I got an email from a legislative aide after one I sent, where my senator wanted to have a chat. The senator and I talked on the phone for about an hour, one Sunday afternoon.
I've talked with Rep. Lucas a few times as well, and written with several others, among them Eric Koch and Jim Tomes... Solid men. Those are the good experiences. I also got an email from Evan Bayh's office including a line to the effect of, "...I've always been a strong supporter of the Second Amendment...", to which I replied, identifying specific votes the Senator had made that were expressly opposing the 2A, and called him out on the inherent falsehood of that statement. I got a note back, ostensibly from Mr. Bayh himself, though I doubt it was. It began with, "I'm sorry you didn't like my answer..."
I dropped it at that point, as I considered it futile to point out that it's not that I didn't like the reply, rather "YOU F***ING LIED TO ME!"
Worst, though, was a face-to-face conversation with Sen. Ron Alting, in which he promised to support a bill from Sen. Johnny Nugent that would have eliminated ALL GFZs other than federally mandated, within Indiana. This was followed at the end of the session by a series of emails in which I asked Mr. Alting to explain the fact that he promised support, but was one of (I think three?) senators on the GOP side to not vote for that bill. Initially, he said, "Well, you weren't there on the Senate floor during deliberations.." Oops. See, because I was watching on the webcam broadcast, and quoted to him several comments made there to prove it. He then changed his reply, and if memory serves, his issue then was that we didn't need a bunch of high school seniors carrying guns to school, for the bill would not have prevented that. Again, I refuted this, because Sen. Nugent had promised in open session that he would get a change made to prevent that. His integrity was questioned on the floor, and the bill was voted down. Finally, Sen. Alting changed his story again, and this time, it was, "I voted as a parent, not as a legislator." Big oops. "That's a shame, because you were elected as a legislator, not as a father." He then said we had nothing left to discuss.
So... yes, they do sometimes send personal replies... You just need to be aware of what you may get back when you receive one. Those latter two made me want to go take a shower.
Blessings,
Bill
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