Statement of NRA officers and past presidents on the controversy:
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2...-statement-on-finances-strategy-and-bod-role/
It is my opinion, that none of the people signing that letter should ever be allowed to represent a pro-Second Amendmemt lobby again. I’m particularly upset with Mr. Charles Cotton, who I’ve met personally on several occasions. I understand that as a lawyer you can often be ethically constrained to where you cannot share all the evidence and have to sit silent while the media beats your client.
Mr. Cotton is defending spending $200,000+ on clothing by a man who is already well-compensated by arguing it was spread out over 15 years and was suggested by Ackerman-McQueen. I find that argument less than compelling. I’m grateful for the service Mr. Cotton has rendered in support of the Second Amendment; but to call this a lack of judgment is too kind.
I’m at a loss for what to do. We need the NRA. Everybody thinks of the NRA as a lobbying group; but its most important functions are supporting firearms training and education. Without that, there isn’t anything to lobby for. No other organization fills this need so we have no choices here.
On the lobbying side, GOA and SAF are worse choices. Neither organization even pretends to be member directed. If you give those organizations money, you are basically handing it directly to Erich Pratt or Alan Gottlieb and trusting them to do right with it instead of buying a Lamborghini.
GOA has practically contributed zero to the fight for RKBA. My opinion of them, developed over the last 20 years, is that it exists to benefit the Pratt family.
Alan Gottlieb/SAF has contributed to several key wins for the Second Amendment. He hasn’t been a glory hound either and stood by and let the NRA take credit for several of his key achievements. At the same time, he conspired with Chuck Schumer to sell us out on universal background checks in 2013, and then when David Kopel called him out on it, he had no good answer. He reversed his support for UBCs temporarily and then after the bill failed argued it should have passed. As angry as I am with NRA, even they weren’t that blind.
So as I see it, you can give your money to some random schmuck who will most likely betray you; and you won’t even have the fiction of being able to vote him out. Not to mention the random schmuck won’t be doing jack to address the major issue of creating an environment where new shooters can grow and develop. Without that, all the lobbying efforts are meaningless and we’ll be New Zealand in a generation or less.
The NRA is still member directed, though the executive officers appear to have captured the Board instead of the Board fulfilling its duty to the members. As much as I hate to say it, the NRA in its current form must starve. I’ll remain a member, just so I can continue to vote for a Board that takes its responsibilities seriously; but no love nor money for the NRA until they make the necessary changes.
If it dies, it was poorly adapted and needed to die.
