FirstFreedom
Moderator
This is a pending, unfinished story, but here's what's happened so far. In trying to understand why there are 80 million gun owners and only 5 million NRA members, perhaps my buddy's transition (the one who got me into hunting) will shed some light on the mind of the "RKBA Leecher". Since I razz him to his face about being such a "leecher", I don't think he'd care that I post about him here either - he's got a good sense of humor.
He's been hunting since he was a teenager. Only saw the need for hunting rifles & shotguns. Over the years, transitioned from just hunting to buying & selling old hunting guns to enhance his collection. This led to him going to swap meets and gun shows, which in turn led to him beginning to collect non-hunting guns like Colt snake revolvers, etc. Finally he saw the need for self-defense and bought a Colt AR15 (the Colt to Colt connection helped here), and lots of ammo to go with, for Katrina-type "SHTF" scenarios. He still utterly cannot fathom the need for actually carrying a handgun, which I find weird because he's been beaten up badly in bar fights - something which never happened to me.
Anyhoo, I've been trying to coax him to join NRA or GOA for a couple years now - explaining what they do, etc. He's always rebuffed, alleging that the reason is "I don't want to be on some list that the government will get a hold of if things go south - they'll come to get the NRA members' guns first." But I think this was just a subterfuge for the real reason of he didn't see the connection between anti-gunners wanting to ban guns that he doesn't care about, versus wanting to ban guns that he DOES care about - the cost-benefit simply wasn't there yet in his mind.
Fast forward to last week. He buys 10 guns from an ol' boy whose son lives in Colo, and evidently in Colo, you cannot put "For Sale" on guns in the newspaper classifieds, and some law has shut down gun shows there, so no way to sell them. Well, the light appears to finally have clicked on - since my buddy sets up at gun shows occasionally, he's real concerned about them shutting down shows, and is now asking me how much for NRA life membership.
Although I'm happy to see this, it's frustrating that it takes something which *directly* affronts his way of life before getting active/involved - he can't or won't look ahead to the writing on the wall from the current shenanigans of the anti-gun forces. Which is weird because this guy is sharp as a tack - he's a dentist and smarter than I am. Anyhow, whoddathunk, it's the gun show shutdown issue that can bring round the "bubbas" - or at least some of them...
Stay tuned for whether he actually joins up...
He's been hunting since he was a teenager. Only saw the need for hunting rifles & shotguns. Over the years, transitioned from just hunting to buying & selling old hunting guns to enhance his collection. This led to him going to swap meets and gun shows, which in turn led to him beginning to collect non-hunting guns like Colt snake revolvers, etc. Finally he saw the need for self-defense and bought a Colt AR15 (the Colt to Colt connection helped here), and lots of ammo to go with, for Katrina-type "SHTF" scenarios. He still utterly cannot fathom the need for actually carrying a handgun, which I find weird because he's been beaten up badly in bar fights - something which never happened to me.
Anyhoo, I've been trying to coax him to join NRA or GOA for a couple years now - explaining what they do, etc. He's always rebuffed, alleging that the reason is "I don't want to be on some list that the government will get a hold of if things go south - they'll come to get the NRA members' guns first." But I think this was just a subterfuge for the real reason of he didn't see the connection between anti-gunners wanting to ban guns that he doesn't care about, versus wanting to ban guns that he DOES care about - the cost-benefit simply wasn't there yet in his mind.
Fast forward to last week. He buys 10 guns from an ol' boy whose son lives in Colo, and evidently in Colo, you cannot put "For Sale" on guns in the newspaper classifieds, and some law has shut down gun shows there, so no way to sell them. Well, the light appears to finally have clicked on - since my buddy sets up at gun shows occasionally, he's real concerned about them shutting down shows, and is now asking me how much for NRA life membership.
Although I'm happy to see this, it's frustrating that it takes something which *directly* affronts his way of life before getting active/involved - he can't or won't look ahead to the writing on the wall from the current shenanigans of the anti-gun forces. Which is weird because this guy is sharp as a tack - he's a dentist and smarter than I am. Anyhow, whoddathunk, it's the gun show shutdown issue that can bring round the "bubbas" - or at least some of them...
Stay tuned for whether he actually joins up...
Talk about barking up the wrong tree! I swiftly informed him that not only can they do whatever they want legally, being a private club, that I'd never in a million years represent him in such a matter, becuase it makes perfect sense to me not to allow f%@#$%#$ LEECHERS to join the gun club!! He laughed, said he disagrees, but then he relented and joined up with NRA - at least it's a start. He still doesn't really get it, but perhaps slowly coming 'round.