mikehaas
09-02-2006, 03:15 PM
By now, I know that some calguns.net members have gone off to other forums to report our success. I've seen a couple excellent reports elsewhere - and I see the responses (like I've seen them hundreds of times before.) Summarizing...
"...Just move out of Kalifornistan!..."
"...SO what? You still can't have AWs..."
"...But Koretz will just put the bill in again..."
...etc. (sigh) Now, I undertstand the difference between the average opinionated gun-owning forum surfer and those who were here and standing by in the Members' Councils network Thursday night, calling while glued to an audio/video stream, probably didn't eat dinner, etc. I would not expect the average CA gun-owner (you are very special people and a minority, unfortunately) to understand or appreciate what transpired simply because they haven't walked our path (and most try hard NOT to be bothered.)
In the 10 years I've been trying to help NRA, I've run into every excuse in the book for why it's not worth it, or NRA has abandoned California and just sucking it dry of money or I don't want to be on any lists (!) or we can't win or... you name it!
And I suspect that, this year, some of you are seeing it too. You were part of something special this year, I was too, NRA was too - it was a melding of real grassroots and corporate strength like never before. Thursday was a historic night in American politics, but because of the circumstances, because we are gun-owners and because this is all too complicated for the media to comprehend, few will ever know. But that one-day thread that extended to over 270 posts and was viewed over 7,200 times stands there as testament.
And sadly, among that number of those who don't "get it" are our fellow gun-owners, those that opine, often negatively, but seldom do more - those that would berate the significant accomplishment we've all just witnessed.
About 6 months ago or so I joined this forum with a controversial post titled "NRA takes the heat for everything", and I think we got to know each other quickly. I asked you to keep faith in NRA, that often NRA can't publicly reveal everyhing it's doing (for us!) - basically that NRA was doing yoeman's work in the Golden State - the work we want them to do. You did what so often DOESN'T happen on other forums (as some now know) - you listened. You hung with NRA and because of that, what this all portends for future battles, I can only ponder, extremely optimistic.
As Paul said in (I think) his last post that night, our work isn't over. And I don't just mean bills before the Governor, I mean for years to come. But no matter how those future issues work out, on Aug 31st we worked together to produce some amazing victories, and I don't see that very often. Most importantly, some of those barriers we conquered were in our own ranks.
You folks are welcome in my foxhole anytime.
Mike
"...Just move out of Kalifornistan!..."
"...SO what? You still can't have AWs..."
"...But Koretz will just put the bill in again..."
...etc. (sigh) Now, I undertstand the difference between the average opinionated gun-owning forum surfer and those who were here and standing by in the Members' Councils network Thursday night, calling while glued to an audio/video stream, probably didn't eat dinner, etc. I would not expect the average CA gun-owner (you are very special people and a minority, unfortunately) to understand or appreciate what transpired simply because they haven't walked our path (and most try hard NOT to be bothered.)
In the 10 years I've been trying to help NRA, I've run into every excuse in the book for why it's not worth it, or NRA has abandoned California and just sucking it dry of money or I don't want to be on any lists (!) or we can't win or... you name it!
And I suspect that, this year, some of you are seeing it too. You were part of something special this year, I was too, NRA was too - it was a melding of real grassroots and corporate strength like never before. Thursday was a historic night in American politics, but because of the circumstances, because we are gun-owners and because this is all too complicated for the media to comprehend, few will ever know. But that one-day thread that extended to over 270 posts and was viewed over 7,200 times stands there as testament.
And sadly, among that number of those who don't "get it" are our fellow gun-owners, those that opine, often negatively, but seldom do more - those that would berate the significant accomplishment we've all just witnessed.
About 6 months ago or so I joined this forum with a controversial post titled "NRA takes the heat for everything", and I think we got to know each other quickly. I asked you to keep faith in NRA, that often NRA can't publicly reveal everyhing it's doing (for us!) - basically that NRA was doing yoeman's work in the Golden State - the work we want them to do. You did what so often DOESN'T happen on other forums (as some now know) - you listened. You hung with NRA and because of that, what this all portends for future battles, I can only ponder, extremely optimistic.
As Paul said in (I think) his last post that night, our work isn't over. And I don't just mean bills before the Governor, I mean for years to come. But no matter how those future issues work out, on Aug 31st we worked together to produce some amazing victories, and I don't see that very often. Most importantly, some of those barriers we conquered were in our own ranks.
You folks are welcome in my foxhole anytime.
Mike