Why doesn't NRA actively rate congress"men" like GOA does?

If you're gonna make a "gun-rights scoresheet," obviously an A+ means a guy who wants the good ol' days where you can buy a rifle in your montgomery wards catalogue, or a snubbie at the gas station. 99% of politicians aren't like that. The inevitability is that you're gonna give all your enemies - and pretty much all your friends - really, really bad grades. That's not very wise. If you have no friends, then the size of your massive lobby won't count for much.
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I read that as a strawman, because it is not what an A+ rating means and it is not how scoring is done.

I do like that GOA rates the vast majority as either A or F. No messing around, they are either with us or against us!
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That's not the reality. GOA uses the full range of scoring. Look it up. It is based on voting record and how GOA thinks the votes should go.
 
I read that as a strawman
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In the sense that, were the NRA were to give a report card to politicians, how many NRA backers are going to get an "A" review? Imagine if Delagate John Smith from the state of ____ has been a long-time NRA member and supporter, gets a grade of "C-" from this lobby because there was this one time when Johnny voted for the NFA, or background checks, or against rifles with 10-inch barrels?

I thought the NRA was for all gun owners and enthusiasts. Introducing a scorecare inevitably creates polarization, "with us or against us," where only the most hard-core, no-compromises politician will come out on top. The rest are alienated.
 
"In the sense that, were the NRA were to give a report card to politicians, how many NRA backers are going to get an "A" review? Imagine if Delagate John Smith from the state of ____ has been a long-time NRA member and supporter, gets a grade of "C-" from this lobby because there was this one time when Johnny voted for the NFA, or background checks, or against rifles with 10-inch barrels?"


You don't think that has ever happened?

Quite a few "friends" of the NRA were downgraded following the machinations surrounding the 1994 'assault weapons' ban.
 
In the sense that, were the NRA were to give a report card to politicians, how many NRA backers are going to get an "A" review? Imagine if Delagate John Smith from the state of ____ has been a long-time NRA member and supporter, gets a grade of "C-" from this lobby because there was this one time when Johnny voted for the NFA, or background checks, or against rifles with 10-inch barrels?

I thought the NRA was for all gun owners and enthusiasts. Introducing a scorecare inevitably creates polarization, "with us or against us," where only the most hard-core, no-compromises politician will come out on top. The rest are alienated.
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You seem to be discussing this without any real familiarity with the actual ratings. The ratings are as objective as anyone could expect and are assigned with little attention paid to hurting someones feelings. The ratings create no leverage unless they constitute playing hardball.

Gun advocate groups are special interest groups, and the ratings serve to measure to what extent a politician serves those interests. Making the ratings public holds the politician's feet to the fire.
 
Quite a few "friends" of the NRA were downgraded following the machinations surrounding the 1994 'assault weapons' ban.
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I remember the night Jack Brooks was up for re-election here in SE Texas after voting for the 1994 Bill. Jack Brooks was one of the most powerful guys in the Congress and delivered for the voters. All his power and ability didnt help him as he was defeated for reelection.

In his recently released book "My Life," Bill Clinton adds further evidence.

"Just before the House vote (on the crime bill), Speaker Tom Foley and majority leader Dick Gephardt had made a last-ditch appeal to me to remove the assault weapons ban from the bill. They argued that many Democrats who represented closely divided districts had already...defied the NRA once on the Brady bill vote. They said that if we made them walk the plank again on the assault weapons ban, the overall bill might not pass, and that if it did, many Democrats who voted for it would not survive the election in November. Jack Brooks, the House Judiciary Committee chairman from Texas, told me the same thing...Jack was convinced that if we didn`t drop the ban, the NRA would beat a lot of Democrats by terrifying gun owners....Foley, Gephardt, and Brooks were right and I was wrong. The price...would be heavy casualties among its defenders." (Pages 611-612)

"On November 8, we got the living daylights beat out of us, losing eight Senate races and fifty-four House seats, the largest defeat for our party since 1946....The NRA had a great night. They beat both Speaker Tom Foley and Jack Brooks, two of the ablest members of Congress, who had warned me this would happen. Foley was the first Speaker to be defeated in more than a century. Jack Brooks had supported the NRA for years and had led the fight against the assault weapons ban in the House, but as chairman of the Judiciary Committee he had voted for the overall crime bill even after the ban was put into it. The NRA was an unforgiving master: one strike and you`re out. The gun lobby claimed to have defeated nineteen of the twenty-four members on its hit list. They did at least that much damage...." (Pages 629-630)

"One Saturday morning, I went to a diner in Manchester full of men who were deer hunters and NRA members. In impromptu remarks, I told them that I knew they had defeated their Democratic congressman, Dick Swett, in 1994 because he voted for the Brady bill and the assault weapons ban. Several of them nodded in agreement." (Page 699)
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from the man himself...lol.

The Democrats remember the election massacre of 94 very well. That it could happen again.
 
Funny how President Clinton made no mention about the incredible influence of the GOA.

Funny how no other politician has ever mentioned the incredible influence of the GOA, either.
 
"The Democrats remember the election massacre of 94 very well. That it could happen again."

Say what?

Al Gore apparently forgot that less in six short years when he campaigned for the Presidency.

His abysmal stand on Second Amendment rights is generally seen as one of the major reasons why he lost states like Tennessee, West Virginia, and Michigan, states which have always been very Democratic candidate inclined.

Hell, that's pretty bad when you lose your home state. Even Walter Mondale didn't lose his home state in 1984 when Ronald Reagan slaughtered him in one of the worst election-night drubbings of all time.

They had to have that lesson spelled out to them twice before they FINALLY got it. Even so, some of them still don't get it, mainly because the Democrats who are calling loud and long for harsher gun control are in districts where it would be fatal for them to abandon the call.
 
You know, in cleaning out the basement I just found a BUNCH of American Rifleman magazines from 1994.

I wonder if one of them has the election ratings in it.

I've got to look. It would be interesting to see the score card, and if I can find one, score cards from previous elections.



Oh yeah...

Dick Swett...

The world's most unfortunate name for a politician... :)

He's going to remain the king until someone named Ball Rash comes along...
 
"Al Gore is a egomaniac. He believes his own press."

But Al Gore wasn't the only individual in his campaign. I said Al Gore because he was the candidate, but apparently none of his advisors got the message, either, and allowed him to hang himself on the subject of gun control.

As I said, that clearly indicates that the Democrats did NOT learn the message of 1994.
 
Some Did...You dont see Speaker Pelosi or Senator Clinton bringing it to the forefront. In fact Pelosi was more than willing to work up compromise with the other sides after the VT shootings.
 
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