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

[OneBadV8]

The full discussion is at AR15.COM. I have reposted this with the permission of the original Author.

Enough whining! Enough whimpering! Enough rolling over and simply giving up! Neither of those things are going to get us anywhere. But diligence and planning can.

Here is another suggestion for how we should organize to fight any new anti-gun legislation:

First and foremost, we must be highly organized. That doesn't mean just this forum. It means we all have to work to ensure that all firearms forums are interconnected and be capable of working together and sharing news if and when that becomes necessary. Obviously, this will largely fall to the site staff. But everyone can help. But to launch an effective counter-effort against the antis, this needs to be done.

How will this be beneficial? News travels fast online. The better networked we are with other like-minded people, the faster we can react to any new legislation that is introduced. But more importantly, by getting as many gun owner groups linked together as possible, it will allow us to develop and implement a particular and well focused strategy, then carry out that strategy. Without that sort of networking, everyone is just running around doing their own thing with no knowledge of what other groups may be doing. It makes any effort far less organized and far less focused.

Imagine if all the firearms boards devoted to AR rifles, AK rifles, M1As, FALs, H&K, Sig, Glock, Smith and Wesson, Ruger, and all other brands and types of semi-auto magazine fed weapons, had a sort of "panel" made up by staff from each of the individual forums to determine what actions to take, where to focus those actions and how to carry them out. It would make our efforts 100x more effective.

Imagine for just a moment that we needed to counter something in the Senate. Imagine how effective it might be if all the boards were connected, agreed on a letter writing campaign to Harry Reid, agreed on the general tone of what the letters should be (maybe even share examples), and contained a time line for when to send them. Rather than letters being sent a few here and few there to dozens or hundreds of people, you could have thousands upon thousands arrive in his congressional mailbox on the same day. See how much more powerful that message would be?

Being organized is the most critical element to winning our future battles. Rather than being like a bunch of independent little islands scattered all across a vast ocean going their separate way, we need to unite into a tightly connected network that shares info, resources, ideas, develops strategies and put into action plans to stop the gun grabbers.

I would highly encourage the site staff here to reach out to the owners and staff of other firearms forums (as well as all pro-gun organizations for that matter) and form a panel made up from key people with each group to head and direct such efforts. It doesn't even have to be anything overly formal. A simple forum where representatives from all groups can meet and plan would be sufficient. Those representatives could then brief their individual forum members about anything requiring attention. It needs to be done right now. Planning needs to start right now. Everything needs to be in place before any anti-2A legislation ever hits the floor. That way, if and when it happens, we can call up said network, pull out the proper battle plan for whatever situation we are needing to deal with and start an effective effort immediately to counter it. This will save time, it will pool resources, it will give us better command and control to steal a military term, it will allow us to better focus our efforts and it will make our voice 100x louder. Think of it as the NATO of gun owners. Any single European nation would have folded almost immediately if the Soviets had invaded during the Cold War. But with all of them and the US working closely together, the Soviets were never able to get that chance. We must do likewise when facing the gun banners. Alone we are piss ants. But together, we are millions of pissed off mother****ers who can and will be heard.

Simply put, it is time for all pro-gun websites, forums and organizations to join forces in a highly networked community. Since this forum is one of the largest and most influential gun forums on the web (with over 130,000 members here alone), why not we be the one to lay the groundwork to start this effort? As they say, "if you build it, they will come."

And one final suggestion and question: Does the site staff have the ability to send mass PMs or emails to members? Lots of people on these forums never set foot into GD or the Politics forum. Many (and I am included) log straight into the actual forums and never look at the front page. So many people miss lots of important news. By having such a system in place, the site staff could rapidly alert every swinging dick that belongs to this forum of developing situations that require their attention and direct them in a unified manner on how to react to that situation.

Again, maybe I have spent too much time involved with firefighting and emergency management. But I see effective communication and partnership with outside agencies (or in this case, other gun nuts) critical to dealing with any major challenge that requires a unified response. Therefore I would love to see us start networking with other forums and pro gun groups as quickly as possible. It could mean the difference between preserving our 2A rights and political defeat.

Does anyone else like this idea? Does anyone have additional ideas that could be added? And for the site staff, how feasible are my ideas? I am so tired of all the hand-wringing and fear being displayed on this forum. I feel we could put those energies to much better use by being proactive and taking efforts to make sure a new ban doesn't happen, rather than running around screaming the sky if falling.

UPDATE: We now have a temporary chat room set up to discuss these issues. You can log in by visiting:

http://www.harrystone.net/chat

This is where everyone involved (all the various groups that have joined since the original post) can meet, for now, until the permanent forum and website are completed.

We won't be in the chat 24/7, but I will personally make an effort to be in there whenever logged on, until the permanent site is built.

[OneBadV8]

A special request that was posted on Page 6 of that same post. Here it is.

And with Ed Sr's approval, roll we will do!

So, for those who may belong to other forums which are not yet represented on the list above, and if you would like to invite them to join with us, I went ahead and created a basic invite message you can copy and paste on the respective forum. It will give everyone instructions on the goal of our effort, how to join and how to contact me. They will also have the option of PMing you if if they wish, so please pass their contact info along to me if and when that happens and I will add them to my contact sheet I am making. That way we can keep everyone well updated and invite them in when the website and forum are ready for use.

Here's the example invite message. You may alter it if you wish. After all, I am no English professor, just a hick who loves guns.

Since I have elected to go ahead and share my email, please try to post that only in places that are gun friendly. I am sure you might be able to guess why. I don't want to have to waste any more of my time that necessary dealing with deleting troll emails.

[OneBadV8]

Sorry, its a lot to read but well worth it. I will post updates as I get them. Feel free to post questions or ideas. There is an ongoing chatroom for those who don't read all of it above.

harrystone.net - chat

The main person behind it is Charging_Handle. He is usually in the chat room when possible.

[jediagh]

I don't have an account at AR-15.com (can not use FREE accounts to log-in) but do we have a person from these fourms who wants to take the lead on this for us?

Site ADMIN perhaps?
I am more than willing to help in any way from this board. Tomorrow my goal is to write up my letters to all my reps. I have an outline so far on what I want to say but plan on keeping it simple and a 1 pager.

Note the NRA does mail out to it's members postcards where doing mass mailers. We need toget our local NRA reps involved as well. I know how mine is for this area.
I'll email him this post as well.


FYI
I have posted a smaller "call" on the following forums as well:


http://forum.m1911.org/showthread.ph...414#post582414
View topic - Wanna stop a future AWB? Then get your butt in here now!

I you belong to another forum please post there as well even if in the worng place. We need to MOVE on this!!!

[OneBadV8]

Yeah, I've already offered to do anything to Charging_Handle (Author of above Quoted posts). I'll take the lead if no one else wants to but it would be good to get some Admins involved.

I agree, It would be good to get local NRA Reps involved. Does anyone have a link or know of a way to find the contact info for the Local Rep?

Also, the Chat room that is set up (harrystone.net - chat) does not require a login

[jediagh]

I already email my local NRA REP (for NW Indiana) so that he sends the word up the chain. I need to pull my NRA MAG to get the list of the rest of the local area people.

[SavageEagle]

Hell yea guys! I'm pretty much free when she lets me be so count me in for just about whatever. I have 4 kids to work around so just let me know what I can do to help.

[OneBadV8]

Update from Charging_Handle

I just woke up, wanted to pop online for a sec and add something I forgot to earlier. After tonight's planning session in the chat, we now officially do have a domain name and WildWilli has purchased the hosting service in which to launch the website and forum (mucho thanks to WildWilli). Harry Stone will be starting work on it tomorrow. So for those who have patiently been waiting for this to take shape, it is now happening. I'll update further tomorrow (Tuesday) evening, as I will be out on the road most of the day tomorrow and have no access to a computer.

BTW, I also hope to add some sort of tally as to how many forums and organizations have signed on thus far, as well as how many individuals are signing up for the newsletter and alert list. But I can tell you, for 3 days effort, it is one helluva impressive list. Lots of manufacturers and vendors too. People all across the nation are jumping in and the news of our organization is spreading like wildfire as more and more gun owners and outdoorsmen pick up the story and carry it to other forums.

So good news folks! It looks like we are on our way to where we want to go. Thanks for all the hard work everyone has put in to allow this concept to become a reality.

[Cwood]

I sent him an email earlier with contact info.

[rjwin1967]

The politically correct crowd took control over at AR15.com some time ago. They've got their own little clique of posters that rush to pounce upon anyone they preceive as possibly being offensive to anyone that might hamper advertising revenue. They are fast becoming gun owner lite and not nearly far enough to the right for me and quite a lot of others who have left that site.