We have so many good, thoughtful folks participating in this thread that I keep coming back to it with more to say myself. Dan you reminded me of something interesting about cowboy action shooting, right on point with your post. The national organization for the sport, the Single Action Shooting Society, was founded and headquartered in California for many years. When the state started their assault weapon ban laws, SASS actually hired a full-time lobbyist to represent them in Sacramento and to a lesser extent, Washington D.C. Very expensive, but the lobbyist was a former California Assembly member himself, and avid shooter. At one point the Assembly was about to add lever action rifles because some hold more than ten rounds in their tubes. The lobbyist sounded the alarm to cowboy shooters statewide, much ruckus was raised, and the rifles were exempted for the time being. (They may have added them later on, not sure.)dan dan the XD40 man wrote:
And the trap shooter guys dont think anyone needs an AR15, and cowboy shooters dont think anyone needs a Glock, etc etc...
People want their own little "segment" protected, and are willing to sell out EVERYTHING else if it means they themselves arent affected.
Gross.
The lobbyist knew that it would have been impossible to get the whole bill killed, he did the best he could.
After some more nebulous anti-gun action on the part of the state's lawmakers, SASS moved their headquarters, and the gigantic World Championship Matches to New Mexico in response. Several of the organization's big wigs sold their houses and moved east too. So did several long time native California shooters. That may sound like a small gesture, but thousands of people attended those events as participants, vendors, and spectators, coming from all over the U.S. and a dozen other nations. The move cost that part of southern California at least a few million dollars annually.
On a smaller scale here in our state, the Ohio Gun Collectors' Association moved their six annual meetings/shows out of Columbus several years ago, in response to the first assault weapon ban passed there. The city came to regret that loss of visitor revenue and tried desperately to get OGCA back, offering them a waiver of some kind. I was proud to see the organization tell Columbus to pound salt, more than once, in not-very-polite language, along the lines of 'Kill that ordinance entirely, or get bent!'
Several years later, of course, ORC 9.68 did that very thing, hopefully once and for all. Even so, I am told that the OGCA still hangs up when Columbus calls them.