Friday, June 25, 2010

The result of infighting

It was pointed out to me that Sean McClanahan, the new Des Moines Gun Rights Examiner is president of Iowa Carry. Did I know this? Yep. I believe Sean has left a comment or two here.

The questioner is wondering why I, an active member of Iowa Gun Owners, would post a link to someone that is not part of my particular organization, especially with some of the animosity between our two groups.

Let me explain:

Looking back in history, a tiny country of Judea had a burning desire to be free of the shackles of Roman rule. But they had one problem: two competing groups wanted to be in charge. The Zealots under Eleazar Ben Simon and the Sicarii under Simon Bar Giora.

They went so far as to attack each other during the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD. The end result of the infighting led to one group burning the food stores of the other. First Jewish–Roman War.

This led to a weakened defense (probably in vain, anyway) and the fall of Jerusalem and the Diaspora. One event that struck me was the Romans lit the road from Jerusalem to the coast with the lighted heads of their Jewish victims.

I write this only to make a point that we gun owners in Iowa (whether a member of either group or a member of none) are one group fighting for the ultimate goal of freedom for our God-given right to keep and bear arms.

Our divisions only cause weakness that can be exploited by politicians of either stripe or by national organizations that smell blood in the water. NRA and GOA both got into the mix here and this isn't their fight. It is ours.

Only residents of Iowa have experienced the humiliating rejection of their permit application by a self-serving and prejudiced sheriff in more than one of Iowa's 99 counties. Literally a neighbor on one side of the road could get a permit from their gun-friendly sheriff, while the other, living only a few hundred yards away, cannot.

The new permit process still has some issues to overcome and the department of public safety does not seem prepared for what's coming. My predictions will be kept to myself because those just tend to piss people off. What with my pessimistic nature and all.

But this is Iowa's fight and we gun owners have been working for a lot of years and will continue to work to improve our laws (hopefully eliminating a few along the way). Anybody that comes in from the outside, we appreciate the help, but this is ours to win.

We gun owners in Iowa can fight together, or we can suffer the same fate as those Jewish souls 1900+ years ago.

And now, for something completely different (sort of):

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