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The 15th Annual RSA Historical Seminar will be held in
Tucson, Arizona, from September 22nd through the 25th.
This will be another good seminar with lots of opportunities
to renew old acquaintances and make new Remington
collecting friends. Please send your
registration and fees ($200 each
participant) to me a t the address
shown on pade 3 of this Journal as
soon as possible. We need to estimate
a headcount in order to be able to
arrange trip transportation and meals.
You may have heard that the
Marlin manufacturing facility in
Connecticut will be closed for efficiency
reasons and because of the high
costs of running a manufacturing
operation in New Haven and the State
of Connecticut. These fine guns will
continue to be produced in existing
Remington facilities in Ilion, New York.
That is good news for people who favor
these excellent guns and wherever
production takes place, it will be good news for Remington
employees and the local Ilion economy. Separately, Freedom
Group, Remington’s parent company, continues to acquire
sporting firearms, ammunition and accessories companies as
well as attending well to the law enforcement and military
markets. This is all good for the long term financial health and
market scope of Remington and its sister companies.
The year 2010 is turning out to be a political year
characterized by the ancient Chinese curse “May you live in
interesting times.” Along with other changes not wanted by
the majority of Americans, there are a number of anti-gun
initiatives which have been proposed at Federal, State and
Local levels of government. If you engage in any shooting
activities whether target or hunting, your rights are threatened.
If you collect guns but do not shoot them, do not assume that
these people do not want to outlaw all guns, even your
antiques. As it happened in other countries, the anti-gun and
excessive government control factions know they cannot do it
all at once, so they are usually going after gun owners progressively
and piecemeal. But their ultimate goal is elimination of
all privately owned firearms of all kinds and any vintage. We all
need to get involved. At a minimum, let your elected officials
know your feelings regarding gun rights and contact them
again for their support for all pro-gun legislation and ask them
to vote against anti-gun proposals when they come up.
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We also need members to get involved with the
workings of the RSA. The Society has no paid positions, and
everything is handled by volunteers. We need lots of help to
remain successful. You may not be able to attend the RSA
seminars and meetings, but there are
still things you can do. Recruit new
members. Most of us have gun
collecting friends who are not RSA
members and our dues are modest
relative to the price of a gun or even
most boxes of ammunition. Consider
writing an article for the Journal. It
does not need to be long, just interesting,
and we’ll give you assistance in
editing your work for publication. If
you go to gun shows where RSA has a
table, offer to tend the table to give the
person there a break. Even a short
break would be welcome to them. If
you cannot do that, at least stop by
and thank the RSA representatives for
putting on their exhibit and promoting
our Society. If you have a selling or
display table at gun shows, put out a RSA sign to advertise the
RSA and have a few application brochures on hand. You can
get applications from me, and the small signs from Roy.
Many museums have firearms. When you visit a
museum displaying firearms, whether local or one you encounter
while traveling, tell the staff you appreciate the firearms
displays. If the museum has comment cards, fill it out and
indicate your appreciation of the firearms material. Such
feedback filters up to museum administrative officials who make
the decisions regarding what is displayed and sometimes even
which items the museum keeps and which are sold to generate
revenue for other kinds of exhibits. You can find a good listing
of museums with forearms holdings on the RSA’s website:
www.RemingtonSociety.com. Click on Other Links and go to
American Museums.
Bottom line, what I am encouraging you to do is to be
active. You will enjoy your firearms avocation more, and it will
help assure that we can all continue to enjoy all aspects of our
firearms ownership.
Best regards,
Rich Shepler
RSA President
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