Wanna stop a future AWB? Then get your butt in here now!

[jediagh]

Time is running short.
May I sugegst we start some STICKIES of our own in the 2nd AMD.. channel on the topics that we (as INDIANA residence) will have to handle deal with.

1) Sample Writtings to our REPs
2) Organized march in Indy
3) Community Outreach days
(eg. the public is invited to a day at the range for free (maybe people pay for the ammo) where vendors and instructors show basic firearm safety, etc).
4) Take Your Non-Firends to the Day instructions
Simple guide on what you should do when you take a friend to the range
topics they shoudl be aware of
5) AWB 2009 for DUMMIES.
Perhaps a 1 page flyer/newletters that shows why the AWB won't work, what has been tried, why it failed and what could work.

[OneBadV8]

UPDATE from Charging_Handle:

Dear INGO members:

I was able to look through the page you have going regarding the 2nd Amendment Movement project we have going. I am pleased to see the subject generated a significant amount of discussion. I have seen a number of registrations at our new site that came from this forum. So I am grateful for your interest and involvement and all of us at the site are glad to have you as members.

Just to clear up a few things...........

First, though we have been accepting registrations, the board isn't entirely ready for posting just yet, thus we have held off on activating the accounts. We have all of the sections up. But we need to do some minor clean up of spelling and so forth. But most importantly, we need to adjust the settings and add the forum permissions before opening the gates. Right now the entire forum is wide open, even the admin section. So as you might imagine, it would be a madhouse if we let everyone in before the final touches are made.
But that should happen really soon. As soon as it does, I'll start activating the accounts immediately. So, for anyone who has already registered, I assure you that your registration will be accepted.

Next, I noticed some concern about my being a part of the ar15.com community. It is true, that is where I have spent the majority of my time since 2002. But I am just a regular member over there. I am not a moderator, nor a part of the site staff. As such, I don't set the rules there and I don't control the direction of the forum. But I do believe there are a lot of good folks who hang out there and I have learned a great deal from them. I have no regrets about being an ARFCOM member and plan to continue my paid membership there. When it comes to discussing the subject I love (guns), it is simply my forum of choice.

However, my membership there has nothing to do with how I plan to run the new 2nd Amendment Movement website and forum. I am the co-admin there. The other co-admin comes from MissouriCarry.com. Our membership will be made up of people from all sorts of online gun communities. In fact, there are a number who will be from INGO. WildWilli and I and the other admin, have already concluded that the moderators we choose should come from as many of the various forums as possible to ensure we have a good mix and don't draw too heavily from any one forum. There are of course a huge number of ARFCOM members who will be on the site, simply because there are a huge number of people on ARFCOM. I think the current membership there exceeds 130,000 registered users. It is one of the largest online gun communities on the web, if not the biggest. So naturally, lots of members will originate from there. But I assure you, this isn't an ARFCOM controlled effort. Every forum who becomes a partner in the effort will be considered equal to the next one. And input from each group is and will be considered when planning our activities. I am first and foremost a gun owner and 2nd Amendment defender. Loyalty to specific forums is secondary to that as far as I am concerned.

And finally, as for ideas, we have received a ton of suggestions thus far. And we always welcome more. A good number of the suggestions we have received have already been implemented into the goals of our organization, as well as into the design of the forum and website. We want to be a forum by gun owners, for gun owners. So we will always value your opinions. But with that said, it will also be impossible to do everything every single individual involved wants us to do all the time. If that were to happen, the forum would turn into total anarchy.
So there are times where Willi and I just have to make judgment calls and go with what we think is best. This is true of any organization.
There are times when the group leadership has to be decisive and just make decisions in order to maintain a board that is functional. I understand that not every decision I make will be popular with everyone. If I choose option A, the option B people will be unhappy.
If I choose option B, some of the option A people will be unhappy. But in the end, there are times when you simply have to make decisions between multiple options based on your judgment what your instinct tells you is the right thing to do. In other words, there is simply no way to make everyone happy all the time. That is impossible. But it is my hope that everyone can put the value of the mission above petty little differences over what are often relatively insignificant matters to begin with and keep focused on the big picture. In 100 years, nobody is going to remember or care if we had a forum on the site reserved primarily for women to have their discussions separate of the men when they want. What people will remember is whether or not we did all we could to preserve freedom when we had the chance.

Also, I understand that some people will be unhappy with the fact that we will have different levels of membership. While nobody is required or even asked to pay (the site is and will remain free for everyone to use), we do realize that running a top notch website and grass roots effort does require at least some money. Willi and I can't afford to do it all out of pocket. So we have to have a little help here and there. By simply allowing people to upgrade their membership level, that gives us the money we need to operate on, while at the same time leaving the site free for those who can't afford to or do not wish to be paying members. It is a totally voluntary thing. All members, paying or otherwise, will be treated the same. And all will have access to all of the meat and potatoes forums where the important business at hand is taken care of. But the paying members will have access to more forums, where there will be more relaxed rules. They will have more IM space. We would have to give paying members a few extra niceties to provide the incentive for choosing a bronze, silver or gold membership. In the end, I think that is a better option than NRA members are given. Everyone who belongs to them has to pay. With us, only those who wish to will pay. And for those who don't, hey, no problem. You're still going to have full access to every forum on the site that matters when it comes to the issues we are trying to address. Meanwhile, the private forums can be used for a little horsing around (provided it is all in good nature) while remaining out of public view. So we will have a forum that looks professional and something that we can be proud to let others see. We do want to project a good image. Image is critical if we want to shed the stereotype of being a "fringe" group, as many of the anti-gunners try to paint us to be.

We also aren't in this to become a money making organization. We aren't about profit. I don't, nor do I plan to ever have a salary for running this effort. Every single one of us are volunteers and will remain volunteers and earn our living doing our day jobs. All money we take in will go toward making the site/forum a better home for all of you folks. And the rest (the majority) will go toward the fight itself. We will have fairly low overhead. No offices. No headquarters. No trips.
No salaries. The vast majority of the work we do will either be online, or on foot, out in our communities. So we will never need to be massively funded to operate, like a number of other organizations.
And most of what money we do take in will go straight for the fight.
We may even hire our own lobbyist at some point, if that option becomes feasible, to represent OUR VIEWS on Capitol Hill. But we aren't just another "gun rights organization", as we don't see ourselves in direct competition with groups like the NRA, GOA or Citizen's Committee. Our goal is to be non-threatening toward those kinds of groups so that they can work with us and us with them to share info and coordinate activities between all such groups.

I hope this helps make things a little more clear on certain issues that have been brought up. If you have any more questions, I am sure
onebadv8 will be happy to relay them directly to me and I will respond as soon as I can. Again, thank you all for your interest in the idea.
And thank you for standing up for our rights. While we all have our differences sometimes, even within the firearms community, I think we all share the same hope that our kids and grandkids can enjoy the same freedoms we do. That is worth fighting for. But to effectively fight, we all need to be on the same page and we must be highly organized.
This will be your movement. You, along with the people from all the other groups, will set the agenda. We can be whatever you want us to be. We can and will adapt to face new threats that emerge. We will be flexible. And that is the beauty of our organization and what sets us apart from many of the other gun rights organizations. We're all just "common people" with a common goal and we won't let ego or self interest get in the way of doing what needs to be done to ensure we as gun owners win.

-Charging_Handle

[bwframe]

http://ingunowners.com/forums/politi...tml#post154409

[SavageEagle]

Tell CH thanks for the update and explaination and we can't wait to see the site in its toddler stage! (it's already in it's infancy learning to crawl...)

[Prometheus]

I'm registered, same name....

[USMC_0311]

I understand the explanation but still disagree on most. That said I will continue to do what I can. I think we are getting the right people from INGO involved and look forward to working with them. I don't know the ar15 community very well and hold no prejudice. In fact it is a great reference and lots of good people I just like hanging out with Hoosiers. I think the money needed will come with out different levels of membership. If you get enough users, sponsors that share the same interest will line up to donate. A woman’s 2nd amendment rights are just as important as a mans. I really don’t understand all the need for all the segregation if we all have the same interest. With so many choices people may get confused or frustrated. I am willing to put these differences aside so that we all can reach our shared goal for the protection of our 2nd amendment rights.

[OneBadV8]

I think the purpose of the womens section is to make them feel more welcome and not trying to segregate them.

[USMC_0311]

Originally Posted by OneBadV8

I think the purpose of the womens section is to make them feel more welcome and not trying to segregate them.

I don't know I guess we should ask some women what they think. If you give them there own section isn't that segregation? Anyway those are small issues and I don't want to stray from the main goal. I will work with what we get.

[Pami]

Originally Posted by USMC_0311

I don't know I guess we should ask some women what they think. If you give them there own section isn't that segregation? Anyway those are small issues and I don't want to stray from the main goal. I will work with what we get.

We have our own women's section here because sometimes women just want another woman's perspective on things like holsters, how to choose a carry gun, etc. In my (almost) 32 years of life experiences, I've noticed men sometimes forget women are built a little different, that we come in smaller packages, our approach to firearms in general tends to be more emotional than practical (for some of us, anyway) etc. What works for them does not necessarily work for us.

I agree with you in regards to Second Amendment rights, though. There is no difference between the rights women have versus the rights men have. If the new organization were to stay focused solely on efforts to uphold the 2A, spreading information on the 2A, etc. then I agree there shouldn't be a need for a women-specific section. However, it sounds like they are branching the forums out to discuss guns in general, similar to how INGO and many other boards are set up, not just the 2A efforts.

[OneBadV8]

New Chat Room:
http://pjirc.viper007bond.com/

or if you have an IRC client
Server: irc.slashnet.org
Channel: #2AM