I'm trying to make a get together to create somekind of non profit org for the open carry movement in Alabama.
Let me be clear from the outset, I don't care who's on first, who's pitchin' or who's hawking hot dogs. Apart from creating a working organization that allows us to get a lobbist into the legislature, and HB 582 passed, I DON'T CARE! I don't care who said 'You're momma wears Army boots" and I don't care if worse was said. I was not part of it and don't want to be part of it in any way. Whatever happened needs to be settled amoung those who were participants, leaving the reat of us out of it, and leaving the issue of open carry in Alabama out of it. They are two different and seperate things, and for the success of OC in Alabama (meaning any peaceable person in the state can freely OC without fear of being harrassed, detained or worse for doing so) I ask you guys to handle those things through PM's, snail mail, phone calls or whatever else, but leave the larger issue of OC in Alabama out of it. As well, please continue your support of OC in Alabama.
That said, I'd like to see something happen on Labor Day weekend. I'm no rocket scientist. I'm a fairly good writer, and have some experience working in non profits, but have zero experience creating one. What I can do is look for a place to have a get together and work up a guideline for discussion, and hammer away at having a meeting to do it. Again, I don't care who gets credit or what it takes, but I'd like to see something concrete done before time passes us by.
We have at present, a bill in the legislature which would nueter the ill written and antiquated firearms laws presently on the books in Alabama that are open to bad interpretation. We all know those laws and we all know how they are misused by LEO/LEA to enforce what they may want the law to be, rather than what it is. That we wrote this over the last year and it got to the Judiciary Committee, this year, is nothing short of astounding. But if we flounder now and fail to follow up on seeing this through, the chance to make it happen again in may not come again.
In the end I am for whatever it takes to make passage of HB 582 reality. In that context, I think that through a nonprofit, we could organize a day for folk interested to gather and go to Montgomery and visit the lawmakers personally to urge the passage of this. It's important. It's very important. And it is urgent. If the lawmakers who brought this to the legislature, and those who would be against it, see nothing but us fall against each other, then what motivation do they have to support it, and surely how much more motivated against it could they become?
In some way's I think that putting this off untill September is too long. I feel that we should really be ready to have a lobbyist ready and available the day the legislature returns to session. I just don't know what all creating a nonprofit to do this through will take. I don't even know what it will take to get a lobbyist. But I don't want to see a bunch of talk take it's usual course and become just a bunch of talk. If we are serious about changing the laws and making OC a normal part of daily life in Alabama, then we must play the game that is set up already and we must have some representation in the halls of the legislature. It's how it works, it's the game. And we either play or we will be discounted.
As I see it we are faced with either being a has been minor league wanna bee's club who talk big on chat boards, or we are going to step up to the plate and become major league players with the clout to actually get something done. So what say ye, does first of September work? What do we need to take the next step and become something other than a bunch of guys on a chat board? I know others have been thinking of this, how it is done, what it will take to create it, and what it can do for us.
I guess ultimately I'm asking people to make a choice. I'm asking that people choose to be part of the solution. I'm asking that we create a nonprofit that allows us to join in one voice, consolidates our power, consolidates our resources to the end of making OC in Alabama as normal a part of a citizens choice in self defense as a shotgun behind the front door; and one that would be no more challenged by the law enforcement officers and agencies of our state.
Let me be clear from the outset, I don't care who's on first, who's pitchin' or who's hawking hot dogs. Apart from creating a working organization that allows us to get a lobbist into the legislature, and HB 582 passed, I DON'T CARE! I don't care who said 'You're momma wears Army boots" and I don't care if worse was said. I was not part of it and don't want to be part of it in any way. Whatever happened needs to be settled amoung those who were participants, leaving the reat of us out of it, and leaving the issue of open carry in Alabama out of it. They are two different and seperate things, and for the success of OC in Alabama (meaning any peaceable person in the state can freely OC without fear of being harrassed, detained or worse for doing so) I ask you guys to handle those things through PM's, snail mail, phone calls or whatever else, but leave the larger issue of OC in Alabama out of it. As well, please continue your support of OC in Alabama.
That said, I'd like to see something happen on Labor Day weekend. I'm no rocket scientist. I'm a fairly good writer, and have some experience working in non profits, but have zero experience creating one. What I can do is look for a place to have a get together and work up a guideline for discussion, and hammer away at having a meeting to do it. Again, I don't care who gets credit or what it takes, but I'd like to see something concrete done before time passes us by.
We have at present, a bill in the legislature which would nueter the ill written and antiquated firearms laws presently on the books in Alabama that are open to bad interpretation. We all know those laws and we all know how they are misused by LEO/LEA to enforce what they may want the law to be, rather than what it is. That we wrote this over the last year and it got to the Judiciary Committee, this year, is nothing short of astounding. But if we flounder now and fail to follow up on seeing this through, the chance to make it happen again in may not come again.
In the end I am for whatever it takes to make passage of HB 582 reality. In that context, I think that through a nonprofit, we could organize a day for folk interested to gather and go to Montgomery and visit the lawmakers personally to urge the passage of this. It's important. It's very important. And it is urgent. If the lawmakers who brought this to the legislature, and those who would be against it, see nothing but us fall against each other, then what motivation do they have to support it, and surely how much more motivated against it could they become?
In some way's I think that putting this off untill September is too long. I feel that we should really be ready to have a lobbyist ready and available the day the legislature returns to session. I just don't know what all creating a nonprofit to do this through will take. I don't even know what it will take to get a lobbyist. But I don't want to see a bunch of talk take it's usual course and become just a bunch of talk. If we are serious about changing the laws and making OC a normal part of daily life in Alabama, then we must play the game that is set up already and we must have some representation in the halls of the legislature. It's how it works, it's the game. And we either play or we will be discounted.
As I see it we are faced with either being a has been minor league wanna bee's club who talk big on chat boards, or we are going to step up to the plate and become major league players with the clout to actually get something done. So what say ye, does first of September work? What do we need to take the next step and become something other than a bunch of guys on a chat board? I know others have been thinking of this, how it is done, what it will take to create it, and what it can do for us.
I guess ultimately I'm asking people to make a choice. I'm asking that people choose to be part of the solution. I'm asking that we create a nonprofit that allows us to join in one voice, consolidates our power, consolidates our resources to the end of making OC in Alabama as normal a part of a citizens choice in self defense as a shotgun behind the front door; and one that would be no more challenged by the law enforcement officers and agencies of our state.