mpe 0 Posted February 15, 2013 Hi Everyone, Decided it was time to stop lurking and formally join the community after attending yesterday's Assembly meeting. What a travesty that was. I'm 48 years old and haven't been in a government building like that since my 8th grade class trip. Never got involved in any type of political issues or activism. Voted for both major parties with a smattering of Independent over my voting career. Had to go Libertarian the last presidential election. Never really cared enough to pay attention to local or state politics at all. Until yesterday. I've enjoyed shooting off and on since I was in Boy Scouts nearly 40 years ago. Got back into it a little more seriously when I saw my son shooting at his first Boy Scout summer camp last year. He had some great success and most of all, really enjoyed it. Since then we've had some great times together at the range. We can burn through a few hundred rounds in a session easy. So when I heard our legislators were having a public hearing where they were considering 24 bills to relieve us of our some of our freedom, I decided to take the day off work and make an appearance in support of personal liberty. What I witnessed was a real eye opener. My only real question is why did they waste our time and money putting on this 'public' hearing? It was clear right from the beginning they had no intention of actually listening to their constituents. I loved Vlad's comment about how at least the communists pretended to listen. Why did they waste all of that time and effort so that they could not even pretend to pay attention? I sat through the very end until the last 'vote' was cast. While my disillusionment with the political system in NJ is now at an all-time high - I was absolutely awe struck and inspired by the passion, enthusiasm and dedication I saw in that room - and recognized a good bit of the testimony from postings I've read lurking around here. So while I don't know why the State bothered to put on that charade - I do think they got a bit of a rude awakening. They thought this was going to be a cakewalk they could wrap up in a tiny room in less than 3 hours !! Boy were they mistaken. I want to say thanks to the members of this forum that I heard speak yesterday. While I didn't speak yesterday - I may have now become an 'activist' (at least that's how the New York Times referred to the concerned citizens, made it seem like we were all just paid lobbyists). While I hope I don't ever have to sit in a room like that again in defense of basic freedom: Common Sense tells me we're going to have a lot of work to make these clowns realize - Enough is Enough is Enough !! Mike Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
blksheep 466 Posted February 15, 2013 First to say welcome! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BlueLineFish 615 Posted February 15, 2013 Welcome to the forums from Bayonne Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GeorgeHM 5 Posted February 15, 2013 Welcome to the forum. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rifleman1 32 Posted February 15, 2013 Hello and welcome to the Forums! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MedicYeti 96 Posted February 15, 2013 Welcome to the forum. Thanks to you, and everyone, who showed for the hearing. It is nauseating that they decided to pass these before the hearing even started. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dgstinner 11 Posted February 15, 2013 Welcome! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hd2000fxdl 422 Posted February 15, 2013 Welcome to the forum and we welcome any and every one to help with the fight for our rights. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
