[Sebastian]

The problem is, you need those relationships with legislators. Grassroots matters, but if you don't have people who are spending time representing the issue to legislators, they won't have any idea how to serve your interests.

If every single gun owner were to vote on the gun rights issue nearly exclusively, we probably wouldn't be as dependent on interest groups, because we'd have the raw numbers to destroy any politician who opposed us. But we don't. The people who are really doing do work on this issue, learn how their legislators vote, and bother to get informed, are a small small minority; too small to have much of an impact on elections. So we need people to represent gun owners, inform gun owners, and give them an idea of how they can participate in the movement as grassroots.

I don't recommend anyone have unwavering trust in pro-gun leadership, but to some degree you have to trust people to represent you. I don't really see any viable alternative.