John Brantuk believed so, even while realizing his run for the California Assembly needed to overcome a solid left-leaning lead in his district.

Still, John counted on the support of gun rights advocates because of his leadership in promoting the Second Amendment at the local level, hosting a monthly dinner for Los Angeles activists. A major gun show proprietor even gave Brantuk a list of over 12,000 people in his district.

So what happened? Maybe a dozen people volunteered to help the campaign. And the gun show list? Less than 1,200 were even registered to vote! John lost and the campaign left him over $10,000 in the hole, with no help forthcoming. Why should someone with political aspirations ruin his chances by championing something as unsupported as gun rights?

We need to punish anti-gun politicians.

Russ Howard believed that. His Californians Against Corruption recall effort was largely responsible for leading to the defeat of powerful Senator David Roberti, co-author of California’s “assault weapon” ban. Naturally, media smears went into full gear. CAC was accused of white supremacist ties. Contributors began receiving threats. One officer’s home was broken into and his guns were stolen. Another had his office broken into and telephone wires cut. And then the papers started identifying contributors.

Fearing for their safety, Howard made the required financial reporting to the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission, but withheld names of contributors until after the recall. In retaliation, the FPPC slammed Howard and CAC’s treasurer with the largest administrative fine in its history, over $800,000. Despite numerous pleas to gun owners for help, Russ is on his own.

We need a mass campaign to inform Americans about their right to keep and bear arms.
That’s why Citizens of America was formed. “Our goal is to blanket America with hard-hitting, thought-provoking ads that will stop citizens in their tracks and make them think about the destination and terrifying consequences of the immoral and unconstitutional ‘gun control’ path down which this country is being misled,” said COA president Brian Puckett.

The ads were professionally produced and they were informative, entertaining and powerful. COA got them played on radio stations in every state and attracted national publicity. But radio spots, even with occasional friendly station managers playing them as public service announcements, are expensive.

The funding needed to maintain the effort and expand into television didn’t happen. Eighty million gun owners, and COA could barely break the $100,000 barrier in its first year of operation. Ultimately, it folded for lack of support, while anti-gun organizations enjoyed multi-million dollar budgets and photo ops with top politicians every time they opened their yaps.

These are just three cases where gun owner apathy resulted in the grinding down of those leading and shouldering the load. If I had the space, I could tell you of many more.

We have no shortage of expectations and strong opinions about what we want. But when it comes time to step up to the plate, things get awfully quiet.

What did Walt Kelly say in his old “Pogo” comic strip? “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

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