NRA/Political

Status
Not open for further replies.

bullet44

New member
I urge all gun owners join the NRA,call or
write your congressman/senator or we will
lose our right to own firearms, at present
the far left is winning this cultural word
war, make no mistake they intend to remove
firearms from the American people,This is not
about kids lives, its about control.At this
point give all the support possible to the NRA,(money)it works.Freedom is not cheap or
easy.
thanks;

------------------
 
I had joined the NRA a while back, and was disappointed that my membership dues were wasted calling me or sending me crap every three to five weeks asking for more cash or to extend.
I think they easily spent the thirty-five or so dollars I sent them by "preaching to the converted".
My second and third years of membership I wrote and specifically requested several times NOT to be sent trash in the mail.No one seemed to pay attention. I didn't want a magazine, or a hat with trim. I wanted my money to be put to use secure the integrity of the second amendment.
I won't throw good money after bad. I'll be happy to email , write or call a congressman.
But the NRA will never again see a dime of my money.
 
The NRA fills an important niche in pro gun advocacy they are down in the slimy gutter with the politicans. Current political realities require them to be a bunch of pansy-a** rednecks. As a far left liberal & a pro gun purist they doubly insult me. We need a new face on our cause, one which is non partisan & non apologetic. The NRA has it's place, but it is not at the front of the pro gun movement. We need to stop jabbering about "shooting sports" & "America being built with guns" ect... & start talking about philisophical realities of nature. The only way someone can honestly believe in gun control is if they've convinced themselves that humanity is on some march of progress to a happy lala land, where we'll be free of turmoil & violence. I've found that when confronted with the reality of the lie that they've been fed, that many borderline & anti-gun people will begin to, respect or to at least tolerate the idea of armed individuals. The NRA simply isn't the orginisation to deliver that message.

P.S. I get the same calls & junk mail & I've never even been a member. Being a tree hugger the junk mail really pisses me off!

"Know the stillness of freedom,
Where there is no more striving"
- The Dhamapadah
- Buddha 563-483 B.C.

Tony.
 
I received three different mailings from the NRA this past week alone - even after a few calls & e-mails & snail mails to tell 'em don't send the stuff - use it for real action. To no avail it appears.

I have bailed from the ILA & from my charter membership of the Second Amendment Task Force. Still working on my $750 Life Membership (don't seem to be able to already be a life member even though I'm past the new & improved $500 LM).

The NRA's leadership has really put my knickers in a knot. Wayne's latest stunt (3/6, 11AM in Denver meeting with the Brady's & all the other antis gives me real pause). Yes, a tout for the Project Exile.
Let's enforse ALL the gun laws on the books (& BTW, by into an extra 1,000 BATF-types for enforcement of same).

No thanks. My $s will go to GOA, etc. ... groups that actually attempt to fight gun control rather than be politically correct in these trying times.
 
I do not want anyone to misunderstand,I am
not saying the NRA is without fault, however
my feeling is we must protest now, through anyone who will help us.Problems in this
country are more serious then most realize.
We are but just a few years away from socialism, with increased population we will
continue to lose our freedoms,the main stream
news media continues to take inanimate objects and make them evil,guns, trucks, etc.
After thirty years of liberal schools there is no common sense.When you go out to shoot
take a new guy/girl teach them and then write
your congressman.


------------------
 
So you don't like the constant fund requests, or you don't like some of LaPierre's tactics.
So you quit. Who loses? Who wins? If the pols see the NRA membership rolls drops, they'll think the NRA is on the losing side and they'll slip right in with HCI.

Discretion is the better part of valor.

Dick
 
Washington Post & NRA

I found this to be a rather interesting expression of opinion. My take on the article is the Post is advising thier socialist friends that the NRA is growing in strength, ready to fight, and has the power to beat them this fall. In other words the left better not get compalcent.

Rejuvenated NRA Arms for Election-Year Showdown

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 5, 2000; Page A02


The National Rifle Association is back. After several years of waning influence on Capitol Hill, the venerable association of shooting enthusiasts and gun rights advocates is enjoying a renewal as it gears up for what could be a watershed election this fall.

Membership is on the rise after several years of decline, and the NRA's legislative and political arms have raised more money than ever before. Having so far blocked new limits on gun shows and other controls, the group is expanding it grass-roots network to support favored candidates and maintain the pro-gun majority in the House.

"Our constituency, unlike much of the conservative movement, is very energized," said Chuck Cunningham, who has been brought back from a stint at the Christian Coalition to direct the NRA's efforts to mobilize voters.

NRA officials say such energy is the result of the new assault on guns by the Clinton administration and congressional Democrats in the wake of the Columbine High School massacre and other shootings, such as last week's killing of a 6-year-old in Michigan. "It's become clear what their campaign's about," said James J. Baker, the group's chief lobbyist. "They've decided they were going to make guns an issue in the November 2000 elections."

How effective the NRA proves to be in fighting back could be critical to whether Congress adopts new gun restrictions in the future. Despite a recent wave of new shootings, a proposal to institute 72-hour background checks on gun show sales is hung up in negotiations between the House and Senate and appears unlikely to make it into law this year. Whether the NRA can maintain a coalition against such controls will be one of the big questions at stake in the fall elections.

While national polls repeatedly show the majority of Americans support new firearms restrictions, the gun lobby has historically been able to offer financial support to its allies and turn out voters and campaign volunteers based on its single issue.

With only a few dozen House seats considered competitive in the coming election, the role of any aggressive outside group can help sway the balance of power in Congress. Some congressional observers believe the NRA could tilt the electoral outcome in several key districts that feature a sizable number of gun activists, including ones in such battleground states as Michigan, Montana and Pennsylvania.

"Clearly they are not in the majority, but they do have a very intense and vocal minority," said Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.), one of the most outspoken gun control proponents in Congress. "They are willing to thwart the will of the Congress as well as the will of the public."

NRA officials don't appear nervous that last week's shooting in Michigan or other incidents will hurt their cause. "I don't think there's really a reasonable person in America that thinks that this horrible tragedy in Michigan says anything about legal gun ownership," said NRA spokesman Bill Powers. "It's says a lot more about parenting and responsibility, and having a bed for a little first-grader."

Just a few years ago, the NRA was struggling to remain relevant. Its membership slipped from 3.5 million to 2.8 million, and the value of its cash holdings and investments dropped in half over a six-year period. The group's executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, offended Republicans such as former President George Bush when he distributed a fund-raising letter calling federal firearms agents "jackbooted government thugs"--and then LaPierre was challenged within his own ranks for not being aggressive enough. Some Republicans became disenchanted with an ally they saw as unyielding in light of certain political realities, and Congress passed a ban on assault weapons and other restrictions during President Clinton's first term.

The NRA has since moderated its tone and focused on rebuilding its financial and political base. The new round of gun control initiatives, including Clinton's recent State of the Union proposal to institute a new gun licensing requirement, prompted an influx of members and cash.

The group's membership has surged to 3.2 million, and NRA officials predict it will reach 3.5 million by Election Day. The group's Institute for Legislative Action raised $25 million, an unprecedented sum, and its political action committee, the NRA Political Victory Fund, also outpaced past years with a $4 million take in 1999. As testimony to its growing strength, the NRA ranked No. 2 on Fortune magazine's "Power 25" lobbying list for 1999.

Unlike other single-issue lobbying groups, the NRA has the resources to entertain lawmakers and their staffs as big corporations do. NRA officials can take them to sporting events at MCI Center, and they host hunting trips in the Washington area as well as target practice at the group's Fairfax headquarters. "They're one of the few ideological groups who can go toe to toe with the big boys on K Street," said one GOP leadership aide.

Much of what the NRA is doing to prepare for the fall elections is not easily visible, making its potential impact harder to gauge. Part of the boost in membership comes from infomercials the group has sponsored--at a cost of roughly $3 million a month, according to informed sources--arguing that gun control measures have failed in other countries, including South Africa and Australia. The spots are airing on cable television stations around the country, and tapes have been distributed in congressional offices recently.

The NRA has launched an ambitious voter identification effort, purchasing voter lists to determine which members need to be reminded to register to vote. Officials are also reaching out to non-NRA members who rank high on their "favorables list"--licensed hunters, gun show attendees and members of local gun and shooting clubs--and encouraging them to register to vote.

Rank-and-file NRA members will also help get out the vote this fall, working on individual campaigns, posting bumper stickers and putting up yard signs. So far, 280,000 have signed up to be election volunteers, compared with 100,000 two years ago.

Cunningham said he did not want to discuss his election strategy until after November, comparing it to a boxing fight. "You just don't broadcast your punch before you deliver it," he said. While Cunningham emphasized that his group backs candidates based on ideology rather than party affiliation, GOP officials said they are optimistic the NRA is well prepared to help them maintain their congressional majority.

"The NRA will probably have more resources available in this cycle than they have in the recent past," said Dan Mattoon, deputy chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. "As they have been in the past, in many districts across the country, they will be part of our winning coalition."

The issue of guns is already playing a role in the race to succeed retiring Rep. Rick Hill (R) in Montana, where one of the combatants is accusing the other of being insufficiently zealous of protecting gun owner rights.

It could influence several other competitive races across the country. The NRA has not publicly committed to many races aside from the Montana seat, but it may help pro-gun incumbents such as Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.), whose opponent, Regina Montoya Coggins, supports gun show background checks and safety locks, or target others, such as freshman Rep. Dennis Moore (D-Kan.), who won in a Republican district and backed gun restrictions last year. Rep. Lane Evans (D-Ill.) faces a rematch with Mark Baker, who won the NRA's nod last year, and Republicans are hoping Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.)--a longtime favorite of the NRA--will come under attack for his vote last year in favor of new background checks at gun shows.

But gun control proponents say their side is ready for battle, and that last year's succession of school shootings will also motivate their supporters to turn out at the polls. Joe Sudbay, political director for Handgun Control Inc., said his group hopes to boost its political spending from $200,000 last election to $2 million this cycle to convey its message to voters.

"Increasingly people are understanding if you want to change the gun laws, you need to change the people making them," Sudbay said. "The NRA has always relied on the generic public not feeling strongly about gun control. We're seeing a changing dynamic."

In fact, Democrat Ken Toltz is hoping the gun issue will help him unseat Rep. Tom Tancredo (R), who represents the district where Columbine is located and has voted for weaker gun restrictions. Toltz noted that while Tancredo has stopped taking money from the NRA, he is still accepting money from other gun groups and supports a bill protecting gun manufacturers from legal liability. "This is a race where there's a clear-cut difference on the position of what is to be done," Toltz said.


© 2000 The Washington Post Company
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11045-2000Mar4.html
 
No offence to anyone, really, but:

1) The NRA is not like some pizza parlour where if the waitress does not refill our coke glass fast enough we turn our nose up, say "harumph" and leave.

2) The NRA is the most powerful gun lobby in the world. It is envied by fellow gun-owners in other countries, hated and feared by our anti-gun adversaries and followed by millions of our own kind.

3) Do they sometimes tick you off? Tell them. They still do nothing about it? Tolerate it. It is a heck of a lot better than the alternative.

4) Join GOA, SAS-AIMM, SAF, &C, sure - the more the merrier. But don't turn your back on the NRA, for crying out loud. They are a large organization and they are bound to do something with which a minority of their members disagrees. You cannot please 3.5 Million people all at the same time, while still fighting PR battles and fending off lies, spin and continuous anti-legislation.

5) Sure, they send mail. Often. Of all kinds. Sometimes I ignore it, sometimes I respond to their calls to actions, sometimes I donate some money. But I never saw it as that much of an inconvenience. It's not like my mailbox is not filled with all sorts of junk every day.

6) As I said before in another post, pro-gun organizations are not like women. You can openly support more than one without fear of public embarrassment.

If you are pro-gun and turn your nose up at the NRA, you are committing a serious mistake. They need our numbers, our constant input, our money and our unconditional support.

------------------
Private gun ownership is the capital sin in the left's godless religion. Crime is merely a venial mistake.

Check out these gals: www.sas-aim.org
 
to 416rigby;
Wish I had said that;anyway that is my point
I was trying to get across,thanks

------------------
 
I wasn't saying it was inconvenient to receive mailings from the NRA.
I said it was wasteful...it wasted my contribution.
I can sit in my own house and flush money down the toilet...I don't need to send it off for someone else to do that.
If they can't reign in their spending, I'm certainly not going to simply tolerate it.
I'll make them a deal...take the money they can save NOT sending me any mailings, and just make me a lifetime member.I'm sure they'll even make money off that deal.
With an organization like the NRA comes a degree of responsibility, be it fiscal or otherwise, to the people that support it.I wouldn't accept the way the money was handled if it was my kid doing it.
I certainly won't accept it from adults.If they choose to represent me without even affording me a request to not send me things, then they are really about the money,not at all about what I think, believe, or feel.
I don't ignore second amendment issues..and again, I will petition people in office when they come up.But with the NRA I've found, my vote doesn't count.
I gave them three years and NUMEROUS opportunities to change my mind..and I got at best a load of lip service.It'll be a cold day before I send money.
 
I used to like the NRA, 30 years ago. I have real problems with them now.

I supported McCain here because I believed that he would have the guts to stand up to the antis.

Alright, I'm now faced with an NRA which I don't like, and George W., who I don't like.

But I don't like loosing the Second a hell of a lot more than I dislike the NRA and George W.

I'm sending more money to the NRA, and I'm going to work for George Bush. It may be incrementalism, and we may get more out of having Algore, if only in backlash.

But I'm not takin' any friggin' chances.

Ya'll have to make your own bed. I know where I'm sleeping.

------------------
"Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it."

[This message has been edited by Joseph (edited March 05, 2000).]
 
While I do think the NRA's lost touch with what's happening these days, they're still getting my money & I'm still on the books as a member (& working to Life). I'll tell people to join NRA (& GOA especially).

I write my letters to my politicos & letters to the editors, etc.

I am of the firm belief however, that the above isn't getting us where we want to be.
It's all too status quo. We get the "yeah, yeah" responses too often from too many.

Those that would take away our rights must be shaken up in a way that they've not seen for decades - the people DEMANDING that they be left alone & no more infringement of their rights.

No place better to do it than in the streets.
 
The NRA is the Second most powerful lobbying group in Washington DC ( Up from #4 last year) that opposed to HCI moving up to #64 from 66 and boasting about 400K members, and look at the trouble they have been, the thorn they are in our side? Can you imagine where we would be if the roles were reversed?? Look at the NFA in Canada, Ineffective to the point that you have to wait months almost years to get all of the licenses, permits etc. NO THANKS I can see the writing on the wall, I may not agree with everything but the NRA is my best bet to Defend my RKBA. Join as many Pro Gun associations as you can but do not think for one minute you are safer in other hands. This is the bane of our existence, 80 million gun owners and only 3.5 care enough to pony up the cash for membership etc. Can you imagine the NRA's clout if it had Just 1/3 of all the gunowners? For some reason there are 76 1/2 millon gunowners who can't seem to take a stand, be it with the NRA, or any other Pro gun organization or on Election day, We need to wake them up somehow, that is why you are getting all of your mailings, there is updated info in there that you will spread word of mouth and if it nets just one person then it has been fruitful. My friends an Compatriots this is not an area that we can afford to get caught up in our own self righteousness, No one person or entity can be all things to all people, the $35.00 you spend now is a mere pittance compared to what you may have to spend in the future, Just ask our Canadian counterparts what it takes to own a gun in Canada in both time and money, ask the Aussies or the Brits! The NRA may not be perfect but it swings a pretty big bat, one that quite a few people respect. Get back on the team and find a few others that want to make the trip with you! Remember that all that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing. Stand together now or get stood against the wall later..........I'm upgrading my membership

------------------
...“ They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” --Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759.

W]hereas, to preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them; nor does it follow from this, that all promiscuously must go into actual service on every occasion. The mind that aims at a select militia, must be influenced by a truly anti-republican principle; and when we see many men disposed to practice upon it, whenever they can prevail, no wonder true republicans are for carefully guarding against it.
---Richard Henry Lee, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788

Take care and God Bless, El Jefe

The ANTI-HCI Site!
 
If you're to believe Neal Knox, the reason we get all those annoying mailings is that the NRA's leadership is in bed with the mass mailing firms which handle the contracts; LaPierre and his bunch give them lucrative mailing jobs paid for with the bulk of our dues, and part of that gets sent back in the form of massive donations to the "Committee for a strong and effective NRA", keeping Wayne in power. Certainly, I'd find it a lot harder to believe if LaPierre would actually RESPOND to Knox's allegations, and allow the audit Neal has demanded to take place. Instead of stonewalling for all he's worth, and purging everyone who won't kiss his a***!

And that newspaper article makes it sound like the NRA's been growing lately because it has become more moderate... In a round about way that might even be true! The NRA grows when our right to keep and bear arms looks threatened, and shrinks when the threat recedes. The NRA is so big now because the threat has never been more dire, what with the Republicans now starting to sign on with the gun control movement. But why are they doing that? BECAUSE THE NEW, MORE MODERATE NRA IS TELLING THEM THAT THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH IT! That's why we don't have concealed carry reform in Michigan today; After Colombine, it STILL passed both houses of the legislature... Then Wayne told them that the NRA wouldn't mark them down on their candidate ratings if they killed it!

Makes me sick; I originally joined the NRA because George Bush Sr. banned the importation of a gun I was going to buy... And they turned around and endorsed his re-election. I started donating heavilly because of the Brady law, and then they told me to vote for the guy who saved it after we'd beaten it. The biggest threat to our rights today is gun registration, by means of the instant background check the NRA brags about. And now the NRA's behind manditory trigger locks, and background checks on private sales.

The only money they get from me now are the payments on my easy pay life membership, and I keep that only so I can vote for the board members Wayne tells me to vote against!

------------------
Sic semper tyrannis!
 
Brett, when the NRA endorsed President Bush, it was only because Clinton made it clear that he wasn't a friend of RKBA. A Hobson's choice. And the NCICS is the result of the NRA trying to stave off more restrictive portions of the Brady Bill. It was compromise, but passage of the Brady Bill was inevitable. You can b*tch and moan all you want about the NRA not being tough enough, but the reason we can't get 100% of what we want is that the other 77,000,000 gun owners are too lazy to get involved!

My brother, who's 57, has been an avid hunter and gun owner since his teens. Yet he never joined the NRA. I've been bugging him about it, and finally e-mailed him a copy of the NRA's website article on British gun owner licensing. Today my brother called to ask how he could join the NRA.

Maybe that's what we all need to do. I've got
gun owner friends who aren't members. They'll get e-mails tonight.

Dick
 
Many complain about the bulk mailings. They say they request that they not be sent junk mail. The fact is this request would most likely cost more in paper trails and maillist management than to send the junk mail.

As a director of a 501(c)3, I find that the bulk mailings are cheap and only a few responses pay for the hassle. The rest of the responses go in the kitty$. The fact is they work and there are just as many who like the magazine, extras, etc. They would complain if they didn't get their junk mail.

I received a letter the other day appoligizing for not responding to my life membership application. It appears they can't handle the onslot of renewals!!!! Those who won't give your money need to wake up! GOA, while maybe a good organization, is a no name compared to the NRA. The press doesn't care and therefore the public and the politicians don't care. Only the NRA rattles their chains enough to get their attention. JOIN THE NRA, if the offer is available to you, RE-UP FOR LIFE.
 
Monkeyleg: Clearly, we're not going to agree about the advisability of current NRA policy; But I will say this:

We, the NRA, have a membership aproximately 11 times that of the Republican party. And something like ten times that many people think of themselves as NRA members, even if they're too cheap to pay the dues! Turnouts in primaries and caucuses are normally extremely low. If we wanted, we could dictate the candidates of the Republican party, see to it that the GOP was stuck with candidates who were almost all pro-gun, and not afraid to say it.

So why do we settle for the lousy candidates they send our way, who expect our support even though they're afraid to be seen with us, afraid to say one word in our defense? Why don't we go to work in the primaries, ourselves some candidates we can be GLAD to instead of the general election, and give vote for?

Heck, wouldn't you love to see a stealth campaign of this sort? Encourage half of us to register Republican, half Democrat, and the day before the primary you get a letter in the mail listing the NRA's candidates? And some of our worst enemies in Congress suddenly find that they're retired, because some dark-horse candidate took the nomination for their seat?

------------------
Sic semper tyrannis!
 
Brett, what you're describing is pretty much what I did in '94, '96 and '98. I worked for a congressional candidate who was 100% pro-2nd. And in '94 he came within a couple of percentage points of defeating a well-entrenched incumbent. But it wasn't the gun owners who got him that close, it was the pro-lifers. I called every gun owner I knew to get them to volunteer--even some guys who count their guns by the dozens--and got the same old lame excuses. "No time, I'm not into politics, it doesnt' matter, I'll bury my guns, etc etc." At every gun show I tried to give literature to gun owners, who would glance at it and throw it away, if they took it at all. I asked our NRA state liason, who does this kind of work on a daily basis, how he could stand these guys. He just shook his head and said "I don't know."

Bluesman cautioned me about saying this several weeks back, but I'll say it again: most gun owners are stupid. As a group we're the largest "special interest" group in the country. Bigger than the senior's lobby. Bigger than the NAACP or any minority lobby.
Bigger than any corporate lobby. If we marched on Washington, rifles shouldered, we couldn't be arrested because there would be no facility large enough to house us, and the economy would be thrown into chaos.

We are the largest single-interest group in our country's history, except for the sad fact that there is no interest. "No time,
I'm not into politics, it doesn't matter, I'll bury my guns."

Idiots.

Dick
 
Dick,

How about misinformed, apathetic, blind, too narrow in their thinking, ignorant, myopic, non-motivated, etc.

Please don't insult me and others here on TFL by calling us stupid or idiots. Hedging by saying "...most gunowners..." doesn't qualify a defense in my book.

Gun owners who refuse to get involved in any way are ignorant. Nothing more. My eyes were once shut as theirs are now. Are they not allies, waiting to be awakend?

------------------
RKBA!

"The people have the right to bear arms for their defense and security"
Ohio Constitution, Article I, Section 4
Concealed Carry is illegal in Ohio.
Ohioans for Concealed Carry Website
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top