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"None of them will vote for the democratic presidential candidates because of their absurd positions on guns."-Emoto
Another poster maintains that the gun issue is only worth a "tiny clot of voters" to the Democratic party. Hopefully, folks will read the following and see this is nowhere near the truth. This is a short account of my experiences as a machinist living in Mn working third shift during and after the AW bill/law and the brady bill/law, relating mostly to the AW ban.
I'm a machinist. For the most part, I have worked in non-union shops all my working-life. For anyone not familiar with the trade(though I don't imagine there are to many) it "contains" mostly folks highly proficient in math, highly mechanically inclined, and they are in my experience a group comprised primarily of Democrats. I have only met a dozen or 3 however who would vote for a pro-gun-control candidate in my entire time in the business. Back around the time when the AW had just passed, there were hundreds-literally HUNDREDS, crowded around the bulletin board at the shop, before shift change. Folks from both shifts made it impossible to get into the lunchroom to punch in, and prompted an ass chewing, because the mob was right in "center view" of the hallway security camera, which the company president liked to look at every morning, and had a tendency to bring up at company meetings and performance reviews. He looked for every reason to try the "15 cent" raise on as many people as he could. 15 cents is pretty much a slap in the face for a job well done IMO. Guess I'm still a bit hot about that...chiseler.
Tim was the plant manager, and did the ass chewing. He was usually a decent guy, provided noone was in camera range. The bulletin board at that time had news, info on the AW laws, then later info on exactly what the laws did, what guns were now "assault" weapons, banned, etc. For alot of us on third shift, cable TV in the lunchroom, and the bulletin board were our main sources of news. Work all nite...sleep all day...you get the picture. At Lunch, Tim sugested those interested meet at the fields after work, "unofficial" meeting, the purpose of which, to talk about the AW ban. Everyone knew where the fields were, because our company co-ed softball team played and practiced there. Word got around the shop fast. So morning comes, and we punch out and go. "We" turns out to be alot of us. Cars going around the bend in front of me looked like a funeral procession, and they filled up a verry large portion of the parking lot.
I started there in sept 1992, and was there for 5 and a half years, during which time the AW ban and the brady bill passed into law, and I can tell one thing for sure. There were at LEAST 100 people out of the 220-some employees on my shift, that were angry about the AW ban. Even back then, these folks understood it for what it was- a simple cosmetic ban. The bulletin board info made it abundantly clear. They percieved a ban of this nature to be an intentional thorn in the side of lawful gun owners. The reason I can say with accuracy that it was 100 plus, is that when we met at the park where the softball fields are that morning after our shift got out, Tim starts doing a headcount because it looks like most of the shift has shown up. Then he decides it would be easier to count who isn't there, so we divide ourselves by department, and the department lead's count who isn't present from their department. Tim chuckles, and jokes that there are almost enough people present to run the shop at full capacity. There weren't, but the actual headcount was in the 130ish area(I don't recall the exact number). It was a CLEAR majority of the people working my shift though. These are blue collar working folks, part of the core of Democratic voters. MN being a liberal and Democratic state, they didn't have much of anything good to say about b*sh 1. They had since I worked there been doing things like saying "read my lips", and "saddam" pronounced "sad-dum" over the intercom. They weren't too happy with the "read my lips" fiasco, and I wasn't iether. These are honest working folks, why would they be? Why would anyone be for that matter. When I first started there, EVERYONE was talking about Bill Clinton, comparing him to b*sh 1. Saying how much better off we were going to be under Clinton.
The AW ban changed that.
The most commonly spoken comments at that meeting were something along the lines of "I feel betrayed, but I DON'T want to vote republican next election", and "I WON'T vote for an anti-gun candidate EVER AGAIN" and "why don't they try criminal control instead of gun control". There were alot of ...expletives thrown around. Some folks said little, and mostly shook thier heads in disgust. Others were...visably verry angry. Even though the great majority were Democraticly inclined voters, they were also gun owners, hunters, target shooters and collectors. These folks were formerly Bill Clinton supporters, including myself. And now they were extremely pissed. I agreed with them, and was pretty pissed too. None of them that I talked-to-regularly(and that was most of them) voted Democratic that next election year, or the one after that(2000). Nor did I. I haven't voted except local elections since 1992, and even then, I refuse to vote for an anti-gun candidate from any party. I became a stuck-between voter. Stuck between 2 partys that BOTH condemned beliefs I hold dear. At least, thats how I felt at the time, and how the anti's get me feeling from time to time.
The employees at that shop are still a pretty tight group, and even now, 1900 miles, several employers and a few years later, I still talk to alot of them. 5 of them are my closest friends, besides my other half, who IS my best friend, hands down. They STILL see Democrats as a threat to law abiding gun owners (whether thats truth or not matters little, where votes are concerned, perception is everything)and "None of them will vote for the democratic presidential candidates because of their absurd positions on guns" either, whether that position is real or percieved.
Incidentally, the shop in this account made precision medical parts,precision computer parts, and the like...NO military OR firearms OR defense related work at all. Also, the majority of folks I encountered didn't have any problem with the brady bill, just the AW ban. Those who DID have a problem with the brady bill were worried about registration/confiscation in the wake of the AW ban, but were few and far between.
This IMO, BLOWS A HUGE HOLE in any theory that most gun owners support gun control where bans are concerned, and completely backs up what Emoto said:"just pointing out that alienating a traditional base is not the best way to win elections."-Emoto
Any other machinists here care to share experiences or views encountered in the business? I don't know why it is, but this trade always seems to have alot of pro-gun folks in it.
I was trying to get this posted yesterday, but the other half made me stop and rest. We just found out that the myself, the other half, and one of our daughters don't have bronchitis like we thought, but have pneumonia(sp?), and youngest daughter is getting it now too. Food ciggs and soda taste "wrong", and typing alone is quite exhausting. Its going to be a long weekend.
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