All of us must do what WE can do to help turn the seemingly inexorable tide 
of new gun laws. Here's a couple of things that I've done recently:
Our local paper, the Monroe Evening News, published 2 articles by Sarah 
Brady. They were the usual anti-gun tripe, full of half-truths and other 
garbage. It was very surprising to me that no one replied to them in the 
Letters to the Editor section, so I did. The Monroe News (Monroe County, MI) 
is a fairly middle of the road paper and published both.
I used the NRA web site to get factual information to debunk Ms. Brady's 
articles and cited the source in one letter to encourage others to look it 
.
The NRA has a nice logo, "I'm the NRA, and I vote!" available on their page. 
It's quite easy to capture this graphic and place it on your own web page(s), 
which I did. The graphic is meant specifically for this purpose; there's no 
copyright issues involved in doing so.
Everyone here has a PC and a word processor, so it's not hard to write such 
letters. If you don't have access to the World Wide Web, you can ask for help 
with research here. I've also used Wayne LaPierre's book, "Guns, Crime, and 
Freedom" for referance. Most newspapers have published fax numbers, making it 
really simple to send that letter, even saving the $.32 postage!
You should also write to your congressfolks. Again, all offices have fax 
numbers that you can use. I've written Michigan's Senator Abraham on several 
occassions and have received replies from his office.
The main thing is to WRITE, and use as many hard facts as possible. The 
opposition uses anecdotes, innuendo, and half-truths to make their points, 
and it's very easy to put the lie to such stuff with the FACTS. Always 
re-read your letter to make sure that it's reasonable sounding (you don't 
want to come off as some half-crazed 'gun nut'), spell-checked, and has the 
facts straight.
The NRA and other organizations can do only so much, and the politicians DO 
listen to their consituents in many cases. You can bet that they have 
staffers who read the papers from their home districts, especially the 
editorial pages and letters to the editor. Do your part!
--- FLAME v1.1
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