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Myths I heard at the gun show

1K views 28 replies 12 participants last post by  jmf552 
#1 ·
I worked the VCDL booth at the Richmond Gun Show yesterday. The show was packed. Our booth got a lot of traffic due to the recent election where the Democrats swept into a trifecta in VA government. On a positive note, we did get a lot of new memberships and donations at our booth. On the negative side, though, our booth seemed to be a magnet for yahoos who just wanted to pontificate about gun control, but wouldn't join or contribute to the organization and said they did not plan to show up on Lobby Day on Jan. 20. We have been pushing that because we believe it will be the most critical Lobby Day we have ever had. Here is what I heard a lot of:

"Whatever the Democrats pass, we'll get it shot down in court." My reaction:
  • Look at all the infringements out there now that the courts have approved or refused to rule on. Even with Heller, a lot of restrictions continue be upheld by the courts. You can blame that on whatever you want, but whatever it is, it is not getting fixed and is going to continue.
  • Court cases cost a lot of money. At the gun show, we couldn't get most people to spend $25 to join our organization. Like most state groups, we operate on a shoestring. How do you figure these court challenges are going to get funded? I can tell you, the NRA won't do it. By contrast, the state has virtually unlimited funds to fight any challenges. If the new legislature hits us with a dozen gun restrictions at once, there is no way the courts are a solution.
  • Court challenges take time. The Heller case took six years. Guess whose side of the law was in effect for that time? The government's.
  • Heller was was a pretty rare case. The higher courts don't help us on many gun cases and the casses rarely make it to SCOTUS.
"Emailing my legislators and going to Lobby Day is a waste of time. They won't listen to us."
  • I can tell you from experience, they will always listen. They may not give you what you want, but listening to voters, more than anything else is what keeps them in office. The VCDL has found that if a legislator of either party get 10 or more similar voter opinions in a short period of time, they do pay attention. Even if it does not change their position, it can change how hard they will fight for a position.
  • As @Rock and Glock told me through PMs, Maine did a great job standing up against a Democratic trifecta earlier this year. I may not have the numbers right, but from what I can tell online, they got 17 out of 18 anti-gun bills killed in committee. The one that made it through got significantly watered down. I heard a lot of push back on that. "Maine isn't Virginia" they said. No, but it is a state (or "Commonwealth"), it has a Dem trifecta, they were facting same kinds of bills we are facing and they did stuff we are proposing, stuff that has been effective for us in the past, only they did it better. So how different can that be?
"We won't have confiscation in Virginia."
  • Then why is the governor already saying openly he is working on confiscation plans with the state police, months before any bills have been passed? He isn't running for reelection. I think he is really intends to move forward.
  • Red Flag is being proposed. That is confiscation. AWBs and mag limits are proposed. They will do at least some token confiscations for the media.
"I am just going to stock up and bury the stuff. I will tell them I lost it in a boating accident." This whole ploy is getting tiresome. I have no doubt people will try it, but:
  • What good is an illegal buried gun? You can't take it to a range and you can't use it for self-defense, or you will be going to jail.
  • If the cops have a warrant and you come up with excuses like that, they may just tear your house apart anyway looking for them.
  • If you ever get caught with your illegal stash, you are going to prison. And some people will get caught. Not most, but who wants to be the test case?
Honestly, I was not impressed with the overall discussions. I think a lot of these gun owners are naive and lazy. It seemed like people were coming up with any excuse not to fight for their rights. It left me a bit down and pessimistic about the whole thing, like "What I am I doing here?" It supports my conclusion that most gun owners are not losing our rights, they're giving them up.
 
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#3 ·
Well, you've got at least one guy soon to retire from the military and settle here in VA who is pro-2A and willing to work. Already been to a lobby day (thanks, @jmf552 ) and worked a gun show booth this past year, and that was as a non-resident.

I think a lot of the vocalized apathy and excuses (eg. "boating accident" phrase) are a mental defense mechanism from folks who think all may be lost, so why try at all. Fighting back that defeatist attitude is as much of the battle as the antis themselves.

I'm of the opposite opinion... we're surrounded, so attack at will in all directions! IMO, the antis may very well be overconfident in their position.

Even here in suburbia a lot of moms comment on our neighborhood/HOA FB group that anyone breaking into homes needs to beware of lead poisoning, particularly their home. One went so far as recommending it would be better to break in when her husband was home because he's more concerned about not wasting ammo than she is.These are the same soccer moms griping about school bus schedules, posting about glass recycling, sharing outgrown kids clothes, reselling expensive collector Nikes, and hosting wine tasting/buying parties.
 
#29 ·
... we're surrounded, so attack at will in all directions!
A couple of siimilar quotes from Chesty Puller, one of the most famous Marines of all time:

"All right, they’re on our left, they’re on our right, they’re in front of us, they’re behind us…they can’t get away this time."

“We’re surrounded. That simplifies the problem!”
 
#4 ·
I disagree that gun owners are just "giving up" their guns rights. They may be giving up bashing their heads against the stone wall of futility when dealing with their elected officials who are determined to strip those rights.


All my elected representatives (state and US levels) are Republicans (Scott, Rubio, Mast at the D.C. level), and all have promoted, passed, signed into law anti-gun bills at some level.

All of them. Do you feel it is worth my time to beat my head against that wall? :banghead:
 
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#5 ·
Do you feel it is worth my time to beat my head against that wall? :banghead:
Yes, I do:
  1. I think your head is easily hard enough for the task.
  2. It is your only reasonable option if you want to keep your rights.
  3. If your head hurts, you can numb it with bourbon.
 
#10 ·
I think people can feel overwhelmed by massive data input. We called it "paralasys by analysis".

@jmf552 goes face to face. This puts a personal connection to the fight. Most people are too far away from the problem. That is one problem with beaurocrats thousands of miles away handling issues. It doesn't feel like our problem, or that we can affect a solution.

Get involved. Because the anti gun progressives sure do. And they are winning the war of attrition. All they need is for us to quit one person at a time.
 
#11 ·
It was 10 of 11 Proposals that we killed in Committee.

I think the critical factors were:

1) Flooding the Committee Members electronic in-boxes with e-mails;

2) having anywhere from 20 to 100 members testify against every Proposal in Committee, sometimes 150, we sometimes had 250 members in overflow rooms

Additionally, we had a lot of women and youth testify.

Virginia can do it. Fight hard, NEVER give up.

In January our spirits were lower than a snake’s belly looking forward to the legislative session. In July, we had a BBQ to celebrate our successes and to raise $$ for more battles.

We did it, so can Virginia!
 
#12 ·
Honestly, I was not impressed with the overall discussions. I think a lot of these gun owners are naive and lazy. It seemed like people were coming up with any excuse not to fight for their rights. It left me a bit down and pessimistic about the whole thing, like "What I am I doing here?" It supports my conclusion that most gun owners are not losing our rights, they're giving them up.
Having been in the middle of gun legislation at the capitol in Little Rock, your conclusion is correct.

I hold no hope for the future. We've been dumbed down so far that we can not recover.
 
#18 ·
We are being outspent by outside interests.

Think about some guy from New York. He owns much of the media, he gets to say what they put out, bogus statistics and all. He isn't in the media to spread the truth or the news" his game is about brainwashing. That's all its ever been and that is all it will ever be about.

Ask yourself what some anti-gunner from New York has to do with swaying opinion in Virginia.

Now, another billionaire has what exactly to gain from eventually outlawing private ownership of firearms? This guy has personal experience in perpetuating GENOCIDE of an entire class. His name is Soros. If I were President, he would be nothing but a nasty autobiography in Wikipedia.

Even the most compromising organization in the history of gun rights known as the NRA got severely outspent on this one. As always, follow the money. Two worshippers of the upcoming One World Government, both having sworn their allegiance to the UN, spending billions on one state to ensure that gun control WILL becoming.

Can anyone prove me wrong? I sure would like to see it.

Here's an article.

Mike Bloomberg’s gun-control group just vastly outspent the NRA to help Democrats win in Virginia

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/06/mike-bloombergs-gun-control-outspends-nra-helps-democrats-win-virginia.html?__source=facebook%7Cmain&fbclid=IwAR3ZOk00AZbgvYScHRtu5B2VNmWOzjqcRAcTwAQDYSIa3p8HDHhPCepAUac
 
#19 ·
@HotGuns: Bloomberg can buy staff and media, but he can't make anyone vote a certain way. He has been defeated before, despite his money. You can make up for his money through volunteer activism. Sure, it's tough. But it can work. Being defeatist will always fail.

I gave myself a few days to cry in my beer about the election loss and now I am back working to get ready for Lobby Day.
 
#21 ·
Texas is in a battle.
Arkansas kept the wolves whooped off but we've been promised that they will be back in full force.

17 states have enacted Red Flag Laws, the most egregious violation of the Bill of Rights since the Civil War. Our so-called "pro-gun" Senators see no issue with them.

My grandchildren will not enjoy the rights that I grew up with.
It won't be for lack of me trying.

Still, we are continuing to lose. Sure, we'll gain a bit here and there occasionally.

For the most part, we are using bailout buckets on a sinking Titanic. We have a few dozen people filling up buckets while everyone else on the ship parties and is oblivious to what is happening.
 
#22 ·
For the most part, we are using bailout buckets on a sinking Titanic. We have a few dozen people filling up buckets while everyone else on the ship parties and is oblivious to what is happening.
Unfortunately, I think its like that across the country. Paying attention to whats going on in the world takes away too much time from following Kim Kardashian.
 
#24 ·
Maine whipped Bloomberg twice. Once in 2016 when he tried to cram UBC down our throats with a Statewide Inititaive Vote. We won. That was Proposition 3. You might remember my “No on 3” campaign here for Mainers. 🥳

We beat him in 2019. 10 of 11. 😃

Yea, we’re a small backwater state few care about, but he wasted a couple of million to no avail here. 😂

Bloomberg can be beat by volunteers that have passion and commitment.
 
#25 ·
A perfect example of the lack of commitment of gun owners, of "giving our rights away", are that some people still buy guns from Springfield even after their anti-2A actions about 2 years ago. No amount of facts and logic seems to dissuade Springfield buyers, simply because they 'like' Springfield. It's sad and troubling that simply "liking something" overrides one's commitment to the 2A.

Sure a few other companies have made similar decisions, but with S&W it was under the previous corporate owners, and with Ruger, it was solely Bill Ruger, who died years ago.

Asking people to simply not buy products from gun related companies who betray the 2A, shouldn't be treated as if we asked them to give up their Sundays while donating ten percent of their take home pay. It's a very simple sacrifice that all adults should be able to make.
 
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#27 ·
I would add HK for making a point of coming out and refusing to sell to Israel. It was a BS virtue-signalling gesture, because they weren't selling much to Israel anyway. While this is not a direct 2A issue, it indirectly it plays into the hands of the Jihadists and Jihadi sympathizers, like Illian Omar, who also push gun control. For the moment, the two go hand in hand. For a gun company to pander to the radicals that oppose what most Americans believe in makes no sense to me. Ironically, it may also be HK's Nazi roots showing.
 
#26 ·
To the PATRIOTS in this thread who have obviously walked the walk and done the work- THANK YOU for being so vigilant.
 
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