Don’t know if I would carry firearms to this event , due to it giving law enforcement the ability to resort to force against the protesters , but then again this could lead to the spark that starts the bigger fight for taking rights back . No matter how this turns out now , down the road we do have a larger fight on our hands , and it could go violent if the government does not follow the wishes of the people , which in the end has all of the rights , not any government , the government only has the permission to rule by the people and when the people think the government that is in office is not working for the people then the people should rid themselves of said government by what means they have to take , no matter what unconstitutional laws the government has put in place to prevent the people from doing just that . Be prepared and ready . Keep your powder dry .
Open carry is allowed and the Capital/State Police have worked with us in past protests. As long as you carry outside of the park near the capital, they have never given us trouble.
I had already joined this campaign a few weeks ago as many of my friends from Vermont are planning to attend in person. I will support from here with FB and Twitter postings.
Good luck in your efforts!
A much higher percentage of the anti’s participate on social media than do us gun owners
Personally, absolutely none of my close friends do.
Most are like myself and wouldn’t enter one of those sites at gun point.
True that. I don’t do “social media” of any sort. For any reason. Ever. They need a different channel of communication.
A much higher percentage of the anti’s participate on social media than do us gun owners
Is that why the gun owners routinely outnumber the antis 2-1 when they start these campaigns?
A lot of Shannon Watts’ gun grabbing campaigns and “memes of the week” are being rolled out to her followers on Twitter.
Everyone should be on Twitter in a grass roots effort to discredit what she is doing and saying.
Twitter is her front line. You’re either on it or you’re not in the game against MDA/MAIG.
MDA is the SOLE reason I have a Twitter account.
What’s your twitter handle? I am minasmith64 … tweet me.
So far, I found you and Rich Grise, the ponytail puller on Twitter 🙂
What Jug said.
“Most are like myself and wouldn’t enter one of those sites at gun point.”
What are you basing “most” on? You’re all commenting on a blog (e.g. social media). Also, if you’re not on FB or Twitter or LinkedIn, it’s not surprising that many of your friends are not either. That’s anecdotal at best. The Anti’s may have a numbers advantage, but is that a reason not to sign-up? There’s literally no cost in time, effort, or money…
Not untrue as I have no followers on Twitter and two on FB, two of my sons. That helps explain by our reach:supporter ratio is lower than the CAGV/March for Change types who skew heavily toward suburban female social media users. That means we have to work harder. The point here is depriving CAGV of being able to claim some sort of virtual counter-rally to the real rally as a media “win”. The Hartford Courant and other local media will cover a CAGV virtual event as if it is the equal to the real thing on Saturday. Our aim is to have the real rally and a more significant virtual rally as well.
I agree with the sentiment, but you need to define what a hoplophobe is. We all know it, but your average “person on the street” has no idea.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Look up hoplophobia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Hoplophobia is a neologism, originally coined to describe an “irrational aversion to firearms, as opposed to justified apprehension about those who may wield them.”[1] It is sometimes used more generally to describe the “fear of guns”[2][3] or the “fear of armed citizens.
You’ve quoted that, and the average person on the street still doesn’t know what it means.
You missed his point. Hint: He wasn’t asking you what it meant.
Not too late for CAGV/MAIG/MDA to pressure, “for the sake of the children,” Thunderclap to change its TOS/policy before 4/5/14. Called it here first.
When big gov’t has all the guns, money and power, what happens to MDA supporters? Rats
The last time an anti group tried a thunderclap the TTAG article about the thunderclap got more commenters than they did supporters.
I cant remember the exact quote but one of the founding patriots said something along the line of, “if the people are to protest only do so if it will be an event worth remembering”
They need to make the April 5th rally an occupation until the law is repealed or the state uses violence to remove peaceful protestors. A La the Occupy movement, but call it a liberation. Force the state into either repealing or resorting to violence.
Otherwise its just a bunch of meaningless words.
There will be a rally in support of CT at the NH Statehouse plaza in Concord on Saturday, April 5, from 12:00 – 2:00 pm. Two of our more conservative office seekers will be speaking (among others). Scott Brown is not on the list of speakers!
“Scott Brown is not on the list of speakers!” – Disappointing but not shocking. Not all pickup trucks come with gun racks.
To those that helped, THANK YOU!
To you naysayers, thanks for being useless….
I thought AMERICA was behind us CT gun owners? You can come on a website and bitch, but you can’t click a link and hit support to help out fellow gun owners?
Quit whining; don’t blame everyone else because of what you’re conforming to in your ridiculous state.
Who is whining? His point was a lot of keyboard commandos talk real big on here, but then can’t be bothered to click two links. That’s fine, it is what is. It’s just pretty sad that two clicks is too much for some people. They’d rather feel superior living in a different state saying “it can’t happen here”. I hope you’re right.
I didn’t say it “can’t happen here”, friend. It can happen anywhere, as long as everyone allows themselves to be complacent, mindless, etc.
Your friend needs to lash out at himself and his fellow Connecticut-dwellers, not everyone else. He sounds like a teenage girl, wanting everyone to click something for a “cause”.
Get your priorities straight: there’s nothing “tough” about clicking on links. Sort out your issues.
And you assume that Connecticut gun owners have any say whatsoever in the draconian laws passed by their legislature?
I’m from fairly conservative, definitely rural northern Michigan. I’ve spent my entire life being force fed whatever sh*t legislation Detroit wants passed.
Quit whining. Don’t blame everyone else because of what you’re conforming to in your ridiculous state.
its pretty simple, you’re a moron, and have no clue what your are talking about
What we need here sometimes are those giant mallets we can bang people over the head with. Virtually of course.
Give CT a Tweet!
All signed-up since last Friday — good post CTSheepdog
Firepolock hit the nail on the head.
TTAG, thanks for the support.
Dan and TTAG crew – Thank you for your support and for posting this.
As of 9PM East Coast time Monday, the stats are as follow with CAGV having a 20-hour head start on us:
CAGV: 557 supporters with 220k social reach
CT Chooses Liberty: 961 supporters with 295k social reach
CAGV’s social media followers are dominated by women who are naturally more leveraged in social media, hence their higher social reach per supporter. Thus we need to motivate more bodies to support our cause.
This may not sound like a big deal but please understand that in CT CAGV crows about every social media “win” that they conjure up. Rich at Connecticut Carry is pulling off a coup here by turning CAGV’s own tactic back on them. While the true test will be the physical bodies we turn out on Saturday in Hartford, “winning” this virtual gunfight allows us to neutralize CAGV’s virtual counter-rally.
Thanks to all who support this cause!
Signed up with Twitter. As of 10:25 pm ET on Monday, the pro-gun Thunderclap has 1011 supporters; the anti-gun one has 563.
Good luck to all of those in Connecticut.
Whew! All of their problems are now solved. Good show!
I once lived in CT and I wish everyone there the best. Dannel Malloy is a thug of the worst order and he just doesn’t run the state, he owns it. Completely. The Chicago machine has nothing on Malloy. So good luck, CT. I’d be tweeting or facebooking or whatever to help you out, except I don’t do any of those things.
Thank you Ralph, even if you are an escape from the People’s Republic of Connecticut.
To those that don’t wanna use social media to help us, its pretty hypocritical to say so while posting on a blog. (Social media)
In the spirit of constructive criticism…
Posting here does not require a Facebook, twitter, tumbler, or in fact any account whatsoever. So criticizing people for posting here while not signing up is at best disingenuous.
Some people don’t want those because they are afraid of monitoring, from whomever. Others, such as I, choose not to sign up for professional reasons of one form or another. Some people just don’t want the bother. And no, I don’t need to justify my reasoning to you or anyone else. My reasons are mine, and they are sufficient. And that is true of anyone who chooses not to do so.
So, I respectfully suggest that rather than insulting those of us who do not facepalm, tumble, or twit, you might:
– respect our choice not to, and
– find a means of letting us show support via social media that doesn’t demand we make an account with yet another social media butterfly.
I wish you the best.
I hate to tell you but you’re probably on every list in existence already anyway. I sure as F know I am.
If you read what I wrote, you’ll note I’m not one of those folks who is worried “they” might be watching.
As I said, there are other reasons why people don’t want to have social media accounts.
I’m joining in Facebook support. The NSA, DHS, ATF, IRS, and DOJ are fully aware that I am pro Bill of Rights. CT is definitely in trouble, but they deserve out support. The next psycho who shoots up a “gun free zone” might be in your state. Wouldn’t you want support from responsible gun owners if that happened in one of your schools or theatres?
Took me a minute to figure this out but, done and done.
As for your comment, FIREPOLOCK, you personally can kiss you know what!
I am 100 percent on the gun owners side, but I will not do FI or any of the other socialist, (better name anyhow), sites.
It was just a heads up, the deck is stacked against you on those sites, so make up for it elsewhere!
Damned glad I don’t live there.
Good luck and I do mean that.
Elect some real people for a change.
So jug, you’re posting comments on a social media site complaing about other social media sites?
I agree that the people of CT have allowed this to happen to themselves. However, we must admit the WE have allowed the federal governement and our own states to do similar things to us and the states we live in.
If you’re unwilling to assist CT by clcking on a link, it is obvious you will not assisst your own state when the time comes. If you wait until the jackboots are at your door, you’ve already lost!
Meanwhile, many of us fighting for the cause in Connecticut so we end this crap here have our names and other information in full view in public and are openly defiant of the new laws. That is while keyboard commandos spend their time telling us that they will bring their fire teams up here when ‘the SHTF’, but then make proclamations about Facebook being a ‘socialist’ site and not helping us out on something as simple as social media.
At least here in Connecticut we are all bonding together and making a stance together. What can be said for those who think using Facebook as a weapon on a virtual battlefield is just too much darn work?
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
― Samuel Adams
Dead on Rich. It’s embarrassing. These people will be the first to hand over their guns when .gov shows up.
Thanks guys for the good work and helping CT out. I’m planning on attending the rally in Hartford, should be a good day!
@jug,
I can kiss your you know what?
Clearly you are not on our side if your asking me to do that, while at the same time posting on a social media site!
And if its stacked against us, why do we have more supporters with less outreach? Seems like we are beating the antis at their own game, and you wanna stand on the sidelines?
Atta boy!
Get pezzed, even years late!
Got any ID?
,bout whut?
How the hell did the “Constitution State” get to this state?
My ancestors there from the 1630s right up to and past 1790, are spinning in their graves.
@jug,
you clearly have no idea what your talking about
you dont know how hard we fought for this not to happen
but when you voice falls on deaf ears, and politicians vote with their emotions, you cant blame us for “doing nothing about it’
maybe we should blame your ancestors for leaving CT back in the day, if they didnt, you would be here, in the same predicament, asking for help just like we are
Just an idea but has anyone approached any of the Youtube heavy weights on this? Guys like FPS Russia have a massive following and would roll over the antis in terms of reach.
Awesome idea. I posted a message for Hickok45 and Military Arms Channels on their facebook pages. Maybe we should ask NRA to do the same.
It seems to me if you can overshadow CAGV without involving the NRA, that would send a more powerful message. Then again, their name will be invoked in any attempt to ‘debunk’ the fact that gun rights had more support than gun control in this episode, so who knows.
great job, saw hickok45 post the link on FB today
Done did it. Power to the people of CT.
A few random thoughts from just another 2A guy in communist occupied CT. First, it is important to understand that the 2013 CT gun ban was, truly, fought tooth and nail by CT gun owners: thousands showed up at rally’s and public hearings in inclement weather; I was there and just one of many. We had a NRA sponsored lobby day (where you show up and speak with your state Senator or Representative); in addition, many of us deluged their state reps with e-mails and phone calls. Guys – It did NOT matter – the fix was in. Ralph nails it: Dan Malloy is a straight up a bully-boy machine politician.
But here’s the deal – CT is basically a few steps from bankruptcy, people and businesses are leaving the state in droves, no one moves here willingly because, basically, you are taxed on the air you breath; Malloy only won by 3,000 or so votes last time around that magically appeared out of thin air – Chicago style. So the reason Malloy and his enforcer, MIke Lawlor, have not pushed the CT DPS to follow through with there threats against those patriots who said” screw your unjust and unconstitutional laws” is that they must realize, on some level, that they are weak.
Here in occupied CT, we are fighting a war or, at least, the beginning of one – sort of like the Phoney War back in 1939; heck, sometimes, I get the feeling Rob might want it to go live. He might be right. I ain’t no keyboard commando. I like my prosaic middle class ranch in the suburb existence. But I do know that wars are *NOT* won on the defense (sure, yeah, you need to defend the core), but, at the end of the day, you need to take territory, using the weapons available to your And guess what? In the battle to shape the mind of the public – social media is a potent weapon that is often used *against* us by the soccer mom shock troops. You can either help fight that battle in CT or just wait for it to come to your state and, believe me, it will.
So, that brings us to my last point – I am, like a lot of CT 2A guys, a member and supporter of CCDL. It deserves support, especially its lawsuit that may, one day, be heard by the SCOTUS, but that is LONG way away and its decision uncertain. In the meantime, the war goes on and CTCarry does a real good job of using what are, I suppose, Alinsky type tactics, but my gut feeling is that even if the war does not go “live” we have to fight it here NOW in CT, using every weapon available to us, even if that includes, ugh, twitter. CT is the beach head and we gotta bring all our artillery to bear – NOW.
Malloy is vulnerable on a range of fronts – taxes, economy, jobs are what drives most people. His approval rating on most issues is in the 40s and the most recent Quinnipiac Poll has him trailing TomFoley by several percentage points. As you point out, in 2010, as the Mayor of Stamford, Malloy beat Foley by about 6,000 votes. Malloy is now an incumbent and will likely face Foley again.
As electoral issues go, gun laws are important only to those of us it really impacted though it is estimated to be 500,000 gun owners in CT. If the election were to exactly as it did last round (ie very close), motivating a few more gun owners to vote against Malloy could be enough to swing a very close election. Thus, getting out the motivated gun-friendly vote can make the difference at the margin.
Linked it to my FB (with almost 1700 friends/followers), to a couple of pages I admin, and a couple more I don’t. Also linked it to my Twitter.
Obviously already posted the link for others to follow.
As of right now we outnumber them 2:1 or so on Thunderclap, let’s bury them. As in, absolutely bury them. Show them that we can beat them with boots on the ground or clicks on the net.
I, for one, do not accept that *any* state is lost. Some are pretty far gone, to be sure, but that is why we continue to support the cause, isn’t it? Are any of us free if one of us is not?
Shawn – Thank you for your support. Much appreciated!
Signed up cause I’m an internet warrior aka old fat white guy and will support anyone, thing, group that want to restore the right of lawful self defense.
Mk, thanks! Every participant adds their voice in the effort to virtually “out shout” the CAGV women who think this sort of thing is important.
For those of us troglodytes who are not particularly familiar with the social media, just exactly how do we “sign up,” and participate in this effort? Please explain as simply as possible.
first, thank you for trying to help us
you will need a facebook or twitter account
if you have one of those, click on the link to goto the ctcarry thunderclap page, then hit support at the bottom of the page, and your done
Added 7487 to your social reach. Good luck!
T – That’s awesome! Thanks!
I added my support via Facebook and Twitter. I agree with Accur81’s sentiments above.
I also linked to the effort on Facebook, with the following post:
Will this whole effort make a difference? Maybe not. But we should not just concede the social media space to the antis without a fight. We should also not be arguing amongst ourselves about the effectiveness or privacy concerns. Those that “do” social media, should participate if they can. Those that do not trust, like, or use social media can pass on this front.
Coaster – you are right on, depriving them of a social media win is the key here. They have shown no hesitation bragging about things like sending 1,400 robot-created emails to the legislators. They will have sought to nullify or dilute our real rally on Saturday with their “hundreds of thousands” of tweets and FB updates. Having both a physical rally with thousands and beating them in social media is the endgame for us.
Thank you and all others for your support.
In the CT General Assembly there are 36 senate members, 151 house members. That is a 187 members total. Every firearm owner in CT needs to write on a piece of paper “I WILL NOT COMPLY!” and send it to every member of the house, senate, governor and lt governor. This would have far more impact than the Thunderclap. The Thunderclap needs to be done too. I’ve signed up. However, imagine each legislator recieving a few hundred thousand pieces of hard mail.
done 155% support as of when i signed up
I’m on the front lines every day, friend. There’s no firearms comfort in Texas when every major city, and most midsized ones, are liberal dominated. We have to fight for our rights perpetually. Every election. Every court case. Every grasss roots opportunity to spread the word and open eyes. This is our way of life here and it’s constantly under attack.
My problem is with the people of CT who have sat on the sidelines all this time and allowed these liberals to waltz in and take over. You had the votes to prevent this and you have the votes to reverse this. Do so.
I’m not abandoning the fight whatsoever. I’m just saying that my efforts are put to better use when and where combined with other patriots who are willing to fight through lawful channels. Throwing away resources in CT, where so many cowards/lazy-butts won’t even defend themselves so much as by showing up to vote, isn’t a good strategy. The election data bears all of this out. Look it up.
When CT shows me that they care about their own rights and are doing something about it, then I’ll lend some support; but at this point, I’m not rescuing people who won’t help free themselves. Because, really, if people are regularly rescued from the consequenses of their (in)actions, then the expectations are cemented, the bailouts never end, and new progress is never achieved.
Jonathan – What do you smoke in Houston, cow dung or used cleaning patches? If the latter, I think you may want to cut back a bit because it clearly has impacted you ability to judge facts from a distance. So how closely have you followed things in Connecticut from Houston? Since Dec 15, 2012, the day after the Newtown massacre? If that is the case, then I could almost imagine that you can come to your conclusions, except for the 1,500 who showed up to testify personally at the gun hearings, the countless hours gun owners spent in “education sessions” trying to debunk the misinformation spouted by CAGV and others, the thousands who showed up to protest at the capital, the thousands of emails, phone calls, letters sent to legislators and even the many visits we all made to legislators to make sure our views were heard. I guess you missed all of that activity to defend our rights POST Newtown.
As for “cowards/lazy butts” it sounds like you are projecting some deep-seated insecurities of your own. How does what I describe above come across as “lazy”? Personally, I arrived at the state legislative building at 07:30 the day of the hearings (90 minute drive) and stayed around until I had the chance to give my testimony after 23:00 and then drove home in a snow storm getting to sleep after 01:00 the next morning. Lazy? Oh, and it was a work day so I forfeited a day’s work to make my voice heard. But you are right, I and the 1,500 folks that showed that day (including the 50+ people who spoke after me) are really frackin’ lazy.
As for “cowards” I am speechless as that is the charge of a scoundrel who can hide behind his keyboard and toss baseless accusations at folks he does not know thousands of miles away. I guess you are the type who believes in full disobedience, would not register anything and would have your Bushie AR all set hoping that the State Police come and try to kick down your door. Such bravado articulated from a land with no such risks.
I grant you your ability to have that gunkho, mall ninja worldview but what give you the right to ascribe cowardice on anyone who does not see the world through your myopic lens? Many of us have families to consider and our incarceration would have a very negative impact on their well-being and safety, something I would give my life, and my firearms, to maintain. Do you have kids and do you feel differently? If so, what does that say about your priorities as a father and a man?
Some of us live in regulated industries where even the slightest interaction of the law could be questioned and even jeopardize our livelihoods, and our family. But of course, to an absolutist squish like yourself, all that is unimportant.
I pity folks like you who appear to get their rocks off whenever they can elicit a response such as this. That’s your prerogative of course but know that find you a small person who can not keep private the crap you are saying above while the some of us try to do something, however impotent in might be in the end. Instead, you puff your rhetorical chest, call us names and toss grenades into rooms full of people who should be your friends, not the rhetorical targets of your gadfly’s perspective.
Peace be with your soul.
PS Jon – If you do not know, the hard work of gun owners’ rights organizations and owners beat back an attempt in the 2011 legislative session to limit magazine capacity in CT. Yes, we lazy bastards actually got out of bed and beat back that effort by CAGV to limit our rights in the wake of the Gabby Giffords shooting.
Further, contrary to what you suggest, we did not have “the votes to prevent this” nor do we currently “have the votes to reverse this”. Maybe you can’t see if from way down there in Texas but up here in CT the Democrats enjoy a triple majority in Hartford having the governorship, the senate and the house. So no matter what you think is the case here, the Dems could have passed SB1160 on a total party-line vote without a single RINO joining them. But that’s what happens when we have more liberals in the state than not – Dems get elected. Add in some Dem election day games in Bridgeport and Malloy gets elected by a margin of less than 6,600 votes.
Oh, and if you think that gun control is something new that we lazy gun owners did not beat back a few years ago, CAGV was formed in 1993 and was instrumental in the passage of Connecticut’s assault weapon ban in 1994, 20 years ago. So none of this is new and it has been an uphill slog. Thank you for your support.
I’ve given my support by both Twitter and Facebook. The Second Amendment exists for when the First fails. Hopefully a loud voice will be heard and met with trembling…
“A much higher percentage of the anti’s participate on social media than do us gun owners.” If that’s true, why does the NRA have 3.1 MILLION followers on Facebook, but MDA only has 150 thousand?
Notice how this is being shown on the front page of Thunderclap? They only report the percent of goal and not the total votes. So, it “looks” as if the anti’s are winning because they smartly set their goal low and are at 329% of goal while we (not smartly) set our goal three times higher and are merely at 194% of goal. Even though we are approaching double their raw votes, it will likely be reported in the media based on the percent of goal rather than than raw number. This makes it even more important for us to shoot for numbers like 100,000 or why not 1-million? I did my part and am forwarding to others. Let’s make sure we don’t merely get double their raw votes and show up 20% behind in percent of goal (the number that is and will be reported).