NRA not a fan of Traver
Emailed to me from NRA:
The National Rifle Association Strongly Opposes the Nomination of Andrew Traver to Head BATFE
Calls on President Obama to withdraw the nomination
Statement from Chris W. Cox, executive director, NRA Institute for Legislative Action
The National Rifle Association of America strongly opposes President Obama’s nomination of Andrew Traver as director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE). Traver has been deeply aligned with gun control advocates and anti-gun activities. This makes him the wrong choice to lead an enforcement agency that has almost exclusive oversight and control over the firearms industry, its retailers and consumers. Further, an important nomination such as BATFE director should not be made as a “recess appointment,” in order to circumvent consent by the American people through their duly-elected U.S. Senators.
Traver served as an advisor to the International Association for Chiefs of Police’s (IACP) “Gun Violence Reduction Project,” a “partnership” with the Joyce Foundation. Both IACP and the Joyce Foundation are names synonymous with promoting a variety of gun control schemes at the federal and state levels. Most of the individuals involved in this project were prominent gun control activists and lobbyists.
The IACP report, generated with Traver’s help, called on Congress to ban thousands of commonly owned firearms by misrepresenting them as “assault weapons,” as well as calling for bans on .50 caliber rifles and widely used types of ammunition. The report also suggests that Congress should regulate gun shows out of existence and should repeal the privacy protections of the Tiahrt Amendment — all efforts strongly opposed by the NRA and its members.
Traver also participated in an extremely deceptive NBC Chicago report (http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local-beat/Assault-Weapons-Surge-in-City-69620227.html) in which he referred to “the growing frequency of gang members and drug dealers using heavy caliber military-type weapons” and described them as if they were machine guns: “Pull the trigger and you can mow people down.” Traver and his agents provided the reporter with a fully automatic AK-47, with which she was unable to hit the target. He then said that stray bullets are “one of the main problems with having stuff like this available to the gangs.”
As the Agent-in-Charge of Chicago’s BATFE office, Traver knows that fully automatic firearms are not available through normal retail channels–the opposite of what was implied in the report.
An agency involved in the regulation of a fundamental, individual right guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution should not be led by an individual with a demonstrated hostility to that freedom. For that reason, the NRA strongly opposes Andrew Traver to head the BATFE and urges President Obama to withdraw this ill-advised nomination.
November 17th, 2010 at 11:56 am
What a shock. Well the shock being that the NRA actually realized that this guy is bad new….
November 17th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Sorry, guys, but the NRA also didn’t support Sharon Angle and, in so doing, supported Harry Reid’s successful re-election and role as Senate Majority Leader.
As a result, the NRA’s pronouncements at this point ring hollow to me.
My membership comes up for renewal next month and I am evaluating whether to renew.
I have been a member for 10 – 11 years, so the NRA lifers can spare me their lectures (unless they want to explain their organization’s failure to endorse a conservative candidate over the same Senate Majority Leader who helped secure the appointment of Sonya Sotomayor and Elena Kagen).
The NRA wouldn’t behave this way if Charlton Heston was alive.
November 17th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
What is to evaluate??? Drop the bastards…
Sort of like debating whether to go back to the used car dealer who sold you a lemon and hoping to get a quality vehicle…..
November 17th, 2010 at 1:06 pm
So, you are upset that the NRA is upset at Traver? Not upset enough? You are a whiny teenage girl who is upset that daddy give not give her a perfect world . . . and a pony?
November 17th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
“So, you are upset that the NRA is upset at Traver? Not upset enough? You are a whiny teenage girl who is upset that daddy give not give her a perfect world . . . and a pony?”
Nice try, Shootin Buddy.
I am not upset that the NRA doesn’t like Traver and, as you know, I never said or implied that I was.
As I clearly indicated, I am disgusted that the NRA sold us out in the Nevada US Senate race – and that was after it floated a trial ballon about possibly actually supporting Harry Reid.
We had a chance to defeat someone who helped ensure that Sonya Sotomayor and Elena Kagen would be deciding Second Amendment cases for many years to come, and the NRA intentionally sat on its hands.
If you want to call that not getting my way and an imperfect world, be my guest.
I like the NRA, but I don’t care for its current leadership and its pathetic judgment in political matters.
November 17th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
I’m skeptical that the NRA was ever gonna beat Reid on his home turf in Nevada, not with his union backing and corruption machine. However-many thousands of ballots he needed if the race were close would have appeared magically in Elko or Winnemucca.
November 17th, 2010 at 2:29 pm
Ahh, I see, the perfect world and pony.
NRA had a choice to make and chose not to endorse Reid or anyone else. Rationale basis for either decision.
By sitting the election out, NRA maintains a working relationship with the leader of the U.S. Senate. I fail to see how this hurts the RKBA.
If you want daddy (NRA) to give you a perfect world and do your heavy lifting (defeat of your political enemies), you will be disappointed as any other teenage girl.
November 17th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
In previous comments here on Say Uncle I have noted that even if the NRA did exactly the right thing the bashers would find something to bitch about, and sure enough, they did.
November 17th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
Actually, that’s an interesting question.
How many full-auto AKs have ever been found in the hands of Chicago gangs?
Is the answer greater than zero?
November 17th, 2010 at 6:15 pm
“By sitting the election out, NRA maintains a working relationship with the leader of the U.S. Senate. I fail to see how this hurts the RKBA.”
Another nice try, shootin buddy.
Since when has the NRA not taken on candidates in House and Senate races?
That’s one of the main things it does.
And keep up your pissant analogy, twerp.
You now own Sonya Sotomayor and Elena Kagen and whomever else Obama appoints to the Supreme Court and other Federal Courts.
I had the good fortune to go to a pre-election rally in 2000 with Charlton Heston and Wayne LaPierre and they didn’t talk about crafting relationships with adversaries in the House and and with Senators who seek to confirm virulently anti-Second Amendment judges in the Senate.
They talked about defeating them.
Captain Holly-
I am a longstanding NRA member – not a basher.
I am very displeased with its current management.
If you defend what the NRA did in the Nevada Senate race, by all means tell us.
I want NRA management with courage – not dealmakers who behave like the GOP did over the course of the Bush presidencies.
I am contemplating whether to renew my membership and I am also contemplating becoming a life member.
I simply think that the NRA needs a change of leadership.
November 17th, 2010 at 6:39 pm
Traver has demonstrated such gross disrespect for the Second Amendment that he shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near firearms regulation. It would be like having a Nazi administer the rights of Jews. Of course, having the BATFE around is like having the Waffen-SS administer the rights of Jews anyway, but they don’t have to be so obvious about it, do they?
November 17th, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Well, fuck that guy.
November 17th, 2010 at 7:43 pm
How about we have the Nra stick up for the 2nd amendment with no compromises… The thing about comprise is that it makes everybody miserable….. Compromise is reached when you do what I want…..
The Nra did not support the republican running against reid because they did not want to offend him too badly in case their new ‘man’ lost…. They are playing games chicago style….I am not upset that the Nra hates traver just shocked they are not volunteering to be his bitch….
November 17th, 2010 at 7:48 pm
The only heavy lifting the nra has done recently was trying to take credit for Heller….
November 17th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
Try these items: 1) The NRA is not a conservative organization: It is a pro-gun organization. Therefore it is not the NRA’s job to carry water for the Republican Party- which is hardly a conservative organization either. 2) If Harry Reid had lost the election, Charles Schumer would likely be the next Senate Majority leader. Reid isn’t perfect on gun issues, but would you prefer Chuck Schumer to be running the Senate? 3) If NRA wants politicians to repeatedly vote for gun-friendly legislation, the NRA has to show some loyalty in return, even when a challenger looks better on paper. If you had helped out NRA at times, how would you respond if they endorsed your challenger? Do you think you might tell NRA to go stuff it next time?
Loyalty counts with politicians. If NRA dumps them in favor of an untried challenger, all the other politicians realize that NRA will turn on them as well. Then the NRA loses influence with all of them.
November 17th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
“Since when has the NRA not taken on candidates in House and Senate races?”
The NRA does not take a position on every candidate in every election, princess. Now, go finish your homework, you have volleyball practice in the morning.
November 17th, 2010 at 10:17 pm
For “Chris” and the rest of you Republican Party Girls;
The NRA endorsed G.W. Bush in 2000.
How did the phony, fraud “conservative” Bush repay the support, endorsement and tens of millions NRA members spent to get him elected?
He spent the next four years trying to force re-passage of the Clinton/Feinstein/Schumer/Kennedy GUN BAN (which Harry Reid voted against) through the GOP Congress.
How many of you sanctimonious Republican phony baloney, plastic banana Second Amendment heroes resigned from the GOP in protest?
All you Republican Party Girls who keep threatening to resign the NRA? Please do so. We’re better off without weak sisters like you.
November 17th, 2010 at 10:34 pm
Not a lot of adult in this thread.
November 17th, 2010 at 11:46 pm
Save your breath TTB That’s an argument useful only to thinking people with brains. Most folks don’t know how to play 4-5 moves out.
November 18th, 2010 at 12:54 am
To the morons who are angry about Nevada- would you have preferred Charles Schumer as senate majority leader for the next two years?
November 18th, 2010 at 1:00 am
“An agency involved in the regulation of a fundamental, individual right guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution”
Anybody else see the total FAIL in this statement?
November 18th, 2010 at 2:21 am
“I am a longstanding NRA member – not a basher.”
Could have fooled me.
We have a clearly anti-gun ATF director — who, incidentally, was nominated by the White House, not Harry Reid — and the NRA is openly opposing his selection. Pretty straightforward, no?
Yet all you can do is bitch about how they didn’t do what you thought they should have done in the Nevada Senate election.
Yep, you’re a basher. Doesn’t matter what the NRA does, you’ll find something else to complain about.
November 18th, 2010 at 8:30 am
In addition to its craven approach to Reid, the NRA withdrew its opposition to the DISCLOSE Act as sson as it cut a deal to exempt itself. The same people who defended it then are defending it now, with the same straw man tactics. They sound like a bunch of nine year olds telling us that “our club is TOO the best, and you can’t be in it!” Actions that like this make me glad and proud that I quit the NRA years ago. But you keep smooching it, Shootin’ Buddy!
November 18th, 2010 at 11:14 am
Holly – This is the only thing I have ever complained about with respect to the NRA.
I am a member of the NRA and the GOA.
While I like and respect the GOA, the NRA is, of course, more effective.
For those of you who think there are only 2 Democratic Senators who matter, the Democrats will be defending 23 Senate seats in 2012 and being anti-gun is toxic with many of them running in red states and purple states.
The GOP will defend 10 seats and I hope that any of them who are anti-gun or who vacillate on Second Amendment matters lose in their primaries.
I expect Schumer to be the minority leader in 2013 and I was hoping to send Harry Reid packing in 2012, unlike, apparently, most of you people.
And I don’t expect the NRA to carry water for the GOP, which left me long ago and is little more than a rudderless ship at this point.
I do expect the NRA to oppose candidates who will ensure the Senate approval of anti-Second Amendment judges, like Harry Reid did with respect to Sonya Sotomayor and Elena Kagen.
Many of you apparently find that to not be a big deal and I respect your opinion.
I differ.
Most of you seem to be completely unable to respectfully communicate and debate issues.
It’s rather ironic that those of you who seem fixated on using your little girl metaphor act like teenagers yourself.
It’s never too old to grow up.
November 18th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
I detest Harry Reid as much as anyone, but he has been pro-gun, and the NRA makes no bones about being a single-issue organization. The NRA does what it thinks will benefit the organization and its members on the issue of gun rights. Full stop.
November 18th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
Steve-
I agree, but being pro-gun on some issues and working to get extremely anti-gun judges confirmed to the Supreme Court are very inconsistent.
If Reid had opposed the confirmations of Soto and Kagen, I would have applauded the NRA’s support of him or its refusal to back his opponent.
But that wasn’t the case with Reid.
The constituency of SCOTUS is incredibly important from a 2A standpoint, and Reid is decidedly on the wrong side of that important 2A issue.
That is my point.
Not that I disagree with him on amnesty for illegal aliens, health care, global warming, etc.
November 23rd, 2010 at 1:16 pm
NRA must fire Chris Cox before I renew. His political moves just don’t ass up.