NRA: Earn it
I’m still getting some flak for my position on not being a member of the NRA. Here’s the deal: they must earn my membership, it’s not guaranteed. I joined for a year after the AWB expired. I’m not averse to joining just want to make sure they’re supporting things I think should be done.
July 5th, 2006 at 8:31 am
I’m not giving you flak, I was responding mostly to your other commenters. Of course maybe it’s just your guilty conscience. 😉
July 5th, 2006 at 9:02 am
They’ve earned it in spades. Exhibit A: CCW in almost every state. Exhibit B: the fact that the AWB expired. You didn’t think DiFi inserted that provision into the bill out of the goodness of her heart, did you?
July 5th, 2006 at 10:09 am
The thing about being a member of the NRA is that you don’t get to vote until you’ve been a member for five years. So join up and wait your five years so you get to have a hand in things. I have one year left to wait.
July 5th, 2006 at 11:38 am
Oh ben, you’re so mistaken if you think you can’t “have a hand in things” until you’ve been a member for five years. I have a little time to go (I had a 2 month lapse due to moving and I had to start over), but believe me, there are ways to make your voice heard at headquarters that don’t involve voting. 🙂
My attitude is that it’s my money, that means it’s my NRA and they are going to hear my opinions whether they want to or not.
July 5th, 2006 at 1:31 pm
As for the 5 years thing – my understanding is that is only if your a regular dues paying member. If your a life member, you get a say right away.
Am I wrong?
July 5th, 2006 at 2:16 pm
The NRA is currently lobbying for legislation that would prevent Katrina-style gun confiscations. So there’s that.
July 5th, 2006 at 2:46 pm
When I had an exasperated NRA staffer tell me that, basically, I was funding pro-2A campaigns in other states because CA was hopeless, I let my membership lapse. If I see some support here, I’ll re-up, but like Uncle, they have to earn it from me.
July 5th, 2006 at 4:39 pm
CCW in every state. If you think it’s a step in the right direction (towards permitless carry for example) then it’s a good thing. But I know of two states in the past few years that passed CCW laws w/o NRA help. I’d imagine there area few others where the NRA’s role was minimal to nonexistent.
The AWB expiring waspartially in spite of, not mainly because of the NRA. The NRA was willing to let it pass in the senate in order to get the Lawful Commerce in Arms Act through. They assumed they could clean it up in committee (which is why we got the AWB in the first place) but when mucho gun nuts raised hell they urged their senators to kill the overall bill at the last minute.
Add to that that they support every gun law on the books (i.e. project exile) & have shown no inclination to push hard for a repeal of anything substantial (like the GCA or NFA or even parts of it such as the “sporting purpose” clause).
The bills to prevent Katrina-like gun grabs are a nice effort, but most of those states where the effort is aimed have rkba provisions in the comnstitutions with no exceptions for states of emergency. That means it should not be necessary to pass a law saying that they will follow the constitution. It implies that if the law is not followed the solution would be to push for another law that really means it this time. A court challenge would be the ideal way to accomplish those goals in states with a decent rkba provision. Besides, all the anti-katrina gun grab laws I’ve seen makes extensive use of the word “legal” in relation to arms. A clever executive or legislature could simply declare civilian arms capable of firing more than one shot without manually or automatically reloading as illegal & bypass the anti-katrina gun grab laws.
I certainly don’t
speaktype for Uncle & I’m not even trying to influence people not to join (at least here). I’m just pointing out that to many pro-gun folks the NRA hasn’t shown themselves to be, well, pro-gun.