I've been trying to get a meeting with my local MO Senator and just got a call from her administrative assistant. Looks like I get to meet with one of the stanchest anti-gun legislators in Missouri on the 4th of July. Should be interesting to say the least.

Basically, the only part of her platform and stances she's taken that I diverge from her is on legal gun ownership. Since there is no active legislation at this time, I hope to get some perspective from a non-NRA liberal to her on why it would only help her to reconsider her stance on RKBA and Evil Black Rifles as well as CCW. If I could get her to sponsor legislation to open MO CCW up to resident aliens and remove the Citizenship requirement, some minds will be blown to say the least.

I don't expect much more than an open discussion on why lawful gun owners do not contribute to crime and guns are just tools that have no innate evilness. She has publically stated that guns are a health and safety issue in urban areas, I hope to work on that one in specifics.

Ask her which of the following is more responsible for crime:

Poverty?
Ignorance?
Insanity?
Gun availability?

goosekiller wrote:Ask her which of the following is more responsible for crime:

Poverty?
Ignorance?
Insanity?
Gun availability?

Fortunately, our only point of dissonance in our politics is 'the gun issue' so we should be fine. She is VERY active with women's safety issues, so I'll point out that any gun used by a boyfriend or husband who has an active Order of Protection against them does not count as one from a lawful gun owner as his choices have removed his access to RKBA and that the victim has the right to defend herself any way she can in that situation. Also, I'll make the point that the CAGV 'warning' that there will be blood on the streets due to the CCW did not happen and by fighting the passage of CCW, the county of St Louis lost out on a LOT of money due to a CBA that was done that ended up with county renewals being $0 while every other county can charge $0-$50 every three years.

My goal is to have her at least consider that guns themselves are not a safety issue but instead to focus on the owner of the hand that the gun is in. And to invite her to the range I shoot at, they are very female friendly there and are a top ranked NSSF range to boot. I don't hold out a lot of hope that she'd join me, but the invitation will be there.

It should be a good time. I plan on being a good embassador for gun rights. No sloganeering, not too many numbers just straight talk, should do fine.

Good luck. Time for Jeopardy...

goosekiller wrote:Good luck. Time for Jeopardy...

Is Trebeck back or is there a sub while he recovers?

Good luck. I'll probably be performing a comedy open mic on that day.

ErikO wrote:

goosekiller wrote:Good luck. Time for Jeopardy...

Is Trebeck back or is there a sub while he recovers?

They are currently running pre-recorded shows. He is supposed to be back for the new season.

Just let her know that most people aren't anti-gun, they are anti-idiot-with-a-gun.

I fell prey to inaccurate intelligence, she is not anti-gun just gun cautious. Senator Chapelle-Nadal happily voted for Missouri to enact the Castle Doctrine. It seems that she was being stalked after Sarah Palin suggested 2nd Amendment Solutions back when Giffords was shot and then Maria realized that if one of those crazies went after her again she would have the right to protect herself.

She is not sure that allowing 21 year olds the ability to get a MO permit was a good idea. I forgot to make the case that they could legally get a Florida non-resident permit, I'll have to check into that and get back to her. I did make the case that most shootings occur with illegally obtained guns and she countered with the fact that guns can be rather easily stolen if not secured correctly.

She was concerned that guns were expensive and she also let me know that she is intimidated by them a bit. Since she is an elected official, her CCW training is paid for by the state. I encouraged her to attend a First Shots event so she can learn gun safety and have help figuring out what type of gun would work for her.

Overall it was a good visit. I think that she'll do fine when she gets the chance to shoot a gun.

(edited for spejleeing mistakes...damned iPhone...)

I have the dubious honor of being represented by the most anti-gun state Representative and the most anti-gun state Senator here in Oregon... (Yup, the districts that include downtown Portland, even though I'm on the very 'rural-ish' edge of Portland.)

Not ever going to make progress on my Representative, who thankfully is not running for re-election, and the near-guaranteed winner is at least slightly more on the pro-gun side than the anti-gun side, but sadly she is running for city council, and forced a runoff with the incumbent (who has taken essentially no stand on guns, ever.)

Have spoken with my Senator a couple times, thought I was making progress, only to have her come out with a new even worse proposal soon after our last meeting...

I bet one of our instructors might be willing to fly out and show her personally

Inquisitor wrote:I bet one of our instructors might be willing to fly out and show her personally

Or I could get off my ass and get trained up and approved in at least St Louis County.

CharonPDX wrote:I have the dubious honor of being represented by the most anti-gun state Representative and the most anti-gun state Senator here in Oregon... (Yup, the districts that include downtown Portland, even though I'm on the very 'rural-ish' edge of Portland.)

Not ever going to make progress on my Representative, who thankfully is not running for re-election, and the near-guaranteed winner is at least slightly more on the pro-gun side than the anti-gun side, but sadly she is running for city council, and forced a runoff with the incumbent (who has taken essentially no stand on guns, ever.)

Have spoken with my Senator a couple times, thought I was making progress, only to have her come out with a new even worse proposal soon after our last meeting...

My Rep was one of the first to get CCW in my district. Unfortunately, redistributing has him going up against second that abstained from voting on CCW and voted against Castle. With any luck, Mr Taylor will get to keep his seat.