REGISTER NOW FOR THE RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS RALLY

PAFOA has created special discussion threads on our forums where you can organize with other gun owners for a ride share to Harrisburg. Whether you’ve got a full-sized van with rows of seating, a family sedan with a couple of spots around the baby seat, or a motorcycle with sidecar, you can find folks in your area who may be willing to share expenses and keep you company.

The Requirements

All applicants are required to:

• Provide their real name, address, and phone number to the organization.
• Blog under their real first name and last initial (at least.)
• Have experience blogging.
• Be willing to dedicate enough time to submit at least one blog post a week (assuming there is something to submit of course.)
• Be willing to work with an editorial staff to ensure the quality and consistency of the blog.
• Be OK working with us as we collectively figure out how to smoothly run such an operation. This is going to be a learning process for all of us.

Applicants will get bonus points for:

• Having a history of positive contribution to our discussion forum.
• Experience with Wordpress.
• Experience blogging in the gun blogosphere.
• Being willing to blog under their real, full name.
• Being a resident of Pennsylvania.

To Apply

UPDATE: We have received a bunch of applications which we will be reviewing shortly and choosing the first round of bloggers. Thank you to everyone who volunteered, applications are no longer being accepted at this time.

Email blog@pafoa.org with the following information:

• Your Name.
• Your PAFOA Forum Username, if you have one.
• A summary of your blogging experience.
• Links to any blogs you run or have written for.
• Days/times when you will/will not be able to post entries to the blog. (For example if you can’t blog during work hours, please let us know.)

PAFOA thanks all applicants in advance and we look forward to hearing from you! Please keep in mind that we are not yet sure how many applications we are going to get, so depending on that not all applicants may be selected in the first round.

Pro-gun groups at every level have taken on this battle to educate mayors and reduce Bloomberg’s political force in the states.  At PAFOA, our efforts have focused on a quiet education strategy.  However, for those mayors who have so far refused to resign from the group, it is now time to turn up the grassroots pressure that has successfully convinced others to leave.

After a thorough analysis of the Pennsylvania coalition of mayors working with Bloomberg was posted by NRA Election Volunteer Coordinators in mid-August, we worked together to create a strategy to convince MAIG mayors to resign their membership in the organization.

View Bloomberg’s Anti-Gun Mayors in Pennsylvania on a map.

Looking at the map, we conducted detailed research into each of the towns and picked 15 starter cities based on the likely impact of PAFOA residents. Each PAFOA member who received an email this morning lives in a city where, if gun owners work together, they can make a difference for the Second Amendment.

In August, I sent each of the targeted mayors a letter in hopes that a simple explanation of the actions by Mayor Bloomberg in their name would inspire each of them to resign from the organization. In early September, NRA sent their members in key cities postcards calling for grassroots opposition to the members of MAIG. The response to these mailings has been tremendous. Of the original 15 mayors targeted by PAFOA, only two have resigned. Of the mayors NRA targeted in Pennsylvania, 15 have given up their membership. Here are the mayors who have parted ways with Mayor Bloomberg since that time:

• Akron Mayor John McBeth
• Beech Creek Mayor David E. Orr
• Bowmanstown Mayor Keith G. Billig
• Brackenridge Mayor Jeffrey Cowan
• East Berlin Mayor Keith Hoffman
• Gettysburg Mayor William Troxell
• Harmony Mayor Cathryn H. Rape
• Midway Mayor Karen Bartosh
• Mount Penn Mayor Josh Nowotarski
• North Irwin Mayor Leonard L. Santimyer
• Slatington Mayor Walter Niedermeyer
• Summit Hill Mayor Paul R. McArdle
• Tower City Mayor Dale Deiter
• Ulysses Mayor Jane Haskins
• West Reading Mayor Shane Keller

Before this push began, former Williamsport Mayor Mary Wolf told Bloomberg in her resignation letter, “I have learned that the coalition may be working on issues which conflict with legal gun ownership, and that some actions on your behalf are dubious.” Since her defection in 2007, the condemnation by mayors who felt duped has grown louder. Keith Hoffman of East Berlin said, “They swindle you in and then put your name on the list.”

Many mayors around the country are now beginning to report that they knew nothing about joining the group and never recall signing any pledges to support Mayor Bloomberg’s anti-gun policies. Mayors from South Dakota, Texas, and Florida have publicly confirmed that Mike Bloomberg never sought their permission when signing their names to advertisements condemning concealed carry legislation.

In Pennsylvania, the imperative the encourage mayors to leave Bloomberg’s coalition is clear. In addition to Bloomberg’s attacks on concealed carry reform at the federal level a disturbing trend has emerged in the state level battles. Each of the cities to pass local gun control ordinances in challenges to the state preemption laws is lead by members of MAIG. Pittsburgh’s mayor, a longtime supporter of MAIG, has recently tried to breath life into a gun ban that the state Supreme Court previously struck down as illegal. Philadelphia’s Mayor Nutter has been an outspoken supporter of MAIG’s policies, and we don’t need to remind you of all of the gun control attempts the city has made under his watch.

If you received an email from PAFOA this morning asking you to call your mayor, please act soon. There is an opportunity to make a tangible difference in your local community, cut the reach of Michael Bloomberg’s gun control campaign, and stop the spread of anti-gun legislation here in Pennsylvania. The presence of that call to action in your inbox means we’ve crunched the numbers, and we believe you can make a difference for the Second Amendment.

If you did not receive an email, please confirm that we have your town or zip code on file. This information is what we use to analyze whether enough PAFOA members are likely to make a difference in the local battles. If you do have correct location information in your profile, keep an eye out for future calls to action.

When PAFOA was created, it was designed around a community model with the goal of allowing people to help people without requiring that someone be at the top involved in everything. Looking back over the last 3 years I am happy to say that Pennsylvania gun owners have taken that model and run with it, accomplishing more together than any one of us could ever do alone.

You have been instrumental in tanking gun-control legislation proposed by those who would strip us of our freedoms in the state legislature, you have helped friends and neighbors stand up for their rights, and you have strengthened my belief in the future of the right to keep and bear arms in Pennsylvania and the United States.

We still have a lot of work to do and our job will never end, but thank you all for your support and your involvement,

Daniel Pehrson, Founder & President, Pennsylvania Firearm Owners Association