Administration policies prompt some gun owners to recoil

[EstimatedProphet]

PITTSBURGH (AP) — With an election hanging in the balance, Angel Shamaya and members of his organization initiated a campaign in 2000 to make sure the votes of military personnel were counted with hopes of getting George W. Bush in office.

Shamaya, the executive director of KeepAndBearArms.com, said he will not be voting to re-elect the president this year and that the organization he founded, which he said has thousands of members, may endorse a third-party candidate.

"The Bill of Rights is on fire," he said.

While gun-rights advocates played a pivotal role in the election four years ago, a number of issues ranging from an assault weapons ban to the Patriot Act have some gun owners feeling ambivalent — or, like Shamaya, downright hostile to the administration.


More:
http://pennlive.com/newsflash/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-15/1081980546234180.xml

[rpannier]

1. As Churchill said...

when asked how he could say such positive and glowing things about Stalin, "If Germany went to war against Hell, I'd put in a good word for Satan." I'll take any-all people who want to vote against the shrubbie.

[EstimatedProphet]

2. I personally find this heartening

It's showing the Right Wing lockstep domination of gun owners is ending. For too long there has been too many people that have felt gun owners HAVE to vote Republican, otherwise they're traitors. I hope that changes.

[dae]

3. I am a gun owner, I've never voted Republican for that reason and have

not voted GOP since 1980.
Even then I was voting against Carter because of his Agriculture Embargo, I was farming and lost about $70K in one year because of it. Reagan promised to lift the embargo as soon as he took office. His definition of "soon" wasn't the same as mine because it took about two years to lift the embargo. By that time the US had become a residual supplier of farm commodities to many of our former customers.

[Wickerman]

4. Its encouraging until you realize what a nut Shamaya is

http://keepandbeararms.com/

go to his site and look at the poll on the left hand side - 42% of his crowd seems to think force is the only way citizens will keep their freedoms:


Do you believe it is possible to restore the right of the people to keep and bear arms through civil, peaceful means?
Definitely. That's why I work to help make it happen. 15.3% 95 votes
Yes, we could do it if we could create enough public pressure. 20.2% 125 votes
Anything is possible. But it doesn't seem very likely anymore. 16.6% 103 votes
Unfortunately, I doubt it. 6.5% 40 votes
Nope. As Thomas Jefferson said, "No tyrannical government has ever been made to stop but by force." 41.5% 257 votes

[EstimatedProphet]

5. I would call this a sign of desperation

I don't think (although of course I can't be sure) that these people WANT an altercation, they're just afraid that one is coming and they can't do anything about it. There's people that post here that feel the same way. People are depressed and anxious.

[Wickerman]

6. People are depressed and anxious

and, I think that people like this gentleman play on their paranoia. I agree that people don't WANT an altercation, but perspective needs to be gained. Until both sides tone down the rhetoric nothing will be accomplished. Suggestions of violent overthrow of the govt are not, in my view, helpful to the discourse or to finding solutions.

[EstimatedProphet]

7. OK

I'll grant you that.