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How Important Is One (1) Person's Voice ???


Charlie T Waite

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In case you are not sure how it all works, I have done some research for you.  I heard that it takes a minimum of 50,000 people contacting our legislatures to have an effect of their decisions.   When contacting them I have been asking; "Just how many people do you need to hear from on any particular topic before that topic becomes a priority to you?"  The answer I received from both sides of the isle will shock you, as it did me.  According to each of them the answer was a minimum of 50, that's right 50!  Here is the break down of how they came up with that number.

 

According to our legislatures (Congress & Senate) 1 call, letter or email is equal to 1,000 people.  They consider it a representative number just like the poles they put out.  So to this line of thinking 1 person contacting them about a topic is representative of the views of 1,000 people, 50 people contacting them about a topic is representative of the views of 50,000 people, 100 people contacting them about a topic is representative of the views of 100,000 people, 1,000 people contacting them about a topic is representative of the views of 1,000,000 people; get the idea yet?

 

Everyone keeps saying that the few are heard more than the many, well now you know why.  The few are making more contacts to their legislatures than the many, they are more energized.  Hopefully now everyone understands the importance of contacting their federal legislatures.  Does this mean that they will all follow our desires?; no and that's why we vote for or against them. 

 

If you want to keep our Constitution, Bill of Rights and especially our Second Amendment in tact, you have to do more than sit back and hope it will all work out or think that someone else will fight for it.  Each one of us can make a difference.  If you do not want to ask others to make the contacts to your respective legislators at least make the contacts yourself.  Yes there is strength in numbers and that is what we strive for by organizing as well as bring this issues to the attention of other SASS members but, understand one person can make a difference.  Your contact could be that 50th contact that they consider as representative of the views of 50,000 people making it priority view of their constituents.

 

So how important is one person's voice?  Extremely Important!!

 

Charlie                 

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Here is something I put together back in '04 or '05.  I tried to put it in the local gun shops.  One "didn't have the space."  One received it with enthusiasm. One just said, "OK."   I left about 700 copies at those two stores.   Three months later most of them were still on the counters.  I think that most of the ones missing had been used by people as scratch paper.

 

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GET OFF YOUR COMPLACENCY AND DO YOUR PART!

In California there are at least 6,000,000 firearms owners, yet we have some of the most draconian and Byzantine firearms laws in the country.  Why?  Because too many of us are content to sit and complain but are unwilling to take half an hour a week to do anything about it.  Most of us would rather stand around at the range or in a gun shop and spend a couple of hours debating the merits of .300 Magnum over the latest .270 super short ultra mag.  Can you find five minutes a day to support your civil rights? That is all it takes.  If you can’t give that little amount of time, you deserve to have your guns legislated away from you.  Imagine if in your assembly district EVERY gun owner called his or her assembly member once a week to complain about restrictive firearms legislation.  Say there are only 15,000 gun owners in your district (with 80 districts that comes to 1.2 million, a far cry from all the legal gun owners in the state) and each one makes a call once a week which takes 3 minutes of staff time.  It would take 750 man-hours per WEEK just to listen to gun owners complain about restrictive gun laws.  That would mean that every member of the Assembly would need almost 19 full time staff members to do nothing but pay attention to our calls.  Think they might hear us?  After all, politicians are concerned with numbers.

 

There are five calls you need to make each week – to one assembly member, one state senator, one member of the House of Representatives, and two members of the US Senate.  That is what it will take, each of us calling once a week to make our views known.

 

Yes, you may belong to the NRA or Gun Owners of America, or the California Rifle and Pistol Association, but so what?  Do you think that absolves you from taking personal responsibility for what happens?  YOU are responsible for protecting your rights.  No one else can do it for you. 

 

I had included below this the contact information - phone, email, and postal address - for our senators, the 3 local members of the House, the local members of the CA State Senate, and the CA Assembly.   

WE are the problem.

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  • 1 month later...

Looking at recent responses to the Slix Trigger thread reinforces my thoughts which agree with what is posted above!!

 

NEVER LET UP!!!  NEVER STAND DOWN!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...
1 hour ago, Colonel Dan, SASS #24025 said:

Great post Charlie! 

 

I would advise all in our SASS gang to take this to heart and not hang back in contacting their representatives!

 

Soldier on...

 

 

 

Thanks Colonel Dan

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  • 4 weeks later...

Contacting MY representatives is like talking to a cat. Durbin and Duckworth. I have emailed Durbin dozens of times, and his reply is some long-winded, flowery speech, written by some liberal arts intern. Finally his last email said, "we must agree to disagree." That was about 30 round magazines, and at least he was minimally sincere. They are part of the Democratic Machine that has run Chicago, and Illinois for over 50 years. What pisses off downstate folks is that a handful of Senators and Representatives in the Illinois legislature dictate what a farmer 400 miles south of Chicago will do. They want to make them jump through all kinds of hoops, and pay fees for having weapons they have always had. These are people who have never had red lights in their rearview mirror and never got a parking ticket.

 

With that off my chest, I have emailed members of the US Senate about this silliness they perpetuate about Kavanaugh. Will it help? I don't know. But as an old basketball coach said, "you miss 100% of the shots you do not take."

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On 10/3/2018 at 7:00 PM, Lawdog Dago Dom said:

Contacting MY representatives is like talking to a cat. Durbin and Duckworth. I have emailed Durbin dozens of times, and his reply is some long-winded, flowery speech, written by some liberal arts intern. Finally his last email said, "we must agree to disagree."

 

 

I think it was in '04 that I sent a letter and email to my senile senior US Senator, the Divine Ms. Di Feinstein, urging her to drop her push to ban scary black rifles.  Whichever intern she had screwed up and emailed both templates to me the "We must agree to disagree" (leftist for "Bless your heart), and the "Thank you for supporting my efforts to ban these military weapons"  along with a back-burner bill that would have required a Yale law grad to pass the written test and a Camp Perry champion to pass the practical test, and an in-home bank vault to store the firearms.

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