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Union Sportsmen Describe Why They Back Obama |
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Martin Marks, Pennsylvania political communications specialist, sends us this report from Erie, Pa.
Stormy weather didn’t stop a group of more than 50 union sportsmen from shooting in the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO Working Families Trap Shoot Finals at the Bay City Gun Club in Waterford, outside of Erie on Saturday afternoon. And it didn’t dampen the enthusiasm these union gun owners and hunters have for Sen. Barack Obama.
Jack Fischer, president of the Erie-Crawford Central Labor Council, puts it this way:
There is a lot of nonsense out there about Barack Obama taking our guns. Working folks from our area are a lot more worried about John McCain shipping away our jobs.
Gun ownership has been a wedge issue used in recent elections by Republican candidates and their extremist allies to distract blue-collar voters from the bread-and-butter economic issues that matter to working families. But, at a roundtable discussion on the election prior to Saturday’s trap shoot, participants said hunters wouldn’t be dissuaded from focusing on economic issues by right-wing distortions of Obama’s record on guns.
Pennsylvania AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Rick Bloomingdale says:
Obama’s support of the Second Amendment is crystal clear. The truth of the matter is that George W. Bush and his failed economic policies have taken away more guns from average Americans than any gun control law ever passed in the history of the United States. The disastrous Bush economic policies supported by John McCain have turned pawn shops into gun shops as struggling workers hock their guns to pay their bills.
Timothy Helper, business agent for the Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 56 based in Erie, underscored the importance of protecting the traditions he and other sportsmen value but says voters must stay focused on their pocketbooks.
We come from an area where it is not uncommon for schools to close on the opening day of deer season and for local papers to give as much attention to their town’s trap shooting team results as high school football scores. Gun issues are important to us but we will not let right-wing rhetoric distract us from the critical pocketbook issues most important to our families.
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Paid for by the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education Political Contributions Committee, www.aflcio.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
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Dear concerned citizens of America and Mass Media of the U.S.A.
As a concerned registered independent voter, forensic psychiatrist, disabled American I made my decision to vote after taking into consideration following joint tickets attributes and characteristics.
1. Has the ticket shown adequate calmness, coolness, and connectedness’s under pressure to lead our nation [Presidential Temperament]?
2. Has the ticket shown sustained sound “Judgment and Caliber”?
3. Has the ticket shown adequate understanding of depth and degree to address the crucial challenges in their their purpose, policies, and positions [ Honesty, integrity and sincerity]?
4. Has the ticket sufficient “understanding and knowledge” of inside Washington workings [Experience]“?
5. Has the ticket reservoir resilience, wisdom, and vigor to address the present and future f our beloved “Great-grand Nation”?
6. Has the ticket enough joint foreign policy experience and exposure based on ” Values, Virtues, Vastness, and ” [American moral soul]“?
7. Has their campaign talk, slogans, ads, plans, and programs based on facts and are they free of fear, fiction, frivolous labels, unfair attacks, negativity, and impulsively? [No "imminent danger to national
security and safety"].
8. Has the ticket genuinely kept on message of country first and politics last and avoided copying [Message change"]?
9.Has the ticket message stayed away from Culture divide and war[ Disaster prevention ]?
10. Has the ticket resisted being surrounded, supported and surrogate’s by divisiveness, distortion’s, and destructive characters, [ Real patriotism VS shiftiness and shameless parrot-ism]?
I have personally and professionally concluded that OBAMA-BIDEN ticket will lift and inspire our greatgrand nation back to its greatness within and restore our global standing with the use of maximum, firm
international diplomacy and minimal force if and when indicated {” Peace thru Strenght “}.
Yours sincerely,
COL. A.M.Khajawall [Ret] MD.
Forensic psychiatrist, Disabled American Veteran and Iraq
Freedom team. Grass roots California leader per Senator McCain’s mailings.
I didnt see obama raising restrictions on mandatory and burdonsome Firearm Owners ID cards, nor lifting the handgun freeze in Cook County (Chicago). He hasn’t done anything for sportsmen nor hunters, and refuses to answer if law abiding women (or men) should be allowed to carry guns for self defense. I’d think the answer is “no”. I think it is clear why the NRA doesn’t support him.
It’s great that there is a Candidate out there working to protect a sportsman’s ability to afford access to arms and a decent place to go hunting and fishing.
Several years ago, I was a member of the NRA. They always seemed to be focused on the protection of my right to KEEP arms. They never seemed too concerned about how I was ever going to afford to PURCHASE the arms to begin with.
I will never forget the letters that Charlton Heston, NRA President at the time, sent me warning, something to the effect of; if I voted for Bill Clinton, he would take my guns away from me. Heck, the economy was so good under Clinton that I purchased 3 new guns during his tenure. Under Bush, not only have I been unable to make any new purchases of guns; but out of desperation to afford my other expenses, I’ve had to sell 2 that I already had. I can barely afford my hunting lease to enjoy the ones I have left. (So much for KEEPING my arms!!!) What good does it do me anyway, to own something that I have nowhere to afford to go and use?
I increased the size of my gun cabinet under Clinton and could afford to go hunting and fishing in a cleaner environment. I decreased the size of my gun cabinet under Bush (who the NRA was backing) and can barely afford to go at all on land with sparse wildlife and game.
The NRA is losing its credibility with true sportsmen. Click here for the best Sporting Association to find membership in: http://www.unionsportsmen.org/
AS A FORMER EAGLE SCOUT, CURRENT ENVIRONMENTALIST, CONSERVATIONIST, AND AVID SPORTSMAN; VOTING FOR OBAMA WILL NOT CAUSE ME A BIT OF TROUBLE!!!
We just posted info on Obama’s stand on guns. In short, he doesn’t not plan to take guns away and believes in the 2nd Amendment.
More info here:
http://www.aflcio.org/issues/politics/obama_guns.cfm
During the primaries, Obama tried to hide behind vague statements of support for “sportsmen” or unfounded claims of general support for the right to keep and bear arms.
But his real record, based on votes taken, political associations, and long standing positions, shows that Barack Obama is a serious threat to Second Amendment liberties. Don’t listen to his campaign rhetoric! Look instead to what he has said and done during his entire political career.
For a documented, fully cited look at his true record go here. And then decide if you can vote someone who WILL do his best to ensure you’ll never own another gun.
http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Federal/Read.aspx?id=3991
I’ve been a national union representative for over 40 years. I’ve hunted and owned guns since I was 11 years old living in the Shanondoah Valley of Virginia.
I’ve been concealed carry permitted for the last ten years and like American Express “don’t leave home without it”. I have a permanent shooting bench and target area in the field in front of my home. My carry choice is a S&W 38 Special, five shot snubbie using hydroshock hollow point bullets with a laser max sight.
I also have three other handguns, four shotguns and several high power, scoped rifels. All but the snubbie reside in a 700 pound Treadlok gunsafe bolted to the wall and floor.
Do I value my right to keep and bear arms? You bet your butt I do!
I’m working as hard as I can, walking, knocking and talking with other union members on behalf of Barack Obama!
I hate guns. I will vote for a candidate who will pledge to end gun violence, ban assault weapons, restrict and regulate gun shows, and cut the obscene military budget that is wasting taxpayers’ money on war and destruction. As MLK said, “The biggest purveyor of violence in the world is my own government.’ And a gunman killed him.
The US is the biggest arms merchant in the world, fomenting violence around the globe. And how can we expect to stop drive-by shootings when our government does fly-by bombings of civilians and civilian infrastructure? Solving problems with violence leads to more violence and war. It ain’t about self-defense or even common sense.
And to all the hunters who call themselves ’sportsmen’ it isn’t a sport unless your prey is equally armed. If you need to hunt to eat, get a bow and some arrows.
I respect your position, although I strongly disagree with it. I hope that we could agree to trust that Obama is more capable of striking the right amount of balance in regard to the enforcement of the 2nd Amendment to our Constitution than is McSame.
Policies that work in rural parts of America may not in urban areas like Chicago, Detroit, etc. I have never seen or heard of a gun spontaneously chasing down and shooting anyone. I have read of accidental shootings resulting from carelessness and negligence. I have read and seen video of purposeful shootings; sometimes mischievous, like a robbery; sometimes heroic, like the foiling of the mischievous. The point is guns alone don’t kill people; people kill people. They have done it for thousands of years, if not with a firearm; then, with a bow, knife, sword, hatchet, spear, etc. A gun is just one of many different weapons.
Thank God the colonists of America didn’t possess a similar hatred of guns; else you might not enjoy the sort of freedom of expression as illustrated above. At the time, many of those early patriots felt the same way MLK did. Though, I tend to agree with former Senator Max Cleland (D-GA), “America shouldn’t expect to spread democracy in the world through the barrel of a gun.”
When I go into the woods, I’m really looking for some relaxation and quiet time to reflect on things. I’ll shoot more bull than deer after getting a chance to clear my head. Having the prey firing back at me would spoil all that.
Seriously, each State has a Department of Natural Resources that monitors the population numbers of each species of game and based on the available food resources and other factors can establish limits on how many are allowed to be harvested as well as the length of the seasons. Hunters play a vital role in maintaining healthy populations of wildlife by participating in these conservation efforts. The U.S. Department of the Interior works with the States’ DNR through various agencies like the U.S. Geological Survey to assist in long term planning for our Nation’s wildlife and habitat. Responsible Presidential appointments to these positions are crucial for ’sportsman’ in America whether they realize it or not.
Since you suggest using a bow to hunt, (which I also do), I can see you understand the futility of eradicating weapons of death from existence. I am all about firearm safety. I’ve been trained in its practice…seems like all my life. A firearm combined with proper training is a good thing to have; whether facing off against an intruder or a mercenary Blackwater soldier, should it ever come to that. (I believe in preparing for protection against enemies both foreign and DOMESTIC) An untrained person with a knife might as well go ahead and surrender all their liberties and freedoms if they are unwilling to responsibly exercise their 2nd Amendment Right when facing off against an adversary whose weapon of choice is not a knife.
Getting killed takes away every Right you have and every Right you were ever planning to invoke, simultaneously. It is in that moment of truth that I prefer to be equally armed with such adversaries…just to be a good sport about it and all.
I consider myself a sportsman and I don’t hunt. I fish when the one year old and three year old let me get away. But I grew up hunting and many in my family do. And I support Barack Obama because his message top sportsman is broader than just the gun issue. I trust that he is going to protect and expand habitat, clean up what we have and ultimately create more opportunities for people to hunt and fish. And that is the legacy I want to leave for my kids.
Vote for John McCain and there will be so many people out of work in the city, everyone will need a gun!