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With all the talk going around about bans on certain types of weapons, magazines, or features on weapons, now is the time for each and every one of us to take the opportunity to send e-mails to our elected representatives in Washington and let them know how we feel.

Sending an e-mail to your elected official is easy and only takes a few minutes..... but those could be a very important few minutes for the future of our gun rights. We have to speak in an overwhelming majority so that our message is heard loud and clear.

DO NOT make the mistake of putting this off..... the first piece or legislation to prohibit the sale of magazines holding more than 10 rounds is scheduled to be introduced on January 3rd, the first day of the next session of Congress.

Here are links to find your Senators and Congressman, within the links are e-mail forms:

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: http://house.gov/htbin/findrep" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

SENATE: http://www.senate.gov/general/contac...nators_cfm.cfm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://nraila.org/get-involved-local...your-reps.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is what I sent the two Senators from Texas and the Congressman that represents Abilene, I just changed the name and title to each one:

Dear Senator Hutchison,

I am writing to you, as my Representative in the United Stated Senate, to urge you to consider voting against any upcoming weapons ban legislation.

As an Army Veteran who served in the Vietnam war, and as a Police Officer who has served on the streets, my experiences in life have formed my thoughts and beliefs... and I have seen both the good and the bad that our society offers. I firmly believe that law abiding citizens should have the means and ability to protect themselves from the element in our society that ignores current (or future) laws and chooses the criminal lifestyle.

A recent survey indicated that 74% of the American public feels as I do, that additional legislation or restrictions on lawful gun owners violates the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Now is not the time for 'knee jerk' or emotional reactions to recent events, but instead to let rational thought prevail.

Again, please note that as one of your constituents, I am respectfully asking you not to consider any additional gun related legislation or 'bans.

DaveT
Abilene, Tx

My letter sent this morning to the two senators:

Dear Senator ________,

I am gravely concerned about new anti-gun legislation about to be introduced next week in Congress, the first of which I believe is a bill to limit magazine capacity in firearms to 10 rounds.

The 2nd Amendment does NOT exist to preserve a right to hunt, or a right to self-defense. The rights to hunt and to protect oneself exist independently of the right to keep and bear arms. NO, the right to keep and bear arms exists for the sole purpose of preserving the individually armed citizenry's ability to resist tyranny, and to engage in revolution if necessary. It was written into the Bill of Rights by men who had themselves experienced these very things, and who understood the need to keep tyranny at bay.

I cast my first vote as a republican in 1996. I had previously been a democrat since 1970. I left the democrat party when it abandoned any support for the 2nd Amendment that it might have retained until then. I will abandon the republican party if ANY republicans vote for one single more restriction on my right to keep and bear arms. This means that the onus is not merely on you, Senator, to stand steadfast in preservation of the 2nd Amendment without further infringements; it means that you must do everything in your power to persuade ALL republicans to stand firm in support of my right to keep and bear arms.

Senator Diane Feinstein, with her proposed abomination of an unconstitutional bill, has made this very personal for me. Any republican who does not vote 100% against every part of her bill is someone whom I will consider to be a traitor to the party, a traitor to conservatism, a traitor to individual liberty, and a traitor to the United States of America.

If even part of her bill is passed in Congress, it WILL be signed into law by Obama, and when that happens, the republican party will have lost me forever, just as the democrats did in 1996. Republicans in Congress MUST know that they are on the cusp of the party's dissolution as a viable political entity in this country if they do not derail Feinstein's fascist agenda, as I am FAR from being the only person who feels this way.

Please let me know that you will do everything in your power to make sure not only that YOU vote against all of it, but that you will do all in your power to persuade your colleagues in the Senate to do so as well, including any possibly remaining democrats in the Senate who still revere the Constitution.....if there are any left.

Sincerely,

The Annoyed Man
Grapevine, Texas

I also wrote a similarly worded letter to my Representative, Kenny Marchant (R).

I just used the NRA-ILA form to draft and send a message to all of my representation, State and Federal. While not as eloquent as TAM. I had to curb my loquacity and temper as I do not wish to bore or inflame, but hope to inspire a thoughtful response. I submitted the following:

"Dear Sirs and Madam,

I am writing to respectfully request your calm, thoughtful, researched consideration to the tragedy that occurred in Connecticut. The Constitution of the United States of America, set by our forefathers in founding the great USA was created to avoid big government and let our country be "of the people.". In doing so they recognized the need for the people to be self-reliant and a portion of that is being responsible for their own safety. The second amendment provides for this.

The reactive recommendations I have seen thus far are seemingly uniformed and "feel good". There are plenty of good laws regarding firearms on the books, but they are not being enforced. Adding to these will only restrict the law abiding citizens and take away tools they have for defending themselves and their families. The lawbreakers that are committing these heinous acts will not be affected as they will not regard new laws any more than they do the ones in existence.
The problem is not the firearms, but the people doing bad things with them. Most of the firearms related horrors have been committed by people with a self-destructive agenda. In addition they have been done in places that are considered "gun free". They knew going in they would have no resistance to speak of for quite some time. In most instances as soon as equal or greater resistance arrived they either killed themselves or surrendered.

Another issue is the misnomer of "assault weapon". The commonly available "military style" rifles are in common hunting calibers or less powerful calibers than most hunters use. They are not fully automatic, nor select fire - allowing them to be automatic or semiautomatic. Many "standard" hunting rifles are semiautomatic just as the "Evil Black Rifles" are. The media has demonized a specific style of rifle without full knowledge of function over form.

Having done my research as a concerned, responsible firearms owner, parent, spouse and public school employee, I feel the current laws to be too restrictive. Had these laws not been in place, the evil-doers might have been met with resistance sooner, lessening or preventing their negative impact. Eliminating the gun free zones might cause those intent on doing harm to reconsider. They are not stupid people, just clouded in their moral compass. Unfortunately there is evil in this world and always will be. Limiting a person’s ability to defend against this evil is just aiding evil to succeed.

Please do your complete research before acting on this important matter. I appreciate your time and consideration.

God Bless America!

Sincerely and respectfully,"

I hope everyone will take a moment to let your voice be heard. If you are worried about being on a list... hate to tell you this, but you are too late

God Bless!

I sent emails, but Sen Hutchinson's site notes she's gone as of this week. Has she left Texas without representation until January 20th?
Maybe I'm confused...

Diesel42 wrote:I sent emails, but Sen Hutchinson's site notes she's gone as of this week. Has she left Texas without representation until January 20th?
Maybe I'm confused...

The new Congress convenes, new members are sworn in January 2, I believe.

Leaving Texas unrepresented is no big deal. No votes will be taken before then, except perhaps the House is convening to consider whatever "deal" there may be to avoid the so-called cliff.

Send in The clowns!

Thank you sir!
Nick

JALLEN wrote: The new Congress convenes, new members are sworn in January 2, I believe.

Leaving Texas unrepresented is no big deal. No votes will be taken before then, except perhaps the House is convening to consider whatever "deal" there may be to avoid the so-called cliff.

Send in The clowns!

Both Kevin Brady and John Cornyn got a letter from me. Since Kay Bailey has retired no need to send her one.

Done

Yep, already did so a few days ago, including Governor Perry. And I contacted Joe Manchin, D, WV, just to remind him he's from WEST VIRGINIA, not NYC, Chicago, or LA.

Hopefully more folks will be contacting their Senators and Representatives in the coming days.

I sent a short and sweet letter to Cornyn and Sessions, told them they'd violate the Constitution and their oath of office if they voted for any further restrictions on our rights protected by the second amendment.

Your right to own firearms offends the anti-gun crowd!! Ya'lls push for that right may inadvertently restrict your rights even farther. The best thing to do is be silent, be happy with what they give you and wait till public opinion is more in our favor!!
YES, THIS IS SARCASM! We do have NRA A-rated folks Joe Biden, Mark Warner and Rob Portman on our side so we shouldn't have anything to worry about.

Flame away!

Similar emails sent to both Texas Senators and my House Representative - mine went out last week.
Got the obligatory auto-responses, but at least I know they got there.

I kept mine short; but to the point. I figure the Senators and House Rep have short attention spans so got my point across quickly.
I did keep in courteous but firm.

LabRat

Read this on another forum. Point is to keep your message short and send/call often.

I have been looking at all example letters that are being emailed to Congress members and I just want to offer some information I gained will working in Washington during the summer of 2010.

The debt ceiling battle was going down during the 10 weeks I was working on the hill. I wasn't in an Congress members office but my job was to work with interns who were and so I basically talked to them all day. There were a ton of people contacting their representatives all summer, especially after Obama did a press conference asking people to do so. There are just too many letters, emails, and phone calls coming in all day every day for them to even begin to read them all.

The interns job was to fill out a form that looked like a big sticky pad. On it were a bunch of boxes they would check which was meant to make organization and counting later much easier. They read the email or letter very quickly to get where the person stands on the issue. They mark it down for or against and put it into a pile. All forms of contact were counted equally and they were all recorded the same way.

So when contacting your representatives, multiple contacts matter. Make the intern reading the email understand where you stand on the issue very concisely so they can move onto the next one.

I usually do this:

Subject: Protect the 2nd Amendment

Body: I am a Republican. Do not support any new gun laws. I will donate money to your primary opponent if you do.

You can add in filler to make it flow better but that is all they need to know. Quantity over length is best. Call multiple times. Email multiple times. Contact members who do not represent you if you like.

For what is worth, I contacted Sen. Hutchison via her website... this is her response, which is pretty much a form response and not specific to current events (i.e. Sandy Hook, Feinstein Bill).

Dear Friend:
Thank you for contacting me regarding gun control legislation. I welcome your thoughts and comments on this issue.
While we all support the strongest measures to ensure that guns do not end up in the wrong hands, I believe that one of the most powerful deterrents we have is the consistent, full enforcement of the numerous laws that already address many aspects of the problem. For instance, there are more than a dozen laws at the state and federal level that deal with the use, carrying, ownership, or trafficking of guns, and we must prosecute without qualification those who violate these laws.
Rather than usurping the rights of law-abiding citizens, I believe we should vigorously prosecute those who use guns to commit crimes. I have worked to enact federal anti-crime legislation that imposes tough minimum sentences on those convicted of using firearms to commit crimes, prevents early parole for violent criminals, and provides federal funds to build new prisons and fund local law enforcement. I will continue to support legislation that fights crime and upholds our Second Amendment rights.
On June 26, 2008, the Supreme Court upheld the individual right to keep and bear arms in District of Columbia v. Heller. I submitted an amicus brief to the Court in support of affirming the District of Columbia's gun ban as unconstitutional, and was joined by 55 Senators, 250 House members, and the Vice President of the United States. This historic decision will affect gun laws throughout the country that try to unjustly undermine our rights under the Second Amendment.

I appreciate hearing from you, and I hope that you will not hesitate to keep in touch on any issue of concern to you.

Sincerely,
Kay Bailey Hutchison
United States Senator

77346 wrote:For what is worth, I contacted Sen. Hutchison via her website... this is her response, which is pretty much a form response and not specific to current events (i.e. Sandy Hook, Feinstein Bill).

Dear Friend:
Thank you for contacting me regarding gun control legislation. I welcome your thoughts and comments on this issue.
While we all support the strongest measures to ensure that guns do not end up in the wrong hands, I believe that one of the most powerful deterrents we have is the consistent, full enforcement of the numerous laws that already address many aspects of the problem. For instance, there are more than a dozen laws at the state and federal level that deal with the use, carrying, ownership, or trafficking of guns, and we must prosecute without qualification those who violate these laws.
Rather than usurping the rights of law-abiding citizens, I believe we should vigorously prosecute those who use guns to commit crimes. I have worked to enact federal anti-crime legislation that imposes tough minimum sentences on those convicted of using firearms to commit crimes, prevents early parole for violent criminals, and provides federal funds to build new prisons and fund local law enforcement. I will continue to support legislation that fights crime and upholds our Second Amendment rights.
On June 26, 2008, the Supreme Court upheld the individual right to keep and bear arms in District of Columbia v. Heller. I submitted an amicus brief to the Court in support of affirming the District of Columbia's gun ban as unconstitutional, and was joined by 55 Senators, 250 House members, and the Vice President of the United States. This historic decision will affect gun laws throughout the country that try to unjustly undermine our rights under the Second Amendment.

I appreciate hearing from you, and I hope that you will not hesitate to keep in touch on any issue of concern to you.

Sincerely,
Kay Bailey Hutchison
United States Senator

I got the same copy/pasta response from her as well.