Dragonfighter wrote:Charles L. Cotton wrote:<SNIP>
I cannot go into detail now, but we need a much larger response to the membership drive for the Texas Firearms Coalition to support an effort to prevent this problem in 2015. We can't wait until the next legislative session, the next election, or even the end of this session. Join TFC now!
Chas.
Done. I apologize that the donation couldn't be larger.
Any donations are appreciated, but please don't let this be a barrier to joining TFC. Seriously folks, membership is free for a reason; we need to be huge to have the impact we need in Austin and perhaps even on the federal level in terms of Texans sent to Washington. So don't let anyone decide not to join because they can't make a donation.
I'll be very candid; with over 12,000 Members here on the Forum alone, we've only had 185 people join TFC. I truly appreciate those who have joined and who are willing to answer calls-to-action, but if this is indicative of the level of complacency among gun owners in Texas, then I am not optimistic we will become the political power base I had hoped. We will have 700,000 Texas CHL's soon, we sell over 1 million hunting licenses in Texas, and we have many thousands of competitive shooters in addition to countless millions of casual shooters or "plinkers." Every single one of these people need to get involved! If we lose the battle to save the Second Amendment and to further gun rights here in Texas, it won't be because of our opposition; it will be because gun owners simply didn't get involved. They will have waited for the other guy to grab the fire bucket and put out the fire. The house is burning folks and we need everyone's help!
In spite of all of this, TSRA has, and has traditionally had, around 40,000 members and over half of them have been life members for decades. In spite of what we face, TSRA isn't growing. That may be in part because TSRA does much more than the political work that Alice Tripp does. This must be done in order to be the state affiliate of the NRA. State affiliates must sponsor matches and state championships, promote hunting and youth programs. All of those activities are necessary to encourage people to become active gun owners. In fact, the legislative work is a small part of TSRA's overall operation. (That's the primary reason I started the Texas Firearms Coalition.)
The NRA is growing dramatically, more than ever before in our history, but in spite of the threats we face, we're still only around 5 million strong. The NRA should already be at 10 million to 20 million and growing.
Some may ask "
why is it so important to have membership numbers so much larger when we've been so successful in the past?" Sadly, the answer to that question began with the slaughter of 20 precious, innocent 6 year old children at Sandy Hook Elementary School. This was a watershed moment for anti-freedom, anti-gunners who were already poised to launch the attack on the Second Amendment we are currently seeing. As I noted in my article
The Great Cultural War Against American Freedom, this was already planned for many months prior to the massacre, but Sandy Hook gave them not one but 20 poster children. This was a sea-change moment folks and too many people think "this too will pass." This threat won't pass, it must be defeated and only huge membership in our organizations will make victory possible. We can never match the unlimited funding of the Obama-Bloomberg Coalition that currently exceeds $1 billion. Every day we see more anti-gun propaganda. Ch. 11 News (Houston) showed a new anti-gun clip filmed by a collection of former Dallas Cowboys clambering for gun control. This TV spot was paid for my Bloomber's MAIG liars. This anti-gun movement is larger, stronger, more well-funded than anything we've ever faced and it isn't going to die on it's own. Unless we kill it with membership numbers that terrify those in Washington and, at some point in the no-so-distant future, Austin, we will lose this battle.
Wringing our hands and proclaiming "they'll never take my guns" isn't going to win this battle folks. Everyone needs to get involved and that means gather under two banners -- the NRA (for federal and Texas issues) and TFC (for Texas).
Chas.
