[ED: We asked readers to give us their thoughts on the the current controversies swirling around the National Rifle Association and we’ve received a number of thoughtful responses. Click the link above if you’d like to contribute, too. Here are a few more and we’ll continue to run them over the coming days as we receive them.]
Scott Jasmund:
NRA Member for 10+ years.
The letter they send earlier this week just sounded like “Nothing to see here, move along…”. We have, however, seen evidence that there is plenty to see.
For me, the improper spending allegations have yet to be addressed. If that’s not done, I’ll be very conflicted when it’s time to renew memberships for myself and the others in my household. I’m more than happy to send money to an organization which will be used to defend my rights. I am, however, not happy about sending my hard-earned money if I feel that it’s going to be squandered on clothing, pricey charter flights or a questionable intern.
If these issues aren’t addressed, I will have some soul searching to do when it comes time to renew. I’ve already joined GOA as a result of this nonsense and, regardless of how the NRA drama plays out, will continue to support them moving forward.
Felix Finch:
I have never like Wayne Pierre and his crowd. I’m a life member. I basically toss the monthly Rifleman because it is so full of hard, angry vitriol and pointless ads for non-gun stuff.
The current NRA leadership reminds me of that old saying about not wanting to win because they’d have nothing left to fume about. I simply have no faith in them. NRA-ILA is probably run much better, but guilt by association makes me wonder.
This latest kerfuffle with Ackerman has my head spinning. Why is Oliver North paid by Ackerman but on the NRA’s board, which is suing Ackerman for wasting money? Isn’t that a conflict of interest?
I don’t have much use for Oliver North either, what with him lying to Congress in his Marine uniform. Regardless of whether Congress was being idiotic or playing its usual political games, he should have either refused to testify or testified in civvies.
All in all, a crummy unreliable untrustworthy bunch, the lot of them. Get them out, get honest people in there, and build up a new image of honesty and trust. This bunch don’t know the meaning of the words.
A.H.:
I did not renew my NRA membership this year for a number of reasons. Probably the biggest is that I feel my state has been completely overlooked by the NRA, who seem to focus on issues that don’t appear to be anything that will improve my way of life.
You can put me in the camp that could give a rat’s patootie about having a bump stock yet I am fully aware of the slippery slope it creates if allowed. In years past I have looked for the NRA to be a leader, not an also-ran. So it is not good that I have the impression the NRA got on this bandwagon a bit late and rode it’s coattails.
That’s not a good thing to someone who is fed up to their eyeballs with the continued removal of my 2A rights. Not a good thing when it comes time to ask for what amounts to 3 hours of pay to be a member and see no results. Not a good thing to offer stupid gifts with your membership renewal that are MADE IN CHINA.
My money has gone to my local gun club and two state organizations that have done all the work in fending off attempts to restrict gun ownership and 2A rights here this past year.
Along with this impression that the NRA feels I live in flyover country is that because of inaction by the NRA, my state is now another blue state. And the 2018 midterms did more than turn my state blue. They removed all doubt for me that this country can’t be saved at the ballot box.
I do not plan to vote again because politicians aren’t listening. Worse, they have no intention of listening anymore. Looking for a way to at least continue to remain a voice in the fight against this onslaught, I now train with a Militia group. And I am not the only one who was soured bv those 2018 election results. The state of this country today has more and more of us coming to the same conclusion.
Hearing about the lavish lifestyle of Wayne LaPierre furthers my feeling that the NRA is doing far too little on my behalf. Such a feeling is underscored by the fact that there isn’t a single member from the Northeast on the board of directors.
If the NRA wants to get serious about gun rights, start really making a difference and remain the 800 lb gorilla in the room, they need to stop lining the pockets of politicians with money from its membership. They need to start funding militias in all 50 states.
James Ball:
Perception is reality.
The general membership does not know the level of impropriety that has taken place, and may be continuing, at the NRA. But the most important thing to consider is that the damage to the organization is equal to the worst of the allegations, until they are conclusively disproved.
The signatories of the recent “Move along folks, there’s nothing to see here” letter are delusional if they think it will make this all go away. The stain of impropriety, real or perceived, remains. The unanimous votes are also suspicious, considering the severity of the allegations, and shows a lack of a challenge that is needed to ensure a tightly run ship.
The thorough investigation recommended by others is a lengthly process and complete exoneration is unlikely. We do not have the luxury of time, and in this case time does not heal all wounds, it just allows them to fester.
To put this issue to rest, anybody associated with credible claims of perceived or actual impropriety must go for the good of the organization.
If the NRA does evaporate, or become substantially weakened, it is not the end of the Second Amendment as some fear. The power of the gun rights movement is not in one organization, but in millions of responsible gun owners who passionately believe in individual liberty vs. the smothering blanket of the state.
We could overcome the collapse of even such a large organization through increased support to the dozens of smaller organizations and increasing individual activism. There are far too many gun owners that think they have done their part by sending $35 bucks a year to one or two groups, but don’t follow legislation or contact their representatives. They would need to get off their duffs and do something. The statists are drooling at the prospect of a defeated NRA. If we all are active, we could hand them a stunning defeat.
I first joined the NRA in the late 50’s and have yet to receive a letter that didn’t beg for money, if I ever got one that didn’t, I ‘de probably vapor lock! After this not one more dollar till Wayne is gone and a better accountability is in place! He should be made to payback everything and no golden parachute!
He can keep the golden shower.
I thought I was about the only person who used the term “vapor locked”. You Sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.
When was the last time an American driver, driving a late-model vehicle, ever experienced vapor lock? Fuel injection pretty much killed that ‘experience’…
LOL @vaporlock… a rather notorious gremlin back in High School.
Vapor lock is a term us oldtimers use for heart attack!
Geoff: Back in the summer of 1977, I was sitting in the back of pick-up truck (Coors-in-hand), heading up into the mountains, outside Jackson Hole, WY, and the pick-up went into vapor lock and quit. So, that was the last time I experienced vapor lock.
Vapor lock, and leaning out your carburetor at altitude…stuff young’uns won’t experience unless they really seek it out.
Thank God for modern technology. We don’t miss hunting with rocks, rubbing sticks together to start fires, hitching up a buggy, phones that were wired to the wall, or vapor lock. You old codgers can keep all of it 😉
I’ll bet when you’re cold and wet, and your lighter won’t light, and you don’t know how to build a bow drill set, that you will REALLY pay a LOT to some old timer that DOES know how to light your fire for you. Better have silver by the pound, because that’s what I’ll be charging you. 🙂
Too expensive? Alright, have it your own way…. enjoy the night……. the looooooong, coooooold night…… See you tomorrow! If you survive.
I did the same with the same ‘gimmee more’ letter experience . In and out since then with the same sense of outrage . Never did like Wayne And left over his being a dick several times only to come back over several perceived crisis .
NO MAS ! I’ll spend my money on more ammo and better arms .
Having been a member 4 over 60 yrs did u not know u can opt out?
Yeah they hired fund raisers that do the begging that is their job.
I have never received a single nra mailing except my yearly ballot for decades.
When I read of New York State and the insurance issues I renewed my membership after many years. I now believe that may have been a mistake. I think I will cancel my membership, if I don’t see resignations and reform. I will encourage my friends to do the same.
I am right there with you Clarence I have had it with the NRA until the leadership is changed and it is set to fight for our gun rights and they quit throwing our money away on outrageous salaries and trips etc. when they get it together I will renew membership
I’ve been an NRA Life Member for 41 years. Paid the enormous sum of $300 back in 1978 hoping to get my money’s worth from the subscription to American Rifleman, which I have. I joined because my grandmother said it was important to keep an eye on our 2nd amendment rights and the government. I also figured the magazine would be a reliable source for recalls and notices. There was no internet back then. The issues that now infest the firearms arena are so many and varied that it is not likely that any single pro-gun organization will keep all it’s members happy. The NRA has done about as well a job as is possible under the circumstances, they can’t perform miracles. The NFA and the GCA of 1968 are not going away and it is a waste of time and money to pursue such objectives. Call me a &^*^$#%&* fudd, but efforts should be expended to keep what we have, insure self-defense rights and simplify traveling with firearms.
The various shenanigans that occur in the Executive Suite of the NRA occur in every business and institutional organization in the world and should be expected from time to time. It’s the board of director’s responsibility to watch out for the member’s interests and chastise the management as necessary. Term limits on board service might not be a bad idea.
“Call me a &^*^$#%&* fudd, but efforts should be expended to keep what we have, insure self-defense rights and simplify traveling with firearms.”
When the NRA starts doing even that much…maybe they’ll be worth supporting. State-level affiliates may, but the national office just ceded the biggest loss –one that will eventually see all semiautos banned– because they didn’t want to piss off their GOP bundlers.
*Biggest loss in decades
“The various shenanigans that occur in the Executive Suite of the NRA occur in every business and institutional organization in the world and should be expected from time to time”
So that makes it okay and acceptable to overlook it because it happens elsewhere?
Good call in reading between the lines. All I get out of this is a guy who’s been raped by the NRA for so long that now he can’t imagine what life might be like without Pierre LaTrine’s daily dicking, all without even a reach around.
To bad his grandmommy didn’t also tell him to watch the watchers. Instead, he just hired out what was HIS own job to do, and now has a lifetime of being raped to protect. If he wises up and admits to this, then what he’s believed in his entire life all goes down the drain. the perfect setup to suffer a brutal amount of cognitive dissonance.
Like his not caring at all how much of his money LaTrine wasted on a lifetime of weekly $3000 suits. Just par for the course. But only LaTrine’s course gets that waiver. If I asked him for three grand for a suit every week, you’d see him sane up in a hurry!
&^*^$#%&* fudd
The NRA spent a total of $330M in 2017 with less than $1M on pro-gun lawsuits through the NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund and $1.4M on Wayne LaPierre’s salary alone. I hope you are getting the picture here what the NRA’s priorities are.
Ever heard of the Wounded Warrior Project and its past issues with spending? They still haven’t recovered from that disaster. No, the various shenanigans do not occur in other NONPROFIT organizations without serious backlash from donors when they become public.
Fighting for what we have without fighting for getting back what has been taken away is exactly the mindset that got us here in the first place. It just means that we continue to give in every time that there is a fight that “is not the hill to die on”. This battle of retreat is exactly how we lost our rights and how we are going to continue losing our rights.
As a NRA member I totally agree ^.
We are in a war, make no mistake. So far it’s a cold war, with some isolated skirmishes like the one in 2017 in which Steve Scalise got wounded.
No one ever won a war or even a football match by defense only. That’s what got us where we are now. Even if we win 95% of the time, in the end we would have still lost 5%.
Attack! Shake down the dead weight of “keep the status quo” Fudds. Take some of that lost land back! And take no prisoners!
@CharlieFoxtrot: “The NRA spent a total of $330M in 2017 with less than $1M on pro-gun lawsuits through the NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund and $1.4M on Wayne LaPierre’s salary alone.”
So, let’s see: 1.4 / 330 = 0.004; i.e., WLP’s salary is 4/10’ths of 1% of the total spend. Suppose – purely hypothetical – we got our money’s worth out of that $330 million. Then, 4/10’ths of 1% would be a bargain.
Carrying on with this analysis, 1 / 330 = 0.003/ or, 3/10’th of 1% on lawsuits. As SCOTUS is now constituted it seems as though the third branch of government might be our best hope. If NRA is spending only 3/10’ths of 1% on our best hope, are we really getting our money’s worth?
It seems as though much – perhaps most – of NRA’s budget is spent on fund-raising to get still more money to spend on fund-raising; and so the cycle of spending and fund-raising continues. It would be vastly less expensive to raise funds if the money were being spent on the causes of gun-rights and promotion of gun-safety and the shooting sports.
I have no problem paying the CEO of NRA $1.4 million; nor do I have a problem buying him (her) the best wardrobe from the finest haberdashers in London. S/he can fly first class and stay in the finest hotels. I just want him/her to spend the other $328 million effectively promoting rights, safety and the shooting sports.
Why isn’t this happening? Because the Board of Directors owe their allegiance to the CEO; and, they are prepared to let the NRA burn to the ground in the hopes of eating the crumbs the CEO let’s them eat from the table for yet one more year.
The board members must either wake-up, smell the coffee, do their jobs, and then resign. Or, there won’t be an NRA by 2020.
Asking people who won’t make $1M in their entire lifetime to donate to the NRA so that Wayne LaPierre can make $1.4M/year is unethical. The NRA is a NONPROFIT. If Wayne LaPierre wants to make that money, he is welcome to try his luck in the for-profit market.
CharityWatch lists Wayne LaPierre as the 8th highest-paid nonprofit CEO in the nation. #7 is the CEO of the Dana-Farber Institute, which has an annual revenue of $1.5B (that’s 4.5 times the NRA’s revenue).
$1.4M/year can buy good clothes. Wayne LaPierre getting his wardrobe paid by the nonprofit NRA via a for-profit vendor (Ackerman McQueen) is not only unethical but also likely illegal (tax evasion comes to mind).
You are the typical NRA member that keeps reinforcing to people like me why we will never join your shitty organization. You are a &^*^$#%&* fudd.
We need to try to regain what we have lost, and the NRA has been at the forefront of giving more away for almost a century now.
Here is something to consider:
If you are not a NRA member, you are not part of the family. In my family, I have a right to criticize my relatives, but I won’t willingly tolerate some outsider doing so.
For those of you who are not members – it isn’t any of your business – so stay out of it. Long before this problem became more public, many of you were offering excuse after excuse for not stepping up. The truth in many cases is that non contributors were counting on other people’s money and involvement to solve the anti gun problems. Their voices should be silent now.
For those of us that have been members, we need to face the fact that many of us, including me, didn’t get involved enough to know what was going on, and/or tried to ignore the problems we knew about because we valued our own businesses and/or lives as more important than getting involved in the NRA. As a result we have the mess we have now. The same, or worse, can be said for most of the Board of Directors.
Members need to fix the NRA by getting involved and learning things – like bullet voting and sharing contact information for members of the Board. They need to get passionate enough to write and duplicate physical letters to be sent to the Board making our case for fixing the NRA. The fires must be lit and we need to fan them.
“For those of you who are not members – it isn’t any of your business – so stay out of it.”
I see you have very good recruiting skills!
Well I’ve got 2 more days of membership so I can say what I want OH WAIT I can say what I want anyway because neither you nor the NRA run the internet!
The NRA is a business not a family. I pay for a service and when I don’t get that service I don’t pay. If I do get the service then I continue to pay for it. There is nothing more to it.
sorry, after them pointing it out, i’d like to see if there are any recent expenditures by a certain ad compoany to other second amendment organizations that just spent a lot of time taling about all these things they ‘suddenly discovered’… or if said ad agency was their ‘source’
Wait, so you’re saying Ackerman McQueen is pulling the strings behind all the outrage about these NRA revelations? They certainly kicked things off with that blackmail letter, but isn’t that giving them a little too much credit? And besides, shouldn’t *you* be pissed off that the NRA laid down with such dogs & allowed them to become so threatening in the first place?
AM’s the guys who get paid to send you junk mail & robo-calls. I’m fairly sure what caused this mess is two fleas fighting over the last drop of blood in a host they’ve sucked dry. AM and LaPierre clearly raked in (literal) billions over the years, wasting peoples’ donations on these pointless lobbying & fundraising efforts (accomplishing fuck-all at the national level might I add); now that Trump is elected and the stupid Fudds are all complacent, and those of us with a clue are fed up (this has been building to a head for years), the money is drying up. I suspect the NRA is suing Ackerman McQueen not to terminate business relations –after all, LaPierre’s wife runs the firm he sends all the business to– but to renegotiate the compensation. Neither side wants to give up their gravy train, so one side reveals the other has been wasting money without bothering to account for it (AM) which is also known as graft, and the other side uses blackmail and later a smear campaign to reveal LaPierre has been basically embezzling money by labeling everything he cares to spend money on as a ‘business expense.’
“(this has been building to a head for years)”
Decades rather
Militias sound super-spiffy as long as they can go home, grab a shower, pop a cold beer and throw something on the grill.
But unless people go to all-out war, militias that don’t vote and work to get out the vote don’t accomplish anything at all. Is your group getting the veterans out of nursing homes to vote or getting them their absentee ballots? Are you bringing friends and family to the polls with you, offering to drive people and generally assisting the people who believe in free America?
Everyone who wants to protect individual freedoms and liberties has to vote every time for every office. Local Sheriff? One may sign NFA applications for SBRs and suppressors, one may not. Vote every time, every election.
There are 80 million gun owners. Know how I know they’re not all voting to protect their rights? Only 110 million people nationwide voted at all in 2018. If gun owners had voted to protect themselves, Nancy Pelosi and the gun grabbers wouldn’t be in charge of Congress. The Hearing Protection Act might have moved forward. We would be in a very different place.
Next year, in 2020, the Dems are all-in for complete victory at every level: House, Senate, Presidency. We have to be all-in too for freedom. So does the NRA. All in. Fight to win.
Waynes “Stand And Fight” were actually that rather than his practice of Kneeling and Capitulating.
If the NRA is to survive it needs a wholesale house cleaning of the Fudd mentality starting with Wayne and the board of enablers.
To the NRA’s credit (what little is due these days) it looks like Texas may be getting double-secret constitutional carry in the next few days. I’ll take them at their word that they actually spearheaded this effort vs. “supporting” it once it was a done deal.
HB 1177 drew criticism from gun control groups like Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, who said: “HB 1177 would weaken Texas gun safety laws in already sensitive situations by removing key safety requirements to carry hidden, loaded guns during a state of emergency.”
Do you think their publicist thought that sounded better in her head? Concealed carry is a key safety requirement (I can think of a few places where that would be an interesting argument seeing as it’s effectively banned in the name of ‘safety’), and they make it sound like carry of loaded guns is mandatory during a state of emergency.
Leadership change may be on the horizon….All know is that more states are “constitutional carry” ! When there is upheaval there in lies some devils in the broader picture. The broader picture is now and assault on ALL gun owners from Mario Cuomo ….All 2nd amendment groups and manufacturers are under assault from strong-arm tactics against financial institutions that do business with them …
Cuomo sees the growing power and has insidiously ordered police state tactics.
Eventually there will be leadership changes, either in government or in governance at the NRA so I have patience and faith.
I agree that this would be the best (and most likely) outcome; I just wish that the people in the way (NRA leadership) would submit to the inevitable, already, and begin burning out the dead wood. We all know it’s there, we all know it’s killing support for the NRA, we all know they care about that $upport a lot more than the mission…just retire these fools already –give them their ill-gotten retirements, even– and let some competence make the decisions going forward for a change, already.
Clearly LaPierre/etc and Ackerman both think there is still something to be plundered, or blame that needs to be passed onto the other guy on their way out the door. Both see their days on the gravy train numbered, and both are waiting for the other guy to get bum-rushed out the door first (except they both own the bouncers so that can’t happen)
I’m a Benefactor member (to get them to shut up about upgrading) and an Instructor. I think audits and investigations may be a good thing. NY may actually save the NRA by getting rid of the bad actors.
Compensation and perks appear to be out of line, or at least there is poor stewardship of the member’s dues and donations. I remember when an Apple exec was having a limo at all 3 Bay Area airports in case her flight got diverted. That kind of casual regard for spending other people’s money needs to be eliminated (and she was). Living off the largess of an organization is wrong. First class travel and limos is ok for hired speakers and performers at conferences, but it shouldn’t be the way of life for execs. In the for-profit sector, those perks can be part of an overall package worth 10’s of millions, but the execs need to prove success and profits to the shareholders in order to continue to hold their positions. For non-profits, I don’t see the need for premium pay for a high performing exec. What return are we getting for our money? Why the outrageous intern housing payments? Is this a yearly or one-time thing? Is Wayne feathering the nest of his mistress or were they doing a favor for a big donor and supporting his mistress?
The incestuous relationships and conflicts of interest are troubling, as are the reports I’m hearing about the leadership of the training division. What are the chances that a randomly chosen or best-in-field outside attorney is related to the PR firm execs? We hear claims of bad blood between them, but it sounds more like AM pushed for the attorney, and he either stopped toeing the family line or didn’t give the expected kickbacks. This kind of stuff screams ethics violations, nepotism, and cronyism. It’d be lawsuits and jail time in a publicly traded company. Even if there isn’t cronyism or nepotism, situations need to be avoided where there might be the appearance. It was Wayne’s responsibility to institute policies against it and to enforce them. Instead, he seems a willing participant if reports if his wife being on the AM board are true.
They say pigs get fat, but hogs get slaughtered, and it looks like the trough is getting low and the hogs can’t hide. Or maybe it cockroaches scattering when the light is turned on. The vendors and the cronies who supported them for years are starting to finger point. Is this the first year AM hasn’t turned over docs, or was this only the first year they were asked? Maybe both sides are wrong, which is ultimately Wayne’s fault for picking the vendors and not overseeing them properly.
I dislike the mission creep of the commentators. While I agree that a pro-gun Democrat official is as rare as hen’s teeth these days, the NRA shouldn’t be a mouthpiece of the Republicans. The official channel commentaries should be pushing gun safety, gun rights, or other gun related info, not pushing non-gun Republican social planks. The celebrity commentators all have independent tube channels, radio shows, etc to express those views, but NRA stamped commentaries should only be gun related. That’s not indications of impropriety, but I think it shows a lack of focus on what’s important. I’m ok with a company paying to be the official wine, rental car, or precious metal trader and get ads as long as they get it for fair market cost and not a crony sweetheart deal. That’s just fundraising. Pushing out a sponsor and trying to encroach on his market with Carry Guard also seems like a bad policy.
In short, I believe that Wayne hasn’t promoted and enforced the ethical behavior required for the organization, and he hasn’t shown value worthy of his compensation. He has failed as a leader. He should go, and I expect there are many other vendors and employees that will be shown to have benefited from unethical decisions, and they need to go too.
W.P. is a flim flam artist. He needs to be gone yesterday. He also needs to return the millions he’s pissed away staying in 5 star hotels, $100+ personal meals, $ 1000 suites, and all the other BULLSHIT he’s pulled.
He and the rest of that bunch in the ILA have done everything they can to keep the fighting over 2A going on for years. You don’t have to be Perry Mason to know that the Supremacy clause in the Constitution automatically defeates any of the anti 2A laws ever passed on the State level. This clause simply states that when state law and federal law are in conflict, federal law automatically trumps state law rendering the state law mute. If that wasn’t so the Constitution would have no meaning if you live in a state that refuses to recognize it. The text of 2A as in all of the amendments in the Bill of Rights is plain. This lame argument that only an organized Militia has the right to keep and bear arms is Complete BULLSHIT. It dosent say that or anything close to that. A militia is there to first defend the residents of each state from anyone or anything that would seek to do them harm by the force of arms if need be. It’s most important reason to exist is to protect the individual states from the Federal Government when it eventually becomes the tyranny that all Government eventually becomes, as has this Government has been for the last 50 years. Militia laws are mostly uniform from state to state and never replealied, the just aren’t enforced anymore. Professional police departments and Reserve and National Guard came to be. Mostly because the advances in technology started to put modern war weapons out of the price range of the ordinary citizens. Hence Government troops and police departments.These are not citizens Millitas. They are Government employees, as such answer to the Government not to the citizens. Weak and ignorant people in America today actually believe that it’s the Government that provides the protection of their life, liberty and property. Worse they want all of the rest of us to do the same. Every male citizens between age 18 to 48 are REQUIRED by common law for active service in the states organized Militia unless exempt by the Governor for health or hardship. Each member shall report at least once each month to drill lasting at least two consecutive days. He must provide 3 days rations, ammunition and arms of the times. He must purchase and maintain the correct uniforms. He is training to provide effective defense of the state. Millitas can also become federalized during times of war and insurrection as was during the Revolutionary war, war of 1812, Mexican war, Civil War, Spanish American war. The National Guard concept came to be because the large expense of maintaining a large standing regular Army that only becomes necessary if America is attached by a foreign enemy such as the War of 1812. Congress after the Revolutionary War demobalized and disbanded the Continental Army fearful that it could be turned on the citizens as has always been done by the European countries The just faught a very costly war To throw off such a professional Armey of the crown that the Founders created America to start with. Armies when not engaged in war fighting are normally tools of oppression used by the King to control subjects. The Millitas were sufficient to safeguard the individual states and avoided the burdens of maintaining a standing Army. The war of 1812 showed that the problems of federalized Millitas from individual states when joined together had very real problems. These were everything from non standard weapons and ammunition issues to chain of command. Officers of one millita couldn’t give orders to men from another states Millita. In spite of all this we still won that very costly war. To sum up the individual rights for the law abiding American citizens shouldn’t be in dispute on any level of Government. Rights do not come from Government. The are not the Government athuorty to grant or take away. Only Americans can surrender them to the Government. If they do they are gone forever. The 10A is there to protect the Bill of Rights, stating in plain text any powers not enumerated in the first 9 amendments the Government does not have, that is that, or so under the rule of law it should be. The basic problem with the NRA/ILA is that these people have made carries of keeping this fight going so as to keep them employed just like the 545 SCUMBAGS that makes up our federal Government. The bottom line is fallow the money and it’s clear as day.
I was annoyed at the amount of junk mail they sent me after I bought my firearms. The company that sold them to me also sold my name to the NRA and they sent me something every other day. I had to email and call them at least a dozen times before they stopped, writing ‘return to sender’ did no good. I think it took about three months before they were done. Any company that can’t respect my privacy doesn’t deserve my money, the whole concept of being armed at home also means nobody knows about it, which excludes anybody who saw my junk mail.
As a life member who purchased my membership with a lump sum payment. I realized years ago. The NRA hasn’t been a A Rights organization. It became a slush fund the those in power to use to support their chosen life style. It is run like any business looking to further it’s existence in the world. Those in power count on the continued Chaos of the 2A fight. Never really wanting to win The War Against 2A Rights. If the War is won. They are no longer needed and Their Gravy Train drys up. They are no different than the Political Class. Who concoct emergencies then tell us how they are going to fix them. All the while doing no more the complicating the issues. In hopes they will become nothing more than background noise. As a new “Crisis” rears it’s head. It’s the same Old Game that people in power have been playing on the populous for millennia. Because they have learned how to effectively keep people divided on core issues. It allows the leaders on both sides of the issue’s to continue playing “The Game”. Thus allowing for Their continued Power and Lifestyle. Regardless of which side pretend to fight for. All that really matters is fight continues. Up To and Until WE the People Decide to Win the Fight and End the War. Nothing will change. They Fear the Loss of the Issue. More than they Fear the People they are supposedly fighting for. Keep Your Powder Dry.
The good news is that in just a few more days I’ll no longer get wine club information and begging for money mail and e-mails. I get ZERO notification on my instructor cards but a dozen or more on my regular card all the way up to a year out. That’s a serious waste of money and both our time. I can’t wait for them to announce the next A+ er that needs my vote who immediately moves to take away gun rights in an illegal manner.
Many current and past members have made accurate accusations against the NRA here.
I’m kinda new , only a member for the last 3 1/2 years, but I see their points. I no longer support some non profits that have experienced similar scandals. I have two years of membership left and may not re new if MAJOR changes aren’t made . I don’t like the NRA close ties to the RNC, politicians and lawyers all. I don’t trust any to do what’s best for the electorate if they don’t receive the credit and rewards themselves. Every letter that I get uses the phrase “THE ELITES” so often, but the NRA leader S are also the elites and we finance their lifestyles. My last renewal was for three years trying to stop the beg a thon,but I was getting calls and mailers before I got my new membership card!
On a side note I can feel for Wayne,…when I was about seven my mommy took me to Robert Hall to get me my first suit ( I hated that itchy thing) so I know just how Wayne feels when AkMac takes him out to get a new suit. Good Bye Wayne
A.H. made a point about their trinkets made in China. I seem to remember a kerfuffle made about a Yeti relationship. Something about Yeti wanting to end their partnership, and the NRA making a big stink about Yeti doesn’t support the 2A, or something.
I wonder how China feels about RKBA.
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