Gun Sales II

QOTD from Phelps:

There are 800,000 law enforcement officers in America.
The FBI did five million NICS checks for people buying firearms in America — in November and December 2012 alone.
That’s over six guns per cop in the last two months.
Confiscation?  You better start negotiation.

I knew we were buying a lot of guns, but this really puts it in perspective.

Next item to consider: The usual suspects are putting forth the usual bromide gun bills as quickly as possible so as to take advantage of the rather short spate of attention that a mass shooting generates. Already in Illinois a proposal that might charitably be described as Black Belt Ignorance has been withdrawn for lack of sufficient votes.

The Illinois law was the first to actually get any kind of consideration, at least partly because it's being pushed in a lame duck session in which some number of the members have nothing to lose. It also got a lot of mention in the gun blogs and internet forums and newsletters asking the readers to send e-mails to the Ill legislature.

Folks, when they feel the heat, they see the light. Don't let up. Several bit players in Washington have proposed lesser bills individually banning standard-capacity magazines and other such affronts to the stability of modern society. The thinking here is that if you only ask for the moon, and put off the request for the sun and the stars, you might get something and you can go for the rest later.

You don't need to be specific as to which anti-gun bill you oppose, just put something like "No on Gun Control" in the subject line and write something very general in the body.  The unpaid, overworked staffer whose job it is to keep the tote board up to date will credit your mail in the correct column, and move to the next one..

Letter writing this year needs to be the literary equivalent of the fire bombing of Dresden. Twice a week is about right, and it only takes about 15 minutes to cover both State and Federal officeholders. Bombs away!

If you want to get specific, there's a list of the offerings so far at the Federal level at No Lawyers.