Five Seasons Media, Josh Scheinblum’s company, reached out to me as early as 2019 in an attempt to discuss marketing and content creation. As an all-volunteer 2A advocacy group, we get solicited daily to spend money on marketing, usually from businesses that truly don’t like or care for our mission. This should indicate how much you can expect their wizardry to help your cause. Very little in most cases, so be careful who you work with and how you spend your precious few dollars…
Oddly, Josh wasn’t so much pushy as dedicated. He was persevering and challenged me in an email exchange. It would have been easy to hit the “spam” button and never see another email from him, but I sensed that he genuinely cared about both our work and his. So, I took a few minutes to push back on him and replied with something snarky about how a marketing agency like his planned to quantify the work product. We took the conversation to a phone call next, a Zoom meeting after that, and then a sit-down meeting around the big conference room table at Brownells with the core players.
A partnership, far more powerful and impressive than I had ever possibly imagined was spawned. …And whether they realize it or not, Iowans are forever in Josh’s debt.
a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or grant
an action going beyond nor limits
Josh approached the aspects of helping IFC in every sense of these 3 definitions of the word, “liberty.” He wanted, more than anything, to help IFC pass the Freedom Amendment and give Iowans the option to vote on arguably the very best Right to Keep and Bear Arms constitutional amendment in the United States. He came armed with a plan to hoist the Freedom Amendment into the history books. IFC had carried that water for 10 years through many trials and much tribulation and Josh was right there with us on the nature of the 1st two definitions of the word, “liberty.” Josh sought to help us get the vote over the finish line, which meant he took “liberty” in the 3rd definition to elevate the issue for all to ponder. He did so at first because we were partners and we were paying him. However, he and his team of professionals ended up doing so because we came to trust them as family. The liberties he took went above and beyond the call of duty, servicing our needs quite literally 7 days a week through thick and thin.
Results
Several years beyond our initial meeting, we can peer back in retrospect, with a series of challenges met, competition bested, and a constitutional amendment nearly everyone didn’t think possible ratified by the largest popular vote in Iowa’s history. I often wonder about the road untraveled. What if Josh hadn’t been so resolute when contacting me? What if we’d never partnered with 5 Seasons to guide us through the maze? Would we have gotten the Freedom Amendment over the finish line with record-breaking numbers? I just don’t know the answers to all of those questions. Such is the nature of pondering… But what I don’t have to ponder is the outcome. Josh helped IFC in ways nobody can imagine and we probably don’t appreciate enough. He became a friend and a brother through those years and I’m forever thankful. I think liberty-loving Iowans should be thankful.
IFC moves forward now with a new social media partner for our social media as our volunteers take on a much-increased role in the daily work. We all wish Josh and his team the very best, and I have no doubt we’ll work together again on electioneering or projects yet to be designated. For me, this is hard… When you get used to talking with someone daily, there is a hole associated with that missing conversation. But, I know the 5 Seasons Media company is hugely successful and they’ll fill their hours with content creation, marketing strategy, and engagement tactics for their clients. They are a top performer in those categories and not slowing down.
Our collaboration together was the right choice at the right time and Liberty was offered to all. As IFC closes this chapter of the book, we thank you, Josh, and every single person at the 5 Seasons Media company for your tireless work and support. We offer a special thank you to the spouses of the company personnel… Without their support, the folks who serviced our needs, day in and day out, couldn’t do the job. That isn’t lost on the many folks at IFC, as we too do our work with tremendous support at home. We owe you a debt of gratitude, if not far more.
Gabby Franco, Olympian, Competitive Shooter, and all-around American talks with Michael Ware of IFC about her time growing up in Venezuela and offers a unique perspective and context for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, especially during these trying times in Israel and beyond.
Gabby will be our featured speaker at the 2024 IFC 2A Day at the Iowa Capitol this year held on January 18th. (Note, this year we’re holding a morning program, so pay close attention to the start times.)
Iowa’s Freedom Amendment Ceremony was held by the Secretary of State’s office last week. IFC was proud to be featured and recognized for all the hard work associated with years of planning and execution.
For years, like most IFC members, I have found it best to believe people when they tell you they want to do something. So when this article came across the web today, I thought about the best way to highlight this message without plagiarizing the author’s work. Although I want to copy and paste the entire article here, I’ll just give you D.Parker’s intro paragraphs and you can follow the link to the original article at American Thinker;
“December 13, 2022
All the proof you need: The left wants to steal your guns
Leftist liberty deniers parrot a version of “nobody wants to take anybody’s guns away” in almost any debate on the commonsense civil right of self-defense for several reasons. They do this primarily to give you a false sense of security that they really aren’t out to confiscate guns — when that has been and always will be their ultimate goal.
But that isn’t the only reason. They want to avoid the stark, historical comparisons with authoritarian fascists and socialists of the recent past that began their oppressive regimes with the confiscation of guns. See the history of the USSR, National Socialist Germany, China, Cuba, and Venezuela for examples of leftists confiscating guns before they grabbed ultimate power.
Some have gone so far as to deny the facts of history. Someone who ominously named himself the “Propaganda Professor” actually claimed:
Hitler didn’t ban guns, but we can pretend he did; very few liberals ban guns, but we can pretend they all do; therefore, liberals are just like Hitler. And other false Hitlerisms.
The funny thing is that since we have taken notice of their demands for gun confiscation and begun to list them out on a periodic basis, they are less likely to issue these demands. Apparently, leftist liars don’t like being called out on their lies…”
The right to keep and bear arms has been added to Iowa’s state constitution after voters approved Public Measure 1, also known as the Freedom Amendment, at the ballot box on Tuesday.
The passage of the Freedom Amendment was made possible thanks to the grassroots efforts of the Iowa Firearms Coalition (IFC), which through their network of advocates, supporters, and volunteers, successfully lobbied the Iowa Legislature to approve the ballot measure in two consecutive legislative sessions before the issue was brought to Iowa voters.
“This is a historical day for freedom, civil rights and the Hawkeye state,” said IFC President Dave Funk. “The right to self-defense and bear arms is here to stay in Iowa and we are grateful for the thousands of Iowans who took time out of their days to cast a vote in favor of liberty.”
With the passage of the measure, Iowa joins nearly every other state in the Union in adopting its own version of the Freedom Amendment. Only five states in the country, Minnesota, Maryland, California, New York and New Jersey, do not have Second Amendment protections in their respective state constitutions.
Polling done prior to Election Day showed the Freedom Amendment was expected to be the most popular item on Iowans’ ballots, with strong support among registered Republicans, Independents and Democrats.
“We could not be happier that Iowans of all political stripes and backgrounds came together to support a nonpartisan issue that impacts us all,” said IFC Chair John McLaughlin. “While shady out-of-state billionaire backed organizations may have attempted to meddle in our elections, confuse voters and spread misinformation, we are proud to say Iowans knew better.”
In the days prior to Election Day, IFC received multiple reports of alleged attempts by a poll worker to misinform voters about the Freedom Amendment at the Woodbury County Courthouse in Sioux City. These allegations are being investigated by the Woodbury County Sheriff’s Office, the Woodbury County Auditor’s Office, and the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office. It remains unclear at this time what impact these alleged actions may have had on voters. IFC plans to follow this case and advocate that should any poll worker be found to have broken the law, they are held accountable for their actions.
The Iowa Firearms Coalition, an affiliate of the NRA and NSSF, is a 501(c4) nonprofit and is Iowa’s only effective pro-Second Amendment rights organization.
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