At one time, I was a member of the NRA. My mentor gave me that membership. The legislative announcements we received were useful.
We submitted testimony three times, I spoke before the Maryland Senate committee that was looking at infringement bills. Every time, it was the NRA that gave us the heads-up. It was the NRA there, fighting for our rights.
In those committee hearings, there were always a dozen or more anti-gun groups and exactly one pro-Second Amendment group.
We look and see the NRA is missing in the current court battles. They were there. They still are.
Consider the name of this group, “The New York State Rifle and Pistol Association”. You might remember them from such hits as “New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. City of New York” and “New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, Superintendent of New York State Police, Et Al.”.
Let me quote you a little something from their web page: We are a not-for-profit 501(c)4 organization and the official NRA-affiliated State Association in New York.
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That’s correct, that was the NRA working for many years to help get our win in Bruen
Today, the NRA is a shell of its former self. I know people who maintain their memberships because they just do. I send my money to other groups, groups who I see in court battles time and time again.
Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president and chief executive officer, said his departure is effective Jan. 31.
— AP News
Please pray that the NRA can recover from its nose dive to become a powerhouse in the support of the Second Amendment again.
Comments
6 responses to “NRA, a move towards a better future?”
the one thing that bothered me about them(well, one of many)- the constant begging for money, CONSTANT. I paid for a 3 year membership and the next week, every other day, “time to renew your membership “!!!.. and the form letters reprinted from 30 years ago.. 300 million plus gun sales and only 5 million members… what REALLY pissed me off was I spent alot of money to get certified as an instructor and right after they changed thier courses to “ online” so citizens could go online and take couses instead of coming to a hands on class. They took away one of my income streams. Constitution carry didn’t help either cause people now have the attitude that “they dont need to take the course “… and I was charging $25. for a basic course. $75 for ccw.. so I wasn’t exorbitant… I taped a dime to one of thier begging letters and sent them that, they left me alone for 2 years.. imagine if the nra was 200 million strong,… but even now I dout they will break 8 million..
Curby, if I’d known a dime would get me 24 months of reduced wear and tear on my shredder I’d have done it long before I dropped my membership.
heh heh. i WAS surprised that it worked..
The NRA, at the national level, seems to have become a textbook case of Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy* some time ago. WLP’s departure is, I believe, a necessary but insufficient step needed to refocusing the organization on its core mission spaces. One feature of the NRA as presently structured, is that about the only way the members really had of having influence is stopping donating; and I doubt that was a coincidence that just happened to evolve thay way. We’ll see what the board does now, and whether the elections and governance system can be changed to give the members more say.
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The state-level affiliates do good work, at least those in the states I’ve lived in, but have been dramatically under-supported by the national, at least in the southwest. I donate to the NM affiliate.
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I agree with Curby that the omnipresent fundraising – with associated hyperbole – is really annoying. This is a common tactic for donation-supported groups to use, but NRA has historically been way over the top, compared to other gun rights groups as well as groups with other focus.
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* https://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/iron.html
The comments and this column remind me of a discussion I had with an uncle concerning the current Israeli/ham ass conflict.
A while back, he had seen a video where some Israeli soldiers were giving some palestinian kids the beat down they so richly deserved, but because they were obviously under the age of ten, and the soldiers weren’t, it made the entirety of Israel evil. End of story in his book. I had to remind him that the actions of a few individuals is not the same as the actions of a government (or organization) as a whole.
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Does anyone know of any organization that is perfect? Perhaps someone can name an individual who is not corruptible?
Sure, the NRA is constantly begging for money. I yet to join any activist organization that isn’t. Did the NRA president let power corrupt him? (Or did he seek the NRA presidency in order to get that power?) Yep… And, there are not a myriad of organizations where the people in charge do not benefit from their position. I can’t think of one.
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Is there another gun rights organization that has been consistently as effective as the NRA? That has the membership, that has the political pull? Doors in DC do not open so easily for GOA and the 2AF.
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The actions of few may taint the overall reputation of the organization, but look at the organization as a whole, not as the corrupt individual at the top. Do the benefits of the NRA outweigh the drawbacks?
true words. back in the early 90s my dad wrote them and suggested they start a basic membership for like $5 a year , just a card and a sticker, no pizzass no frills, to get membership up… he got some long winded reply that this wasn’t feasible…. no organization is perfect but the nra has lost thier way… maybe they can get it back..