Here's my second offering in Examiner.com's New Year's resolution special project:
I will know who my political representatives are at the federal, state and local levels, I will know how to contact them, and I will do so when appropriate.
I'll get you started:
Here, I'll help you along further:
You should be able to find the rest of the people who represent you in very little time using any search engine. You do know what legislative districts you belong to, don't you? If you don't, finding out is part of the resolution.
The most common objection I hear?
It won't do any good since my rep is an anti, and there's no way to vote them out where I live.
Then send them a message of defiance.
Comments
Off-topic comments deleted. If you have a topic you'd like to see discussed, email me dcodreaAThotmailDOTcom.
Here's an even easier way:
gunowners.org (slash) activism.htm
Just provide your ZIP code and THEY will list your correct Senators, Representatives, and state legislators, along with email links for each.
Furthermore, when a gun issue comes up, they usually have a topic link available for that very issue, one that will send a pro-gun e-mail to the appropriate subset of your lawmakers (e.g., if the issue is coming up in the Senate, the mail goes only to your senators). They even provide a boilerplate letter, which you can edit or add to if you choose. Nobody could make it any easier than GOA does (like three clicks!) so you have no excuse for not bombarding your legislators.
And as someone who has a reliably pro-gun state legislator, let me add that the real wasted letters are the ones to politicians who you already KNOW are going to vote your way. (So I send thank-you-in-advance letters instead.)
You folks who are represented by antis are the ones who need to send the mails, e-mails, and phone calls, and MAKE THEIR LIFE HELL. Never let a day go by without forcing them to remember that you and people like you are out there.... or, more to the point, in their districts.
This is a good New Year’s resolution David.
Since I’m an inmate of Illinois my 2 US senators are Durbin and Burris so working with them on 2A issues is a NO win but I enjoy sending them emails on the subject.
My US representative is Tim Johnson and well, he has lied to me before and he’s weak on the 2A
My state people are different my State senator is so, so on the 2A. He supports reasonable gun control like disqualifiers and refuses to support a repeal of the FOID card.
My state rep however is a lot different I just had a hand in helping draft legislation to address a problem in Illinois.
It does work contacting your reps especially state reps.
I found that you need to keep it simple and give documented facts. Don’t go into info overload
Find the people you can work with and hang in there. Some times getting in good with an aid is better than the rep.
Just a quick hint, but maybe an important one. Politicians have staffers who are trained, among other things, to go through the mail/email stack and filter out the obvious form letters. So, to be more effective, and maybe actually have your letter make it past the staff filter, read the "form letter" prepared by your organization of choice and re-word it a bit before sending it. One of the best skills to master is the 60-second letter. Practice getting the essentials of your point down on one page in no more than a minute. That makes it more likely that your letter will be read, and more likely that you will take/find the time to write it in the first place.
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