This is just plain stupidity, tone deafness, and threatening all at the same time. The NH Firearms Coalition (“NHFC”) has been sending out their survey (of course, isn’t every political / advocacy group?) to candidates running for office. I have no problem with this at all and I’ve been advising Conservative / libertarian candidates not only which ones to fill out and which to ignore but also with answers to questions on some of the surveys because the questions are clear for what they are looking for with those answers. The problem is that sometimes, a possible ally of the group has a more nuanced answer than what is allowed on the on-line surveys that have set answers that clearly don’t reflect someone’s real values – and the candidates I help aren’t going to lie simply to get a recommendation or keep from being slammed for a “wrong” answer.
But the NHFC has really stepped into it with the above image – I took the top of their Letter and combined it with the bottom. It is that “sign off” that is really a kiss off. I’m ticked over it and *I* have a larger voice with GraniteGrok than they do; they need to be called out over it. Seriously, calling out potential allies as anti-gun simply for not returning a survey? This is nutcase territory and Alan Rice should be pelted with eggs, rotten tomatoes, and dead fish over this bone-headed threat.
He went running towards the nearest rhetorical cliff and did a high dive with this one. THIS is what the Left goes and does and it goes back to Erick Erickson’s famous line of “You will be made to care”. I’ve used it a lot over the years, mostly in the arena of the LGBTQRSTUV… militancy that basically tell the rest of us
“Passive toleration is not acceptable. Lukewarm acceptance is not acceptable. You MUST positively affirm who we are and our agenda or you are a HOMOPHOBIC / TRANS BIGOT.”
It isn’t sufficient to go “oh, sure” – you must join the herd and you must be all in. All the time.
That is what the NHFC and Alan Rice just demanded from you – you either cooperate with us or you are a GUN BIGOT (I’m on a roll, here, go with it). This is absolute nonsense on a stick – and this is the kind of demand that ticks people like me who are gun right folks from wanting to participate. This is a turn off, pure and simple. Naw, it’s much worse than that. In fact, I will be telling all the candidates coming to me to know NOT sign it or participate. This is the Live Free or Die state – not really given to bow down to demands. Further:
IF the NHFC wants to take GraniteGrok on over this, BRING IT!
We’re all shooters here. And we’re better at this kind of shooting than you are – you have brought us upon yourselves. Here’s MY demand – retract that stupid, aweful demand. NOW. Send that retraction to me and I’ll post it. Given that you put a deadline on your letter, here’s mine – by end of day Friday.
Here’s the full cover letter:
If anyone has the actual survey, send it to me: Skip@GraniteGrok.com. It might be “amusing”.
UPDATE: IF you have sent in your survey, send it to me. I’ll wait and if they decide to smear you because you don’t exactly toe their line but it is clear you are a 2A person, we’ll go to bat for you. UPDATE 2: If you don’t have a copy (and you should be keeping a copy for EVERY survey you fill out – just like having someone record EVERY interview you do), DEMAND a copy from them!