NRA- To join or not?

I got bumper stickers, a discount at the NRA range in Fairfax, a magazine about the latest variant of the M1911 or yet another John Wayne/Robert E. Lee/Browning commemorative gun, and an inbox flooded with their emails (by someone who can't design emails). The emails, however, do keep me alerted one what's going on with gun rights, what I can do to help, and what the NRA is doing to help.

Join the NRA.
 
Join and make your voice heard. Like others have said they are not perfect and any any organization with 4 million members is bound to have some people upset over every decision. If you have ever been part of a volunteer organization or club you know how hard it is to get 50 people to agree on something (impossible) let along 4 million. There are other pro-gun groups worth joining along with the NRA but the NRA should be first IMHO.

Personally I think the Armed Citizen page of American Rifleman magazine alone is worth the $35 membership fee.
 
dazedkraut said:
just looking for honest feedback on any pros and/or cons the NRA has provided or not provided for you.
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That's a perfectly honest question, but I think you should consider it from the opposite perspective. What can you do to provide for defense of 2nd Amdt rights.

Supporting the NRA or GOA is something all of us should feel obligated to do.

orionengnr said:
In numbers be strength. If the NRA had 40 million members...
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We would never again be on the defensive regarding the right to keep and bear arms.

To answer your question, in addition to the various perks already mentioned, the NRA is continually lobbying for, and providing legal defense of, 2nd Amdt rights.

NRA Life member.
 
Imagine if the UK or Austrailia had an organization like the NRA. They might still legally be able to bear arms. May be to late for them.

Although both are our best allies and friends it would eliminate our ability to poke fun and reduce the amount of storage space needed by TFL. :D
 
However, it is my understanding that the NRA vigorously protects its mailing list and membership lists.
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I strongly disagree with this statement.

I got more "junk mail" after joining the NRA than after I applied for my first credit card, or after I joined the Minutemen. I joined the NRA in 2002, and MCDC in 2004.

The Minutemen Civil Defense Corps is notorious for being a bit shady in its money raising activities, and one of the fundraising techniques they employ is selling its mailing list to other similar organizations.

After joining the NRA, I started getting little packets of post-card sized advertisements focused on shooting sports and hunting goods. Never got them before. I started getting Shooter's World and Cabela's magazines immediately after joining NRA.

I started getting called on the telephone by conservative causes immediately after joining the NRA.

Prior to 2002, I was a non-existent entity on the mass mail and telemarketing radar.

NRA's okay, but your local state equivalent (in AZ, Arizona Citizen's Defense League) is probably more productive.
 
I had some reservations about joining the NRA too. I'll be the first to admit that I don't believe in most of the NRA's propaganda. However, I don't believe any of the Brady Campaign's propaganda and I like to think that the NRA is at least trying to preserve some of our gun rights and they do have some weight in Washington. I do think that the Brady Campaign is dangerous and we need a counter point. The NRA is a counter point. As a matter of fact, I just renewed my membership over the weekend.
 
About an hour ago I re-upped for three years, $85. I think we would be in much worse shape if not for them. And The Rifleman magazine is pretty good.
 
If you live in CA, don't bother. They haven't done a thing for us out here. If you live somewhere else, take a look at the multi-million dollar headquarters building they built with members' money, then decide.
 
If you don't participate in an NRA program, you still receive a good magazine. But most important is this single fact: The NRA is the largest, strongest, most committed, most powerful organization in the world fighting every minute for your right to keep and bear arms. We all share that benefit - we should all be members of the NRA.
 
I don't agree with a number of the NRA 'positions' but still belong to the organization because of the strength in numbers argument. They are one organization that actively fights for gun owners rights and the 2nd ammendment.
 
It's my understanding that the NRA does not give out its mailing list or member information. However, the NRA will mail material for other organizations. You'll still get junk mail, but no third party will have your NRA information.

For example, we have a local NRA Members' Council. If we want to mail material to local NRA members, the NRA will not give us a mailing list. However, if we give the NRA our material, the NRA will mail it for us, and we pick up the expense.
 
And this:
http://www.nrawol.net
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I just took a look at that link and every one of their big arguments is either a lie or a brutal twisting of the facts.

In fact, the only one that was merely a distortion of the truth is that the NRA tried to sink the Heller case. This is true, but the NRA thought it was a safer bet to avoid taking a case to the SC because it could go the wrong way and we could end up in worse shape than we were in before. In fact, this may still happen. The Heller deal is a risky, bold move. I like it, but the NRA is conservative as all hell.

Besides, it's just an honest difference of opinion between gun rights advocates over strategy, not a big anti-gun conspiracy. Trying to paint the NRA as a bunch of frontmen for a enormous gun-control conspiracy is silly and dishonest.

The rest of the site does nothing but pound on the "veterans disarmament act" nonsense that blatantly lies about what the bill is and what it does. Anyone who bothers to read the text of the bill will know it's nothing to be concerned about.

It's a bunch of misleading tripe. If any organization is a front for the gun control hacks, it is not the NRA. Hmmmmm... who is it that is constantly trying to split gunowners with untruths and hysterical jabbering? Not the NRA.:)
 
Trying to paint the NRA as a bunch of frontmen for a enormous gun-control conspiracy is silly and dishonest.
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They're not anti-gun per se... they just have a LOT invested in institutionalizing the fight for gun rights into the 22nd century. If we won... if we flat-out won... they'd be out of jobs and all 4 million of us NRA members would have $50 more a year to spend on ammo or guns or whatever, rather than sending $200 Million dollars a year in membership dues (plus donations, endowments, etc) to Wayne and his friends to spend lobbying on Capitol Hill.
 
They're not anti-gun per se... they just have a LOT invested in institutionalizing the fight for gun rights into the 22nd century.
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Yep.....just another of those vast right-wing conspiracies, obviously.
 
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