Four days ago I was commenting on the power of spending a couple of minutes sending an email to exercise political power over our elected officials here in Florida, and today I get to read about inaction by Gun Owners in Missouri:
COLUMBIA — Gov. Jay Nixon on Monday morning vetoed Senate Bill 656, which would have instituted a “stand your ground” law and allowed people, including some criminals, to legally carry a concealed firearm. SB 656 would have eliminated Missouri statutes that require people to go through training and background checks to obtain a permit and carry a concealed firearm…
…
From May 13 to June 22, the governor’s office received 4,043 emails, faxes, letters and electronic petitions on SB 656, Nixon spokesman Scott Holste wrote in an email.
Of those, 3,704 opposed the bill and 326 favored it. There were 13 general inquiries.
Moms Demand Action chapters in Missouri sent thousands of emails, calls and postcards to Nixon asking him to veto the bill, Columbia chapter coordinator Rose Metro wrote in an email.
Missourians fell asleep at the switch and got screwed by Astroturf, it was that simple.
Seriously people, if you are not signed up to the NRA-ILA notifications, you are screwing the pooch.
Get Thy Shit Together.
Fortunately, the legislature will have an opportunity to override the veto. So the message it, contact your state level elected representatives and make sure they understand how you want them to vote to on these bills. Even if they voted in favor last time. Don’t give them an opportunity to change their mind because you assumed they’d remember.
Minnesota recently gave a wonderful example of the power of these calls and letters. Recently a bill was introduced to legalize possession of suppressors by citizens. The gun control lobby trotted out gangster movie clips of all things to illustrate the dangers of these evil devices of mayhem.
After the bill passed in both houses, the very Democratic Governor stated that he intended to veto the bill. After a deluge of voter responses to the announcement, the Governor signed the bill.
So Missourians, lets not mess this one up…..
Agreed about the NRA-ILA mailing list. Get on GOA’s list, as well, they send out emails all the time. It’s frustrating to me when I hear about other gun owners who have never bothered to send an email to their elected officials or haven’t even considered doing so. If we could get every gun owner to encourage just 2 other gun owners to send these emails, think of the noise it would make.