Gun Owners Caucus (Texas) - Proposed Bylaws, YouTube, etc.
Okay, first things first. Many thanks to Eric Roberson, Larry Joe Doherty, Ray McMurrey,
Daniel Boone, Pete Laney, Alice Tripp of TSRA, and everyone who showed up at the first-ever meeting
of the Gun Owners Caucus of the Texas Democratic Party on June 6 at the Austin Convention Center.
Standing room only, speeches by Democratic candidates for Federal and state office, a little convention
swag, etc.
Now the real work begins. Here is the most recent
version of the proposed Bylaws for the Gun Owners Caucus in PDF format. Texas Democrats, please
download it and peruse it at your convenience, and if you have any questions or suggestions for the Bylaws,
let me know. We will need to meet sometime in the near
future to ratify the Bylaws and elect officers, so please watch this space for info on any upcoming meetings.
Oh, yeah - speeches from the Gun Owners Caucus are now featured on YouTube. Click on the links to see
speeches by TX-32 Democratic candidate Eric Roberson,
Texas House District 73 candidate Daniel Boone, and
primary candidate for US Senate Ray McMurrey.
GUN OWNERS CAUCUS FORMING AT TEXAS DEMOCRATIC STATE CONVENTION (Updated on June 4)
Amendment II Democrats is organizing the first-ever meeting of the new Gun Owners
Caucus of the Texas Democratic Party at the upcoming 2008 State Convention in Austin,
TX next month. If you are a delegate, alternate, or guest to the Texas convention,
you are welcome to attend. Here are the details:
Friday, June 6, 2008 at 9:00am
Austin Convention Center
Level 3, Room 8B
500 E. Cesar Chavez Street
Austin, TX 78701
Speakers scheduled to attend (as of June 4) include Texas State Representative and
Democratic candidate for US Senate Rick Noriega,
Democratic candidate for Texas' 10th Congressional district Larry
Joe Doherty, Democratic primary candidate for US Senate Ray McMurrey,
TSRA Legislative Director Alice Tripp, and Amendment II Democrats
webmaster Daniel Barnett, who also serves as Provisional Chair for the Gun Owners Caucus. We
are still trying to line up more speakers, and we may also have some proposed bylaws and resolutions
to consider as well. In addition, we will have free gun locks available on a first-come,
first-served basis.
Although this event is being organized by Amendment II Democrats, it
will operate independently of Amendment II Democrats, and its future and priorities will be
determined by those who attend the caucus. Your humble Webmaster will continue to keep you
posted on further updates concerning the caucus schedule, speakers, etc.
See you in June! It's an exciting time to be a pro-RKBA Democrat!
CAMPAIGN 2008 - How will your Democratic candidates vote?
The wait is over!
Click here to find out how your Democratic candidates plan to vote on Second
Amendment issues. There will be frequent updates of this section as more
Democratic candidates weigh in with their positions on gun legislation.
If you are a Democratic candidate for the House or Senate and you haven't sent in
your completed questionnaire yet, there's still time - send it in and share your
thoughts with Amendment II Democrats across the nation!
(We still have the archives from Campaign 2006 available; just
click here to view
the 2006 archives.)
WELCOME TO 2008 - From the Webmaster
Happy New Year, everyone! Ready to hit the ground running?
On Thursday, January 3, the Iowa caucuses will mark the unofficial start
of the 2010 election campaign. No, this is not a typo.
Back in November 2006, the Democratic Party retook control of Congress.
But now Democrats have to demonstrate that they can keep it. Outrage over
how George W. Bush has conducted the campaign in Iraq may have driven Republicans
out of office in 2006, but the inability of Democrats on Capitol Hill to hold
Bush accountable for developments in Iraq has angered Democratic activists
and possibly blunted Democratic momentum for the 2008 elections. It should go
without saying that the major issue in the 2008 campaign season will not be SCHIP.
But the major issue may very well be gun control.
Political analysts may be unwilling to admit that the gun issue can play a
major factor in voting trends, but the handwriting is on the wall. Shortly after
President Bill Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act
of 1994 into law - complete with an unprecedented ban on semi-automatic firearms -
Republicans took the House and Senate and held onto them for dear life. And in
the 2000 elections, Al Gore failed to win the electoral votes in his home state
of Tennessee solely because of his views on gun control. Had Gore managed to win
Tennessee, the voting debacle in Florida would have been moot. Democratic support
for a ban on "assault weapons" is as much to blame for Bush's inauguration as
Katherine Harris, Karl Rove, and the US Supreme Court.
The current top three Democratic frontrunners for President have all indicated
that they wish to enact a new ban on semi-automatics. And that means it is more
important than ever to pay attention to Democratic races for House and Senate seats
as well. Clinton was on top of the world when he was elected President in 1992 -
Congress was controlled by the Democrats, leaving Clinton in great shape to effect
policy changes for America. But Clinton allowed himself to get sidetracked by an
ultimately futile quest to restrict our Second Amendment rights, and the Democratic
Party suffered as a result.
Which brings us back to 2010. No matter who wins the White House in 2008, if they
follow Bill Clinton's lead on gun control, Republicans may very well retake Congress two
years later.
The words of author George Santayana have never been more relevant than today:
Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
So I want to encourage all of my fellow pro-RKBA Democrats to get on the front lines
and get involved in the 2008 campaigns. If you are not already registered to vote, make
registration your very first priority. Consider becoming a registrar yourself so that
you can help other pro-RKBA Democrats register to vote. Make your voices heard at the
precinct conventions, the county conventions, the state conventions - wherever. The more
people like you get involved in the Democratic machine, the more likely someone who refuses
to vote Democratic solely because of the gun issue will finally relent and switch their
votes from R to D when Election Day arrives. I am a precinct chair and
election judge down here in Dallas, Texas, and I've been an at-large state delegate to the
2006 Democratic state convention. It really isn't that hard to just get up and get involved,
and I encourage each and every one of you to do so if at all possible.
After all, you have the right - whether at the firing range or on the convention floor.
Do not let anyone tell you otherwise. You have the right. The Constitution guarantees
it. So stand up and put your right to good use.
You're the only one who can.
Best of luck to all of you in 2008.
Daniel Barnett
Webmaster, Amendment II Democrats
P.S. - Please keep checking our
blog on MySpace for further
updates as well as this site.
SAVE THE SECOND AMENDMENT RALLY - August 28, 2007 in Dallas, TX
Your humble Webmaster for Amendment II Democrats is planning a Save
the Second Amendment Rally to be held on Tuesday, August 28, 2007,
12:00 noon CDT in Dallas, Texas. We will be gathering outside the
Warren United Methodist Church at 3028 Malcolm X Boulevard, where
the North Texas Brady Campaign and Rainbow PUSH members are scheduled to
hold their own anti-gun rally. It's time for Democrats who support the
Second Amendment to take a stand against those who seek to undermine
our Constitutional rights.
Our current plans are for a peaceful and civil protest and rally
outside the church for approximately one hour, and I am also working on a
speech for Tuesday. I will have a small number of Amendment II Democrats
buttons and bumper stickers for those who attend the rally - first come,
first served, so please arrive promptly at noon if you can make it. Chances
are that some local NRA members may stand with us at the rally as well,
so if you can make it to Dallas on the 28th, we'll see you there!
If you aren't able to make it to Dallas, consider joining a pro-Second
Amendment rally in your own city or neighborhood on August 28. If none are
scheduled in your neck of the woods, consider setting up one of your own.
It is, after all, your First Amendment right to do so. Good luck!
CAMPAIGN 2008 - Game On!
It's campaign season again already. Wouldn't you like to
know where your Democratic candidates stand on your Second Amendment
rights?
We did it in 2006, and we're gonna do it again. Amendment
II Democrats is currently sending questionnaires on gun legislation
to House, Senate, and Presidential candidates in the hopes that they
will share their thoughts with us. As soon as the responses
start coming in, we'll keep you posted.
In addition, the Webmaster apologizes for the delay in updating
the website. Family health problems, server changes, and other
commitments have made updates problematic, but this should hopefully
be a thing of the past.
Amendment II Democrats Discussion Group
The Webmaster has established a Yahoo! Groups discussion group for
Amendment II Democrats to discuss our goals for 2007 and beyond:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/a2dems_discussion
To join, please send e-mail to the
Webmaster for further instructions. Let the real
conversation begin!
Amendment II Democrats Blog on MySpace
We have a blog at long last, hosted by MySpace! Click
here to check it out.
The blog is not intended to replace our humble website, but instead
to supplement it and extend the outreach of Amendment II Democrats
into the on-line community at large. You will find content on the blog
that doesn't appear on the main site, so feel free to visit the blog
and visit often!
Welcome to a Work in Progress
If you're a Democrat who cares deeply about issues such as worker's
rights, Social Security, Medicare, reproductive freedom, public education,
and the environment - as well as the right to keep and bear arms -
this site was created for you. The goal of Amendment II Democrats is
to provide a safe space for pro-RKBA Democrats (progressive, moderate, and
conservative alike) to gather and to empower each other to effect changes in
their party's gun-control policy starting at the grass-roots level.
This site, like the Democratic Party itself, is what its active
participants make of it. There will be periodic updates as more
feedback comes in, but let's clarify a few things about us:
- We want our Democratic Congress to stay Democratic - and anti-RKBA policies
cannot deliver. If we want to continue any meaningful debate on Social Security
or health care, we're not going to get if neo-con Republicans
regain control of the House and Senate. And in order to for Democrats to
keep the House and the Senate, they must affirm that responsible gun
ownership is a core Democratic value in harmony with their social
ideals - and not just for hunters and professional athletes.
Which brings us to our next point...
- The Second Amendment does not apply only to the military and law
enforcement. If you're looking for a "well-regulated Militia," look in
the mirror. Even if you never touch a single firearm in your entire life, you
are still entitled to own one just as much as you are entitled to freedom
of speech, trial by jury, and the right to worship (or not to worship)
as your conscience dictates. But the key concept to remember is that
we must be a well-regulated militia. This means that Amendment II
Democrats explore and promote initiatives such as pre-ownership education
and training to foster a culture of responsibility instead of a culture
of violence. We support removing crime from our neighborhoods, not guns.
Because the Constitution clearly states that it's your right to
keep and bear arms - not the government's.
If you are a Democrat and a gun owner, you can either cross your fingers
and hope that a front-runner for the 2008 nomination eschews the current
gun-control paradigm and embraces a more rational approach to responsible
gun ownership, or you can get in on the ground floor and work for change from
the bottom up. It is our hope that Amendment II Democrats and other similar
organizations can play a role in making this happen.
Howard Dean is famous for declaring "You Have the Power." We agree wholeheartedly,
but we humbly suggest adding the following words - You Have the Right.
Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Please e-mail
a2dems_feedback@yahoo.com
