I caught this in Bearing Arms penned by Tom Knighton :
What Is Really Hurting Pro-Gun Efforts In Florida? – Bearing Arms
And since I am no longer in Florida, my self-imposed restriction of speaking ill about people in the alleged same side of the fight is over, I am gonna share a bit my thoughts with you.
THOUGHT #1: Dear GOA, you haven’t done shit in Florida.
Sorry, Mr. Valdez, but you just started in the the Gunshine State* and although I appreciate the effort, the first thing you should do is to figure out how the legislature works. And I mean it both in the sense of dealing with the politicians and the actual rules and regulations plus how the bills and laws get take in and approved. It effing took me years to begin understand them and you started to attack a legislator because he was simply doing clean up on bills that were not going anywhere. Legal housekeeping is not “killing/sabotaging” gun rights in Florida. Just because you taken out expired milk does not mean you are against cows.
And for many Gun Owners, when we hear the words “No Compromise” we immediately cringe at the idea of achieving 90% advancement on a Pro Gun bill only to have it fucked up because we have Chest Thumpers loudly complain, insult and in some cases threaten Legislators because it is not that mythical 100% they want. Texas almost lost Open Carry because of No-Compromise morons like Kory Watkins. And let us not forget the collapse of Gun Rights in Colorado since the No Compromise idiocy of Dudley Brown and his No Compromise Collective of NAGR morons derailed the attempts to weaken the already established low capacity magazine law. To me, when a Gun Group screams those words, they do so to raise funds among the politically dumb.
THOUGH #2: Dear Florida Carry, you guys went lethargic and stupid.
Florida Carry began strong and I was a big supporter, but in my opinion, they went with the “easy picking” lawsuits against local governments for violations of Florida Law, some dumb court cases that were losers over and over again and ignored the work over the legislature. The last big discussion they had in social media that I saw about intervening in Tallahassee was actually about the color of the shirts they were going to wear. And then, to fuck things up even bigger, they went/supported the dumbest Open Carry demonstrations in recent history which produced a big fat zero ounce of support for the cause on anybody outside the gun rights movement and possibly lost a couple within. Florida prohibits Open Carry unless you are hunting, fishing or going to hunt and fish. And what did our geniuses do? Wear full fucking tactical gear to go fishing at local piers. I am talking modern sporting rifles and cammo and plate carriers and enough Molle shit to catch Moby Dick. One of the “wink-wink fishing trips” even had the blind stupidity of waving a Trump flag making sure even Democrats watching the show and that may have been supportive of Open Carry suddenly lost all taste for the flavor.
THOUGH #3: Florida Gun Owners, you entitled bunch of whiny bitches.
I was going to say voting Florida Gun Owners, but that would have been a lie. How else do you explain that Democrat Nikki Fried is in charge of the crown jewel of Florida Gun Rights: The Concealed Weapons License system? Florida Gun owner did not bother to fucking vote for the obvious shit because they are a bunch of misinformed assholes who believe themselves entitled to suck on the labor of others with even putting 5 minutes wort of efforts. I’d daresay that 90% of those “Muh Rights!” Chest Thumpers talking a big game in Social media aren’t even registered to vote and will have no problem giving you a dance and song of why they don’t do it because the system is rigged…well yeah, they convinced you NOT to vote and stay home eating pork rinds and drinking Cherry Coke with Bacardi. For fuck’s sake, this year I did not see ONE SINGLE FUCKING FLORIDIAN CITIZEN going to Tallahassee and speak in favor of pro-gun legislation, not one. And IRRC, there are at least some 30,000 Floridians with CWLs in Leon county and surrounding areas yet it seems no one could take one afternoon off from work or the rocking chair watching reruns of MASH to go attend a hearing.
And how about me? Well, I figure my failure resides on not being able to convince more people to intervene in the Legislative process, to contact and even visit the legislators, to make sure they know we exist and we vote, because that is why we were ignored. If we as a group give the perception we don’t give a shit about gun rights, why a politician should care anyway? They have other people, groups and lobbyists pressing on them and that is where their attention will go. The only reason we did not get shafted this and last year and got anti gun legislation shoved up our collective asses is in part because Moms Demands has collapsed and Giffords has not revved up to full power yet. But remember that there is no status quo, just pauses.
And you know what is truly shameful for the lot of us? That we were outworked and out lobbied by an 82 year old grandmother who has been doing more for Florida gun rights than any collection of fishing Chest Thumpers out there.
You can go ahead and hate her as much as you want because hating the NRA is the latest fad, but she is the only one visibly attending the Legislature and fighting for Gun Rights . God forbid we lose Marion Hammer because I predict within two years, Florida will become a May Issue state without State Pre-emption.
(*) GOA has not been visible in Florida, not proposed one single bill, nor pushed or sponsored anything till this year. I wish they had been in the state earlier to help improve gun rights with the same energy used to shit on legislators after the legislative year was done.
PS: My other failure was probably not losing my shit and telling this years ago rather than now. Maybe it would have shaken some people into consciousness, maybe not
IMHO- I think SOME of these organizations have become money hungry, its more about raking in the moolah than “gun rights”. And some have titannic egos….. as far as the NRA goes, I dont hate them. As soon as I can build up some cash Im going to buy a life membership. 1 thing I dont like is every 5 minutes they beggin for money. Last time I was a member 1 week after I renewed (3 year membership) i was bombarded with letters and phone calls sayin its “time to renew”. One way to get them to leave you alone- tape a dime to thier paperwork and send it in
Niki Fried won because of the bullshit shenanigans that Brenda Snipes (then broward elections supervisor) pulled on election night with a truck full of ballots showing up at the last minute.
Florida Carry was a complete waste of time as is GOA. In the case of Florida Carry, I handed them an open and shut case of going against the law in public buildings where concealed carry was not illegal and I was basically told to go pound sand. That is my answer to them now,
Mike, the same shit applied to the General Election, but people voted hard for Trump and overcame the “sudden” million mail in Democratic votes.
Our side couldn’t be bothered with reading the ballot and finding out the candidates other than the top tier
Any big, long term organization can get corrupted, especially when the people running it think they and they alone are the reason the organization is successful.
Example 1: National NRA. Example 2: NYFC.
These organizations can be reclaimed and recovered. Didn’t the NRA have a huge revolt that drove its successes? NYFC had Guiliani.
They can also fall into internecine self dealing and failures again. Just look at the NRA Leadership today, and Twice(!) elected NYFC Mayor Bill “Werner Wilhelm” DeBlasio.
Other organizations are scams from the beginning, or quickly become scams. Chest Thumping gets quick cash, and you can ride that horse and too many gullible contributors for years. So many stubborn, bulll headed people are not willing to admit they were taken, and they were (shudder) wrong. They are very, very, vocal about defending their wrong positions. (Shamefully, I have done that when I was young and I was foolish.)
This is why I was very leery about Trump in 2015. He reminded me of too many loud mouthed hypocritical hucksters. I voted for someone else in the caucus. I pulled the lever for him in November 2016, and was amazed and deliriously happy about 90% of what he accomplished and tried to accomplish.
@rd: It’s Pournelle’s “Iron Law of Bureaucracy”.
Basically, in any organization there are two types of people: in the first group are those dedicated to achieving the goals of the organization, and in the second group are those dedicated to the organization itself and their positions within it — dedicated to its expansion and growth, but not necessarily its goals, often tossing those aside.
The Iron Law of Bureaucracy says that the second group will eventually take over the organization and suppress or force out the first group.
(Note that “bureaucracy” could be any organization: a government agency, a non-profit organization, or a for-profit corporation. The bureaucratic crap in NGOs is often even worse than government agencies.)
As you say, we’re seeing this with the NRA: most of the executives seem more devoted to fund-raising, member-roll expansion, and protecting their own positions than furthering the causes of firearms education and gun rights, even sometimes endorsing a proven anti-gunner over a devout pro-gunner (see: Harry Reid vs. Sharron Angle, 2010) if it means they might get more member sign-ups (read: donations) in the long term.
Also with the NRA, (IIRC) they had the Cincinnati Revolt in the 70s, where some vocal members encouraged and organized the rest to “vote out the bums” on the Board of Directors. Such a direct action by the voting members is probably no longer possible, due to amendments to the bylaws in the aftermath.
And who controls the bylaws? Why, the second group under the Iron Law, of course!
Cherry Coke and Bacardi… yuck!
My job here is done …LOL
I’ve also been seeing a lot of hate directed toward Marion Hammer.
I don’t know her (other than what I’ve heard of her past as a NRA executive/officer), and I don’t live in Florida, but I have to give respect to someone who shows up when they’re needed, which is worlds more than anyone from GOA or Florida Carry can claim.
And any time a group claims to be “No Compromise” (our own state group does this), I have to pause. They clearly don’t understand how the legislative process works in the real world.
You’ll never get a perfect bill — it won’t survive the amendment and/or reconciliation process — so hard-core “No Compromise” means you’ll always get nothing.
“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” is good, solid advice here.
The funny thing is that the gradualist approach works quite well, and for both sides.
The anti’s will happily take any restriction they can get, and say that it’s the final demand. Rinse, repeat.
But, when we went to voting in Shall Issue, it paved the way for more states to go in that direction. Which led to more states voting in Constitutional Carry. When the general population can see that ‘normal people legally armed’ =/= ‘BLOOD IN DA STREETZ!!”, they are more likely to go along.
Indeed. Incrementalism works. Loosen a restriction, prove the “blood in the streets” fear-mongering is baseless, and the population is more likely to loosen other restrictions or (*gasp*) recognize broader rights.
And it does work both ways. The antis are very good at passing a lot of small restrictions over time, adding up to a lot of unnecessary rules.
In short: “Gun control” didn’t happen in one fell swoop (although they have tried), and it won’t go away in one fell swoop, either.
Dont hold it in like that fella you gotta let that anger out!
I agree with you on most if not all of your points. Being long removed from the Glorious South its been officially not my circus for so long I’ve forgotten the who’s whats and whys anymore.
What I’ve seen is an over reliance on facebook for organizing and putting out information vs forums and good ol face to face meet ups. Some of the best outreach done was to get together once a month and do some community service be it cleaning up a road, clearing brush in a park, volunteering at a donations center, whatever you can do to be seen as a non-violent force of good. Vs going to McDonalds with an SKS at the low ready.
Back to the facebook point it was hard for people who had been going at it for many decades to remember that a (then) young fella like me just didn’t know what they knew. How do elected critters expect you to act, dress, and talk, advice on how to be respectful of their time and efforts and leave them happy vs writing you and your group off as combative SOBs for no reason.
The youngins need to be mentored and taught buuut on the flip side need to know when to button up and take notes. Doing it right gives them the foundation to know when the elders are getting tired and need a hand or are straying from the path.
Finally…..good Lord almighty the folks not showing up. There is just no excuse for it and I don’t know how to fix it without a coach whip and a carrot on a stick.
1. Byrd runs on a 2A platform, but in action he is mostly absent. He’s never cosponsored open carry, campus carry, constitutional carry, or anything of significance. Leadership takes money from rich people with a gun control agenda and say no bill of substance will advance. Byrd is either lying or unwilling to take a stand.
2. Marion Hammer is part of the problem. I don’t even know where to begin. She is calling Senate President Wilton Simpson a champion of the Second Amendment even though he campaigned on authoring the Parkland gun control bill. He is the reason a 20 year old can’t buy a long gun, the expansion of the 3-day waiting period to include long guns, and the red flag law. Hammer along routinely hands out endorsements to people I personally know don’t deserve a grade above C. I could keep going.
3. Valdez has been involved in the movement for several years. He was lobbying in Tallahassee this past session. Other than an email or two I didn’t hear anything from the NRA or Florida Carry.
4. I agree with comments about perfect being the enemy. The problem is we are getting bread crumbs from Republicans. They pass a big gun control bill after Parkland, and then they pass a bill clarifying a gray area in the law. This isn’t a victory. This is pathetic. Nobody has been willing to demand something big until now. If we don’t demand something big with the willingness to accept anything that moves the needle in our direction then we will continue fighting a defensive battle.