...to NRA lobbyists and politicians. [More]
Now I know how SAF feels when they're not credited with helping in a lawsuit!
(Again andagain and again and again and again and again...)
That's OK, those of you who also led and/or pitched in. Some of us appreciate what you did. And we even recognized those politicians and lobbyists.
[Via JD]
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
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8 comments:
I'm not convinced that NRA had anything to do with the matter. I was watching Glenn Beck this evening and who should appear but LaPierre. When Beck asked him about the case he had nothing to say and knew nothing about it. He was, to quote, "Looking at the matter". If Wayne didn't know anything about it then what's there to convince me that NRA had a thing to do with it? I chalk this victory up to grass roots outrage and hard work, not the NRA.
even if the nra had nothing to do with this success, it'd be a good idea to phone them up and give some positive reinforcement:
"i was thinking about dropping my nra membership and joining goa and saf, but this kind of no-compromise action is what i like to see. it'd be great to see the nra raise a shitstorm every so often"
let's face it, the nra is a potential juggernaut. if the nra could be convinced to do some heavy-handed "community organizing"...
Speaking of taking credit...
I've seen e-mails from Gary Marbutt of the Montana Shooting Sports Association posted in a couple of places claiming all the credit goes to him and Baucus and Tester.
The problem is that the time that Marbutt claims that Baucus and Tester sent their FAX to DLA is after Larry Hainey at Georgia Arms had already received an e-mail from the feds telling him that the rule had been rescinded. Marbutt's claim also doesn't agree with the timetable in the NRA press release.
Wayne didn't know a thing:
Video of Glenn Beck interview
Howdy from Montana,
A lot of folks were involved in this turnaround.
The email from Government Liquidators to scrap buyers announcing the brass mutilation mandate went out on 3/12, Thursday at 5:34 PM.
I received a forwarded copy of this notice on 3/13, Friday at 8:17 AM.
I called NRA-ILA about 9AM and they said they were "aware of the problem."
The MSSA request to the Montana congressional delegation to fix the problem went out about Noon, and the MSSA alert about this went out at 12:56 PM (lunch hour) on Friday, 3/13.
Georgia Arms was also on this early, but I don't know exactly what day and time.
The MSSA alert I issued went viral on the Internet (way cool). It included the email addresses for the gun-issue staffers for our two Montana senators and our lone congressman, and a request for people to contact those staffers and ask for a fix.
LOTS of people responded to my gone-viral email AND to the efforts of Georgia Arms. However, only my email requested folks to contact the Montana congressional delegation.
On Tuesday, 3/17, at about 8:45 AM, the gun-issue staffer for Senator Tester called me to ask me to call off the dogs (my words). She said that she had not been able to clear her email inbox of military brass-related emails since Saturday, and that every time she'd empty her inbox, it would fill up again. She said that she had not been able to receive other important emails. She promised that Tester's office was working diligently on the problem.
She called me again at 4:30 on 3/17 to inform me that Montana Senators Tester and Baucus had cosigned and faxed a letter to DoD asking them to reverse the brass mutilation policy, and that less than 30 minutes later they received a reply back from DoD announcing that the policy was reversed.
Reading between the lines, this fast reply to the Baucus/Tester letter was in part because Baucus is Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which must approve the DoD budget of billions. But it also suggests that the Pentagon had been getting other calls on this issue and the attention of somebody important in the Pentagon had already been attracted. Actually, people who talked to the Pentagon on Tuesday told me that Pentagon personnel admitted privately that this issue had raised a "sh**storm" at DoD. The detail in the Baucus/Tester letter suggests that their staffers had been in communication with DoD on this issue on Monday and Tuesday.
It is nearly certain that DoD had received inquiries from the offices of other members of Congress stimulated to get involved by the alert done by Georgia Arms. The NRA may have made inquiries on Monday or Tuesday as well - they were researching the issue.
The primary credit for turning the brass mutilation order around goes to the gazillion folks who emailed and called to congressional offices demanding action.
Second level blame can be assigned to MSSA and Georgia Arms, the two entities which got the early word out about this problem.
Against that background, it does seem a bit disingenuous and ingracious for the NRA to have released a statement today that leads any uninformed reader to believe that the NRA solved the problem. If there is anything
universally known about the NRA it is that the NRA operates at a glacial pace.
And, because the NRA credits the Montana congressional delegation (but not MSSA) with having caused the reversal of the brass mutilation policy, one would guess they somehow sensed a Montana connection to the effort.
What is most important is that working together (thanks all of you!!), we got the job done.
Aren't the information age and the Internet (thanks Al) awesome?
Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.mtpublish.com
Thanks for the additional information and clarification.
The internet is a great thing for getting information out to a lot of people quickly. Ten or fifteen years ago it'd have taken weeks before anyone heard about these kind of issues. I agree that NRA needs to get their efforts more in line with the speed of the new technology. They sure seem to have gotten caught sleeping on this one.
All they have to do is look at how fast the Zumbo incident unfolded through arfcom and other message boards and the Guntalk radio program. This brass incident proves it again.
If we can keep a big enough group of well informed people who are ready, willng and able to swamp the phones, FAX machines and e-mail quickly, we can be very effective at protecting our rights.
Hey Gary and David-
Well, I'll be glad to post Gary's above comment in its entirety on my blog, with your permission (well, with the permission of whoever needs to grant it. David or Gary or both?)
I'll shoot you an email asking the same.
Going Viral.
That worked for freedom this time!
Gary, your writeup ought to appear in the next Gun Week.
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