Liberal Gun club has 1000 members

[spin]

154. I have no intentions of leaving the party. ...

I will continue to point out to those Democrats who wish that other Democrats who own firearms would simply leave the party that the Democratic Party is supposed to be a big tent. You are suggesting that it should be a little tepee.

You and I may disagree on gun ownership but that doesn't mean that we disagree on many other important issues that our party supports.

I will also mention that many times at a number of ranges I have talked about political issues with fellow shooters. Most agree with me on many items but tell me that they would never vote for a Democrat as the Democratic Party is opposed to gun ownership and hopes to ban and confiscate all civilian owned firearms. This is totally false but I can't convince them otherwise.

There are an estimated 80,000,000 gun owners in this nation and many in their family enjoy using the owner's firearms. A high percentage of gun owners vote Republican because they are single issue voters and often the voting age members in their families do the same. That totals up to be a hell of a lot of votes that we lose because some in our party favor excessively strong gun legislation which does little to address the problem of gun violence in our nation.

This support for strong gun control has cost our party and our nation dearly. Many Democrats love to point out that All Gore lost the Presidency because of Florida. However Florida would have irrelevant had Al Gore won his home state of Tennessee.

THE 2000 ELECTIONS: TENNESSEE; Loss In Home State Leaves Gore Depending on Florida
By RICHARD PEREZ-PENA
Published: November 9, 2000

The cliffhanger in Florida could have been irrelevant had it not been for the disappointment in Tennessee.

If Vice President Al Gore had carried his home state, with its 11 electoral votes, on Tuesday, Florida alone would not have been decisive for Gov. George W. Bush of Texas.

***snip***

Major presidential candidates rarely fail to carry their states; rarer still is the candidate who loses his home state but wins the election.

***snip***

While Tennessee has moved to the right in national politics, Mr. Gore has moved to the left since his days as a congressman, particularly on issues like abortion and gun control that have put him at odds with many Southern voters. If he had not, Professor Geer said, ''He could still have carried Tennessee, but he would never have gotten the Democratic nomination.''
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/09/us/the-2000-elections-tennessee-loss-in-home-state-leaves-gore-depending-on-florida.html

The leadership of the Democratic Party continues to shoot itself in the foot over gun control. I felt our nation had an excellent chance to make some much needed improvements to our national gun control laws this year that would have made a difference and helped to reduce tragic gun violence. This opportunity was caused by the tragic massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Unfortunately the party overreached and pushed for another assault weapons ban. Consequently nothing was accomplished at the national level.

Many political experts predict the Democratic Party will lose control of the Senate in the upcoming midterm elections. If so, much of the loss can be blamed on the fact that our party overreached in a push for an assault weapons ban and it caused many single issue voters to show up at the polls to vote against good Democrats.

In my opinion gun control has been and will continue to be a ball and chain around the ankle of our party until we decide that bans and unreasonable restrictions on honest citizens is a good way to lose close elections in many states at the local, state and national levels.

There are many sensible and reasonable ways to improve our national and local gun laws that many gun owners will agree with and support. I suggest our party tries this approach.

You of course will strongly disagree. I will respect your opinion and consider your viewpoint fairly although I most likely will disagree with it. But unlike you I will never suggest that anyone should leave the Democratic Party over the gun control issue. The path for success of the party is not to throw people out over any single issue but to try to grow the party and welcome those we sometimes disagree with.