Robb Allen has a great post about citizen engagement in legislation and how you need to be involved to get good laws, specifically good gun laws. He notes that legislators aren’t experts on the issues they legislate. That’s where you, the engaged and informed citizen, have a duty to write, call, or visit your elected officials. Deeply flawed bills can be derailed by investing a little of your time in the process. Stopping bad bills from becoming law is cheaper, easier, and safer than trying to overturn a bad law in our court system.
For instance, a politician trying to “do something” might be extremely uninformed about the standard magazine capacity for a firearm. For the ambitious legislator, limiting magazine capacity might sound like a great way to “do something” about crime. Making it a felony to possess a magazine that can hold more than ten rounds will prove that the politician is really serious when he/she/it is trying to do something about crime. A courteous meeting with your politicritters could educate them about the range of standard capacities available, how the law will unjustly criminalize their voting base, negatively impact the poor, minorities, and women.
The alternative is; bad laws, a loss of rights, and hours wasted on internet forums complaining about how NRA let you down because they didn’t airdrop a team of lawyers and lobbyists in to rescue you from the city council/legislature/Governor your fellow citizens elected. At the local and state level, it’s your job to engage your representatives!
Even if NRA has a lobbyist in your state, that lobbyist doesn’t have as much influence as large numbers of constituents calling a state senator, flooding a representative’s inbox with email, or overloading the governor’s phone system.
The NRA is the 800 pound gorilla for Federal gun legislation and elections. At the state level in Arizona, the Arizona Citizens Defense League (AzCDL) and the Arizona State Rifle and Pistol Association (ASRPA) are our 800 pound gorillas when it comes to gun rights. If your state has an NRA affiliate like ASRPA, or a comparable Citizens Defense League, you should join immediately. In California there is CalGuns and Florida has Florida Carry. Just about every state has a group fighting for their resident’s rights.
After you’ve joined a group that protects your rights, you need to participate as well. These groups get a reputation as 800 pound gorillas because their members demonstrate that they are watching, voting, and dethroning bad politicians.
If you don’t interact in the process, you are dependent on a few dedicated volunteers and a generous individual or two to protect your rights and interests. If you aren’t gaining ground in your state, it’s probably time for you to get involved.
NRA Executive Vice-President, Wayne LaPierre, was at Scottsdale Gun Club today to announce NRA’s endorsement of Congressman Jeff Flake for U.S. Senate. Representative Flake is running for retiring Arizona Senator Jon Kyl’s seat.
NRA’s endorsement is vital in a pro-gun state like Arizona.
Jeff Flake’s Democrat opponent, Richard Carmona, was personally recruited by President Obama to run for Jon Kyl’s senate seat. Carmona supports gun control and does not view the Second Amendment as an individual right, in spite of two Supreme Court rulings to the contrary, and his own defensive gun use:
We want to make sure that anybody who owns a weapon legally has the appropriate training, education, and that we can be assured that society is safe with a person who owns a weapon. We do the same thing for automobiles or any other technology, if you will, that the average citizen gets to use. We ensure that they can use it safely, because we have to look at the greater good of society. – Richard Carmona to Democracy Now, Jan 11, 2011
Would Richard Carmona’s “greater good of society” approach lead to encroachments on rights? Absolutely!
An aristocratic, megalomaniac mindset convinces the holder that he is the final arbiter of determining whether an “average citizen” gets to exercise a fundamental right. Mr. Carmona doesn’t seem to understand the fundamental basis of our nation – a government of the people, by the people, for the people. We do not select politicians to run our lives for us or determine if we are worthy enough to protect ourselves from criminals. What’s next for Carmona? Internet access permits? Privacy licenses? Birth control permits? Big Gulp possession licenses?
Representative Flake has an excellent record on gun control issues, along with his adoption of the Republican Liberty Caucus position statement in 2000. The endorsement of Jeff Flake by NRA should go a long way towards reassuring Arizona voters that they can trust Flake to oppose infringements on our Second Amendment rights. Vote for freedom, not “free” handouts.
We are saddened to learn Cochise County sheriff, Larry Dever, died in a single-vehicle crash in Northern Arizona last night. Sheriff Dever’s county shares a border with Mexico and he was an outspoken defender of Arizona’s attempts to reduce the crimes associated with illegal immigration and lax border enforcement. Dever also stood with nine other Arizona sheriff’s to demand accountability for those involved in Operation Fast and Furious.
Sheriff Dever was running unopposed for his fifth and final term as Cochise County sheriff. Our condolences go out to Mr. Dever’s family and friends, who were already dealing with the loss of his Mother to cancer less than a week ago. Sheriff Dever devoted 34 years of his life to law enforcement in Cochise County and he will be greatly missed.
By now, you’ve probably heard that U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens, and three other American diplomats were murdered in Benghazi, Libya, coincidentally on September 11th, 2012. I say “coincidentally” because the U.S. media is weaving quite a tall tale in order to prevent any connection to President Obama’s foreign policy, or lack thereof.
How is this fairy tale woven?
Media outlets in the U.S. want you to believe that a Youtube video, posted two months ago, insulted the Muslim religion so much it’s frothing adherents had no choice but to go on a murderous rampage. The video is allegedly a trailer for a movie that apparently doesn’t really exist, performed by actors who swear they didn’t utter the lines in the video, which had offensive dialog dubbed into the clip, then was translated and re-dubbed into arabic with even more offensive dialog, by a man who doesn’t seem to exist, but is a Jewish/Coptic Israeli/Egyptian. The backlash from the video caused immediate protests (two months later) that magically turned violent.
This storyline is so perfect, that any criticism of arming the Muslim Brotherhood to overthrow dictator Mo Gaddafi during the “Arab Spring” is blasphemously “politicizing” this tragic, but predictable outcome for political gain. This is particularly true if you are applying for the job of President and believe you can provide a better outcome.
How is this story reported outside of Never Never Land?
Some group, most likely al-Qaida, meticulously planned an operation to target the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi in an attempt to kill the ambassador and as many other Americans possible to celebrate the anniversary of their September 11th, 2001 terror attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The State Department had received advanced warning of the attack. As with other al-Qaida attacks, this attack was preceded by a video from al-Qaida leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Ayman al-Zawahiri called on Libyans to avenge the death of his Libyan deputy, Abu Yahya al-Libi, in an American drone strike in June.
After attacking the consulate, terrorists armed with RPGs followed the staff to (or already knew) the official “safe house”. Some reports even say that precision mortar strikes rained down on the safe house. Hardly a spontaneous display of rage over an insulting video, but likely a show of force demonstrating that al-Qaida is still a threat.
Back in Never Never Land
Obama supporters in the U.S. media are desperately clinging to their fiction, lest the President’s foreign policy look like a failure. The American press actually expects Romney to refrain from commenting on world events, or they’ll make him look bad. After all, this horrid attack has happened days after the President received drooling praise at the DNC Convention last week, where they even gave him credit for the Arab Spring.
In a move so stupid it defies any sane explanation, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, called publicity whore Koran burning preacher Terry Jones to ask that he pull his support of the offensive video. At the highest levels of our government, the best national security plan they could come up with was calling a two-bit rabble-rouser in Florida and asking him to “tone it down”. I guess the administration believes Terry Jones is THE religious leader of America, and/or that radical Islamikazes will stop being suicidal terrorists if Jones gives the video a thumbs down.
Even American scholars are providing cover for the President by suggesting we further limit the First Amendment through banning “hate speech” (as determined by politicians). They don’t want you to realize the emperor has no clothes and is visibly ill-equipped to deal with national security issues that require quick, decisive, and effective action. The El Dorado Canyon kind of action that stopped old Mo from being a threat to U.S. citizens 26 years ago. Instead, the storytellers want another four years of the presidential puppet show.
Today is our annual day of mourning for the murder of more than 3,000 Americans on September 11th, 2001. Most consider today a “day of remembrance”, but for me it stirs resentment.
Our biggest memorial to those lost on that September morning is an unfinished war in Afghanistan, a huge bureaucratic expansion of inept Government, and too many of our best and brightest killed or wounded in combat without clear goals.
I remember September 11th when I see frail elderly women “asked” to climb out of their wheelchairs and walk through body scanners at the airport, because those crippled old women could be dangerous terrorists.
I remember September 11th when I see a love note from Transportation Security Administration in my luggage, reassuring me that they’ve rummaged through my underwear for “prohibited items” and found nothing of interest.
I remember September 11th when the news media covers “important” issues – demands to see Mitt Romney’s tax returns, what’s happening on Jersey Shore, and how President Obama’s “jobless economic recovery” has saved the United States.
I remember September 11th when attending the Gun Blogger Rendezvous, which was held to raise money for Soldiers’ Angels Project Valour-IT.
I remember September 11th when I see the young men and women at the hotel for the Tailhook Association reunion (an association for aircraft carrier and sea-based aircrews).
I remember September 11th when Mz. VRWC remarks that those young men and women look like they’re barely out of high school.
I remember September 11th when I remind her that those same young professionals are trusted to fly heavily armed, multimillion dollar aircraft, while making life and death decisions as part of their daily job. Unfortunately, they don’t have the right carry a concealed weapon on most college campuses, because they can’t be trusted to “use the best judgment”.
I remember September 11th when I remember how we went to war to drive the Taliban out of Afghanistan.
I remember September 11th when I wonder how and when the war in Afghanistan will end.
Yes, I remember that day and I mourn the loss and the pain of those directly affected by that act of terrorism. I also remember the people lost during our response to a barbaric attack directed at civilian U.S. citizens. I won’t forget that day, nor the losses we’ve had since, but I can’t help remembering my bitter resentment too.
HB2625, sponsored by AZ House Majority Whip Debbie Lesko, allows employers to opt-out of certain mandated benefits, based on the business owner’s beliefs. It doesn’t authorize the firing of women, it doesn’t violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), it won’t deprive women of health care or contraceptive choices, kill kittens, or dictate the color of your panties.
HB2625 merely lets a business owner choose what they will and won’t pay for in the reproductive health insurance area. Contrary to the ACLU’s dishonest agitprop, the bill doesn’t, “give your boss the green light to fire you for using birth control.” It does prevent employees and politicians from forcing their beliefs onto a business owner. An employer’s rights shouldn’t be any different than yours.
Sadly, there are allegedly liberated women, freaking out that the government might not use laws to take care of their tender bits. Shocking isn’t it?
This outraged woman happily shared her personal details with Arizona State Representative Brenda Barton and everyone else on Facebook. Alvin (not her real name) can’t claim privacy rights when she’s posting the details of her period for the whole world to see.
I thought most women wanted the government to stay out of their nether regions. These outraged women are unfortunately getting false information and haven’t stepped back to look at the situation. If you invite the government, and your employer, into your “women’s healthcare” issues, don’t be surprised when the government, or your boss, wants to have a say in what you do with those body parts. This bill removes your boss and your government from your reproductive organs.
If you believe contraceptive issues are your private business, please support HB2625 and don’t use the government to force other people to pay for your beliefs.
