...this Monday AM, getting ready to mentally change gears from Cowboy to 3-Gun for a match this coming weekend. I also plan to shoot an indoor IDPA-style match this week.
Be sure to email Governor John Hickenlooper one more time today. I know it probably doesn't matter — especially since my little cherubs and seraphim tell me that B-ho has promised the former beer magnate a place in his administration, and maybe a dacha on a lake somewhere, if Hickenlooper is willing to sell out the people of Colorado. I sent 3 separate emails this weekend, with one emphasizing the "unintended consequences" of the magazine ban bill, which with it "can readily be converted to greater than 15 rounds" language would, in effect, ban all magazines in Colorado. Be sure to watch the embedded video on my friend John Richardson's NO LAWYERS ONLY GUNS AND MONEY blog...your blood pressure will soar!
I also have to pick up guns from my friend Alan at Machinegun Tours before he just gives up and puts them on his shelves, where they'll no doubt sell quick like bunny.
With SHOOTING GALLERY officially renewed for our record-breaking (I think) 14th season, this week we'll be doing a "rough cut" of shows we plan to film over the season. I know we'll be filming the first IDPA Back-up Gun Nationals in November and at least one international trip. I'm in a quandary on the Ruger Rimfire Worlds in Colorado in July...essentially, I helped bring this world championship to Colorado, and at this late date we're locked into some contractual issues that don't allow us to move the match out of state.
The quandary is do I pull my filming from the event, knowing that a lot of the event sponsors are friends of mine who came on board because we announced publicly back in November we'd be doing a full-court-press on filming the Worlds, or do I fulfill my commitments, film it in Colorado and use that filming as an opportunity to urge people NOT to come to the state. Sigh...not a decision I ever thought I'd have to make.
I suspect this will be the last major match in Colorado, at least until the 2014 elections. I spoke with one of the big sanctioning bodies over the weekend, and they're rethinking a major match in western Colorado in the fall. I suggested Whittington or one of the big ranges in either Kansas or Utah.
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19 comments:
Good morning Michael,
Thanks for all the effort to focus people on the issues at hand in both Colorado and around the nation. My advice is to keep your commitments for this year. Don't do anything to harm your integrity and word as a businessman. Folks who know you will understand. By the way, I have a idea for a show topic. Im in northern Ca and work in the forensic death investigation field and would love to talk to you about what I have seen as far as 25 years worth of "gun related" deaths that I have investigated. The truth vs what the politicians and media put out.
I think filming the Worlds and using the filming as a soap box to tell the world why they should shoot elsewhere is a fine idea.
The quandary is do I pull my filming from the event, knowing that a lot of the event sponsors are friends of mine who came on board because we announced publicly back in November we'd be doing a full-court-press on filming the Worlds, or do I fulfill my commitments, film it in Colorado and use that filming as an opportunity to urge people NOT to come to the state. Sigh...not a decision I ever thought I'd have to make.
I would tell you to honor your commitments... but this reads like you gave your word in both respects, so I don't have any idea what advice to give you, Michael. Every chance you get, though, I'd sure slam Colorado with regard to tourism dollars, et cetera. The situation in your state reminds me of France during WW II and the scene in "The Longest Day" where the commander of the French commandos tells them, basically, "To liberate our countrymen, we must fire on our own soil" -- or words to that effect. This seems to be the situation with which you are now faced; to save Colorado, you must now fire on it. I hope you understand the point I'm trying to make.
You have an ugly mess on your hands, there in Colorado, and there's no easy way out. Whatever is done to save your state... whatever *can* be done... isn't going to be pretty.
Russ
The quandary is do I pull my filming from the event, knowing that a lot of the event sponsors are friends of mine who came on board because we announced publicly back in November we'd be doing a full-court-press on filming the Worlds, or do I fulfill my commitments, film it in Colorado and use that filming as an opportunity to urge people NOT to come to the state. Sigh...not a decision I ever thought I'd have to make.
I would tell you to honor your commitments... but this reads like you gave your word in both respects, so I don't have any idea what advice to give you, Michael. Every chance you get, though, I'd sure slam Colorado with regard to tourism dollars, et cetera. The situation in your state reminds me of France during WW II and the scene in "The Longest Day" where the commander of the French commandos tells them, basically, "To liberate our countrymen, we must fire on our own soil" -- or words to that effect. This seems to be the situation with which you are now faced; to save Colorado, you must now fire on it. I hope you understand the point I'm trying to make.
You have an ugly mess on your hands, there in Colorado, and there's no easy way out. Whatever is done to save your state... whatever *can* be done... isn't going to be pretty.
Russ
Cancel the rimfire meet. Hopefully, there's an out clause, so just cancel it.
F$%# Colorado. And kommiefornia. And the PRI (People's Republik of illinois). And any other state that so willingly folds itself into commie/fascist camp.
Somebody needs to remind these politicians of Musolini's end.
Michael, here is a thought that has been tickling at the back of my mind. What if we are actually playing right into the hands of the anti-gun/gunowner crowd by eliminating all the gun related events in Colorado? The actual monetary loss to Colorado from removing these matches and events is actually pretty small potatoes in the big scheme of things.I definitely don't blame MagPul for pulling out, they really have no choice. But I'm beginning to wonder if the only result of turning all our highly visible firearm related events is playing right into the hands of the liberals. They will then have won completely, by not only punishing the gun owners they hate ("People who own guns are essentially a sickness on our soul" ~ John Morse, President Colo. Senate) but they can then also say they have completely driven the gun culture out of our state. Just some random thoughts this morning on this increasingly frustrating state of affairs. I hope I am not adding to your dilemma.
Michael, I believe Waddy has a fair point - the chance of them having "driven the gun culture out of our state" is real, but a small one I think. You may e pulling the larger matches from the state, but the shooters and competitors - the vast majority of whom don't compete in the larger matches anyway - remain, and will continue to need places to go to shoot. If pulling the major matches doesn't adversely impact the ranges, I see no fault in doing so. But you would know more about that than we.
As for the Ruger Rimfire World's - I think you know your audience, your sponsors, and your committments, and that your word is your bond. It's representative of your integrity - and a man a much admire once told me, "If I don't have my integrity,I don't have anything." So, I say keep the Ruger World's right where they are and use them as your soap box - and as a rallying point for the shooters and gun owners of CO - to show the other side just who we are, and that we're NOT going away. Not now. Not in 2014. And DAMN sure not in 2016.
This is our state too - and we can either cut and run, or stand & fight.
I say we STAND and FIGHT!
Gunny
I say honor your commitment to your friends and associates for the Ruger Rimfire match and use the filming to show and explain how CO's crazy laws will impact shooters of all types. I believe you said these flypaper laws were intended to ensare the law-abiding gun owner. Using the show about the Ruger Rimfire match is a great practical example of how ieasy it would be for someone to get in trouble.
Bill in Texas
Record every dollar, however indirect, that the Rimfire World's spent in state and say it is gone next year.
Make it clear that these fun little .22s are fully in the sights of the banners, document every statement thus far that shows the end goal is all guns and play them over and over while juxtaposing normal people and families having fun.
Michael, you really need to find another place to film besides out here in Hollywood and the Oak Tree Gun Club. CA is worse than CO and you don't film there. Sorry, Oak Tree, I buy recycled shot for cowboy shooting there but our state SUCKS!!
Here's a fun thing my wife just showed me when she came home for lunch (she's a mailman locally). The Signals catalog has bracelets made from turned-in guns and shell casings with the money going to buy back more:
"Police department buyback programs are one way to get illegal guns off the streets. Sales of these bracelets are raising funds for buyback programs in Newark, New Jersey, and someday in other cities as well. Steel bracelets are made from guns seized by the Newark Police; brass bracelets are crafted from shell casings swept from Newark crime scenes. Each is stamped with a serial number that corresponds with one of the guns. Handmade in the USA, hand-hammered, and very strong, each adjusts to fit most wrists."
Great! Gun owners have to be eradicated in the same way we need to wear pink ribbons and produce more anti-smoking commercials. We're a cause!
Some of your copy writes itself, like "Welcome to the first and last match...."
Michael, Keep the filimg on. And use it as a soap box. Or, in the best words I've been given before:
"Dance with the one that brung 'ya."
It'd be good, and we'd all appreciate it.
MB Sorry to see this story hit the wires a bit ago. The Hickster apparently will sign the gun control bills on Wednesday. Hey pop open a bottle of nice wine tonite and unwind from this mess. Recharge, and Reload as Sarah says. This one is gonna be a generational fight. You and I will not see the end in our lifetimes sad to say.
Woops here is the link:
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/03/18/source-gov-hickenlooper-to-sign-gun-controls/
Larry,
And he'll try to use the "just following the will of the people as expressed by the legislature" excuse when it goes south for him.
Shoot it as a sad end to Colorado's long history as a haven for responsible gun ownership.
Kind of like a wake to celebrate what once was, and to mourn it's loss.
Michael,
Don't forget the Heartland Shooting Park in lovely, Grand Island, NE. Or, as we call it, The House that Hornady Built!
I was going to suggest Whittington.
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