A thank you from the Bradys

[Eugene V. Debs]

Dear Second Amendment supporters,

We have so much to thank all of you for this year, it's hard to know where to begin. All of you-- Republican, Democrat, Libertarian and Independent alike-- have done so much to help our agenda, and for that we are very grateful.

Thanks to the partisan right-wing gun owners for focusing all your attention on supporting the GOP in elections. This helps us in two very important ways-- 1) It ensures we are unchallenged in the Democratic Party and can continue to push the most anti-gun Democrats in the primaries and keep gun control as a central plank in the Democratic Party platform, 2) It allows the GOP to take you for granted. With any luck we'll have as many Republicans vote for our new Assault Weapons Ban as we did in 1994 (only two Democratic and two Republican Senators voted against that). Sure, you could've voted for Barr or Baldwin because it was pretty obvious McCain was going to lose anyways, but you chose to let the Republicans know they'll get your vote no matter what-- even when they nominate someone who voted for the Assault Weapons Ban.

This year we were a little worried that we wouldn't be able to get Obama to put gun control at the top of the agenda-- after all, he didn't talk about it too much on the campaign trail-- but now that he sees Second Amendment advocates will hate him and vote Republican no matter what he does or does not do, he has nothing to lose and we have much more confidence in getting him to throw his weight behind the AWB and make it a top priority of his administration.

Thanks to those who denounce gun owners who voted for Obama and other Democrats as "traitors" and "anti-American". Keeping the pro-gun movement sectarian and divided is one of our major goals, but thanks to you alienating potential allies, we've had to make little effort at it. It's also helpful to us because it allows us to continue to paint your movement as ideologically-narrow, thus keeping more moderate people from embracing an idea which should not be controversial to most people at all-- the idea that people have a right to self-defense. Thanks so much for being so nasty and sectarian...you can only imagine how difficult things would be for us if the Second Amendment ceased to be a right-wing/left-wing, Liberal vs. conservative issue.

Thanks to the NRA for so many things, but for these in particular--

*For gaming its rating system to favor pro-gun Republicans over pro-gun Democrats. This means we get to have more anti-gun Democrats.

*For focusing exclusively on electoral political action and not direct-action or movement-building techniques. We'd much rather face lobbyists than a groundswell of public opposition to gun control.

*For encouraging fear and paranoia amongst gun-owners to increase their own membership. The last thing we want is gun-owners thinking clearly and strategically about defending their rights.

Thanks to the pro-gun movement in general, whatever your political beliefs or affiliations, for refusing to engage in community organizing and for effectively abandoning the urban areas. This is very helpful to us. You would think that those most in danger of violent crime would be most opposed to gun control, but since you guys have given up, we have free run of the cities. We can recruit poor people of color from the ghetto who think like us to be spokespeople without any fear of you doing the same. We can go into these neighborhoods with Democratic politicians peddling easy solutions to the difficult problem of crime, and not worry about those ghetto residents who actually want to defend themselves and know we're full of it, because, well-- they don't have an organized voice. Thanks to your disdain for the inner-cities like "Filthydelphia" with their "welfare rats" and whatnot we are able to reliably elect anti-gun politicians in these areas that are most negatively affected by gun control-- truly amazing!

Oh, Democrat and left-wing gun owners, don't think we've forgotten about you. Yes, you've helped us quite a bit too by refusing to organize yourselves to push pro-gun policies in the Democratic Party or amongst left-wing independents. This is great for us! Millions of gun owners vote Democrat yet are unable to get pro-gun Democrats elected in the primaries because they are too disorganized to do anything about it. We are especially grateful to the "pro-gun Liberal" and "pro-2a Democrat" bloggers and webmasters who have done absolutely nothing to create a real organization offline. You help make gun owners think its okay to vote Democrat while doing nothing to influence the Democratic Party. Great job! This serves our interests well.

Last but not least, we'd like to give a very special thanks to those of you have completely given up since the last election. Those of you who are content to do nothing but complain online and who are refusing to write your Congresspeople or letters to the editor, and are encouraging everyone else to do the same. Your gloom-and-doom defeatism is an inspiration to all gun-control advocates.

Very truly yours,

Jim and Sarah Brady

NOTE: This is satire

[o1dakota440]

well' that was nice of them to take the time to write us a thank you note.
we should do the same and write a your welcome letter to them.









oh,
p.s. i don't care what ban gets passed where, you aint touching my right to protect myself from you.

[CarolinaGuy]

I think the only satire was the signature at the end.

the rest? sad but true.

[pirateron]

This should get interesting







(as long as the guilty minds try to defend themselves)

[Eugene V. Debs]

(as long as the guilty minds try to defend themselves)

Make no mistake, I'm guilty too. This part:

Oh, Democrat and left-wing gun owners, don't think we've forgotten about you. Yes, you've helped us quite a bit too by refusing to organize yourselves to push pro-gun policies in the Democratic Party or amongst left-wing independents.

While I have made some attempts to contact left-wing and Democratic-voting gun-rights advocates who post online for the purposes of organizing offline, I definitely could be doing a lot more than that. I'll put it out again here-- any Dem/lefty gun-owners on PAFOA who live in SE PA and want to get together for a strategy session offline, PM me.

What really gets me, though, are the people who set up pro-gun Democrat/Liberal blogs and websites and when you ask them to step away from their keyboards to do something in the real world besides just pull the lever for the Democrat or write the occasional LTTE, they clam up. If you're not prepared to do anything about it, why set up a website in the first place?

The Republican and conservative gun-owners may have a completely fucked-up and short-sighted strategy, but at least they are doing SOMETHING in terms of real-world organization-- wish I could say the same for us gun-owners on the left. Left-wing gun-owners will complain all day about the NRA and how the right-wing and GOP have hijacked the Second Amendment issue, but ask them to do something other than bitch online and see where you get.

Bottom-line: We are ALL falling short, and we need to get our shit together quick-- dump the tactics that aren't working, start adopting new ones, develop a long-term strategy, get off our asses and mobilize around that strategy.

[pirateron]

All too often, what people do online, and their true feelings, vary.. Not saying that people that support 2A online, don't feel strongly about it offline, just that the passion is easier online. It takes commitment to actually go to a rally, write a representative, etc.. Doesn't take much to holla on a website.
I, too, am guilty of that. Seems like there is always something else to do. Hopefully, I won't regret fixing the truck over going to a rally, or working on the basement.