Increasing OUR influence in Washington

[Paladin]

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. and attend the "Washington Campus". Essentially the Washington Campus is a week-long program for MBA students, started by President Ford, to teach businesspeople a functional understanding of how Washington DC works. This isn't the stuff you see in high school civics class. Many topics were discussed far more candidly than you will ever see in the media.

Specifically, the role of interest groups like "AARP" and the "NRA" were discussed. It was said that while the AARP is not as well organized as the NRA, the AARP has 38 million members and the NRA only has 4 million members. Congressmembers tend to chase after one thing... votes. And for that reason the larger AARP has more influence in Washington than the NRA.

The lesson I got out of this is that, as gun owners, we MUST be organized into as large groups as possible. The bigger the NRA is the better. On the state level, the bigger the TSRA is the better. Millions of non-member gun owners are out there and need to get involved. It's a simple as signing up. And it really does matter.


Congress-critters tend to be extremely busy. They don't have much, if any, time to do research into the issues. Just reading what's in the bills they vote on is getting to be impossible for them. This is where "we the people" can step up and influence the process. A well written, personalized letter, can have an impact on a congressperson. Especially if the letter tells a personal story in a new way. Letters to your representative can be a great tool to educate your representative. Personal letters are the best. Form letters may be noted, but have less influence.

Campaign contributions matter. These folks are trying to get re-elected. Contributions are not the end-all-be-all.

Volunteering to work for an election campaign is the best single way to influence a politician. You get to know their staff and their staff gets to know you. You build a relationship. That relationship matters.

And don't forget to vote.

Once you've done all these things... joined both a national and state gun-rights group, communicated with your representatives about your views, made campaign contributions, and volunteered for their election campaign and voted... you are in the best possible position to influence your personal congress-critter.

I hope this post isn't too boring to folks who already know this stuff, but I thought it was worth sharing.

[Charles L. Cotton]

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. and attend the "Washington Campus". Essentially the Washington Campus is a week-long program for MBA students, started by President Ford, to teach businesspeople a functional understanding of how Washington DC works. This isn't the stuff you see in high school civics class. Many topics were discussed far more candidly than you will ever see in the media.

Specifically, the role of interest groups like "AARP" and the "NRA" were discussed. It was said that while the AARP is not as well organized as the NRA, the AARP has 38 million members and the NRA only has 4 million members. Congressmembers tend to chase after one thing... votes. And for that reason the larger AARP has more influence in Washington than the NRA.

The lesson I got out of this is that, as gun owners, we MUST be organized into as large groups as possible. The bigger the NRA is the better. On the state level, the bigger the TSRA is the better. Millions of non-member gun owners are out there and need to get involved. It's a simple as signing up. And it really does matter.


Congress-critters tend to be extremely busy. They don't have much, if any, time to do research into the issues. Just reading what's in the bills they vote on is getting to be impossible for them. This is where "we the people" can step up and influence the process. A well written, personalized letter, can have an impact on a congressperson. Especially if the letter tells a personal story in a new way. Letters to your representative can be a great tool to educate your representative. Personal letters are the best. Form letters may be noted, but have less influence.

Campaign contributions matter. These folks are trying to get re-elected. Contributions are not the end-all-be-all.

Volunteering to work for an election campaign is the best single way to influence a politician. You get to know their staff and their staff gets to know you. You build a relationship. That relationship matters.

And don't forget to vote.

Once you've done all these things... joined both a national and state gun-rights group, communicated with your representatives about your views, made campaign contributions, and volunteered for their election campaign and voted... you are in the best possible position to influence your personal congress-critter.

I hope this post isn't too boring to folks who already know this stuff, but I thought it was worth sharing.

Absolutely!! Join NRA and TSRA.

Chas.

[Liberty]

Will the NRA or TSRA rate Libertarians this year or will they continue to ignore the party again? It would be a lot easier to join if they would actually recognize the only party that accepts the RKBA as part of its platform and continues to do so at every state and every campaign year. I am not even talking about them endorsing or supporting the Libertarian party, but only talking about honestly rating candidates just as they rate the candidates in the other two big government partys.

If the TSRA can work with the ACLU, why can't they work with Libertarians? They can elect directors that advocate no more than 5 round mags. Yet turn their backs on us Libertarians. I see a lot of bragging about the Heller decision, yet they attempted sabotage of it very early in the case. They couldn't handle that a single Libertarian (Robert Levy) would accomplish with his own resources and money.

Having said this I will probably join the NRA again this year. It doesn't feel good though, and I still wonder if my resources wouldn't be better spent to the CATO Institute, The Libertarian Party, or Reason

[LedJedi]

Will the NRA or TSRA rate Libertarians this year or will they continue to ignore the party again? It would be a lot easier to join if they would actually recognize the only party that accepts the RKBA as part of its platform and continues to do so at every state and every campaign year. I am not even talking about them endorsing or supporting the Libertarian party, but only talking about honestly rating candidates just as they rate the candidates in the other two big government partys.

If the TSRA can work with the ACLU, why can't they work with Libertarians? They can elect directors that advocate no more than 5 round mags. Yet turn their backs on us Libertarians. I see a lot of bragging about the Heller decision, yet they attempted sabotage of it very early in the case. They couldn't handle that a single Libertarian (Robert Levy) would accomplish with his own resources and money.

Having said this I will probably join the NRA again this year. It doesn't feel good though, and I still wonder if my resources wouldn't be better spent to the CATO Institute, The Libertarian Party, or Reason