Dear Senator McConnell:
The White House, Senate, and House are all in Republican control, in part, because of significant help from the Second Amendment community. Few would argue that.
A little over a month ago, it appeared that Congress would pass legislation long desired by gun owners: concealed carry reciprocity, the Hearing Protection Act, restoring veterans’ gun rights, and the Buck Restoration of Rights Amendment.
In fact, Gun Owners of America had heard from many sources on Capitol Hill that concealed carry reciprocity would move soon.
Sadly, it now appears that the gun agenda is on the back burner. In effect, this tells the millions upon millions of lawful gun owners in this country that somehow their freedom plays a role in the criminal misuse of a firearm. This is not acceptable coming from a Party that claims the individual right to keep and bear arms as an important plank in its platform.
To make matters worse, some Republicans are even falling over themselves, looking for ways to appease The Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN, and MSNBC with a new package of gun controls, centering on ways to buck up the anti-gun Brady law.
Remember, in 1994, that this law was passed with Republicans help so the country could once and for all “get the [gun control issue] behind us.” (Those were Bob Dole’s words.) But, of course, passing any part of the gun control agenda doesn’t get the issue behind us — it makes gun grabbers want more.
And here’s the irony: Shooters in virtually every major mass shooting in recent years passed the Brady check. These include killers in Sutherland Springs, Las Vegas, San Bernardino, Orlando, Aurora, Ft. Hood, the Navy Yard and many more. And the one that didn’t, in Newtown, killed his mother and stole her guns.
And yet, we are told that, if we just pass one more gun control measure, it will somehow make a difference. Really? Even if the background system (which is, incidentally, unconstitutional) worked better, do you really think criminals would not get their hands on firearms? Do you really believe passing laws to address yesterday’s crimes will help us tomorrow?
Virtually every recent mass shooting in recent years also had something else in common: They were brought to an end when a “good guy with a gun” arrived on the scene.
Sometimes, this guy was an armed civilian, as with Stephen Willeford, who used his own AR-15 to stop the carnage in Texas.
But Mr. Willeford is by no means an outlier. Consider:
• Good guys with guns have stopped mass shootings before they could begin in Arlington, Texas; Darby, Pennsylvania; Chicago, Illinois; Anderson County, South Carolina; and many more.
• Guns are used 16-100 times more often to save life than to take life, according to Obama’s Center for Disease Control.
• Rifles, including semi-automatics like the AR-15, are not the weapon of choice for criminals. In fact, fists and feet kill at least twice as often as all rifles, including AR- 15s, according to the FBI.
• Furthermore, background checks like the National Instant Check System are failing, as roughly 95 percent on initial denials are “false positives.”
Make no mistake about it: Your political enemies want you to help them to defeat you by “putting points on the board” for gun control.
And the most delusional notion of all is that, by tweaking the failed Brady Check system, it will make a difference.
If you want to lose the House and Senate in 2018, and the White House in 2020, you will abandon your base and listen to your political enemies.
But if you want to energize your base, please consider enacting real public safety improvements that involve protecting liberty, not taking it away. So, as you scramble around looking for “something to do” about recent criminal acts, here are a few things to ponder.
1. Pass concealed carry reciprocity. This legislation has the public support of almost half the Congress and would enable honest gun owners to defend themselves across state lines.
2. Enact the Veterans Protection Act. Our veterans shouldn’t have their gun rights taken away just because someone else handles their finances. These protections have already passed the House, and the Senate needs to act.
3. Pass the Hearing Protection Act, which will go a long way in protecting the rights — and hearing — of hunters and gun owners across the country.
4. Pass the Buck Amendment, which allows restoration of Second Amendment rights to decent Americans. This amendment has already passed the House, and so it’s time for the Senate to send this language to the President’s desk by whatever means possible.
Please renew your efforts to pass a “safe streets agenda” consisting of these items above. And reject the calls for yet another in a long line of failed gun control measures.
Sincerely, Tim Macy Chairman
cc: President Donald Trump House Speaker Paul Ryan
McConnell is a duplicitous wooden head. You can not talk common sense to him. They live in fear of the media and Democrats.
At least we have good guys in the GOA. They’re much more deserving of our support than the NRA.
On reading the line in this letter:
[NICS] which by the way is unconstitutional…
I must agree with you. Support for NICS is what turned me away from the NRA. Dana Leosch, an official NRA spokesperson on her radio show pushing for the “Fix NICS” legislation has shown that the NRA has not changed their position on this blatantly unconstitutional law.
It may be time that GOA takes over the lead spot in pro-gun America.
I’m very concerned for my son’s future right to be armed. He is 5′ 6″ tall at age 30. Small stature folks of both genders need to be armed in America. The “left” continues to prove in act; this fact…
Amen to that!!!
Myself being 5′ 6′, over 50 and 100% disabled vet, I have few options for self defense and for my family’s safety.
There are millions of women smaller than you. Carry anyway!
Women are dangerous, and vicious. They smell nice, and it’s enticing to try to get close to them, but they will _ _ _ _ you up permanent and leave you with the bill.
Insurance and pensions were invented by women. They don’t just want you gone some day, they wanna get paid. ; )
It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog. I am 6’3″ 270 lbs., I treat everyone as an equal threat. ‘Smaller’ (not the same size) people can be on you like a spider monkey, and EVERYONE’S GOT A WEAK SPOT. Mine is b o o b s (of the [real] female kind).
I could almost be your twin, size-wise (but not in choleric spleen). And that is exactly why I don’t discount smaller guys as a potential threat. Anybody that goes out of his way to antagonize somebody my size — and I’m not easy to provoke — is either armed or skilled enough to be dangerous. Or just not right in the head.
+ This. Don’t get me wrong. My policy (for everyone) is, strictly, ‘Don’t ask the big guy to be “bigger” just because he is’. If you’re itching for a fight or trouble, “I ain’t as good once was, But I’m as good once, as I ever was.” If you want a shot at the title, let’s go. But I try to avoid trouble as much as possible, because it usually follows me around like an Airstream trailer behind a Smart Car, and I can’t even get off the gas, much less touch the brakes.
Waitaminit…
I happen to think 5’6″ is a perfectly proper height to be and the rest of you out there are just overgrown freaks.
…although my situation is likely helped by my arms being thicker than the necks of many guys.
🤠
Short lives matter! Uhm…..Short people’s lives matter?……..Tiny lives matter?…………Vertically challenged peoples lives matter? I give up!
Most all the really deadly tyrants throughout history have been “small guys”.
Just sayin’
My wife is 5 foot tall. But people that know her swears she’s 6 foot tall.
My grandmother was 4’8″ ish. Maybe weighed a buck twenty. Had the reflexes of a cobra and hit like a mack truck, and was one of the first female officers to walk a beat in Detroit. As she got older she needed a cane due to hip problems, and that gave her an extra 3 ft of reach
I fear the small ones, you never know what they have hidden. And all their blows are low blows by default
It’s a good letter from the GCA chairman to the Senate Majority Leader – bills to push forward additional gun rights have indeed been pushed to the back-burner following all the headlines concerning the various shootings that the media goes balmy about and spins up. Senator McConnell would do well to listen and get things moving for us again – we are watching. But since Sen McConnell is a lifetime professional politician whose only objective is to further his party’s – and his own – political welfare, I can’t say whether he’ll see the light and get hot on passing the gun rights bills outlined in the GCA letter. The best thing we can do is contact our U.S. Senators early and often, and remind them which side their bread is buttered on and what might happen if they fail us.
Sen McConnell’s only objective is to further drink his way to a full lobster-bib neck.
KY needs an a _ _ kicking for him.
While I like the sentiments and the ideas, McConnell and the rest of the Republicans know they have gun owners between a rock and a hard place. They can slow walk anything they want because the alternative is worse.
Are gun owners really going to either actively or passively help put Democrats in power who will undoubtedly be far worse on the issue? Are you willing to give up the issue to DiFi and the like to spite Mitch and his ilk?
Sure, pressure away and see if you can get them to do the right thing, but the long term solution is to Eric Cantor more of these folks, not give the reigns of power to the Dems.
Thank you GOA ! ! ! VERY REFRESHING TO SEE A NATIONAL REPRESENTATIVE AGENCY SUCH AS YOURSELVES NOT IMMEDIATELY FOLD INTO ANKLE-GRAB POSITION (WITHOUT PROVOCATION, AND WITH THE OFFER TO KY LATHER THEIR MEMEBERS FOR THE GUN-GRABBERS) like to hear the word “restore” with regard to gun rights. ANY lessening in the restrictions on gun-rights requested and/or achieved hereafter should be framed properly in this manner. Definitely want reciprocity, and the SHARE / HUSH Act(s).
Would like further push-back on the 1986 rolls for full-auto weapons. The ATF&E and gun-ban-ers know that the current situation is / creates a (at the very least financial pick-and-roll) de Facto full-auto ban.
100% support every damn word.
Sadly, most of the political hacks that have rule over “their” cash cows, unwashed serfs, aka LEGAL LAW ABIDING AMERICAN CITIZENS, could care less. Supported by a vast voter block, that only works with a brain stem, an education system that is nothing but a lefty progressive brain washing mill, a corrupt media that lies lies lies. We are witnessing the destruction of AMERICAN society and the Nation its self.
S A V E . T H E . B U M P . S T O C K S . A N D . S I M I L A R .
“NOBODY” REALLY NEEDS THEM.
AND THAT “NOBODY” IS ME.
I NEED THEM A WHOLE LOT MORE THAN I NEED ANY OF THE REST OF YOU. [sorry, just sayin’]
That letter and the attitude behind it is why my last donation went to GOA instead of NRA. No, I didn’t drop my membership and I am not going to, but at least for now donations go to the folks who are the least likely to compromise. Compromise is failure because the anti-gun crowd will never stop, they will always come back for more.
Here here m’fers!
This is gold:
“In effect, this tells the millions upon millions of lawful gun owners in this country that somehow their freedom plays a role in the criminal misuse of a firearm.”
Every single damn proposal to “Do something!” somehow includes burdening millions of people who have not done anything wrong, that is, except being different from the folks wrangling the laws.
This absolutely needs saying, again and again
“Remember, in 1994, that this law was passed with Republicans help so the country could once and for all “get the [gun control issue] behind us.” (Those were Bob Dole’s words.) But, of course, passing any part of the gun control agenda doesn’t get the issue behind us — it makes gun grabbers want more.”
Our “negotiating partners” on gun control are not honest brokers (any more than they are on various entitlements, immigration, income support, environment, or education.) It’s sad because a ton of things the larger “we” could do are off the table, because they cannot be trusted.
Gotta be said, early and often:
“Shooters in virtually every major mass shooting in recent years passed the Brady check. These include killers in Sutherland Springs, Las Vegas, San Bernardino, Orlando, Aurora, Ft. Hood, the Navy Yard and many more. And the one that didn’t, in Newtown, killed his mother and stole her guns.”
And while we’re told that one more control will somehow work, any notion other than sweeping restrictions on millions of people who haven’t done anything never gets a hearing. It’s like prohibiting people on the “terrorist watch list” from doing this or that. Here’s a notion. How about we watch them? Anybody on the list does nothing wrong, we aren’t inflicting a summary burden on them. The ones that do something, say, terroristic, we nail them, for being terrorists.
What *else* can we do?
And here’s the cost of disarmament, to flog, flog, and flog again:
“Virtually every recent mass shooting in recent years also had something else in common: They were brought to an end when a “good guy with a gun” arrived on the scene.”
How many citizens are you willing to get killed for this, because that’s the balancing cost of gun restrictions. Less bad people get guns, and less people die; more good people can’t get guns, so they, too, die.
This one doesn’t get enough emphasis:
“• Rifles, including semi-automatics like the AR-15, are not the weapon of choice for criminals. In fact, fists and feet kill at least twice as often as all rifles, including AR- 15s, according to the FBI.”
Rifles, even eeee-vil assault rifles (which they aren’t) aren’t the commonly-used killers. Even more important, the exact features that Senator No-Guns-For-You calls out to ban make them more effective self-defense tools.
This needs to be flogged again, and again until The Stupid Party gets it:
“Make no mistake about it: Your political enemies want you to help them to defeat you by “putting points on the board” for gun control.”
Beat this again, and again:
“So, as you scramble around looking for “something to do” about recent criminal acts, here are a few things to ponder.”
Do this every time they screech “Something must be done!” Along with the gun stuff, which, of course, flog anything else that might be done. Point out that somehow it’s always a ban on People Who Aren’t Like Them. Hook them on “What will you do?” Yes, “I’ll give up my guns when you give up you armed security.” is fine. BUT, go after the other, non-gun stuff too.
Multiple assaults: why wasn’t this whack-job under someone’s control in the first place?
“Known wolf” on a mission from god to cleanse the world. Maybe watch that one?
Statistically, there’s some classes of medication that if you’re on this stuff, you ought to be supervised. you brain’s not working right.
Response time is a thing.
etc.
Our Fearful Congresscritters lack the courage of their convictions; the ones they claim to have. In the end, they do respond to direct feedback applied to their political careers. “Do this or we’ll un-elect you.” Party doesn’t matter in this. BUT, given that it’s a 2-party lock-up of the system, and the D-people have staked out the intolerable position on this issue, the only game is to co-opt the R’s. Despite themselves. That letter is right in line with exactly that.
Where’s the letter to Paul Ryan? Despite all the support, the bill in the House isn’t going anywhere either, and it is Ryan’s doing.
shown as carbon copied to.
Boys and Girls !
Politics/legislation is not about:
– getting things done
– getting something done
– getting the right thing done
– first principles and American values
Politics/legislation is about getting done those things for which your major donors will reward you with funds to run for re-election. Period.
How do you spell Democrat?
Ryan
McConnell
Cornyn
McCain
Any questions?
As far as carrying anyway, well, take your chances but remember this – If you have to fight, you need to fight like your are the third monkey on the ramp of Noah’s ark and it is starting to rain.
Proud to be a member.
I like the ideas put forth in this open letter, but as a realist I know it’s all for naught. This letter will do f*ck all to put McConnell on the right track. McConnell and his rino buddies will continue to cave to the dems because they think they have to in order to win reelection. They’re all stuck in the obummer era of republican politics where getting a win meant tryin to steal dem voters so they will bend over and take it to try and get those votes. Remember these fools are also from “purple states” where the dims run the state legislature thanks to a few big cities like Louisville, Lexington, and Frankfurt. Again awesome letter but in the end it won’t do a damn thing to sway opinions. You can write and say you won’t donate to their campaigns or party but I fear your 100 dollar donation won’t be missed with all the PAC money flowing in.
It is individual Senators like Cornyn (R-Texas) that are selling people out. write them, embarrass them.
Don’t waste your time writing these loons. Every one of them has an army of handlers that screen everything coming in. Your plea for help will fall on deaf ears. What needs to be done is to find genuine defenders of freedom and primary every one of these scumbags. We need to make 2018 the year that the air gets sucked out of the room these blowhards are in.
Rather then pass more gun control laws, why not review the ones we have? Why don’t they work? Better, why not repeal some of the laws that are failures?
Then consider gun enforcement in say Chicago. They are closing the prisons to save money. They drop gun charges for plea bargains. They dismiss gun charges and allow early release. If gun laws aren’t enforced, why have them?
“Better, why not repeal some of the laws that are failures?”
Agree completely. Let’s get rid of ALL gun control laws! Not only are they infringing on our constitutionally protected rights, they also don’t work.
{Kevlar suit on}
I read a story about the proposal and it SEEMED like it mainly dealt with providing money
to states and other agencies in trying to make sure that people identified with certified mental issues get properly flagged in NICs. Thats all that article mentioned but who knows maybe there was another little element in the bill that says “oh by the way, everybody turn in your guns”. To me it SEEMED like it was similar to what the Repubs and the NRA tried to get passed after Sandy Hook but that the Democrats spitefully voted down because the democrats didnt want to give a “win” to the NRA.
If this bill is like the previous why wouldn’t the better position be to pass the 4-5 bills that we want alongside this bill? To me the bill is a nothing burger against us and intended solely for virtue signalling to the pols. If thats the case fine, pass it ALONG WITH all of our goodie biills that we care about.
I’m a little suspicious of this GOA position because I don’t see a single thing in the above story about what exactly is wrong with this new bill. It seems like GOA might be doing some virtue signalling of its own. But hey if I’m wrong somebody can respond with what specifically is so odious about the bill.
I do agree that NOTHING should be passed if the gun grabbers like it WITHOUT us getting something big in return. I Hate the Repubs just giving away the store for free.
NICS is bad idea. To deny the right to get and possess the best self defense tools (firearms) to enyone convicted for anything punishable by 1 year in prison for rest of his life is very bad idea.
Bribing states to polish the NICS turd (with money we don’t even have) is terrible idea.
Well let’s sit back and watch the Repubs pass it while we get nothing in exchange. This bill is a nothing burger and I’d much rather get our 4 big juicy patties inserted into its delivery.
Screw the NRA. My money from now on is going to SAF and GOA.