No help from the NRA in Indiana
Ironhorseman 223
E-mail message
From: jmtomes@(jmtomes) Date: Fri, Jan 25, 2008, 11:37am
For what it's worth
I want to make a note about the vote on Indiana Sen. Nugent's
SB 356 that was voted out of committee this past Tuesday.
But quickly, I want to remind everyone that Saturday 26th is
our next 2nd Amendment Patriot meeting. We hope you can join us.
Now back to SB 356. When I speak about gun issues and gun
legislation I've had some, in particular some members of the gun club I
belong to, take exception because they believe it's too political.
I don't know where these people think gun laws come from.
Maybe they believe they come from the gun law fairy. Of course it's
political!!!
It's politicians who pass gun laws, good or bad. In the
case of SB 356 this bill will open the doors for licensed handgun
carriers to pack their hardware with them when they travel on state
property or in buildings, (colleges, universities), and it was
introduced by one of the strongest pro gun Indiana State Senators I
know, Sen. Johnny Nugent.
In that committee Tuesday, there were 7 Republicans and 3
Democrats. All three Democrats voted against the bill. They voted
to continue to keep decent citizens victims.
All 7 Republicans voted in support of the bill. Now we
all know that not every Democrat is anti gun and every Republican is pro
gun. These are facts and they are not apt to change.
But, this episode illustrates that we better be aware of our
position. For some strange phenomenon people who support our cause
and beliefs just happen to belong to the Republican party. Like I
said it's not 100%, but when the votes are counted that's normally the
way it plays out.
As a Teamster and union steward on top of it, I received a lot
of exposure to why Democrats are the best. But, most of my life I
chose to make my own decision and discern for myself who it is that
stands on my side.
The other item is this. Every initiative our 2nd
Amendment Patriot group has taken on, from repealing a restrictive gun
law to establishing the only Lifetime Handgun license in the country
was accomplished by those in our group and loyal and dedicated Indiana
legislators who serve the citizens of this state.
In the case of SB 356 there was no exception. Sen.
Nugent tried to get someone from the NRA to be present for the hearing
of his bill that morning.
Unfortunately, there was no one from the NRA to support us.
I'm not bashing the NRA, I know that they can't have their people
everywhere at once, but there was not even an alert sent out about the
bill, however when I got home Tuesday night from Indy there was an alert
sent out by the NRA on SB 29 being heard the next day. But
it didn't get a hearing and at this point that bill does not have a
scheduled hearing date.
I will stand on my belief that if major gun organizations
continue to ignore grassroots groups because of whatever reasons or
jealousies we all will suffer defeat.
This past Monday I received a call from a gun shop owner in
Goshen, Indiana who heard about us from our friend Len, who owns a gun
shop in South Bend.
The Goshen dealer, Chad, was calling to let me know that the
city council had unanimously proposed to prohibit gun shops from
operating in their business district because selling guns was not
compatible with the image they wanted for their city.
We discussed some game plans and yesterday Chad called to let
me know the measure was stopped.
This success was due to grassroots. Grassroots is citizens
taking action. It's not just pecking on a computer keyboard and
sitting around the coffee table talking. It's citizens flexing some
muscle.
As I'm composing this letter the phone just now rang. A
gentleman who spends time in Florida and California, who is right now
visiting a friend in Springfield, Illinois, was reading a copy of the
news letter, Gun News, and seen our add that we have in that
publication.
We had a nice conversation and he asked to be on this e-mail
list. Our numbers are growing and we are constantly expanding.
It's good to live in a state where we have folks who walk the
walk. It's because of those in the 2nd Amendment Patriots and other
groups like, IN Self DefenseSecond Amendment Patriots of North Central
Indiana, Restoring Our Heritage and faithful legislators that puts
us a cut above the rest.
One last item is that April, 19th falls on a Saturday this
year. Fred's Appleseed program intends to have as many Appleseed
shoots simultaneously on that day across the country as possible.
There will be one in Freedom, Indiana. I will continue to
remind everyone of this and you can get more info on the Appleseed
website http://www.appleseedinfo.org/
By the way, Fred has our website link on his site as well.
We appreciate that. Thanks Fred.
Thanks to all of you,
Jim and Margie
2nd Amendment Patriots
STAY UNITED
www.2ndamendmentpatriots.org
www.2ndamendmentpatriots.org
www.gunowners.org
www.restoringourheritage.com
www.ronpaul2008.com
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