I agree with the goals of this effort and want to make sure our hobby is not obliterated.
One thing that I would like to point out though is that the CAUSE of this issue is NOT that the “Karens” on “the other side” wanting to take away our stuff – the problem is that our political / election system is so messed up that only the extremes from BOTH sides of the aisle get through it to be on the ballot in the first place. They then fight back and forth frothing up the republic on the issues that they know lead to the greatest fights and attention, as it is what fuels their “industry” (don’t think for a minute that these folks don’t have careers and vested interests in maintaining how things work in this area).
The problem is that the bulk of our legislature is no longer made up by rational people that collectively represent or are willing to compromise to achieve what the majority of Americans want our government to do. This is due to two fundamental forces - a news industry that is upside down and a primary system that puts the extremes from BOTH sides on the ballot for the general election.
I believe that if we revise our political / election system to something more along the lines of ranked choice voting that most of this garbage would all just go away – because the people in office would be more moderate and thus more representative of reasonable compromised legislation should be.
For example, take the topic at hand – air powered weapons. What percentage of the country really believe that these, as a class, are a problem? I’d bet it is WAY less than 5%. What percentage, with a little education, might think there are aspects of it that could be a problem? We know that is MUCH higher, because even many of us are worried about it. So in a moderate rational legislature there is NO WAY that all air guns could be banned, but there might be a path to some restrictions (likely in the area where air guns are overlapping with firearms). But in our current legislative environment it is easy to see a total ban because is all about which group of extremists (either the right or the left) are in control.
Anyways, as we work on the issue of preserving our sport and hobby, please also be open to actually doing something that could fix this (and many other) issues long term – support efforts to fix our actual political processes. I’ll offer this up as one of many sites that explain or support it:
https://fairvote.org/our-reforms/ranked-choice-voting/ To those that say just be sure to vote for a particular party, I’ll say that really does not work as that party (one I’ve voted for all my life) has, in my opinion, recently lost its mind (especially in my state of Michigan). Anyways, in the end doing so just perpetuates the fight, rather than solves the problem . . . Pick pretty much any contentious national topic – neither party is willing to deliver what the vast majority of the country wants on the topic. This needs to change.
But I do support working to keep our sport and hobby going too.
They only scream it from the rooftops every time there’s any kind of shooting……..You’re not too bright, are you.
