A Response to my NRA Protest Letter

R

Rich Lucibella

Staff
As a result of the convention cancelation, I sent a letter of protest to Edward Land of the NRA. In that letter 216.199.9.84:8080/forums/showthread.php?threadid=22815 , I pledged never to donate another dime to the NRA.

I didn't expect a personal letter back and was surprised to receive the following response. I post it out of fairness.

I must now recant my previous statements. The ProCrime forces have long known what we often forget: an ally is anyone willing to fight for any part of the Second Amendment.
Rich Lucibella

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Dear Mr. Lucibella:

I am responding to your April 22, 1999 letter about the abbreviated NRA Annual Meeting & Exhibits at Denver, Colorado. I can't agree with your opinion that the NRA leadership made a bad decision by canceling most of the events at the 1999 Annual Meeting.

I would like to give you some background information on how the decision was made. After the incident at Columbine High School NRA was immediately contacted by several major firearm companies stating they advised against exhibiting at Denver. At the time the exhibit hall was scheduled to open during the period the memorial and funeral services were to take place. The media would be showing film on television of young people handling firearms in the exhibit hall and switching to the funeral processions. Keeping the exhibit hall open would be a public relations disaster even though the exhibitors, NRA and NRA members had nothing to do with the Columbine tragedy.

The major event that took place on Saturday was the Annual Meeting of Members. There were in excess of 4,000 members that attended the Annual Meeting of Members despite a large number of protestors outside the hotel. The ballroom was filled to capacity and television screens were setup outside the ballroom in the exhibit area to accommodate overflow. President Heston gave a very compelling speech blasting the mayor of Denver for telling the NRA that we were not wanted. The Colorado Secretary of State, Ms. Vikky Buckley, the highest ranking African American female Republican to hold state-wide office welcomed us to Colorado. Ms. Buckley also spoke about her support of the Second Amendment, Executive Vice-President Wayne LaPierre spoke about NRA's position on different issues such as gun safety locks, felons with guns, and other issues. Copies of these speeches are enclosed with you letter.

The leadership received overwhelming support from the NRA members present and was shown live on C-Span. All the major media corporations covered the meeting. By scaling back the meeting we turned a what could of been an unfair public relations disaster into a public relations victory.

Richard, I would ask that you reconsider having your name removed from the membership list. We need dedicated Endowment members like yourself who are entitled to receive your magazine and need to be keep fully informed on the gun issue.[/quote]

Sincerely,
Edward J. Land, Jr
NRA Secretary

[This message has been edited by Rich Lucibella (edited June 07, 1999).]
 
Canceling the events was a public relations disaster, too. Why not hold them, and require any news team that wanted to enter and film footage to sign a contract guaranteeing us equal time to respond?
 
Rich--thanks for posting the letter. IMHO, the NRA probably did about as well as it could, given that it was caught in a worst-case situation and would be condemned no matter what it did.
 
IMHO, i think the NRA should of loaded some news worthy talking heads on a plane and been very out spoken. Agast at the horror of the criminal acts of those deranged children.
Heston should of spoken against the insanity of a society that grows the mind set of the kids involved. By the NRA not speaking out, the media branded the NRA as responsible. Dan Rather was on a fishing expedition for 2 daze in CO. The NRA should of used the chance to appear as sane thoughtful people as opposed to the violence as any other group.

dZ
 
I hope some of you remmeber my post before the convention, about the "standing room only" nature of the address. Typical NRA grandstanding.. they did the same thing at NSSF.....

While it is true that is wouldn't have been easy to have the show, several people in the industry were pissed that it was cancelled, including major firarms manufacturers.

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-Essayons
 
Rob,
I hope Colt was one of them.
wink.gif
 
with all the anti-gun commericals i've been seeing lately, why doesn't the nra run a few commericals to enlighten the masses. it's pretty evident that they are doing no good in
DC, so maybe some positive air time would offset the anti's point of view. we know that the masses believe everything they see on tv, so why not let them see the positive side of firearms for a change. just a thought!!!

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fiat justitia




[This message has been edited by longhair (edited June 07, 1999).]
 
For myself, I'll continue cutting the NRA some slack. This was a very tough situation, and a lousy coincidence of events. (I still think it was a coincidence, but having said that, I also find it interesting that the son of an HCI member sold the 'assault pistol' to the criminals ...)

I'll continue supporting the NRA, GOA, LEAA, and JPFO, as well as some local groups. IMHO.

And, with regard to 'forcing' the media to play fair and report the other side without bias ... I don't see how you do that considering the low level of life form we're dealing with on CNN and the networks. Many of these folks are apparently scum.

Rich, thanks for posting the letter. You are a scholar and a gentleman.
 
Longhair: Why doesn't the NRA run commercials? I've been wondering that myself, for a long, long time. I mean, is there an NRA member out here who, if the NRA asked for money to run pro-gun TV ads, wouldn't ante up? The last time they asked me for money for a pro-gun ad, in USA Today, I contributed. Then they wasted it on a piece of self-congradulatory garbage which did absolutely NOTHING to get our viewpoint out. One might also ask, Why can't Wayne LaPierre respond eloquently to questions any of us could respond to in a heartbeat? Why do they oppose gun control laws in court on any basis at all EXCEPT the Second amendment?
Why do they keep the answers to the candidate survey secret, and fudge the ratings? Why, when "forced" to compromise, do they turn around and pretend to LIKE the legislation?

I've long suspected that it's because they really don't share our viewpoint, on some fundamental level. Or because they believe those polls, and really DO think the public is against us in some real sense. Or figure this fight is doomed to failure, and are just dragging it out as long as they can, which means never doing anything to shake the boat or annoy our supposed allies in Congress. On my really pessimistic days, I think it's because they don't believe in the cause at all, and are just milking the NRA for an income.

But one thing is absolutely clear: The NRA's leadership looks at this fight very diferently from the way we do, and approaches it with diferent assumptions than ours, from the MEMBERSHIP. And has never taken the time to clarify the nature of those diferences.
 
I think the NRA did the right thing. Now before we think about ourseleves think of the victims of the relatives, wether their feelings are right or wrong their relatives died, I repeat died. If stopping the show helped them for a few days thats a good thing, it's only one weekend for **** sake. there will be many more gun shows to go to.

I know someone who was at Port Arthur and I'm sure a gun show where he lives wouldn't have been a good thing straight after the massacre. He is back shooting and hunting again.

You also have to think how the average non gunowner does, they don't care about guns and going ahead would have been a big disaster. I try and remind some people here that not everybody thinks the way we do and saying "we are right so therefore we should say what we feel" doesn't always work.

Well the gun lobby has a bad image here because some people don't know when to shut their mouths. (eg Tony Pitt and another Queensland one, the guy that dressed up as hitler and pretended to be the prime minister, that image is shown all the time and makes us look like fools) There is a time and place for everything but straight after a massacre isn't the best time.


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FREE Gun and Hunting Ezine at www.gun-center.com
 
The NRA has been running at least some radio ads in my town. I think a pro gun congressman speaks in it also (can't remember his name). Anyway, they run during Rusty Limbaugh and Ollie North which are back to back here. Wow, 5.5 consecutive hrs of Conservatism 5days a week. Almost too much to handle.

[This message has been edited by Engineer (edited June 09, 1999).]
 
The NRA does try to run ads , but the TV especially and the major papers to a great extent refuse to sell them time ! Its that simple and that perverse a use of the freedom of speech.... you have the freedom if you have a press ( or transmitter)

PROPAGANDA plain and simple , the war for the control of people's minds waged in an unfair money game. That's Amerika !

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What part of "INFRINGED" don't they understand?
 
I totally understand the part about the grieving families, but for our industry the NRA Show is a MAJOR event. It is probably the 2nd largest consumer show in the country every year, and it is the 3rd largest event in the entire industry. In fact, with the whole Atlanta mess, it might've been bigger than SHOT this year.

In a year that will likely be looked back upon as a very important one in the gun rights fight, it is ashame that the industry was denied that opportunity to some together, work together, and plan together.

For example, FOUP was going to get its only good exposure (outside of the internet) west of the Mississippi at the NRA show this year. How many other projects, promotions and actions could have been stifled by the cancelling of the show?
How many potential new gun owners were denied the opporunity to be brought to the show by family members or friends?

At this point we need every opportunity we can get to work as a group.. yes there will be hundreds of other "gun shows".. but the NRA show is a far cry from what I have seen as the average "gun show."
 
Guys this is the first post on this thread in many years, more of a history lesson than anything else.

Six years later, I wonder what is our perspective over these events. For one thing we've seen the radical left continue to milk the subject dry, even making a major propaganda movie which exposed their duplicity.

For another we've seen the ugly gun sunset and the world didn't end.

After all is said and done I think dZ is right.
 
I think it's ironic that this was bumped with the current news about the Columbus convention being cancelled.

I hated that on one had since I can drive there easily in less than a day, but I highly respect it since why go and spend $20 million where we aren't wanted.
 
As a guy who lives in walking distance of Columbine High School ...

That was an UGLY time. No matter where you are on the RKBA you can't imagine what it's like when HS kids you know -- children of neighbors and friends -- were at a school when other gleeful children walked about murdering with unrestrained joy. None of the kids I knew were killed, hurt or even directly in the line of fire, but they had friends who were. And most just happened not to be there or in a different part of the building by chance.

So ... a lot of people I otherwise consider sane just struck out with anger at anything having to do with guns (they were all anti's to begin with, of course). Though I'm as strong a support of RKBA as you'll find about anywhere, I wasn't about to argue with grieving and frightened parents that the NRA had nothing to do with what happened that day.

So was it right to cancel most of the events?

I almost think it was the worst decision possible. They should have either found a way to cancel everything (to show they respect the feelings of grieving parents, however illogical) or held the whole thing and, like has been said, just make it a point to quiety but firmly state their position and remind people there are MANY laws that should have stopped the slaughter, but didn't.

The thing I really can't answer is why ANYONE would think the NRA had something to do with those shootings.

I also don't understand why the CCW bill that was currently on it's way to being passed was immediately withdrawn (delayed for several years) when it had nothing to do with those assaults and the very fact that the assaults happened showed why law abiding citizens SHOULD be able to carry.
 
The ProCrime forces have long known what we often forget: an ally is anyone willing to fight for any part of the Second Amendment.
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AMEN!!!

Let all of us never forget that!! Join NRA, GOA, and JFPO - these three organizations are uncompromising in their stand on the Second Amendment. There may have been some mistakes made in the past, but nowadays they have gotten it right.
 
My question is this, what media giant is going to run the commercials and at what cost to the NRA? The mainstream media is very anti and hates the NRA, Fox is about the only real fairly run media giant. I think the NRA does focus to much on adverting in gun mags, most readers already are progun. I think they need to reach out to those that are middle roaders, perhaps billboards or flyers like bestbuy etc. Sadly I think most people who are neither pro or anti are not going to watch an NRA television show. I think the best we can do is try to teach our children and reach out to others and show them the truth. I have downloaded and printed figures from the DOJ website to dispell the lies of the left and media on assault weapons etc. I also write to my local paper and in a calm respectful manner explain the real facts and also put a link in my letter so people can look for themself.

I think the NRA did the right thing pulling out of Denver, there was lots of emotion involved and some would take it as arrogance and a slap in ther face for thr NRA to showup. We are looking at it from a progun stance. The NRA was just a victim of circumstance in a no win situation. This is a problem with the right, silent majority syndrome, if the right doesnt speakup as the left does we will soon be a minority. Squeaky wheel gets the oil is so true, when one does nothing to challenge lies, people will believe the lies. The left will never cease their campaign of lies and assault on gunowners, they will shamelessly use things like school shootings. The real problem were parents in denial and not taking part in their childrens lives. I feel if these people had just checked their childrens bedrooms they would and should have had ample warning of things to come. LORD NO violate their trust!! Sorry but most children need to know whos in charge and it needs to be the parent. A parent can be a best friend, but also must draw the line.

Sadly some people tend to think their child isnt capable of any wrong doing, its just a trend or fad, they will grow out of it. There were so many warning signs in most of these schools shootings Ray Charles could have seen it coming! The left has done much to destroy the family unit and family values, and when disaster strikes they blame everyone but themselves, business as usual for the left.
 
I hated that on one had since I can drive there easily in less than a day, but I highly respect it since why go and spend $20 million where we aren't wanted.
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See that is part of the problem - the people in Columbus do want you here. I want all of you here, heck we need all of you here.

Its that City council and Mayor who do not listen to there constituents any more, who dont respond to questions and challenges by the citizens of Columbus any more, who say and do only what they know will gain them air time in the local and national media.

We need the NRA to show up in Columbus now more then ever. We need assistance rallying voters, letter writers, picket walkers, boycotters, and any other legal actions possible to make it known to the legislature that they do in fact work for us and should be listening...
 
The citizens of Columbus need to do some voting. The NRA just voted with their feet, and I think properly so. In fact, the citizens of Columbus may be more willing now to vote the bums out than they would have been if the NRA had stayed.

As far as the Denver retreat, it falls under the category of: Fight battles small enough to win but big enough to count There was a hurricane of blatantly emotional publicity at that time, and that is not something you can win against during the hurricane itself, you have to wait for the winds to die down and things to return to normal.
 
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