SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 2022 - SATURDAY STORY

 SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 2022 - SATURDAY STORY

This is a work of fiction.

**********************************

Mike Williams was a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association (NRA).  Growing up in Ohio, Mike’s family loved hunting.  As an elementary schoolboy, he accompanied his dad, Tom, as they hunted deer near his hometown of Zanesville Ohio.  His dad was active in the local NRA and related organizations.  

Tom Williams served a term as President of the local NRA group.  In that respect, they taught gun safety courses and worked to keep hunting open to Ohio residents.  Some landowners had posted ‘no hunting’ signs on their properties and while deer can’t read, it seems like they could jump fences and take refuge in the properties where hunting was banned.  

Tom, and later Mike, were active in the local Ducks Unlimited group which raised funds for waterfowl habitat. Ducks Unlimited generally has a big fund-raising dinner where guns and outdoor paintings are raffled off.

There was a gun club in Zanesville where members and guests could have target practice. Skeet shooting was particularly popular at the Zanesville gun club as shooting a clay pigeon at 50 yards.  By age 16, Mike was pushing the 98% accuracy rating.  

Mike grew up hearing about how some politicians wanted to ban guns.  He knew that was a violation of the second amendment which stated “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”  During college at nearby Ohio State University, Mike was a member of the college chapter of the National Rifle Association.  And on opening weekend for deer hunting season, Mike and Dad and friends would try to get the first buck!!  (Mike missed one deer opening as Ohio State had a big football game versus Penn State on campus.  But, he made up for it by going out on the second day of deer opening on Sunday).

Mike got a degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing and finance.  In his senior year at Ohio State, he interned as a lobbyist for the NRA for the Ohio Legislature. After graduating he continued in that job, building relationships with legislators.  Those that were hunters would get invited to a special hunting preserve run by the Ohio NRA.  Those that were not hunters - but favorable to the hunting and gun issues - might get a dinner of venison or pheasant.  

*****

And, of course, as a lobbyist, Mike had to convince the legislators to vote favorably on issues on gun control and hunting.  There were some legislators who wanted strict gun control, like Ernie Chambers from a mostly black district in Cleveland.  Ernie didn’t get any money, Ernie wasn’t invited to the special dinners and events.  When Ernie ran for reelection, Mike and other Ohio NRA lobbyists would meet with the opponent to Ernie and if the opponent was open to supporting NRA objectives and if there was a ghost of a chance that the opponent might get elected, then that individual would get some funds from the NRA.  

It actually was a pretty easy job.  Folks friendly to the NRA issues got money and those who weren’t friendly didn’t get funds and their opponents might get money.  

Occasionally after some difficult situation like a school shooting, Mike and his NRA colleagues might have to speak to the friendly legislators to help soothe them back “into the fold”.

Supporting the NRA was fairly easy.  Most hunters would automatically send a check to the NRA to feel like they were supporting hunting.  

*****

Then came the Grover Cleveland school shooting.  Grover Cleveland High School was on the east side of Columbus in a mixed neighborhood. A young man in his late 20s who had been kicked out of Grover Cleveland and had gone into the Army and had spent times in foreign locations and foreign wars and came back with shrapnel in his left knee - came to Cleveland High School and shot up some former teachers, some students, and even some coaches.  Then he killed himself.  He used an AK-47 type gun - semi-automatic, not a gun that would be used while hunting deer, geese, ducks, or pheasants, but guns that were used in warfare.  

“Ban guns” was the cry.  “Ban assault weapons”.

Mike and other NRA lobbyists were asked to “calm the waters”.  

But Mike was having some internal difficulties.  Could there be some compromise so that hunters and outdoor people could have guns but assault rifles were banned?  The shooter at Grover Cleveland High School had purchased the assault rifle at a gun show.  Everything was legal as far as the purchase, waiting period, and other requirements.  But the gun was not a gun to kill the trophy buck in the woods near Zanesville; it was not a gun that could be used to bring down a duck, or a rabbit, or a squirrel, or anything in the animal kingdom.  No, it was a gun that was designed for warfare, and thus designed to kill humans.

Then Mike was touched in a personal way.  Lilli Wosniack was a classmate at Zanesville High School.  Mike frequently sat next to Lilli when the teacher had a seating chart built on last names (Williams and Wosniack).  Lilli had become a teacher at Grover Cleveland High School and she had been shot in the assault.  Lilli had married and she and her husband had the cutest three-year-old daughter.  The daughter now had lost her Mom.

*****

A month after the Grover Cleveland shooting, Mike Williams resigned from his job as an NRA lobbyist.  

He said in a public announcement, “I am a hunter and have guns.  But, I cannot condone the use of military-grade weapons being sold and coming into the hands of crazed individuals.  The founders of the American republic had just revolted against a cruel society and the second amendment reflects the statement, ““A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”  But, in the interest of public safety, I can not morally approve of such military-grade weapons being available.   The NRA has justly protected hunters for many years, but that has indirectly protected serial killers and deranged individuals.  I can not in good conscience lobby to keep such assault weapons available on the streets of our city, and therefore I am resigning from my employment with the NRA.”

******

Mike was hired as a lobbyist by the Cleveland Clinic, a well-known medical complex seeking funding for advanced treatment for cancer and for better health for all.

*******

Pollyanna Karen writes.  I am not a hunter.  I have shot guns at Boy Scout Camp.  I have cousins who grew up as great skeet shooters.  I’m not sure what the policy can be.  The second amendment has value in today’s society.  If a madman politician wants to take over the United States government, the “well-regulated militia” should be able to stop an overthrow of our democracy.  

Paul Revere and his colleagues stirred their contemporaries to revolt against the English.  Can a solution be found?

*****

LOVE WINS

Karen - February 5, 2022