Congress Will Ban Assault Weapons By 12–31-19 If We All Vote NO On Every GOP Candidate This November — #JustVoteNO
We can break the NRA’s stranglehold on the Republican Party if every anti-assault weapon Democrat, Republican and Independent votes NO on every GOP candidate for every office in November 2018.
By David Grace (www.DavidGraceAuthor.com)
I’m In Favor Of Personal Weapons For Self Defense
Let me start by saying that I got my gun, a .22 bolt action rifle, when I was thirteen. My father insisted that I first had to take and pass a gun-ownership class. I did and I still have that gun.
Today, if I want to do people’s nails or cut their hair, I have to take classes, pass a test and get licensed. If I want to fix toilets, same thing. Drive a car, same thing.
But the NRA says that it’s just fine to let anyone — anyone — buy a deadly weapon without any training or proof that they know how to handle it safely or that they are not paranoid schizophrenics.
I’m fine with people who pass a gun-safety class having a pistol or a hunting rifle or a shotgun. I’m not at all against trained, normal people owing guns. I own a gun.
I’m against untrained people owning guns. I’m against criminals, people on the terrorist watch list, and crazy people owning guns. I’m against civilians owning military weapons.
This column is directed to every Democrat, Republican and Independent who opposes any untrained, potentially criminal, crazy, terrorist person being able to buy unregistered military-style, weapons.
Regardless of party registration, this column is directed toward everyone who is not a supporter of the NRA’s hard-core, pro unregistered assault-weapon policies.
Sometimes People Need A Swat On The Ass
When I was a little kid we got a new dog, and my mother told me, “David, when the dog pees on the carpet, rub his nose in it, then swat him on his behind with a rolled-up newspaper and he won’t do it any more.”
You don’t argue people out of doing the wrong thing. You don’t change their behavior by begging them to stop or by debating their conduct or by appeals to their better nature.
You don’t stop people from driving drunk by telling them that they shouldn’t or by showing them pictures of gruesome car crashes or by assuring them that Jesus doesn’t want them to drink and drive.
You stop them by giving them a really big swat on their behind. Do that hard enough and they’ll cut out the crap.
Psychologists call that “aversion therapy.” Generals call it deterrence.
Other people describe it as when it’s time to “Come To Jesus.”
For those Americans who aren’t stockpiling assault rifles in order to repel a feared invasion by the Black Helicopters, it’s long past time to bring the Republican Party To Jesus.
The Toxic Affair Between The Republican Party & The NRA
To steal a line from Johnny Cash, the Republican Party’s relationship with the NRA is like a fiend with his dope and a drunkard with his wine.
Like Svengali mesmerized Trilby, for decades the NRA has besotted the Republican Party, and that’s not going to stop unless and until the voters, all the voters, Democrats, Republicans and Independents, shout out loud and clear: Enough!
November, 2018 is the time for that shout.
What The GOP Has Done For The NRA
For years, the hard-core gun people who control the NRA have been telling us that everyone needs to be able to buy an unregistered assault weapon so that they can defend the country against some paranoid, juvenile fantasy of a Russian/Black Helicopter sneak attack that’s going to swarm across the Mexican border and overpower the U.S. Army and the National Guard but which the NRA members will stop cold with their stockpiled guns.
Then, in the next breath they lobby the state legislatures to let any Tom, Dick & Harry who hasn’t had one hour’s training on how to use a weapon bring their concealed pistols into the same restaurants, bars and churches where we and our families eat and worship.
- When the NRA decreed that people should be able to buy unregistered assault weapons at gun shows, the GOP’s response was, Sure.
- When the NRA demanded that mentally ill, eighteen-year-old high-school drop-outs need to be able to buy unregistered assault weapons at guns shows, the GOP’s response was, You got it.
- When the NRA told us that people on the terrorism watch list needed to be able to buy unregistered assault weapons at gun shows, the GOP’s response was, Fine with us.
- When the NRA insisted that people should be able to buy kits that would turn semi-automatic assault weapons into fully-automatic assault weapons, the GOP’s response was, Sounds good to us.
If you think those are all good ideas then this column is clearly not for you. If you don’t, then you need to do one simple thing to stop this madness.
You need to #JustVoteNO.
Why The GOP Is In The NRA’s Pocket
We know why the Republican legislators are owned body and soul by the NRA: partially it’s money but mostly it’s the legislator’s fear of the NRA voters who dominate the Republican Party Primaries.
80% of the seats in House of Representative are gerrymandered to be “safe” seats. FairVote.org counts 205 GOP House seats as being “safe.”
On average, less than 20% of registered Republicans vote in the Congressional primary elections so only 11% of registered Republicans get to elect those 205 safe Republican Congressmen.
The Republican candidates all know that the NRA people constitute many if not most of that 11%. That’s how the NRA controls the Republican Party and the Congress.
And that’s how the NRA is going to continue to control Congress unless the rest of us Non-NRA citizens stop them.
Mark Antony was no more in the thrall of Cleopatra than the Republican Party is under the sway of the NRA.
The only way the Republican Party will walk away from the NRA is by getting such a big swat on its collective ass with the rolled up ballots of the American People that it turns away from the gun people and never looks back.
The Swat Has To Be Big Enough To Stop The NRA’s Control For Good
It can’t be a little swat. It can’t be a slap on the wrist. It has to be hard enough to totally knock the Republican Party so hard on its ass that it will never, ever, ever consider doing the NRA’s bidding again.
Swat The Republican Party/NRA Toxic Coalition With Your Ballots
For one election only, November 2018, every voter in this country — every registered Democrat, every registered Independent, and every registered Republican who is sick to death of the NRA gun craziness needs to vote NO on every Republican candidate for every office.
And I mean every single Republican candidate. We all have to #JustVoteNo on every Republican candidate for Governor, Senator, Congressman, State Senator, State Assemblyman, Mayor, County Supervisor — every single, solitary, Republican candidate for any and every elected office everywhere in the entire United States.
One Big Hit
If the voters do anything less than voting “No” on every single Republican candidate, the Republican Party will not get the message. They will not abandon their illicit affair with the NRA unless the non-assault-weapon-people take this one, coordinated, opportunity to make them stop.
Promises Mean Nothing
If you’ve ever had a child who’s an addict or a spouse who’s an alcoholic then you know that you can’t believe them when they tell you, “Yes, you’re right. I promise. I’ll never do it again.”
They always promise they’ll never do it again. And then, when you’ve cooled off and the threat has slipped away, guess what? That hundred bucks you’d stashed in the back of your underwear drawer will be gone and so will they, until the next time they promise that they’ll never do it again.
When the abusive husband beats up his wife for the third time, she can’t just let herself believe his sorrowful promises that he’ll never, ever do it again.
She has to leave him.
Promises mean nothing. You have to inflict pain to bring home your threat,
Don’t Weaken And Swallow Their Lies
You can’t believe GOP Senator A’s or GOP Congressman B’s bullshit Press Release — “I’ve always been against dangerous weapons, blah, blah, blah and I will always work to protect the American people blah, blah, blah and I will meet with my colleagues to take reasonable measures blah, blah, blah and I’ve never been a member of the NRA blah, blah, blah so don’t vote against me in November, 2018.”
It’s crap. It’s 100%, total and complete crap, and you can’t let them get away with it.
They’re going to BS you, con you, stall you, lie to you, and tell you anything they can think of to dodge this bullet until everybody forgets about the NRA and the whole thing blows over and they can get back to Business As Usual, until the next mass shooting, when they’ll BS you all over again just like they’ve done again and again and again all these years.
Columbine was 19 years ago.
Sandy Hook was 6 years ago.
The shootings have gotten worse and worse and the Republican Party is fighting the NRA’s battles harder today than ever before.
How many shootings and how many lives is it going to take before we take our government back from the Republican Party/NRA Coalition?
What If You’re A Registered Republican?
You’re a decent, common-sense American first. You’re a parent first. The registered Republican part of you is a distant second.
If you’re a registered Republican and you don’t want to vote for a Democrat, I understand. You don’t have to.
That doesn’t mean you can’t free YOUR party from the toxic embrace of the NRA.
You can do something. You can #JustVoteNO.
For every registered Republican who’s had enough of the guns-in-bars and guns-in-churches and everybody should be able to walk around carrying a gun anywhere they like and every eighteen-year-old should be able to buy a military-style assault weapon and everybody should be able to buy a kit that will turn that AR-15 into a fully automatic machine gun, total gun craziness that has infected your party, #JustVoteNO.
If you don’t want to vote for a Democrat, then don’t.
Write in Thomas Jefferson’s name. Write in James Madison’s name. Write in your pastor’s name or your minister’s name.
Write in your child’s name. That’s who this is for, after all.
All you need do is not vote for any Republican candidate for any office for this one election.
Give the Republican Party that big, fat swat on the ass that it needs to make it abandon its toxic, corrosive, love-that-must-not-be-named addiction to the NRA.
#JustVoteNO.
–David Grace (www.DavidGraceAuthor.com)
