20. Telephone ``ON THE 18TH OF APRIL IN SEVENTY-FIVE NARY A MAN IS NOW ALIVE, WHO REMEMBERS THAT FAMOUS DAY AND YEAR, OF THE MIDNIGHT RIDE OF PAUL REVERE'' Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. When Paul Revere (and also William Dawes and Samuel Prescott) rode through the night yelling ``The British are coming; the British are coming!'' they were alerting Americans that the next day, the British redcoats would be marching on Lexington and Concord to seize Americans' arms there. Because of the heroic rides of Revere and Dawes and Prescott, American militiamen were assembled ready to face the British the next morning on the Lexington Green and on the Concord Bridge. The Americans were routed at Lexington, but at the Concord Bridge, there ``the embattled farmers stood, and fired the shot heard 'round the world.'' The men of Concord smashed the Redcoats, and chased them all the way back to Boston. The American Revolution had begun and America had won the first battle--all because three brave men had risked their lives to alert their fellow citizens. Today, it wouldn't be very efficient to jump on a horse and yell ``The bureaucrats are coming; the bureaucrats are coming.'' But they are coming, and they want your guns. Success in a legislative committee hearing, like success in battle, depends on turning out large numbers of well-prepared forces. In mobilizing the pro-rights forces, the telephone today does that work that Paul Revere's horse did in 1775. The phone tree is more comfortable than a midnight horse ride, but it's just as important. Calling Legislators Just as powerful as letters are telephone calls. Telephone calls also allow you to fire one last salvo in the final days before a crucial vote. It's always helpful for an undecided legislator to be told by his aide ``Thirty calls came in this morning in support of the preemption bill.'' Most of the same rules that apply to writing to elected officials apply to phone calls too: stick to a single action you want the official to take (like vote for a particular bill). Express yourself politely. When you call, ask for the legislator's assistant who deals with right to bear arms issues. The address and telephone master list in chapter 16 lists the numbers of some elected officials, and provides room for you to add more. Phone Trees One of the most effective legislative tactics for gun clubs and local gun rights groups is to set up a phone tree. The tree operates as a system for one person (such as the Chair) to call five people (or thereabouts) who in turn call five more people, who in turn call five more, until the whole club gets the telephone tree message--hopefully within 24 hours or less. The organizational chart for the telephone tree lists exactly who will call whom, and at what phone number. Persons who can be counted on to be especially responsible (and to call back later if the first call goes unanswered) should be placed near the beginning of the tree. An alternative to the phone tree is the phone circle. There, the initiator calls person one, who calls person two, who calls person three, until the last person is called. The last person then calls the initiator, who then knows that the circle has been completed, and everyone has been called. Phone circles are best for groups of a dozen or less people. If the initiator hasn't received his confirmation call on time, he can begin calling through the circle, to see where the circle was broken. Phone trees are much more effective than phone circles at reaching larger groups of people rapidly. Their weakness is that if one person near the top of the tree neglects to make his calls, a large number of people down the line will never be notified. Thus, the phone tree organizers need to make spot calls, to check the progress of the message down the tree. Telephone trees are used for rapid mobilization, when there's no time to wait until the next club meeting. Trees can tell members about upcoming legislative hearings, or remind them to vote on election day, or urge them to attend a rally. The tree message has to be simple, because complicated messages get garbled when passed through several people. The purpose of a tree isn't to educate; it's to mobilize people who are already inclined to our point of view. After all, Paul Revere road through town with a simple message that ``The British are coming.'' He didn't offer detailed arguments about why King George's tax policies were unfair. The importance of telephone trees is proven every legislative season, when gun club members and their friends and families pack a room to watch a hearing on a bill affecting gun rights. It makes a very powerful impression on legislators when they see the whole room filled with pro-rights citizens. Phone trees are particularly important at election times. A few dozen votes is often the margin of victory in tight state representative or city council seat. If you and a few friends can make a few hundred phone calls in the two weekends before the election, you can put a pro-gun candidate over the top.