Old dog learns new tricks

For a long while, I’ve been advocating for my favorite of our civil rights, the 2nd Amendment. Sure, I like the others as well, but as someone who simply loves guns and their history, the 2nd has a special place in my heart.

However, my form of advocacy has been limited to things like this blog, writing letters to politicians, donating to various gun groups, explaining my passion to friends/neighbors/coworkers and so on. Never did anything more “formal”. Sure, I’ve joined several pro-gun groups, but I’m not a big one to get more “involved”, doing the things that require a more hands on/face-to-face approach with folks I don’t already know.

But today I took my first foray out into that larger word, attending a conference for budding 2nd Amendment activists put on by Grass Roots North Carolina. It was definitely an eye-opening experience.

Led by Paul Valone, GRNC’s front man, those in attendance got a basic overview of GRNC’s successful methodology for influencing the legislative process–or as Paul put it, providing a source of political pain for politicians who don’t vote our way. It’s in-your-face aggressive and it gets results. Not my normal way of doing things, but given the documented results that GRNC has achieved, I may have to learn a new way of doing things.

Hell, as an old retired guy who is just working now because he likes what he does for a living, I may even try a bit of it on some of my opponents in office politics, just to see if it transfers. It would be a shock for the crowd I work with now, that’s for sure. They are the poster children for “compromise” and “civility” and “passive-agressive behavior”. I suspect the looks on their faces would be a Mastercard moment–priceless.

I also got to meet a fellow blogger, Sean D. Sorrentino, proprietor of An NC Gun Blog. That marks my first time actually meeting a fellow blogger. Kind of odd for me, given I’ve gone a long way to keep my work as The Freeholder and my real life identity separate. But again, being retired is proving to be a bit liberating in a lot of ways.

Like freeing up some space to do more for my favorite civil right.