Last Friday, I wrote about my having, earlier that week, become a life member of the NRA, despite my numerous misgivings about the leadership. I explained why I decided against allowing those misgivings to prevent me from becoming--for life--a member of The Enemy's most hated and feared nemesis, the NRA. I mentioned my dream of the NRA returning to the kind of organization it once was, with men like Neal Knox (the kind of "SNBI extremist" I can only aspire to becoming) leading the way.
I also talked about some other gun rights organizations with which I am involved. Most, if not all, of these are considered much more "extremist" than the NRA.
In a comment responding to that blog post, Jeff Knox (son of Neal Knox), gently chastised me for failing to mention another gun rights group--the Firearms Coalition (founded by Neal Knox)--that is just as highly principled and unwilling to accept some new, arbitrary definition of shall not be infringed as an "extremist" like me could ask for. Here's an excerpt of his comment (be sure to read the whole thing--it's worth it):
I appreciate the hat-tip to my father, Neal Knox, but I was a little disappointed that you didn’t mention his organization, The Firearms Coalition, as one of the groups that you support. The Firearms Coalition has been in the trenches lobbying Congress and the NRA for almost 25 years. We have been providing thoughtful, reliable information, without hype, bluster, and manic fund raising pleas, since the 4th of July, 1984.Aside from the fact it should have been accompanied with a good, swift kick to my rear end, I fully agree with Jeff's message. I honestly don't know why it didn't occur to me to mention the Firearms Coalition--I've been a member (if a rather inactive one) for years, so I can't claim ignorance of the organization. The best I can do is to claim cerebral flatulence--not an excuse I'm proud to use.
The Firearms Coalition is indeed an essential resource for gun rights advocacy, and one that, speaking personally, I have all but ignored for far too long. I haven't yet taken more than a cursory look at their project (mentioned in Jeff's comment), GunVoter.org, but I am definitely going to correct that deficiency.
Maybe if enough of us "SNBIs" do so, we can refute the accusations of being unwilling to do the hard work of real political activism within the system.
Stumble it!
6 comments:
http://laughingdogevolves.blogspot.com/2008/08/shall-not-be-infringed-snbi.html
I started to comment to this, and found that it started getting long enough that it would be easier to just read as a blog post of my own. I'd have done one of those "link back" things if I had a clue how to do that.
It's amazing sometimes how I can understand so much about computer hardware, yet be so clueless about software and network related things.
I'm answering Laughingdog's blog response here as I limit my commentary to a few blogs whose owners I trust.
Laughingdog wrote:
Second, until we get more people in the middle to look at firearms the same way they do at a fire extinguisher, power tools, or a spare tire, we won't have much chance at getting the court decisions and laws that we would really like to see.
I have to pick a nit here. It is true that firearms are akin to fire extinguishers and other tools, they are not exactly like those tools. Firearms are necessary (but not sufficient) to the maintenance of a free state. They are liberty-enablers. A fire extinguisher is not.
No tools are exactly alike, by that logic. But the point is that few people can recognize that a firearm is simply a tool, because they've had the image of it as a device of evil pumped into their heads by schools and the media for years.
I could do harm to someone with any of those things I listed. But no one is out there trying to ban the possession of power tools or spare tires simply because I could attack someone with a circular saw or throw my spare tire out into the highway and cause someone to wreck.
Also, a firearm is not a device of liberty any more than it is the device of evil that the gun ban groups try to claim. It's just a practical tool for the purpose of defending liberty. Hell, fertilizer and diesel fuel are just as capable of being tools of liberty, as is a tire iron.
Tools have no identity. They are simply inanimate objects. Any purpose attributed to them is actually just an indication of what human desires they serve best.
Slightly off topic but has anyone locked up SNBI.org?
Slightly off topic but has anyone locked up SNBI.org?
Good question--I don't know.
Society for Non-invasive Biomedical Image
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