ATTN: Bakersfield & Fresno residents

[jnojr]

We urgently need volunteers for the upcoming gun shows.

http://www.reformcagunlaws.com/GunShows.html

I'm told that we already have arrangements with the show promoters for tables and passes, so this can be a free day at the show and have a table to store your purchases in between wandering sessions! :D

Please email rkba@sonic.net if you want in.

[Telpierion]

Why do the Central coast people always hold their Bakersfield show the same weekend as the Costa Mesa Show?

[shopkeep]

I was planning on being up around Yosemite and Oakhurst that weekend... I could probably make it into Fresno for maybe one or two days of signing. Would depend though if they had a good FN-49 there for sale in 8mm :) heheh!

I'll do it, but only if no one else wants to... by that time I'll be pretty busy in Sacramento with the flyers already. And if I can't do it I'll at least try to find someone who can or is going to the show already.

[shopkeep]

One more thing:

How many signatures do you figure you can collect at a gun show?

1,000
5,000
maybe even 10,000?

if we could get 5,000+ per show each time there was a show on the weekends we would put in some serious damage towards getting the 850,000.

[just4fun63]

I would think everybody comming to the show would sign but the show has been going down hill I don't have any idea how many people would show up.

[jnojr]

I would think everybody comming to the show would sign but the show has been going down hill I don't have any idea how many people would show up.

We'll collect signatures from as many as possible :) There are at least 30 shows coming up during the gathering period... if one doesn't garner a whole lot of signatures, maybe the next one will.

[just4fun63]

i would think the show promoters could give you a estamate of how many people come to a show. 30 shows @ 1000 per show =30,000. That's a good start.

[Telpierion]

We'll collect signatures from as many as possible :) There are at least 30 shows coming up during the gathering period... if one doesn't garner a whole lot of signatures, maybe the next one will.

Is there an effort to raise money for paid signature gatherers? I ask because the prop. is doomed without it. I'm not trying to be a we3t blanket but not prop. has qualified without paid gatherers since 187.

[jnojr]

Is there an effort to raise money for paid signature gatherers? I ask because the prop. is doomed without it. I'm not trying to be a we3t blanket but not prop. has qualified without paid gatherers since 187.

In short, no.

I've brought up the issue of fundraising over and over, and they're "working on it". Unfortunately, the people who are at the top of the pyramid on this effort have very busy lives and just can't seem to spend more than five minutes a week on it.

However, I do believe we can collect enough signatures. Most propositions need paid gatherers because there is no huge infrastructure of people who support or oppose spending limits, reforms, etc. You have to sift through the general population to find enough people to sign on. We do have an infrastructure waiting to be tapped... gun stores, shows, shooting ranges, clubs, etc. All we need is enough volunteers to make sure there's a stack of forms in every gun store in the state and that we have a table at every gun show, and I bet we get 1,000,000 signatures.

The problem is going to come at the ballot. Millions will be spent opposing this initiative. I don't think we can count on enough gun owners getting out the vote, so we'll be faced with the need for money to buy advertising of our own. I've said over and over that we needed to start that effort six months or a year ago, but since we didn't, we need to start yesterday. Yet I hear "We're working on it" week in and week out.

So, all I can do is the best that I can do. I believe that getting qualified for the ballot after X tries will, if nothing else, lend a lot of credibility, and in '08, more people will get involved sooner to make it successful then.

But how many California gun owners have read about this effort here or on other forums and yet do nothing? That's our biggest problem... you, the reader, who figures that "Someone else will take care of it". As long as everyone takes that attitude, yeah, we're going to fail.

Take a look at:

http://rkba.members.sonic.net/progress_map.html

And:

http://www.reformcagunlaws.com/GunShows.html

Are you in a county with no volunteers? Would you be willing to work a table at a gun show? A minimal effort on your part (a couple of afternoons delivering forms, a few hours at a show table) could add hundreds or even thousands of signatures to the total. 100 people making that minimal effort could push us over the top.