Even with my post count being non-existent I would like to chime in here.
I've seen a lot of comments asking how people can vote for someone who is causing them a detriment, or providing them a diservice. I think that's because, like me, many people vote based upon more than 1 thing. If we only voted with Gun Control in mind, there are plenty of politicians that would have been in power that had much more dastardly plans (Like republican lawmakers in NC who wanted to flout the First Amendment and create a State Religion, or Utah lawmakers that are fervently working to actually OVETURN the freedom of gay population to marry).
I don't want a Piece-Meal constitution/state of liberty. I would like to preserve ALL of my rights, that includes freedom of and from religion, freedom to bear arms, freedom of speech, and all the other ones (you get the idea). It seems these days that to like guns one must be a Hard-liner Republican, most often identifying themselves with the fringe Tea-Party (at least according to every issue of American Rifleman I read). I can tell you (as undoubetdly you already know) that this is not True.
I consider myself a moderate. I vote with the issues that I hold to be most important regardless of party lines. I try to keep myself informed of those issues so that I at least feel qualified to make those decisions, as Jefferson said; ". . . whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that, whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them right."
With the prevailing idea and continued misinformation that anyone who isn't a replublican wants to take your guns, and that anyone that owns guns must therefore be a righteous replublican, I feel like we citizens are like dogs chasing our own tails. I'm not a democrat, and I'm not a republican. I am a proud veteran of the USAF (I was enlisted when 9/11 happened and went to Afghanistan as a result), I'm an Atheist with Buddhist tendencies, I'm a father, and a husband, a fulltime firefighter, a science enthusiast, a tattoo collector, and more things than I could count.
I'm all of those things, so I cannot, with a clear conscience vote based soley on one thing. I believe we were born with the moral imperative to leave the world a better place than the one that we found, and I intend to leave my children the best world I can work towards, so most often, I make my decisions with them in mind.
Sorry, that got long winded, just tired of being pigeon-holed by people. I don't want the man to come and take my "scary black rifle", but I am more than my firearms, as I'm sure many of you are as well.
I've seen a lot of comments asking how people can vote for someone who is causing them a detriment, or providing them a diservice. I think that's because, like me, many people vote based upon more than 1 thing. If we only voted with Gun Control in mind, there are plenty of politicians that would have been in power that had much more dastardly plans (Like republican lawmakers in NC who wanted to flout the First Amendment and create a State Religion, or Utah lawmakers that are fervently working to actually OVETURN the freedom of gay population to marry).
I don't want a Piece-Meal constitution/state of liberty. I would like to preserve ALL of my rights, that includes freedom of and from religion, freedom to bear arms, freedom of speech, and all the other ones (you get the idea). It seems these days that to like guns one must be a Hard-liner Republican, most often identifying themselves with the fringe Tea-Party (at least according to every issue of American Rifleman I read). I can tell you (as undoubetdly you already know) that this is not True.
I consider myself a moderate. I vote with the issues that I hold to be most important regardless of party lines. I try to keep myself informed of those issues so that I at least feel qualified to make those decisions, as Jefferson said; ". . . whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that, whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them right."
With the prevailing idea and continued misinformation that anyone who isn't a replublican wants to take your guns, and that anyone that owns guns must therefore be a righteous replublican, I feel like we citizens are like dogs chasing our own tails. I'm not a democrat, and I'm not a republican. I am a proud veteran of the USAF (I was enlisted when 9/11 happened and went to Afghanistan as a result), I'm an Atheist with Buddhist tendencies, I'm a father, and a husband, a fulltime firefighter, a science enthusiast, a tattoo collector, and more things than I could count.
I'm all of those things, so I cannot, with a clear conscience vote based soley on one thing. I believe we were born with the moral imperative to leave the world a better place than the one that we found, and I intend to leave my children the best world I can work towards, so most often, I make my decisions with them in mind.
Sorry, that got long winded, just tired of being pigeon-holed by people. I don't want the man to come and take my "scary black rifle", but I am more than my firearms, as I'm sure many of you are as well.
. I think there was an earlier statement regarding choosing candidates....I would say voting to ensure a super majority doesn't exist might be a good route.
