The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling!

[Doc Shapiro]

Big John, it's possible that it'll become rule if voted down anyway.  But it at least sends a message that we aren't happy with it.

And unless they (the WB) have their heads in the sand and ignoring the Wire, they'll know why.

[Big John Denny]

Doc, you and others whose opinon I trust, as well as another close reading of the Mod Doc, have conviced me to change my vote to no, unless clarifications are inserted as suggested.

[Cuts Crooked]

Another thing that comes to mind....does anyone know what the process for amending this "covenant" if it becomes part of the rules? I get the destinct feeling that it's not gonna be that simple!!!!

Ok, what happened here has a long history behind it! There was/is a fairly large group of shooters who were not only concerned about the increasing numbers of mods becoming prevelant, but were dead set against the whole short stroke thing! These folks made enough noise that a rules committee was formed to address this problem! From that point things got more complicated!

The WB was insistant that certain guns be banned and told the committee to include the ban in the document, and it appears that they were also insistant the the SS mods be retained as legal. And for some reason the committee went in a lot of direction with other stuff that was never really in question when this all started! Altogether a recipie for failure, as long as the membership really examines the thing at all! Which may explain the timing of this. Either someone wants it to fail, or quite the opposite

Irrespective, those who wanted an end to the use of the short strokes already feel abandoned. The ruling the committee came up with made it clear in no uncertain terms that they are going to be ignored no matter what. (again, this may be at the direction of the WB) And there are those who see serious contradictions in the whole thing, especially when this

"Territorial Bulletin" to the TG's and club contact persons:

One other change to our rules is a descision by the Wild Bunch to declare the Model 1897 Winchester Shotgun, in 16 and 12 gauges, as the only pump shotguns that may be used in SASS Competitions.
This was done because of safety and competitive concerns with other brands and models of shotguns.

came to light! At that point it became obvious that competitive advantage was "relative" to "who's is making the descision" It takes on the appearence that if there is money to be made off something, then it will remain permissable, but old guns, that may or may not be safe, but give a competitive advantage don't give anyone a chance to make $ so the advantage they might bring to the game will not be allowed.

Finally: Robert Heinlein once defined committee as "a life form with six or more legs and no brain". and in this case it would appear to be appropriate! I think the WB made a HUGE mistake in handing over rule making powers to the TGs. They would be better off to retain that power to themselves and to live with the result of thier own mistakes and successes! SASS is business enterprize and in Big Business it is always wiser to retain control, or even the appearence of control, as opposed to handing it over to ones customer base. In this case they have a customer base that knows exactly what is going on in that the TGs committee is, at least in part, dictating the orders from the top, but trying to give it the appearence that it is coming from the wishes of the customers. (They are not THAT dumb) And that very thing alone is enough to cause a firestorm of angry comments.

At this point I'm not sure what will happen, but those who are talking seem to be indicating that this will fail. They could be wrong about that, we'll have to wait and see. But if it does, then SASS will have to impliment thier ban by edict, which is how they should have done it in the first place, and the "rules committee" will have to go back to the drawing board. Regardless, the game will never be the same!

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[Doc Shapiro]

The process to change it will be the same that we've always used to change rules.  Get your TG to submit a change to SASS and hope that they will include it on the Agenda for the next meeting.  You know how that works  .

From what I've heard, a large majority of TG's are in favor of keeping the short stroked rifles.  I don't know if that represents their clubs, or them personally.  Either way, due to the way it works, the SS won't be banned.  And it doesn't look like it's going to be limited much more than what the shortest easily available one is.  I've handled one of those.  Didn't like it.  Too much effort required to overcome the hammer with a shorter lever.  That causes the sights to bounce around and it's harder to keep track of the sight picture. 

As for the rest of it, I figure this is going to pass.  If it does, it's my hope that a lot of what's been pointed out and sent in to the committee will find it's way into the final copy.  Although it shoudln't without another vote.

This stuff gives me a headache.  I told my TG to vote no.  I hope that's the way it pans out.

Doc