Mike, first, welcome to the board. You don't know me, and perhaps this answer will not sufficiently satisfy your question, but here is how I respond to it.....M2K wrote:I've read your earlier posts and most everything on this board for the last few years. It is one of the better boards on the internet consisting of a very intelligent membership. I’m usually not a “joiner” but I joined this board because I just couldn't stand the implied arrogance and elitism of this bill and the Kleinschmidt amendment.Charles L. Cotton wrote:Our newly joined members who have focused on this thread and bill need to look at my earlier post. I'm not saying SB905 is a good bill; I'm asking people to support the Kleinschmidt amendment to SB905. As many have said, there is a reason for this but I can't say at this time.
Chas.
Why should I accept your hidden reason at face value?
Mike
Based on his resumé:
If we had to assign credit for having CHL in Texas today in the first place to the efforts of one person above all others, that person would be Charles Cotton. Charles has steadfastly stood—in every instance—for the steady (and intelligently applied) advancement of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Because of his national stature as a member of the NRA board, and because of his previous experience as the Executive Director of the TSRA, and because of his ongoing stature as an experienced lobbyist in the halls of the state Legislature, and because of his being an attorney who actually wrote large swaths of the currently existing law, Charles has more than earned both my respect, and my trust as a champion of my rights.
Charles has consistently sought to advance gun rights in various areas while wisely not trampling on gains already made on behalf of gun rights in other areas. He is able to do this because of the depth and breadth of his experience in legislative matters. This is not something which can be said about bomb-throwers (folks like the most vituperative of the Open Carry crowd), nor is it even something that can be said about the rest of the RKBA activist community who lack his experience.
Pretty much every single member of this board, you included, currently enjoys greater expression of the RKBA than was allowed prior to 1992, directly because of the efforts of Charles Cotton. We all owe him a debt of gratitude, and on that basis alone, you should accept his word at face value. If Charles says there is a good reason for not publicly revealing the tactics behind why you should support the Kleinschmidt amendment to SB905, then you are certainly free to decline, but the odds are that you would be cutting off your nose to spite your face. Personally, I don't think that Charles needs to prove why he can't discuss it. He has never misled the larger constituency of gun owners. There is no good reason to believe that he would start doing so now.
Based on his personal integrity:
I wish I knew Charles well enough to call him a close friend. I don't. Perhaps over time I will have that privilege. However, I have met him personally and spoken with him on several occasions, I've had a number of conversations on the phone with him, and I have done work for him on a website. He is a 100% straight shooter. If he said something was going to happen, it happened. He didn't argue about my fees, and I got paid in a timely manner. I have also attended a couple of his seminars on the use of deadly force in self-defense in Texas. As a lawyer, and as the guy who wrote most of the CHL law, it was an eye-opening perspective. I seriously doubt there are many other people with his understanding of it, and, he is more than willing to share that understanding with as many people as he can...... .....for FREE. He's not in it for the advancement of his own career, or for money, or some other hidden agenda. He's in it strictly because he believes the RKBA is a sacred thing, and he feels personally called to advance it.
I hope these two reasons are good enough for you to accept what Charles has said at face value, and to trust him.
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