My weekly e-mail from ammoland.com brings yet another “Compromise v. No Compromise” discussion. These academic debates inevitably miss the point as this is the wrong question to ask. When choosing which organizations to support, the most important question to ask is are they effective in implementing their agenda?
Everyone has ideas on how to solve the world’s problems. Very few people take the time to think about how to put those ideas into practice. Quoting the Founding Fathers is esoteric. Unless an individual or group has a way of either getting sitting legislators to respect the 2nd Amendment as the Founders intended, or replacing those incumbents with new representatives, that individual or group is just blowing smoke. Expounding esoteric answers when the votes aren’t there to make the change does not work. Ideas count for nothing unless there is a will and a way to practically implement them.
With that in mind, these are the questions I think everyone should ask before supporting, especially financially, any organization:
- Do they directly participate in the legislative process? Do legislators actively seek their input when drafting bills and before voting on them? Can they get their own ideas put into bill form, advanced through the legislature and signed into law?
- Do they directly participate in the political process? Do they have a PAC? Do they raise money for candidates? Do politicians actively seek their endorsement and does that endorsement carry any weight at election time?
Political activism is a finite resource. There is only so much time and money people have to give. I want to put mine into efforts that produce results. What about you?