This is my first post, but I thought this community would find my new organization, the "Independent Firearm Owners Association" (IFOA), of interest. I’ll get into the reasons for the new group shortly. By way of introduction, I'm Richard Feldman, the author of Ricochet Confessions of a Gun Lobbyist, http://www.mlscommunication.com/ . I’m also the former Executive Director of the American Shooting Sports Council (firearm industry trade association) and a Regional political/legislative director for the National Rifle Association. I worked in the Reagan administration, am a former police officer and an attorney. I’ve watched the gun debate for the past 35 years. It hasn’t changed much. The same groups are having the same fights over the same issues talking right past one another.
http://www.IndependentFirearmOwners.org<a</p>
On the second Tuesday of November 2008, a majority of voters, young and old, cast their ballots for "hope and change." Since that history making moment there’s been very little change and my hope is being drained by the daily replay of the Washington "blame game." It’s time both Parties just shut up and refocus on our common goal: to better America.
President Obama’s campaign struck a fundamental chord that resonated throughout the nation. Each of us, regardless of our political affiliation, career path, or life-style, hungers for the type empowerment promised where our individuality is honored and our voices heard. We’ve grown weary at being forced by single issue partisanship to conform to stereotypes not of our own making. On virtually every issue we want solutions, practical and achievable, not mind-numbing debate and rancorous finger pointing.
Last week I left my farm in Southern New Hampshire and drove 486 miles to Washington DC (into the worst snowstorm I've seen since the New England Blizzard of ’78). There together with likeminded individuals who believe in individual rights, empowerment, and solutions to problems plaguing our lives and our environment, I launched a long planned and very different organization: the "Independent Firearm Owners Association" (IFOA). IFOA is not just another "gun" group.
The irony of the distrust of government held by the men who founded our government is not lost. They crafted the Bill of Rights fully aware that the erosion of a single right of the individual portends the loss of all our rights. Benjamin Franklin warned against looking to the government for "security" in exchange for a fundamental freedom. Thomas Jefferson used different words to make the same point. Where the rights of the individual are preserved tyranny – by the government or anyone – cannot succeed.
Why a gun group? Defense of and the assault upon gun rights is the easiest illustration of how core rights can be lost.
Think about it for a moment, particularly if you are not a firearms owner. Are you willing to yield to the government today your right to decide for yourself whether to own or not own a firearm in the future? If you are willing to toss away the right to decide on this matter, how easy will it be to take away your right to choose on other issues you hold dear?
Protecting one right reserved to individuals is, in effect, preserving all rights of individuals. Preservation and the exercise of individual rights empower citizens to take a stand for what they believe whether it’s a life style or desire to protect a wild stream or river.
Why the Independent Firearms Owners Association? Call it, if you will, a rights and empowerment group. Another feature that makes us unique from other groups is the fact that the debate stops here. While others want to re-hash the polemics of the ‘70’s and ‘80’s we intend to move beyond the bumper stickers and craft solutions that target the problem in an intelligent, sophisticated and professional manner. We are all about discussing practical and effective solutions (with those who agree and with those who disagree with our orientation to issues that infringe on our rights whether we are Liberals, Moderates, Conservatives, Democrats, Libertarians or Republicans. How’s that for change?
To learn more about the Independent Firearm Owners Association (IFOA) go to our website – www.IndependentFirearmOwners.org. If you are want solutions and want to maintain all of your options to decide which of your rights you choose to exercise and when, join with us and subscribe to my diary right here.
www.IndependentFirearmOwners.org