The 2000 elections should be only a week or two away, depending on when you actually receive this copy of Gun Tests. Your willingness to get up off the couch and go vote will be important if we expect to have the ability to keep and bear arms into the future. As you might expect, we have some opinions about how you should cast your vote. Since we advise you every month on how you should spend some of your money, allow us a moment to guide you on how to spend your political capital as well:
• Please vote for anybody but Al Gore for president. He will push registration down our throats if he wins, followed shortly by some sort of fee/transfer tax, followed by transfer restrictions, followed by some sort of confiscation plan. If you doubt this, call a friend in Massachusetts or California and see what their gun ownership rights are like today.
• If you dont like George W. Bush, hold your nose and vote for him anyway. I dont think hes great on gun civil rights (Charlton Heston is), but hes okay. I didnt vote for Poppy Bush in 1992, along with 19 percent of the voters who went for Perot. What idiots we were, handing a plurality to Bill Clinton. Nows the time to make amends.
• Please vote for pro-gun representatives in your House or Senate races.
• Please call, email, or write one friend in a toss-up state and urge them to vote your way. Right now, the Rust Belt states as well as Florida and Georgia are still in play.
• If youre a union member, avoid doing get-out-the-vote work for Gore and other anti-gun Democrats.
• If youre a soccer dad, realize that youve got to do better than split the vote in your household. Men are voting almost 2:1 for Bush, women about the same for Gore. Men need to lobby their significant others to see things their way for once.
• If youre still undecided at this late date, theres likely not much I can say that will sway you one way or the other. But if you cant decide because youre split between two irreconcilable voting positions, then go with the guns this one time.
But if youre undecided simply because youre disengaged, cynical, or you believe your vote doesnt count, then vote for W. on the top of the ticket. It cant hurt.
-Todd Woodard
