I see on all the different (and better) forum sites I'm on stuff about e-mailing your representatives or signing online petitions. Don't bother. Most politicians don't give them much weight esp form letters online. The most effective things you can do is call your representatives office. They keep close track of calls. Send him a letter type written with your name and address and hand signed. Their office keeps close track of them. As to petitions. Write out what the petition is about make beacoup copies. Then get your friends and buddies (Like the guys/gals at your Rod and Gun Club) to wear out some shoe leather and go from door to door getting signatures or a bloody nose from a slammed door. Spend a couple weekends getting signatures. Then send them to your representatives. This is the kind of stuff that gets em to sit up and notice. I spent half a day talking with the staff of my representatives both state and federal on the phone. And as you know I live in NY and some of our representatives are plain LOONEY TUNES(Schumer). His office is getting slammed according to the person I talked with primarily by pro gun constituents. The beauty of writing letters and making phone calls is you can sit on your arse to do it. Most importantly BE POLITE!! Tell them who you are and what your views are and why the particular rep is wrong or laud them for being right. Before you call or write sit down and make a list of talking points. Point A is wrong. Because. And so on. When writing use spell check. To catch grammatical errors read it backwards several times. I got a 4.0 in two semesters of college writing. But I'm still guilty of making grammer mistakes on the forums and letters. When its important I check my grammer.
Your representatives time is valuable BUT they recognize that YOUR time is also valuable. And if you are taking time to call, write, or go out getting signatures on a petition they regognize the depth of your comitment on the matter in question.