Sen. Bayh responds to my concerns re: 2A

[Glockster]

Here is Senator Bayh's 'canned' response to my email expressing concern over the heightened activity by the Obama administration to restrict Second Amendment rights. His 2010 campaign is now in full force. As one would expect, there is no mention of respect for the Constitutional right to "keep and bear arms".


Thank you for contacting me regarding gun control. I appreciate your thoughts and concerns on this important issue.

The primary purpose of any gun control legislation must be to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals or juveniles. Throughout my public life, I have opposed legislation that fails to appropriately balance the need to maintain a safe society with the ability of law-abiding Americans to own and use firearms responsibly. I have always supported the Second Amendment and have opposed efforts to impose burdensome regulations on gun-owners. I believe that tough and effective enforcement of existing firearms laws is the best way to save lives.

Please be assured, that as gun control legislation is brought before the Senate in the future, I will keep your views in mind.

Thank you for contacting me. I hope the information I have provided is helpful. My website, http://bayh.senate.gov, can provide additional details about legislation and state projects, and you can also sign up to receive my monthly e-newsletter, The Bayh Bulletin, by clicking on the link at the top of my homepage. I value your input and hope you will continue to keep me informed of the issues important to you.









Office of Senator Evan Bayh
(202) 224-5623
Russell 131
Washington, D.C. 20510

 

[Bigum1969]

 

[HICKMAN]

While claiming to be a gun-owner and member of the NRA, he sure gets a low rating

Project Vote Smart - National Rifle Association Ratings

 

[Glockster]

Not too surprising, Bayh is a gun-owner and member of the NRA.

Do you view this as a supportive response???

Listen, I first met Evan Bayh when he was 18 years old and looking for a fraternity at I.U. he could get into without going through pledge training. Bayh is the son of leftist senator Birch Bayh and has spent his whole life positioning himself to join the 'family business', i.e., suceed his father as the U.S. Senator from Indiana. As a result of his early training on how to suceed his father, Evan has known from an early age that he needs to a)pander to the voters and b)never reveal his true feelings about anything. He has remained true to these principles since his teenage years. EB is the ultimate poll driven politician. He has no principles other than prevailing opinion is always right. He is "Mr. Synthetic" in that he is always "on", protecting his true feelings from public scrutiny. Evan is the ultimate 'trojan horse'. You let in what appears to be an attractive, reasonable politician and you get a left-wing liberal.

 

[ChrisK]

Here is what I got today from him today...
Thank you for contacting me regarding gun control. I appreciate your thoughts and concerns on this important issue.

The primary purpose of any gun control legislation must be to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals or juveniles. Throughout my public life, I have opposed legislation that fails to appropriately balance the need to maintain a safe society with the ability of law-abiding Americans to own and use firearms responsibly. I have always supported the Second Amendment and have opposed efforts to impose burdensome regulations on gun-owners. I believe that tough and effective enforcement of existing firearms laws is the best way to save lives.

Please be assured, that as gun control legislation is brought before the Senate in the future, I will keep your views in mind.

Thank you for contacting me. I hope the information I have provided is helpful. My website, Senator Evan Bayh — Senator for Indiana: Home, can provide additional details about legislation and state projects, and you can also sign up to receive my monthly e-newsletter, The Bayh Bulletin, by clicking on the link at the top of my homepage. I value your input and hope you will continue to keep me informed of the issues important to you.


Canned letter






Office of Senator Evan Bayh
(202) 224-5623
Russell 131
Washington, D.C. 20510

 

[Glockster]

Like I said, a "canned response". This language is designed so that it offends no one on either side of the issue. This is what Evan Bayh has practiced his entire life. No principles--just attempt to appeal to everyone.

In practice, it is a great strategy. It's gotten him elected by wide margins. He is now the 'lifer' from Indiana. The plastic politician who can fool most of the people most of the time.

 

[jmiller676]

.........thats how I feel when I e-mail my reps.
this too............
and this..............................
and one last one...............................

 

[HICKMAN]

Do you view this as a supportive response???

Had to update my post after verifying my facts.


With that said, I never buy the BS from a lefty politician.

 

[96harley]

I got the same reply...ho hum! He sure is creative.

 

[HICKMAN]

one of the things is, we HAVE to find good candidates to oppose Lugar and Bayh.

 

[Liberty's Teeth]

We as card carrying gun owners need to make a personal visit to his office to express our views.

 

[model67a]

Their personal feelings

I don't really care about their personal feelings. They were elected to represent us and if the majority of us have an opinion different than they do personnally if they are truly doing what they were elected to do they will represent us and vote the opposite of how they feel themselves. Unfortunately that very seldom happens. But if enough of us let them know that they can be replaced the next election that will get their attention. You may think that your corresppondence with them does no good, but you can bet they have some of their staff keeping track of what the email sentiment is so that they can get all the votes next election so your emails are doing good. If you want to really maximize it's impact put in the letter something refering to them representing us and the election coming up. I have never seen a politician that didn't pay attention if a vote was involved. stay safe

 

[Bill of Rights]

I exchanged a couple of emails with the Senator's office a while back, IIRC in response to HR 2640 (Veteran's Disarmament Act), as below:

Senator Bayh,
I know that this is likely a wasted effort to write to you, however I cannot and will not allow this bill to pass and go for the President's signature without voicing my objection to it. I cannot under any circumstance accept the underhanded and deceitful method by which this was passed through the House and done so such that American citizens who actually do get involved in and monitor the actions of you who we hire (elect) to administer our government for us are barred from knowing who voted.
Sir, the American people deserve better and even if you don't agree that the Constitution was written by men who believed that people should be armed and prepared to defend themselves and the country, even if you totally dismiss the certainty of another terrorist attack on American soil, you are clearly smart enough to see that the peoples' right to know whether or not their Congresspersons are truly representing them or not was usurped. Even if the other reasons together are not enough for you, certainly that must be sufficient to prompt you to vote against this travesty of a bill.
I look forward to your reply addressing this issue and will expect to see the bill defeated in the Senate.
Thank you for your attention and assistance in this matter,
Most sincerely,
(my signature and city)

Dear Mr. _____:
Thank you for contacting me regarding gun control. I app reciate your thoughts and concerns on this important issue.
The primary purpose of any gun control legislation must be to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals or juveniles. Throughout my public life, I have opposed legislation that fails to appropriately balance the need to maintain a safe society with the ability of law-abiding Americans to own and use firearms responsibly. I have always supported the Second Amendment and have opposed efforts to impose burdensome regulations on gun-owners. I believe that tough and effective enforcement of existing firearm s laws is the best way to save lives.
Please be assured, that as gun control legislation is brought before the Senate in the future, I will keep your views in mind.
Thank you for contacting me. I hope the information I have provided is helpful. My website, <http://bayh.senate.gov> , can provide additional details about legislation and state projects, and you can also sign up to receive my monthly e-newsletter, The Bayh Bulletin , by clicking on the link at the top of my ho mepage. I value your input and hope you will continue to keep me informed of the issues important to you.

Dear Sen. Bayh,
Thank you for the form-letter reply I received. It is refreshing to know that someone at least read enough of my email to recognize the correct subject, even if it was not you yourself, Senator. I must take issue with one of the phrases for which you take responsibility, since the letter originated in your office:
"The primary purpose of any gun control legislation must be to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals or juveniles."
Since there is no legislation which will keep guns out of the hands of criminals, how about instead of concentrating on regulating objects, we regulate the criminals? Senator, if someone commits a crime with a bomb or a hammer, we don't go trying to further regulate bombs and hammers, why would there be a difference if the tool used is a gun? As for juveniles, would it not be better to educate them, much as we do about fire safety (stop, drop, and roll) and medical emergencies (CPR/1st Aid)? Surely if a child can be taught to stop, drop, and roll when he is _on fire_, he can be taught to Stop, Don't Touch, Leave the Area, and Tell an Adult, or better yet, be taught, as happened for many years _in schools_, how to safely handle firearms.
You also wrote (or took responsibility for the phrase: )
"Throughout my public life, I have opposed legislation that fails to appropriately balance the need to maintain a safe society with the ability of law-abiding Americans to own and use firearms responsibly. I have always supported the Second Amendment and have opposed efforts to impose burdensome regulations on gun-owners. I believe that tough and effective enforcement of existing firearm s laws is the best way to save lives."
Senator Bayh, I'm sorry to remind you that this is not true.
In 1999, you voted to more strictly regulate the sale of Americans' private property by forcing them to do so via licensed dealers. Once again, if you want to sell your neighbor a hammer, do you need to do so at a hardware store? In 2004 and in 2005, you voted against protecting firearms manufacturers from civil liability for the proper function of their product. Should Ford be responsible any time someone dies or is injured in a car accident or because of the intentional misuse of their product by a criminal? Also in 2005, you voted to require the sale of a lock with a handgun, increasing prices of the latter and encouraging people to be defenseless when they might have the greatest need for their weapon to be accessible.
These are not the votes that oppose burdensome restrictions and regulations on gun owners, nor do they promote a safe society.
Where gun ownership increases, even the DOJ and CDC have found violent crime decreases. How can you claim to vote in favor of legal gun owners when your votes indicate otherwise?

"Please be assured, that as gun control legislation is brought before the Senate in the future, I will keep your views in mind."

I hope that you do so with a better record than you have so far shown. You did well with the vote to prohibit confiscation in times of disaster, and as this is the most recent of your votes, I will consider it encouraging for now. I wrote to you, Senator, because you are one of two who are supposed to represent me in the Senate. Sadly, neither you nor Mr. Lugar have displayed sterling pro-Second Amendment records.

Dear Mr. _____:
Thanks for writing me again. I'm sorry that you didn't find my answer to be satisfactory. I do my best to ensure that your questions are answered fully, even when the issues are complex.
When making a decision, I work to gather as much information as possible and listen to the concerns of all my constituents to make a decision that I think is right. I hope that more often than not, the positions I take are consistent with your views.
On those decisions where we disagree, I hope you will not be discouraged from continuing to contact me. Because, at the end of the day, democracy works best when the people's voices are heard by their representatives. Your view is important to me and your opinion will be fully considered.
Again, thank you for contacting me. I hope that the information I have provided is helpful. My website, <http://bayh.senate.gov/>, can provide additional details about legislation and state projects that may be of interest to you. I value your input and hope you will continue to keep me informed of the issues important to you.

At this point, I decided not to be lied to anymore, so ended the conversation with his aide (or whoever was writing the letters with his name on them)

Integrity is sorely lacking, I think.

Blessings,
Bill

 

[ihateiraq]

hes prolly got software that pulls key words from the emails and sorts them, and automatically replies with a selected response.

 

[Ashkelon]

I wanted to like Evan Bayh but over the past decade or so he has been such a milktoast on issues that I can no longer respect him as a man. He is a Senator and has failed to be vocal on any single polarizing issue. We live in a society wherein a middle road is helpful for the majority of our lives but there are times when firm positions must be taken however popular or unpopular they may be and which ever way it may polarize a constinuency.
It is now wonder he gets vetted and then dropped during every presidential screening process.

 

[JPY]

Someone should write him a pro-gun control, anti-gun letter and see what the canned response is.

 

[bowhunter_1978]

This is total B.S. It is becoming very clear that the Democraptic party is bent on disarming the very people that will stand up against them when we have finally had enough of the crap that has been going on as of late in Washington. The people of this country that stand behind them will undoubtedly be the ones who want us to go out and kill them something to eat when the economy collapses and groceries become a luxury that only their left wing buddies at AIG and the like can afford. It may be too late to save the last election but bet your ass come election time in 4 years we had better show these baffoons that the American people are not going to sit by and watch this country get flushed down the toilet.

 

[antsi]

This language is designed so that it offends no one on either side of the issue. This is what Evan Bayh has practiced his entire life. No principles--just attempt to appeal to everyone.

Totally agree.

I am always leery of these "balance the need" responses.

He says he wants to "balance" our Second Amendment rights against the need to protect the public. Inherent in this statement is the mistaken concept that firearms ownership threatens the public, and it has to be controlled and infringed and regulated.

How about I "balance" his freedom of speech against my desire for everyone to agree with me? How about I "balance" his freedom of religion against my desire for everyone else to worship according to my beliefs?

What he really means is that he will "balance" the political clout of gun owners vs. gun controllers on a moment-by-moment basis. When the wind is blowing toward gun control, he'll support gun control. When the wind shifts direction, he'll pretend to be on our side.

 

[Glockster]

I got the same reply...ho hum! He sure is creative.

It's all part of the illusion (read: con job) that politicians create with the internet, pretending to be so accessible to their constituents. What happens with your emails, letters and phone calls is that they are entirely managed by a low level staffer who simply compiles all communications from the 'unwashed masses' into survey results. The pol is never bothered with actually reading any of this incoming "garbage". When they desire information on how a pending decision will fly back home, they use this database to help position themselves "properly".

Remember, the definition of "moderate" is: one without principles.

 

[model67a]

Congress votes

bill of rights, on finding out how the congressmen vote, you will be able to find out how the congress vote was on the site below. stay safe.


Congress votes database | washingtonpost.com