2012 DNC platform plank on firearms

[MikeBjerum]

My reloader is still not set up, and there is a shoot tomorrow.  Our club hates jacketed ammunition, so I'm screwed.  I needed to make a run for a couple other things, so I went to find some lead bullet ammunition.  As luck would have it the Scheels store had some - Cabelas had the same brand in bulk for a few cents less, but they are another 60 miles down the road.

I'm standing at the locked case looking and sure I'm not going to find what I want, because I seldom do.  When WHAM!!! there it is - Three boxes of 50 ... 150 rounds, and I need between 140 and 200 depending on how ambitious we get.  I ask for some, and the pimple faced kid unlocks the case, takes it out, hands it to me, and he is locking the case before I can say "whoa, whoa, whoa I need more!"  He grabbed another box and started to close the door when I asked if I could have six boxes.  He looked me right in the third eye, or I think that is what he saw, and said "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH sure I think."

What has our nation, especially our rural world in this nation, when people are shocked, stunned, set back, and stare when someone purchases five boxes of ammunition (I wanted six but all they had was five - What kind of gun department only stocks five 50 round boxes of LRN .38 Special?)?  When I buy a rifle I try to purchase 150 -200 rounds of mixed ammunition for practice, sighting, and determining which round I like best in the gun.  When I purchase a handgun I do the same, but probably 10 times the volume.  Dealers, even those who know me, are shocked and tell me that most gun purchases go out the door with one box of ammunition and two at the most.

Not only is the general public less familure with the use of guns, but even so called gun people are less used to it.  This brings to mind our tendency to hide our like and use of firearms, and to be overly concerned about offending the anti's.  We need to quit worrying as much about what they think, as long as we are being polite and safe, and start thinking about why "We can't all just get along."  I have a Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms, and I should apologize to anybody for legally exercising that right.  I should expect them to express "why I shouldn't" as opposed to me being expected to defend "why I think I should."

The meaning of this long rant:
We are doing more to give away our right than they are doing to take it!

[PegLeg45]

And it is all about control.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner.

[tombogan03884]

My reloader is still not set up, and there is a shoot tomorrow.  Our club hates jacketed ammunition, so I'm screwed.  I needed to make a run for a couple other things, so I went to find some lead bullet ammunition.  As luck would have it the Scheels store had some - Cabelas had the same brand in bulk for a few cents less, but they are another 60 miles down the road.

I'm standing at the locked case looking and sure I'm not going to find what I want, because I seldom do.  When WHAM!!! there it is - Three boxes of 50 ... 150 rounds, and I need between 140 and 200 depending on how ambitious we get.  I ask for some, and the pimple faced kid unlocks the case, takes it out, hands it to me, and he is locking the case before I can say "whoa, whoa, whoa I need more!"  He grabbed another box and started to close the door when I asked if I could have six boxes.  He looked me right in the third eye, or I think that is what he saw, and said "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH sure I think."

What has our nation, especially our rural world in this nation, when people are shocked, stunned, set back, and stare when someone purchases five boxes of ammunition (I wanted six but all they had was five - What kind of gun department only stocks five 50 round boxes of LRN .38 Special?)?  When I buy a rifle I try to purchase 150 -200 rounds of mixed ammunition for practice, sighting, and determining which round I like best in the gun.  When I purchase a handgun I do the same, but probably 10 times the volume.  Dealers, even those who know me, are shocked and tell me that most gun purchases go out the door with one box of ammunition and two at the most.

Not only is the general public less familure with the use of guns, but even so called gun people are less used to it.  This brings to mind our tendency to hide our like and use of firearms, and to be overly concerned about offending the anti's.  We need to quit worrying as much about what they think, as long as we are being polite and safe, and start thinking about why "We can't all just get along."  I have a Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms, and I should apologize to anybody for legally exercising that right.  I should expect them to express "why I shouldn't" as opposed to me being expected to defend "why I think I should."

The meaning of this long rant:
We are doing more to give away our right than they are doing to take it!

They may have had much more if you had gotten there earlier . You said it yourself, buy a gun and a couple hundred rounds, sell 10 guns they've gone through 2 cases, how many calibers do they stock ?
 How much warehouse space do they have for pallets of ammo ?

[MikeBjerum]

They may have had much more if you had gotten there earlier . You said it yourself, buy a gun and a couple hundred rounds, sell 10 guns they've gone through 2 cases, how many calibers do they stock ?
 How much warehouse space do they have for pallets of ammo ?

Tom,

What I said is that the average person is buying A BOX.  Scheels is a regional big box store.  They are actually better stocked than Gander Mountain and Cabelas.  By the way, the slot for these was full before I emptied it.

The point I am making is that so called shooters and hunters do not shoot enough in a year for me to justify cleaning a gun!  Many of us think people actually shoot their guns, but I know people that will purchase a gun and not get any ammunition to go with it.

[tombogan03884]

Tom,

What I said is that the average person is buying A BOX.  Scheels is a regional big box store.  They are actually better stocked than Gander Mountain and Cabelas.  By the way, the slot for these was full before I emptied it.

The point I am making is that so called shooters and hunters do not shoot enough in a year for me to justify cleaning a gun!  Many of us think people actually shoot their guns, but I know people that will purchase a gun and not get any ammunition to go with it.

That's the difference between shooters and hunters.
The majority of hunters will get multiple years out of a 20 round box.
That's part of why the Fudds think no one needs an AK or AR, a lot of them who are out hunting every year would not live long enough to empty a 30 round mag.

[Sponsor]

[MikeBjerum]

OK, I have lead this drift far enough.  It is time to get back on task:

What can we do to deal with this platform?  Regardless of who is in the Oval Office next February, and regardless of who occupies the seats in the two chambers, this is an issue we must continue to deal with.  How will we counter the attack on our God given rights, and how will we stop our own give away of our freedoms?

[TAB]

Any hunter that can go years on one 20 round box. Is not a hunter I want to know or be around.   when it comes to what we can do to stop this type of stuff.  The best thing we can do is introduce people to shooting.   every person we do that too is one less mindless anti.   they may still be pro gun control, but atleast they have both sides.  So they can make a informed choice.

[MikeBjerum]

Any hunter that can go years on one 20 round box. Is not a hunter I want to know or be around.   when it comes to what we can do to stop this type of stuff.  The best thing we can do is introduce people to shooting.   every person we do that too is one less mindless anti.   they may still be pro gun control, but atleast they have both sides.  So they can make a informed choice.

TAB,

It takes more than that, because many of our own ranks are as bad as any anti.  Look at the magazine, AR, suppressor, automatic, waiting periods, and even basic carry to name just a few.  Some of the most damage to our fundamental right is being done by so called pro-gun people advocating "common sense compromise" or under the idea of "they aren't after our hunting guns."

[tombogan03884]

Dude, The fact you local big box store does not carry what you think is enough of the ammo you happen to want has nothing to do with politics or gun rights.
It's all about sales volume .
How often do you go in and buy a couple hundred rounds ?
You want them to stock more ?  Create more demand.
As for the rest, bans, limitations, etc.
Get private sale guns and ignore the a holes.

[MikeBjerum]

Tommy, go back a post and note that I admitted I had taken us too far down this drift.

To answer the avoiding FFL's and going all private does nothing to keep our rights to purchase, and it does nothing to keep this right in the public eye.  We need to be able to purchase guns and ammunition just like you purchase a newspaper and magazine - apples to apples First Amendment to Second Amendment!

Our gun stores and their suppliers have blinders on and are missing out on millions of dollars in sales.  Even out here in fly over land we have hundreds of shooters that are looking for ammunition and reloading supplies, but our stores will not stock it or cannot get it from their vendors.  Everybody is looking at sales reports, which do not track lost sales, or listening to marketing gurus who are not from the industry and only look at certain models and trends that lump shooting and hunting (mostly hunting because they don't understand that shooting is anything but hunting) along with sporting like tennis, golf and possibly camping.  We want to purchase in a store with personal contact.  We want to touch and fondle the choices.  That is why we keep going back and digging through the shelves, and that is why we go to gun shows to purchase.  Internet will find it for you, but where is the social interaction that we enjoy?

Bottom line that lead to my drift, and now drags me back into it, is that the reason the DNC can get by with pushing gun control and taking God out of their platform is because those of us that believe in these things are silent and watch it go away with out even a fraction of the protest they put into daily activities against us.

As much as I feel that the open carry crowd does do harm in some of their actions, I also feel that by hiding our activities and exercising of our rights does more.  When you are at the store to purchase a little ammunition purchase for a season rather than for a week or a month.  Purchase three cases of shot shells, and while you are at the counter with the spandex crowd staring engage the clerk in a conversation on how you compete in trap or skeet, and how the training has improved your health and mental capacity.  Purchase three cases, cases not bricks, of .22lr and explain how the youth shooting team has not only been successful at the local and state range but how the discipline has increased their concentration and reengaged them in their studies in school. 

To take a few slides from our PowerPoint for Firearm Safety and Hunter Education, we need to be active in groups.  Join and be active in you local hunting, shooting, and Second Amendment groups.  Abortion, homosexuality, freedom from religion (as opposed to Freedom of Religion), etc. did not gain their main stream acceptance and prominence in our society by hiding their wishes and feelings.  We need to go to our local school board and explain the pitfalls and worthless the rule that students cannot have a firearm or ammunition in their car in the parking lot when many of these students are hunting on their way to or from school or participating in youth shooting events shortly after the end of the school day.  We need to go to the school board and force them to explain and justify the reasoning behind removing Firearm Safety and Hunter Education from the course options.

Once again I have ranted long in an effort to say that through our silence and low key life choices we have given our lifestyle and rights away.  They aren't taking them from us, we are forfeiting them daily!

Note:  If you paid attention to the DNC Convention you would see that they do not stand on principle.  The DNC will change to keep their position.  This is not conviction.  They took a stand to remove God from their platform, and the leadership saw that that was going to cost them.  They took a vote to put Him back in the platform.  Watch the videos of this action.  The leadership did everything but say we need you to approve this or we are going to be killed in the media and campaign, but even after three attempts the chair needed to lie that he had a 2/3 majority.  If we raise positive awareness we will win!