by Sean Oberle
Analysis@KeepAndBearArms.Com

March 20, 2002

Your signature still matters. Please help spread the word. Sign the petition here: http://www.petitiononline.com/hrblock/petition.html. 

Background.

Thank you to all 1,350 of you (as of 4:28 p.m. EST, 3/19). Although there is no way for me to thank each of you personally, I have read every comment.

After a nearly disastrous start, we are making the H&R Block petition a success. It went up about 1 p.m. EST, March 13. With only about 30 signatures (I had not yet promoted it widely), at approximately 5:30 p.m., the entire PetitionOnline site went down for about an hour. After it was back up, we logged about 24 signatures an hour. By 1 a.m., we had about 170 signatures.

Then disaster came –- the PetitionOnline site crashed again, and this time did not come up for about 12 hours. I had spent the better part of the evening promoting the petition. I knew that a lot of you were trying to sign it but couldn’t — I was sick thinking about how many people would not try again.

But the site was back up at about 1:30 p.m. March 14, and by 3:30, we had broken 250 signatures — a quarter way to 1,000 in a bit more than a day, with most of that time down. By 9:00 p.m., we’d hit 400. And so it has gone. 

This is not over folks. While I sent the first 1,300 signatures to H&R Block Chairman of the Board Frank L. Salzzoni earlier today (with copies to the rest of the board and top executives), I will send Mr. Salzzoni an updated pile of signatures every 1,000 or so signatures.

Sean Oberle is a Featured Writer and gun control analyst for KeepAndBearArms.com. He can be reached at Analysis@KeepAndBearArms.com. View other articles from him at http://www.KeepAndBearArms.com/Oberle.