 Minuteman Monthly Newsletter Issue 91 February 2009 |
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Welcome to this issue of the Minuteman Monthly Newsletter. This is the monthly communication from my Web site at www.SaveTheGuns.com. Thank you for reading this month's issue and for passing it on to a friend.
As some of you know, I have been involved in one way or another with the National Rifle Association since the year 1990. About nineteen (19) years ago, I was invited to speak about gun safety and basic firearm education to a group of 10 to 12 year old kids who were about to begin their first firearm experiences within the Boys Scouts of America. Since then, I have been an NRA Certified Basic Firearm Education Instructor, NRA-ILA volunteer and since 2005, an independent subcontractor for the National Rifle Association as an NRA Membership Recruiter. I have very recently set a goal through the NRA's Membership Recruiting Program to recruit five hundred (500) NRA members in 2009. Can you help me recruit forty two (42) NRA members per month? That's an aggressive goal of about 1.4 members per day. Many of you, perhaps hundreds of you are currently members of the National Rifle Association, but how much do you really know about the NRA? Do you know its history? Can you name some of the benefits of membership in the NRA? How about the current membership and payment options? I'll bet you'll learn something enlightening about the NRA in this newsletter and why I continue to work so very hard for this often embattled and roundly criticized organization. Read on... SaveTheGuns.com Quotes of the Month "I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death."
"I think you had asked me earlier about the regulations that I thought might still exist, post-Heller. And I had mentioned, I think, closing the gun show loophole, the banning of cop-killer bullets and I also think that making the assault weapons ban permanent would be something that would be permitted under Heller, and I also think would be good for my law enforcement perspective." Attorney General nominee for the Obama Administration Eric Holder
"When even one American - who has done nothing wrong - is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth - then all Americans are in peril."
"We should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of
the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections."
"When injustice becomes
law, rebellion then becomes duty."
"Gun control? It's the best thing you can do for crooks and gangsters. I want you to have nothing. If I'm a bad guy, I'm always gonna have a gun. Safety locks? You will pull the trigger with a lock on, and I'll pull the trigger. We'll see who wins."
"Freedom of expression is the well-spring of our civilization...
The history of civilization is in considerable measure the displacement of error which once held sway as official truth
by beliefs which in turn have yielded to other truths. Therefore the liberty of man to search for truth ought not
to be fettered, no matter what orthodoxies he may challenge."
"If ye love wealth
better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the
animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your
counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands, which feed
you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity
forget that ye were our countrymen." SaveTheGuns.com Gun Safety Tip of the Month Please contribute this month if you have not done so before. More than 90,000 children have learned something about gun safety from my Web site. Please contribute when you can so I can reach another 90,000 in the future. Well, I heard of it happening once again. Amidst a rather large shooting exposition at a major gun club, there were representatives from many firearm manufacturers present, allowing club members to shoot many of the newest models of handguns to be released for 2009. In the rather large array of firearms that shooters could choose from, a club member got somewhat distracted and attempted to shoot the wrong caliber cartridge from one of the new handguns. There was little damage done, but there was a lot of embarrassment. Once again, firearm accidents are only completely prevented through vigilance. I know of one shooter many years ago who simply wanted to see what would happen if he tried to shoot the wrong caliber ammo. Well, he found out it was a big mistake to do so after a quick trip to the hospital to remove a small piece of the handgun from his face. My safety tip of the month is to make absolutely certain that you're shooting the right caliber cartridge from the right gun and don't try to experiment. Factoid of the Month The Factoid of the Month is a new feature beginning in 2009. I hope you find it useful and worth your time. Accidental firearm discharges that result in death have been decreasing for decades. Since 1930, their annual number has decreased 80%, while the U.S. population has more than doubled and the number of firearms has
quintupled (5X).
Firearm ownership is at an all-time high and grows by 4.5 million per
year, yet accidental discharges continue to decline.
NRA Membership Recruiter Corner http://membership.nrahq.org/default.asp?campaignid=XR017807 This link above will take you directly to the checkout page at the National Rifle Association to make it easy for you to renew your current membership, give an NRA membership to a friend or family member or join the fight for the first time. Using my link will save you TEN BUCKS ($10.00) on a one year membership. The normal one year membership is $35.00, but it's only $25.00 through my special link above. A 10% discount to the services of LifeLock Identity Protection Services to protect against identity theft has recently been added to membership in the National Rifle Association. SaveTheGuns.com is one of thousands of NRA Membership Recruiters across America. As an NRA Recruiter, I'm officially a subcontractor for the National Rifle Association of America and not an employee. I make a small commission whenever you join, renew or give an NRA Membership as a gift. Please use the link above for all your NRA Membership needs. If your NRA Membership expires within ten weeks, I encourage you to renew your membership early using my convenient link that lands right on the appropriate page at the National Rifle Association. I have written a Web page with more information on membership in the National Rifle Association. It has a list of benefits as well as membership options and prices. For your convenience the above NRA Membership link is there as well. http://www.savetheguns.com/nra_membership.htm P.S. Remember, my link goes directly to the NRA Membership check out page. Using my special link is a lot more convenient than trying to find the page yourself. As of this issue of the Minuteman Monthly Newsletter, I've recruited 534 NRA Members through this link. 345 NRA Members recruited in 2008 alone! WON'T YOU HELP ME INCREASE THIS NUMBER FOR 2009? LET'S SHOOT FOR RECRUITING 500 NRA MEMBERS FOR THIS COMING YEAR. I KNOW WE CAN DO IT! Please use my convenient links for all your NRA membership needs and pass it around to others. http://membership.nrahq.org/default.asp?campaignid=XR017807 Contributions to SaveTheGuns.com Please consider a contribution today. On my Contributions page, I now have easy-to-use links to send me a contribution of $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500 or $1000. There are convenient links for each amount through my Amazon.com Payments page or through your PayPal account. Visit my Contributions page today and consider a donation toward keeping SaveTheGuns.com online and active.
To write me a personal check, it's easy! Write out a personal check made payable to Marc H. Richardson. Sign it and put it into a stamped envelope addressed to: Marc H. Richardson My contributors have kept this informative Web site going for more than eight years. Become a contributor today... please? Active contributors are the only thing keeping www.SaveTheGuns.com online. Thank you very much for your support in 2009! There have been no contributions yet in 2009. E-mail me with suggestions or comments Item of the Month This is the Minuteman Monthly Item of the Month. The item of the month is the Gun Digest Book of Concealed Carry by Massad Ayoob.
The Gun Digest Book Of Concealed Carry The Gun Digest Book of Concealed Carry is a 256 page, 5-Star rated book written by one of the most respected and pre-eminent defensive firearm trainers around, Massad Ayoob. In fact, right before I published this issue of this newsletter, I bought this book from this link myself. The cost of this book is just $16.49. That's a small price to pay for such a book, don't you think? Heller News Here is a link to the NRA's political action arm called the Institute for Legislative Action or NRA-ILA. They have created a special page for District of Columbia v Heller updates. From the following Web page, you can visit a link to hear the oral arguments in the case, read all of the Amicus Curiae Briefs, download the opinion of the court and much more. Download and save the transcript of the oral arguments in the Heller case with the URL below. http://www.supremecourtus.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/07-290.pdf Once the Obama Administration gets its hands on the power to launch gun control efforts, you'll likely hear many pro-gunners pointing at the Heller case. Have your own copy of the Heller case ready and also have your own copy of the Heller Opinion here: http://www.nraila.org/media/PDFs/HellerOpinion.pdf Both the oral arguments and the opinion are in pdf format. Sure, the Heller case wasn't perfect, but it was a whole lot better than losing. President Obama News President Obama is no friend of the right to keep and bear arms. I'm quite frankly shocked that he got so many votes from gun owning citizens, given his terrible background on Second Amendment issues. Oh how I wish that we could get just 10% of America's gun owners in the National Rifle Association to help fight the coming battles...(join now) His Chief of Staff, his pick for United States Attorney General and many others in his cabinet and administration are rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth anti-gun zealots. With the national mainstream news media being so openly and brazenly in his pocket during the 2008 election process, we can expect a barrage of news stories standing behind the advancing tide of gun control. If there isn't any major gun control legislation passed and signed by him before this coming summer 2009 is out, I would be VERY surprised. In fact, I've made a cash bet with an acquaintance of mine that we will see a major gun control bill make it to President Obama's desk in his first year. That's a bet I felt comfortable making. Stay informed and stay united and we will prevail. It would be great to have ten percent (10%) of America's law abiding gun owners in the National Rifle Association, but that means that every current NRA member would have to send one (1) friend here to sign up. Did you get that? If every current NRA member would send one (1), just one person to sign up for membership in the NRA, we could get 10% of all gun owners in the fight. That would be HUGE! Use this link and send it to your gun owning friends and family who are not members. The NRA Needs You Now! If we are to effectively combat gun control laws for the next four years, we need your participation. see www.NRAILA.org/obama for more info on Barack Obama Minuteman Monthly Newsletter Aiming Point Let me begin with a little history of the National Rifle Association that you might not be aware of. The National Rifle Association was incorporated in 1871 in the State of New York. But it's origins started with the Civil War a half dozen years earlier. There were thousands and thousands of men who fought in the Civil War who did not possess the best marksmanship and safety skills. Two men, General George Wingate and Colonel William Church sought to promote and improve upon the firearm handling and marksmanship for their troops. This effort sparked the flame which would become the National Rifle Association years later in 1871. The NRA needed to elect a first president. One of the men they considered for this honor stood above the other candidates. The NRA's first president was General Ambrose Burnside (1824-1881).
General Burnside was a General in the Union Army, inventor, railroad executive and politician from Rhode Island. He also served as both a United States Senator and Governor from Rhode Island. His characteristic style of facial hair later became known as 'burnsides' and at some point the syllables were switched and that is where the term sideburns came from that we still use today to describe his unusual style of facial hair. By 1892 the NRA moved their organization and rifle shooting grounds to New Jersey and by 1903 they were chartering rifle shooting clubs at colleges, military academies and universities throughout the nation. They continued to promote firearm safety and marksmanship, which they declared was for the benefit of the nation. The NRA led the charge for safety and marksmanship into World War II. The NRA lent land to the United States Military for both practice and instruction and led the effort to help arm those citizens in Great Britain who found themselves sorely lacking in firearms to fight off the impending Nazi threat. The purposes and objectives of the National Rifle Association of America are:
Today, the NRA still aspires to promote safety, education, marksmanship and the shooting sports and is the largest and most effective organization in the world to do so. Twenty five million (25,000,000) American citizens consider themselves to be a part of the National Rifle Association and identify with the NRA message, but sadly only a little more than four million (4,000,000) actually have up-to-date and active memberships. Other pro-gun organizations such as Gun Owners of America (GOA), Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership (JPFO) and many others all do terrific work, but in my opinion, they should be considered only after membership in the National Rifle Association. Join, renew or rejoin the NRA now. The NRA has fifteen times (15X) the membership of the Gun Owners of America, which states their memberships are around 300,000. The NRA is without much doubt, the most intimidating, influential and effective single-issue group in the United States and likely the world. With its women's, law enforcement, hunter's, youth, competition and gunsmithing programs and its Institute for Legislative Action and its NRA Foundation, we are far and above the largest and most potent group of its kind. Join, renew or rejoin the NRA now. Before I get into the benefits of NRA Membership, I have something to say. This is a short note to gun owners who refuse to join the NRA for various reasons. I'm not playing role of both an NRA cheerleader and an ostrich sticking its head in the sand. I know the National Rifle Association is not a perfect organization, it never has been perfect. There are many ways in which the NRA could improve. NRA does a terrible job at communication with the general public. Customer service at the NRA has been mediocre at best and sometimes it has been wholly unreliable. After having recruited almost three hundred (300) members this past July, I actually received a phone call from a representative at NRA headquarters asking me to join up. Yes, they asked me to join the NRA, when I was already a Life Member and had recruited more members than the person calling me. Needless to say, I was unhappy and told him so. But with all its faults and shortcomings, the NRA is the biggest, meanest and most effective dog around and it is a dog that I try to feed and care for whenever I can. For the few people who refuse to join the NRA because they somehow see the NRA as a weak organization who compromises on the Second Amendment too much, I have something to say to them as well. There is a pervasive and persistent complaint among many in the pro-gun community that the NRA is a wishy-washy compromising organization who seeks a middle-ground at all costs. This is simply not true and messages like this come mostly from other pro-gun organizations who seem to attack the NRA just as often as the anti-gun organizations. Oh yes, I know, what immediately comes to mind is the NRA's backing of the NICS Improvement Act last year, signed by President Bush. Gun Owners of America dubbed this law the "Veteran's Disarmament Act". In the beginning, H.R. 2640 was an unacceptable piece of trash legislation. GOA called the NICS Improvement Act names, while the NRA went to work to make H.R. 2640 a win for gun owners. Here is Stephen P. Halbrook Ph.D. and his comments on this bill worked so hard on by the NRA.. Dr. Halbrook is the author of The Founders' Second Amendment which is one of the best books ever written on the topic.
Here is the truth about this bill, which is now law. Also see this link for the truth about this important improvement to the National Instant Check System. There are many Second Amendment absolutists out there who stand completely against ANY firearm regulations whatsoever. They are certainly welcome to fight alongside us. But the truth in modern-day America is that drastic social changes, the destruction of the traditional American family, massive narcotics use, absentee fathers, a total dismissal of the Ten Commandments found in Exodus 20 of the Bible and the like, warrant limiting firearm ownership to mentally stable citizens who can control themselves in a public place. Not prohibiting a mentally unstable felon from lawfully purchasing a firearm at retail, is foolishness at best. The National Rifle Association is committed to preserving and protecting the rights of all law abiding Americans with regards to the right to keep and bear arms. Murderers, rapists, burglars, narcotics dealers and the mentally defective, should not have free and unencumbered access to firearms at retail. This fact, I will stand behind. The National Rifle Association only gets involved with a bill and tries to improve the bill, when it appears there is enough votes to pass it and it can be re-worked and rewritten to become a win for law abiding gun owners. I have never been an absolutist concerning the Second Amendment's right to keep and bear arms. The Founding Fathers never intended for there to be absolutely no room to prohibit violent felonious thugs and the mentally ill from maintaining possession of firearms. That is part of the reason for the Fifth Amendment, where it says "...nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;..." The due process clause of the Fifth Amendment clearly made room for government to remove certain liberties from specific citizens, through due process. The Fourteenth Amendment also states "...nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ..." The term "due process" dates all the way back to the Magna Carta in 1215 A.D. in chapter 39. In short, the Second Amendment does not forbid the government from removing the right of felons and the mentally ill from owning and using firearms. NRA MEMBERSHIP LEVELS, COSTS AND BENEFITS. Millions and millions of shooters who identify with the NRA message are not aware of the fact that there are many, many different types of memberships available. Millions of current NRA members are not aware of the discounts and benefits that are available through many retailers and service organizations throughout the country and therefore don't take advantage of them.
Join, renew or rejoin the NRA now. PARTIAL LIST OF BENEFITS TO MEMBERSHIP
For help in choosing an NRA magazine, please see my 'NRA Membership' page. JOIN THE NRA AND FORWARD THIS ON TO YOUR NON-NRA FRIENDS AND FAMILY. http://membership.nrahq.org/default.asp?campaignid=XR017807 Help me recruit five hundred (500) NRA members in 2009! We can do it! Closing Comments Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read the Minuteman Monthly Newsletter. I encourage you to pass it on. You may use this newsletter as you see fit. You may post it, blog it, print it, forward it and publish it. The only thing I ask is that somewhere in your material, make sure the URL www.SaveTheGuns.com appears prominently. Thanks,
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