Obama Off To A Slow Start In Capitol Hill Gun Campaign

BuzzFeed ^ | January 25, 2013 | John Stanton

[2ndDivisionVet]

President Barack Obama's campaign operation appeared to be getting off to a shakey start Friday, sending out an ill-timed email calling on millions of supporters to flood the Capitol Hill switchboard with calls supporting gun control.

Call in campaigns can be a powerful tool in lobbying Congress: when done right, lawmakers' offices are inundated with thousands of constituents demanding to speak with the senator or congresswoman about a particular issue. Well-orchestrated campaigns can even result in the congressional switchboard going down for hours at a time, disrupting everyday life in the Capitol and giving everyone in the building a sense of a national grassroots surge.

But the Obama email, penned by Former Obama campaign manager and National Chairman for OFA Jim Messina, didn't seem to be having much of an effect Friday afternoon. Five Democratic and Republican offices contacted by Buzzfeed from Illinois, Kentucky, California, Oklahoma and Tennessee reported either normal or below normal call traffic during Friday afternoon, and no perceptible increase in calls about gun control.

One of the offices indicated it was unclear if it received any calls on the issue at all during the day Friday.

The timing of the email may have been less than ideal. It does not appear to have been sent out to the OFA list until late in the day, which would make recipients from the east coast Midwest less likely to call — or to get through to someone even if they did.

The email was also sent on a Friday with neither chamber in session, which means there were almost no actual lawmakers around to have witnessed any problems a flood of calls would have caused...

[2ndDivisionVet]

This guy?

[Jonty30]

Yes.

[A Navy Vet]

"The timing of the email may have been less than ideal."

Duh, you think? With thousands buying thousands of weapons and millions of rounds of ammunition?

Personally, I am encouraged with all the gun buying. I read every day about those who never thought of owning a gun, buying them, including many women.

We're reaching a turning point in this Country. It is us law-abiding citizens against the criminals and tyrannical Fedgov. More and more States are passing CCW permits and even some are changing their State Constitutions and legislative laws.

This Nation is changing, for the good, with all the purchases of weapons/ammo. The Statists don't really get what they have done and still attempt. They think they can use horrific massacres to register and then confiscate self-defense weapons from the populace. They are wrong. The backlash is obvious.

[Baynative]

[RC one]

I think the outcome of this fight has been determined already and it isn't the one Obama wanted. He managed to break firearm sales records across the country; put millions of additional assault rifles, semi-automatic pistols,and high capacity magazines on the streets; and unified a previously fractured Republican party all while completely failing to achieve any of the actual gun control goals that he had actually wanted. In internet speak, we call this "Epic Failure".

[Fee]

Congress needs to look at the Ruger website. It has a box to allow pro 2A to use the internet to send a letter to all local, state, Congress, and POTUS stating opposition to any gun control measures. Site is three weeks old as I type and last I saw over 798,000 people took action. It can hit over 1,000,000 by the end of this coming week (4th week). Go to www.ruger,com. IAW that is a lot of people. Local, state, and Congress reps are right now doing sentiment counting. Over 798,000 emails in three weeks and climbing is sending a message loud and clear to Senate and House of Rep. Everyone who have not gone to the site, go to it. This includes NY gunowners who just had gun control imposed on them by Gov Cuomo. Send and email anyway, because many rural Dems state reps and RINO reps voted for it and show them the hornets nest they just kicked over. This may be your only chance to see the ban modified in NY. Same with all other liberal states. There are many blue collar Dems who love their guns amd they are pissed.

[jospehm20]

Some enterprising Republican should introduce bills repealing the existing federal gun control laws.

[trebb]

I used Ruger’s site to send to my reps a few weeks ago (was approaching 100k at the time. Got a positive response from my Congressman and zilch from the senator who is not nearly as conservative as he presented himself. I believe Wicker may have problems in MS when he comes up again.

[Fee]

It is entering the fourth week with 808,000 as I type. Send out the word, like to see it hit 1,000,000 plus by this coming Saturday. I would like to see this data broken down by state. I live in MD. We are a funny state. The Chesapeake Bay Area is flll with blue collar Dem voters who support tough environmental laws to protect the soft crab, duck and fishing. They also love their guns. The Dem reps are walking on thin ice and these emails thru Ruger will affect their support for the governor’s bill. The Baltimore Dems, and Wash DC suburb counties are the strongest supporter of gun ban, but the rest of the Dems in MD are more lukewarm. The MD gun ban requires handgun owners take an 8 hour class, lengthy permit process to purchase, and renewing the license every 5 years is pissing many blue collar Dem gun owners. They do not have time to take time off of work to take a day class and spend several days getting a permit. As one of them complain, the gun ban will only allow rich people to own guns!!!