Opinion
USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- Dears Senator/Representative:
Every time a tragedy happens, you steal a slice of our rights. A silver here, a shaving there. The result is always the same. We lose our rights for meaningless laws that will not make anyone safer or criminals less dangerous. You sell our right as a PR stunt to win votes.
Fine, we all accept that sometimes that needs to happen. But how about you include OUR needs and wants as part of your bipartisan compromise. How about us (The 120,000,000 American gun owners) get our needs addressed. How about we cut a deal?
Background Checks: Sure on all sales of new or used firearms. But we want national insta-check. We want what you originally promised us. That at any gun store or police station, we can walk-in and clear the transfer in 10 minutes. You can still give a gun to a family member or lend a gun to a friend for a day’s shooting. If we do this, we want an end to waiting periods too.
You want Red Flag: We agree, but there MUST be safeguards. Phony claims must be prosecuted; guns confiscated for legitamte claims may be held no more than 60 days. The purpose of Red Flag is to keep people safe not to punish gun owners. In that 60 day period, you’ll have time for a proper hearing. Penalize any State that exceeds these limits with real consequences.
We want CCW reciprocity. Complete a 16-hour course (The new NRA CCW course will do thank you), and you can carry anywhere in the country.
Declare all AR variants firearms ”in common use.” Better yet simply define in common use as any firearms with 1 million or more in use. End waiting period for firearms.
Any illegal alien who tries to buy a firearm should be jailed and then deported.
So – Stop selling us down the river with the assumption we’ll always be there for you, we won’t. We did not come out for Bush 41, McCain or Romney. Sell us out and well stay home in November 2020.
Got it? Give back some rights and protections for those that you bargain away.
Gun control is about scaring suburban women into voting for democrats. Renovation of the gun laws is about modernizing how guns are managed in our country.
Yours,
Don McDougall
After thoughts:
I know some of you will say no compromise, no surrender. The fact is we can do two things. Get a balance of things we want or lose it all. You blast the NRA when they build compromises, but there is a simple fact. We can get more than we give. We might with this battle, but unless we forge some common ground, we will lose the war. We need more youth shooting, more support for The Friends of the NRA. We need more high school programs and college scholarships. We need to teach the 2A to the next generation.
Right now Wayne LaPierre is the “Mad King” dismantling the NRA so to cling to power while our rights burn. (I had a Nero comparison but went with G.O.T. instead.) We’re on our own. This will be Wayne’s legacy, as the man who sold out American gun owners for his own wealth. He will burn in hell for what he’s doing. I am comforted by the knowledge that in the end, we are all dust.
Here is the site to be able to e-mail your representative, you can use the letter above as a model or write your own. Be polite and professional. At the end of the day, we have the constitution and the people on our side. Do not let cowards give away our rights. To do that, YOU personally must get active. God bless you and god protect our republic.
https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials/
About Don McDougall
Don McDougall is an NRA instructor and member of the Los Padres “Friends of the NRA” committee. If he’s not at the range, you will find him setting the record straight with on gun issues and gun safety on AmmoLand Shooting Sports News.
Benjamin Franklin once said: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” McDougal? In this day and age? THIS makes you a PUSSY! No compromise! Not now, not ever. Time to push back harder! And, the “New NRA CCW Course”? Are you freaking kidding is? Consult with the over 22 MILLION combat trained Veterans in how to shoot! EVERY “course” I ever had to attend, I was always called out to reach the way the U.S. Marines, “do it?” You suck at being a brown noser and you have absolutely… Read more »
This Jarhead Brat agrees with you MARINE!
Totally wrong.
Actual answer: Shall, Not. Be. Infringed.
Molon Labe
Red flag laws should and must be found unconstitutional. If there is imminent danger or a creditable threat the police already have the right to act on it. I understand that we all want to prevent nutjobs from committing horrific crimes, but I cannot support taking away our individual liberties to do so…
We have the 4th, 5th and 6th ammendments that guarantee our rights, so that the government can’t just take our property without probably cause, when a nameless person reports someone that may own a gun. Our 2nd ammendment rights must be protected.
Dear, GOP
Despite what is articulated in this article, I do not agree with much of anything said here.
Here’s the simple fact, the Second Amendment does one thing, limits the government on all thing regarding Arms.
Therefore, every current gun control law is unconstitutional, all future gun control laws are unconstitutional. So quit breaking the law by passing unconstitutional regulations.
No law will prevent someone who wants to do something bad from doing it.
Exactly. How many guns were employed in the first WTC attack, the 9/11 attacks, the USS Cole, or Oklahoma City? OTOH, there were a lot of government guns at Ruby Ridge and Waco.
Talk about flipping… No, no more, not one inch! Restore our rights, all of them. Get rid of NFA, GCA 68, and the 86 abomination. I am tired of sellouts, and this Life Member is tired of the NRA negotiating away our freedoms.
UBC’s are de facto gun registration, it will not work without it; so, no. You may give away all of your rights you wish Don, but you may not give away mine. I see nothing in your proposal that criminals will obey. How about it, how will you force criminals to register their guns?
I dont accept that something needs to happen. There’s an old saying,the path to hell is paved with good intentions, doing something to do something is idiotic.
You do not speak for everyone, we do not want red flag laws. You cannot have one right and not another. Red flag laws violate due process and the Second Amendment. We do want National reciprocity, but forced training is not something you should have on a right, otherwise it’s just a privilege. I agree that every responsible gun owner should seek training, but it should not be mandatory. If our lawmakers want people to have training so badly then they should offer government-funded training classes so that people who can barely afford to get by can still get training… Read more »
NFW!! Repeal all 23,000+ INFRINGEMENTS across the nation, leaving the only legitimate gun law, that restricts government…The Second Amendment.
Anything less is unacceptable to this peaceable (for now) citizen.
Definitely not with you here. Making deals that allow gun control is not just stupid and how we got here in the first place, it’s a betrayal of the Constitution and our core values.
We’ve been bending over and comprising with these slime balls for 85+ years! Has it gained us anything? Hell No, I’m personally tired of being scapegoated for what no good criminals and sick asshats who are looking for eternal infamy do. Time to stand up and tell them to FOAD!
This article right here is a prime example of why we keeping losing. None of this is “compromise”. All of this is, “I’m going to take this away from you, and you better pray I don’t take anything else”. We do not want red flag laws, UBCs, or any other gun control bill in exchange for something that you know we won’t ever get. Compromise is always them getting 99% of what they want and us being lucky to get 1%. It wasn’t “compromise” in the 90’s over the Brady Bill. It was them originally wanting 10 days for the… Read more »
The lesser of two evils is STILL EVIL. Compromise is STILL Negotiating Rights Away. Mr. McDougall, your Neville Chamberlain ‘strategery’ is exactly what we don’t need right now.
No compromise, no surrender, no compliance. No more infringements. PERIOD.
The American patriot is ready for another Revolution. Compromisers are modern day Tories and deserve the same thing in 2020 as they did in 1776.
So you can take your suggestion, sir, AND STICK IT!!!
Absolutely. WWG1WGA!
This sort of compromise crap from the NRA and some of its members is why I just let my membership lapse and am joining the GOA!
Tired of compromising. Where in the second amendment does it say the right to bear arms is conditional? Nowhere. Compromise means losing something. Keep compromising and eventually you lose it all. Cowards and appeasers compromise on constitutional rights. Patriots don’t compromise.
Actually, “compromise” means to GIVE UP something, in order to GAIN something else. I’ve no problem with compromise itself. The problem here is; What are the antis offering us, IF we should agree to give up something? For example, IF (if. hypothetically…) we were to agree to UBC what are THEY willing to give up? I might agree to that if I was to gain the repeal of the NFA, which is obsolete and stupid anyway. But, to my knowledge no anti has ever given up a single thing… EVER! Their idea of compromise is everybody lie down and let… Read more »
NO! We have given so much already for NOTHING in return. NO MORE DEALS. If they allow anything to pass or be signed we stay home on election day!!!! State and federal….. Since we are going to get the same result either way, pull their greedy mouths off the public teat if they betray us.
@Sg; “we stay home on election day”. Sir you must belong to the (DNC)=democRATic National Communist party. I WILL NOT “stay home”. You WILL see me at the voting booth come election day as long as I am breathing. I REFUSE to capitulate to those who WANT Dedicated, Educated Law Abiding American Citizens to surrender MY vote to those who want to “fundamentally transform” America into a communistic ameriKa!
@Laddyboy, what are you 5? democRATic … really?
Staying home on election day is the best way to make sure that the scum sucking democRATS take over and shove their bull shit down our throats !! What we need to do is vote against every democrat and every compromising RINO !! When all else fails lock and load !!
I WILL NOT STAY HOME ON ELECTION DAY and guarantee a win for the Democrats! Short sightedness is what got us into this mess!
I’ve never seen any organization like the NRA where the Executive Staff (i.e.employees) runs the Board, controls the Board, and tells the Board what to do.
Wayne LaPierre and his complicit cronies set up and perpetrated a fraudulent system, pyramid scheme, whereby they stole untold millions from the membership to enrich themselves. Wayne LaPierre is the NRA’s Bernie Madoff.
For betraying Americans’ gun rights, WLP belongs at ADX Florence.
How about intrusive, universal background checks for politicians and their families? After all, it isn’t a Constitutional right to hold public office.
This essay is wanting for a compelling argument: “Get a balance of things we want or lose it all.” … McDougall, if you do not intend to defend your “God given (or ‘natural’, if you prefer) rights.” get out of the way … stop consuming oxygen the rest of us need. … Sounds like you took “Jill Biden’s Course: The Anointed Know Best: Politics and Compromise –You Need US to ‘WIN’. Consequences to You Don’t Matter to US.” I am challenged to justify continuing financial support for the NRA. The NRA is presenting too many questions as to whether they… Read more »
I’m a member of both GOA and SAF. Neither are without faults. GOA is big and getting bigger, so closer scrutiny is called for. SAF only bothers me in the area of cases selected to challenge. The two that have come to my attention in the last couple years have been non-citizen resident aliens’ rights. Personally, I can’t imagine there are so few citizens’ rights infringements that it is necessary for SAF to pick resident alien rights cases to address. I’m also a member of TSRA (Texas State Rifle Assn.) Texans’ rights are really under attack by the same kind… Read more »
With friends like Don and the NRA, who needs enemies?
Well thought out and written article but you can drop ME from YOUR WE, too much compromise is what started this landslide! Congress is totally inept regardless of party yet you seem to think they can actually produce a sensible bill of any kind much less one regarding firearms, that Sir is a joke. I have had CCW licenses for over 15 years and I am now licensed in 3 states with training at the ranges and in the classrooms for every one of them, I don’t feel the need for another course to have reciprocity. There will never be… Read more »
Mr. McDougall
I read that the reason the NRA wouldn’t get involved in other questions of Constitutional debate was because the organization had but one of the amendments to represent,the 2 nd.
You may think giving in on the infringement of at least 7 amendments rights is for you personally,or the organization but I will thank you Not To Bargain Away My Rights.
Not One More Penny to Negotiating Rights Away !
ABSOLUTELY RIGHT – An assault on one Right IS AN ASSAULT ON ALL OUR RIGHTS!!!
NO!
Hoss, I agree with you.
Agreed! NO MORE BAD DEALS.
RIGHT!! NO MORE!!
POLITICIANS, no more infringements, or 2nd American Revolution!!
CHOOSE NOW!!
If you can compromise on the Second Amendment, as the NRA helped the Democrats do in ’34, you can compromise on the Thirteenth, as the Democrat party did in ’42.
For those unaware–and possibly myself, if my assumption is incorrect–your reference to 1942 would be to the internment of Americans of Japanese descent. Indeed, the proposed red flag laws are exactly the same thing although to an obvious lesser degree–both are punishment without due process, which is also a violation of the 5th and 14th Amendments. And I’m pretty sure the NRA was “OK” with the ’68 and ’86 laws and probably the Clinton “assault weapons” ban. There is a reason “NRA” is suggested to stand for Negotiate Rights Away. As long as Wayne’s perks are not infringed, the NRA… Read more »
It lists Don as being a “NRA instructor” as if that is supposed to mean something. What a joke. I agree with most of what has been said in the rest of the comments. No compromise!
A couple constructive comments: Silver-> sliver. Gun control is about scaring most suburban voters, not just women. They try to base gun control on fear to convince everyone on an emotional level and instead of the facts.
Don, The fact that you are calling for agreement on Red Flag laws is bad enough, what you had to say about it though was downright ignorant and harmful. You just caved on confiscating firearms, but for the person who is supposedly a “threat” you are leaving among the public, and still very much a danger to themselves. Are you an idiot!? WE WILL NEVER AGREE OR SIGN ONTO RED FLAG CONFISCATION. End of story, never going to compromise on that. If you want to talk about a true safety bill that takes the threat into custody and leaves the… Read more »
Don: Your type of attitude started in 1934 and, with more than 22,000+ firearms laws, has landed us right where we are today. My questions to you: 1. Are any of the arms laws now or in the past effective at stopping criminal activity? 2. Do arms laws presume innocence or guilt of the person who wishes to obtain arms? If guilt, is that not contrary and therefore against our system of justice? 3. Throughout the history of the world would you agree or disagree that ALL arms laws have, ultimately, been used to subjugate people to a wannabe tyrant… Read more »
Where did you get this WE shit?
“We can get more than we give.” Provide proof! Do we have more now than we did before? I think not. The key word is “can”. Yes, it is theoretically possible that a ‘compromise’ might some day favor us. I have my doubts. ‘Compromise’ does not mean that instead of giving in 100%, you only give in 50%. Compromise means that you get something you want and they get something they want. Our situation is complicated by the simple fact that we really only want one thing, i.e. for our rights to remain uncompromised. So, by definition, we can not… Read more »
“…If we do this…”
Makes me think of an old boss of mine who was fond of saying “Who is this WE you speak of? Do you have a mouse in your pocket?”
I am not part of this WE that’s for sure. No UBCs, No ERPOs, No more compromise.
Mr. Don McDougall, Nice illogical article. But, I think we have a problem. Based on your illogical statements I am claiming ownership of half of all the property that you claim to own. How about we compromise? Just wondering how much of the half of all the property that you claim are you willing to give up just to appease me? And that is the way compromise goes when dealing with people that don’t want you to have any of the property that you claim as yours! Each and every person “owns” their Rights. From birth to death it is… Read more »
Hey, don’t leave me out of that compromise because the other half belongs to me and I want my share too.;)
Slightly off topic. One thing that should be apparent from the threat of Red Flag law is that your gun ownership needs to be your business only. Neighbors, casual friends and acquaintances, co-workers…none of them should know that you own a gun. A couple of my close personal friends know I have some guns and a License to Carry–but they are also gun owners. We go to the range together from time to time. No one else needs to know, as there is absolutely no possible advantage to me or my family, from other people knowing I own a gun.… Read more »
When I lived in California it was like that. Here Tennessee it is opposite. Don’t be fooled by the anti gunner rhetoric. There are plenty of folks who own and shoot guns. Staying silent is exactly what the ant gunners want us to do. Be vocal.
Gotta go with Z on this. I used to think this way. Now I see that we are losing ground by being forced into the closet.
Now this is my general reply.
Yes, I am a gun owner. I have had many, for a couple of decades now, and none of my guns have ever endangered a single person, nor will they, unless that person threatens life or liberty.
Hey Don, Nice giveaways, but what are we really getting in return? Zilch, nadona, 0. We already have background checks and the failure rate is atrocious. How about NICS sends out a prohibited list to gun dealers. If you’re on the list, you don’t buy. If you’re not on the list, you buy and get your gun right away. Simple and easy. “Red Flag” laws are by their nature unconstitutional. There can be no safeguards when the initial premise is we take what is yours and you prove we’re wrong. Besides, they don’t seem to work. The US Supreme Court… Read more »
Who makes your list? How do you find out if you are on it? How do you get off of it? I don’t see any mention of “lists” in the 2nd Amendment.
No, Don. Just plan old ordinary vanilla NO. Backgound checks… take the present database at NICS, make it universally availalbe by phone and online to anyone selling a gun. Enter name precisely as on buyer’s Social Security Card, enter Date of Birth,state of resiudence, and if desired, last for of SSN. NO INFORMATION ON WHAT IS BEING BOUGHT. This is a background check on the person acquiring the gun, not on the gun itself, right? System returns Deny or Proceed, and a number. Seller records that number if desired. He now KNOWS the buyer is not disabled, and can be… Read more »
Sorry, Don. We gun owners have compromised MORE than enough since 1934.
Cake And Compromise – Illustrated Guide To Gun Control
https://www.everydaynodaysoff.com/2013/11/08/cake-and-compromise-illustrated-guide-to-gun-control/
Donald, I need your and Harold Hutchison’s mailing addresses so I can ship you both a case of condoms so you can go f*** yourselves. Then I’m going to start a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to confiscate all electronic devices that give you access to the internet and then ship you two the f*** out of our country!
Don, I appreciate the thoughts but I think the Marxists have worn you down. They are good at wearing people down and creating confusion. The Framers were smart enough to keep the statements of the Bill of Rights very simple and direct to maintain a clear boundary. Now the boundary is being diffused through deceit and manipulation. It’s all a part of their Marxist tactics. Study history and their tactics taught by their leaders and founders especially Lenin, Gramsci and Alinsky. They aren’t compromising at all except in the verbal presentations where it is a feint to take another inch… Read more »
Just read George Orwell’s – ‘Animal Farm’ or H.G. Well’s – ‘The Time Machine’?
Don, you have rattled our cages before with talk of the great NRA and everyone told you what they thought of that. Now you are trying to soft sell us into giving rights away to Red flag and eventual registration. I feel you do belong with the NRA and LaPiere because you think the same. What you have written is your opinion, only. If you approach any political party with the “we” side of your surrender then it may be taken as all gun owners approve and, if you read the comments here, you will know that the “we ”… Read more »
AGAIN, we see a person who believes the government is master. Rather than do his Constitutional Duty, he pleads with the tyrannical government for relief from the unconstitutional gun control laws. ALL GUN CONTROL LAWS ARE UNCONSTITUTIONAL! Americans kneel and lick the hand of the tyrant every time they obey these unconstitutional ‘gun control laws’. Kneel and obey, slave! The COWARDICE of the American People is why we have illegal aliens invading the U.S. and voting in our elections. Why we have unconstitutional ‘gun control laws’. Why we have communist and muslim anti-America activists in our country and our government.… Read more »
This truly scares and depresses me. Where do these phony-baloney “gun rights supporters” come from? NO gun law is constitutional. NO compromise. Someone else said it – compromise is when both sides give up something they want in order to get something they want. What the hell do we get here? All you are proposing is to take the Neville Chamberlain approach and give the hyenas a steak so they’ll leave us alone. That’s crap. We are where we are because we keep surrendering a little here, a little there… This is a war. The goal is complete disarmament. Any… Read more »
@Dubi, Throw out our Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Ninth Amendment Civil Rights through some statute? Are you mad? These Civil Rights are designed to restrain government interference in out lives. Diminish a Civil Right, and unchain government.
Background check to give or will my firearms to my son? I know him better than any bureaucrat ever could. Why not go back to something that really works to prevent crime … swift, and sure punishment?
So many others have covered this, I really had no need of writing, but I just could not restrain myself.
“I know some of you will say no compromise, no surrender. The fact is we can do two things. Get a balance of things we want or lose it all. ”
So give away our rights, or lose them…..Wow, no wonder Conservatives are seen as losers, when you accept the premise of the enemy you always lose.
How about we fight to restore our rights and start by not listening to surrender cucks like you…
Now hold on a minute who in the hell said McDougalls’ of conservative?
Of course he is a “conservative”. Conservatives are the most useless people to walk the planet. What have they conserved? The border? The national demographics that made America great? The Boy Scouts? Our 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th 8th, 9th and 10th Amendment rights? Marriage? The “conservatives” could not even conserve the Lady’s Room. About the only things the “conservatives” seem interested in conserving are the profits of defense contractors and the welfare gravy train hauling American tax money to Israel.
Amen!
No, No & No. No more concessions about our 2nd, 1st, 4th or any other amendment.
Hell NO!!!!!!!
i cannot get behind the red flag law smacks too much like (THE MINORITY REPORT AND THAT PRE CRIME BULLSHIT) are we gonna do away with the constitution. the ERPO is attacking both the 2nd and 4th amendment to the constitution of the united states. AND BELIEVE ME IT WILL NOT STOP THERE
Don, as others have noted, we’ve compromised enough. Look up Lawdog’s explanation of how we started out with a large, beautiful, luscious cake, and compromised it away, one half at time (1/2, 1/4/ 1/8…) never getting anything in return, until now all we have is a plate of crumbs and a few smears of icing. Now it’s the other side’s turn to compromise. Article I, Section 8, Clause 16: Congress is delegated the power to ” To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia”. I propose a federally funded high school militia course, explaining the history, philosophy, and law… Read more »
better yet , delete most of current laws, save for a few…… and then let’s just go by:..” the right of the people to keep and bear arms SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED”….. “
No law restricting the the right to arms should exist, much less be enforced. NONE. The free flow of arms within our population is the only tangible means for the people to control governments. Compromise to allow new and more oppressive right restrictions!! We should be staunchly demanding past laws be repealed. The American people have already lost control of the news media to the oligarchy who own it. We should not allow our public servants to become or continue to be our masters. Without media to wage an anti-propaganda campaign, we are in a too week position to even… Read more »
So here we are, the organization that claims to support our rights is waving the white flag and raising their hands before the troops have even amassed to fight. Thank you know who that we are not overseas in a real war with thee people as commanders. We need a complete overhaul of the NRA board, with leaders like this we have everything to loose and will loose everything. At this point one has to ask if their are moles in the Negotiating Rights Away. As a lifer since 1978 I have become more and more disappointed with the NRA.… Read more »
Been saying, essentially, that very thing for decades now. It is hard to agree, however, with “Give back some rights and protections for those that you bargain away.” or, “….we all accept that sometimes that needs to happen….” Uh, not so much! Giving the “gun grabbers” an inch does nothing but invite them to reach for that ‘mile’ mark. Which of those 20,000 odd gun laws, on the books, helps ‘gun owners’ in any way? Some gun owners actually cheered the most recent SCOTUS finding/decree that the people actually have the right to “keep and bear” a gun. Note, however,… Read more »