California Members' Councils Send
Strong Message to Sacramento
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"...While a handful of anti-gun
activists were demonstrating in front of an empty state capitol
building, the California NRA Members' Councils were saving lives..." |
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Like all states with active gun-prohibitionist elements,
California volunteers have organized in many ways to
defend their rights. Nearly 11 years ago,
NRA members across the Golden State formed nearly 50
NRA Members' Councils,
meeting regularly in support of the goals of the NRA Sacramento
office.
Ed Worley
State Liaison |
Most recently, the California Members' Councils, or MCs, implemented a multi-faceted
pro-active plan to assist NRA's Sacramento Lobbyist Ed Worley minimize
the effects of organized anti-gun efforts staged around "Mothers
Day." The Virtual Rally* concept, developed by
Paul Payne, NRA Liaison to the EVP, in conjunction with
Ed Worley, was announced to the MC officers several months before the target date, May 14th,
the Monday after Mothers' Day. Of course, the planners couldn't have known at the time, but
that week would become a critical one in the fight against an onerous registration and licensing bill.
More on that later.
Every aspect of the Virtual Rally* was a challenge, particularly for
widely-distributed volunteer resources with no source of funding,
but to put it succinctly, the Virtual Rally* yielded
amazing success!
Phase 1 of the plan was assigned to a small team of MC
"techno-crats", resulting in the creation of a simple and
effective legislator contact web page at:
http://NRAMembersCouncils.com/legs.shtml
(NRAWinningTeam.com also provided support to this project during this phase.)
The team created a web resource that permits a single email to be
addressed to all electronically-accessible members of the state
CA MC Legislator Contact page |
Assembly, Senate and key committee bodies. Additionally, the
page provides email-clickable names for the legislators
paired with a multitude of capitol and district phone and FAX
numbers.
Since announced to the public on May 1st via the MC network and USENET, this page quietly
generated over 11,000 emails, addressed from individuals, to the
CA state legislature on or before Mother's Day, and an additional 8,000 emails on May 14th alone! Add to this the unknown
thousands of phone calls produced by the phone and FAX
information provided, and it becomes clear this is an important
tool in our fight to restore our rights in California.
The page was available in time to become widely known, as
evidenced by a link from Ted Nugent's "United Sportsmen of
America" website (see ALL California Assemblymen and Senators
at http://www.tnusacalifornia.org/electedofficials.htm), among
other places.
Phase 2 made use of the NRA-Certified
Instructors that the MCs
are fortunate to include in it's membership, and implemented a
coordinated schedule of free Firearms Safety Training events
across the state on May 12th & 13th. While a handful of anti-gun
activists were demonstrating in front of an empty capitol
building, the California NRA Members' Councils were saving lives
by teaching firearms safety to the public.
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It took days for the MC volunteers
to sort 32,000 letters by legislator |
Phase 3 executed concurrently with the other activities and brought
in the Members' Councils general membership, requesting letters
in a clever way, designed to create a higher than normal level of
interest when received at the Capitol. The result was
more than 32,000 handwritten letters addressed to individual
legislators, which were delivered at one time by well-dressed
Members' Council volunteers. (Ed. Note: One year, our opponents managed to
deliver 4,000 postcards and touted that as a major achievment.)
Phase 4 included Virtual Rally* events urging
legislator contact via the web page.
Specific events were announced by Payne in electronic broadcasts
over
the MC's state-wide email system on 4/17, 5/8, 5/10 and 5/12. The
April message was a "trial run" on a day that anti-gun
forces converged upon the capitol to urge the passage of AB35, an
onerous licensing/registration bill. AB35 has since been stalled
in committee several times, indicating the Virtual Rally*
concept may have great viability.
Phase 5 was the concentration of all these efforts into maximum
effect on the target day - Monday, May 14th. Coincidentally, this week would coincide with
the appearance of SB 52, an onerous
licensing and registration bill, before the
Assembly Appropriations Committee. SB 52 has since been placed in the "suspense file", an indication that the bill
will most likely die in committee!
Responses from pro-gun legislators have specifically
mentioned the tremendous volume of pro-freedom input, making it easier for them to advance
our common goals. This volunteer effort has also been noted in at least one
major column - see Tanya
Metaksa's May 16th article,
The End of the Million Moms at
FrontPageMag.com.
Hats off to the California Members' Councils!
This plan was designed, implemented and executed without the need for NRA
resources. At the same time,
Ed Worley and
Paul Payne were kept completely informed at every stage to insure it was in 100%
compliance with, and in support of NRA goals and policies.
NRAWinningTeam.com believes that the continued
organized support of the California Members' Councils is a vital
tool to help NRA restore the rights of law-abiding citizens in the beleaguered
state of California.
* "Virtual Rally" and "Cyber Rally" Copyright ©2001 Bruce Johnson and Associates
Related Stories...
More California Info/Alerts
CA MC Legislator Contact Page
CALIFORNIANS: Join the CA NRA Members' Councils! (It's free!)
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