In the past few years (yes, during Obama's administration) we have experienced a resurgence of gun rights and the only gun hysteria seems to have come from the far right. We are not facing a "gun-grabbing" crisis in the coming election - we are facing a crisis where the presidency of the United States might be bought and paid for by 3 or 4 people, some of whom have loyalties to other sovereign nations. That scares me - not some noisy anti-gun people.
Gnomon, I used your own thoughts and words to draw my conclusions about you. It was you and only you who alluded to the belief that our pro-second amendment stance would only help felons to acquire guns. The resurgance of gun rights during the current administration has nothing to do with support from Obama, Pelosi, Schumer, George Soros, et al. That regaining of lost ground has come from folks who put boots on the ground and fought for it and funded the fight. You and your kind are not among those. And The only credit you can give your 100% anti-gun President is being smart enough to hold back until he is a lame duck with no fears of losing re-election. He has laid the groundwork for attacks on gunowners in the future with his judicial appointments. No need to rehash that. You see no faults and no problems because so far, you have not been affected.
The exact same personal situation that Canvasback related to us about losing all of his guns due to a divorce situation happened to my sister-in-laws' ex-husband. She had a PFA taken out on him after she made a false claim of domestic violence. The county sherriff also came and gave him 10 minutes to gather some belongings and vacate the house they shared which had been in his family for over 150 years. I learned years later that the claim was false because she herself told me. Just a simple thing like your wife making a false claim tomorrow could change your whole situation in the blink of an eye. He lost his guns, including several doubles, and the right to shoot and hunt. If he had been a bowler or a golfer, he would not have lost the right to pursue his hobbies. You seem... no, you are oblivious to these attacks on gunowners. After all, it hasn't happened to you and your mostly liberal hunting buddies. Even after reading and hearing of these abuses, you will still dig your heels in and support candidates who make them happen. You won't change until it happens to you. Then it will be too late.
You say you worry about a crisis where the presidency might be bought and paid for by 3 or 4 people, some with loyalties to other sovereign nations. Talk about wild conspiracy theories. Please tell us who these evil Publicans are. I'll bet Bush and Cheney are right there in the thick of it. What we do know is that this will be the first election where one candidate will likely exceed spending over a billion dollars on an election. That candidate will be the Democrat Barack Obama, who incidentally got more Wall Street and big business backing than anyone else in 2008. That wouldn't explain the bulk of TARP money going to big banks, insurance and car companies, and green energy campaign contributors, would it?
Jay, I respectfully disagree with your thought that I misjudge that many members of this board, and many gun owners in general, are uninformed about threats to gun rights and disengaged when it comes to fighting to thwart those threats. I come to those conclusions from their own words and deeds. It was not you who said you are a strong supporter of gun rights for 7 decades, yet don't even know who George Soros is. So I wasn't speaking of you in particular. Do I need to go back through this thread and many old threads to quote similar evidence to support my position? You've read them. Why would you deny they happen? I can repeat them if you'd like, but you want brevity and you want this thread to end.
In truth, I don't wish to place myself on any pedestals here. Yesterday, I filled out my ballot for NRA Board of Directors elections. As I read the bios and resumes of the candidates, frankly, I felt a little embarassed that I haven't accomplished near as much for gun rights as the least of the candidates. My intent is to motivate rather than alienate, and when I say we collectively need to do more, that includes me. Some will grumble that I pushed them away rather than encouraged them. I will still maintain that 99.9% of those guys never were involved in the fight and never will be. Their actions speak volumes.
Canvasback, thanks again for taking the time to try to educate your gun owning brothers in the U.S. about what can and does happen. It took some guts to relate your own tragic situation. Please don't be discouraged that it will fall upon some deaf ears. There is nothing we can do but fight harder to compensate for those who refuse to see the battle. Your words are powerful and thought provoking.
As to whether we vote on where to put these types of threads, I will only say that the final results would only reflect the current beliefs of the voters. It wouldn't necessarily be what was best for gun owners or this BBS. And it's funny that some who want this section to be pure double guns have posted or participated in threads entirely unrelated to the subject many times. Do I need to give names and dates? I can do that. That evidence alone could go on for dozens of pages. More "do as I say, not as I do" behavior. Obama won the last election by a healthy margin and we have to live with that fact. But how many here would admit publicly that that voting result was good for us or the nation?
