The National Rifle Association — America’s oldest civil rights organization — is in an existential crisis today brought on by mismanagement, cronyism, and self-dealing by its leadership. Every week brings forth a new allegation, a new bit of evidence that the the NRA’s leaders are more interested in lining their own pockets and enjoying the perquisites of power than promoting marksmanship, gun safety, and defending the right to keep and bear arms.
Every day this circus continues is a day that the NRA’s credibility as an organization takes another hit. This is a dangerous situation for the organization and for American gun owners because — whatever the reality — the identity of gun owners in this country is tightly linked to that of the NRA.
We’d like to say that the NRA’s leadership has stepped up to the plate in response. We’d like to say they’ve at least mouthed the correct words, made promises of transparency going forward, committed to an independent audit of the books, expressed interest in correcting what were inarguably missteps (even if you believe the leadership is innocent of any actual wrongdoing, missteps in communications and public relations have certainly been made,) and of welcoming fresh blood and new voices to its ranks.
We can’t say any of that, though, because they haven’t.
One man sits at the center of this swirling maelstrom. One has led the organization to this precarious position. And one man can start the process of leading it out: Wayne LaPierre.
Wayne LaPierre was the one who commissioned Ackerman McQueen to put forth NRA-TV as the voice of the organization.
Wayne LaPierre was the one who allowed Ackerman to embed itself in the organization’s leadership.
Wayne LaPierre was the one who – by his own tacit admission – flushed away at least $40,000,000.00 on an ineffective online media service.
Wayne LaPierre was the one who, after beating back a coup attempt led by Ackerman and its employee, Oliver North, began a purge of NRA leadership and installed a cadre of those loyal to him.
And following the failed coup attempt in Indianapolis, Wayne LaPierre was the one who engineered a re-shuffling of the NRA’s officer positions ensuring that he’d face no further challenges to the cult of personality around him.
The purge cleared out anyone involved in the attempted putsch, anyone suspected of involvement, anyone who looked like they might have said they’d continue to defend civil rights alongside whoever ended up running the NRA, and anyone who wasn’t actually involved, but voiced opinions later expressing frustration with allegations of corruption in the NRA leadership.
The NRA today
The fallout from all of this infighting and alleged impropriety has been deep and wide-ranging. Ackerman, after almost four decades of increasingly incestuous corporate relations with the NRA, has now parted company with Fairfax. NRATV is a thing of the past (not that many will notice). And the NRA’s number two man, Chris Cox, is gone along with his chief of staff. The former head of the NRA-ILA was suspended after being accused of participating in the coup attempt. He later resigned.
Meanwhile the organization is still dealing with the expensive results of strategic mis-steps like its disastrous foray into the insurance business and attacks against it by dedicated opponents of gun rights. It’s also facing an investigation by the Attorney General for the State of New York, someone who’d expressed her desire to destroy the NRA.
But there’s apparently nothing to worry about. Senior management has assured the membership that all is well. The organization is “on budget” and its “financial house is in order.” Besides, Ackerman said LaPierre really needed those suits. And all of that expensive travel was just “donor outreach.”
Meanwhile, key board committees are being purged, eliminating anyone who has dared to express so much as a word dissent from the party line.
Heading into an election year and with a number of critical legal actions currently simmering in the courts, the NRA’s palace intrigue has been and continues to be a huge distraction and, no doubt, an even bigger drain on its cash.
Board members’ responsibility
The current situation didn’t develop in a vacuum, of course. Like any large non-profit, the NRA’s board of directors is ultimately responsible. There are finance, audit and executive committees with oversight duties. Given the opaque nature of the organization, it’s difficult to know what if anything the members of those committees did or didn’t do to enable the current situation.
These directors had a fiduciary responsibility know what was happening at the NRA and to exert some basic level of institutional control. If even a fraction of the allegations about wild over-spending, self-dealing and mismanagement of the organization’s assets are true, there seems to have been a serious lack of oversight by directors who were obligated to exert their authority.
That neglect (or tacit approval in some cases) could have disastrous results for the directors individually and the NRA as a whole. As the New Yorker put it . . .
The latest news is that the snowballing controversies and doubt surrounding the National Rifle Association have begun to affect its finances. While articles are being written about large donors who are withholding their funds, the stories of corruption and mismanagement are undoubtedly having the same effect all the way down the line.
We don’t wish to trash the contributions Mr. LaPierre’s has made to defending the right to keep and bear arms in this country. Since his tenure as Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer began in 1991, the NRA has seen membership growth and achieved some significant political and legislative victories.
When he took the reins in 1991, most states offered concealed carry licenses only at the whim of state officials, or barred it altogether. Opponents of our civil rights spoke openly of gun control and abolishing the right entirely. There seemed little that the courts would do to stop them.
Today, some form of concealed carry is legal in all 50 states. Constitutional carry is law in 16 states and the high court has affirmed the individual right to keep and bear arms. The NRA under LaPierre played important roles in many of these victories.
More recently, the NRA under LaPierre sided early and without hesitation in backing then-candidate Trump against a woman who, by her words and deeds, had openly declared herself the enemy of America’s gun owners. Although Mr. Trump’s presidency has not been everything we had hoped it could be so far, the has lived up to his promise to promote Supreme Court justices who will give a fair hearing to cases involving the Second Amendment.
That is something which will endure far beyond this presidency, however long it lasts. We’ve come a long way under LaPierre’s tenure and he deserves to share credit for the sea-change.
Unfortunately, politics is less a game of “what have you done for me lately?” and more one of “what are you doing for me right now and what can you do in the next few hours?”
As a result of the accumulated and ongoing controversies, allegations, mismanagement and malfeasance, Wayne LaPierre has unquestionably become a liability to the National Rifle Association, its membership, and the cause of defending and extending gun rights in America.
It’s not a question of if, but when
The current situation is unsustainable. Wayne LaPierre will leave eventually, one way or another. He’ll either finally resign and make way for someone else who can begin the long process of re-building the organization, or he’ll be forced out, either as a result of a regulatory investigation or because enough NRA members finally demand it.
For now, LaPierre seems determined to cling to power for as long as humanly possible. The only question is, how much damage will be done to the NRA before he finally exits. Will he act in the best interests of the organization and resign or will he continue to hold on and pull it down around himself? And does that even matter to him any more?
If LaPierre has any regard for the NRA, its membership, and the cause of gun rights, he’ll resign. Tomorrow.
In addition, every member of the organization’s audit, finance and executive committees should resign immediately as well. They’ve failed to exert the kind of institutional control their positions demanded. There’s no shortage of members who are qualified and eager to take their places and provide the kind of oversight the membership deserves.
Every day that LaPierre remains in office further poisons the NRA’s brand. If it were just the organization itself, we could afford to take a hands-off approach, to wait it out. But America’s gun owners and the right to keep and bear arms are at stake as well, and they’re linked to the NRA’s fortunes.
We can’t afford a crisis at the NRA that drags on into and through the next election cycle. If we wait much longer, the toxicity of the NRA’s brand will affect gun owners and gun rights as a whole.
No, it isn’t fair. It isn’t just. It isn’t rational. It just happens to be true.
What can NRA members do?
We have no illusions that a few words from The Truth About Guns will cause Mr. LaPierre and his regime to suddenly see the light. And the board has been constructed in such a way as to insulate the officers and make efforts to remove the leadership extremely difficult.
What, then, can NRA members do? There are only a couple of options at this point.
First, flood the NRA’s phone lines to let them know they’re not happy with the current state of affairs. Members can call (800) 672-3888 to make their opinions known.
In addition — and more importantly — NRA members should be expressing themselves in the only way left that’s sure to get management’s attention — by starving it of cash.
Just like the increasing number of large donors who say they won’t be writing any more checks until LaPierre and his devotees are long gone, the average member should do the same. Maintain your membership at the minimum amount to retain your voting rights and your voice. But beyond that, cut off all funds bound for Fairfax.
No additional periodic contributions, no purchases of NRA-branded gear, don’t attend the Great American Outdoor Expo or the Personal Protection Expo, no contributions to the NRA-ILA, no Friends of the NRA dinners and no NRA certification courses. Don’t attend and certainly don’t pay for any event or service that will result in more cash for the National Rifle Association.
This isn’t an easy thing to advocate. Despite the mismanagement at the top, the NRA still does a great deal that is very positive. Friends of the NRA dinners and other sponsored events support a great deal of good works like safety training, hunter education, RSO certification, political advocacy and other initiatives that benefit gun owners both locally and nationally.
And this isn’t an ideal time to withhold funds that could go to support pro-gun rights candidates. There’s a presidential election next year, after all. But there is no ‘best time’ for this sort of fight—and it certainly isn’t going to be better to have it next year instead of right now.
As we’ve said before, the expansion of responsible firearms ownership and the furtherance of gun rights in this country is served by a healthy, well-run, effective National Rifle Association. While you may not agree with everything they’ve done or advocated — and we certainly don’t — they can and should be a positive force for safeguarding the right to keep and bear arms in this country.
But LaPierre and the rest of the NRA upper echelon have left the membership with no other choice. The only way remaining to exert any meaningful influence and communicate the desire to see wholesale changes in how the NRA is run and functions is to starve it of the life blood that keeps the current leadership in place — the members’ hard-earned money.
It would be far better if such drastic measures weren’t necessary. It would be far better if LaPierre and the cult of personality that surrounds and enables him were to read the writing on the wall and have the good grace to leave.
But no one expects that to happen without a significant push from the NRA’s five million members. That push needs to start today.
the smartest thing would be to DE-FUND THE COMMUNIST/DEMOCRAPS. there are a few “closet-democraps” in the higher positions of the N.R.A. . they should look at their hole-card THE NRA HAS NEVER BEEN A ANTI-AMERICAN ORGINISATION .
Who the hell is Dan Zimmerman and why should i give a flip about what he has to say?
He’s the guy whose website you’re commenting on. Nobody’s making you come here and post.
Are you saying that he is the guy who BOUGHT it from Robert? Apparently this was all a big secret.
And DGAF what he thinks. This site has gone the way of Once Great Britain since the ownership change.
The current NRA flap could not have been planned/operated better to fall into the laps of Soros/ilk. Which makes be suspicious that the progs are behind it.
So we should all turn a blind eye to blatant corruption? Come on now. The current NRA leadership needs to go. Until they do, they are doing more harm then good.
Can is the Managing Editor, and he held that position while Robert owned the site too.
Stupid phone. “Can” = Dan.
neiowa,
RF did a farewell post where he laid out that Dan would continue as managing editor and the website’s longtime ad company, wide open media, was purchasing it. No secret at all.
Neiowa: so George Soros and the “prongs” tricked Lapierre into a) spending $275,000 on tailored suits, b) spending a similar amount on travel, c) laundering $15 million for Vladimir Putin, and d) putting up a college whore (dammit I mean intern) in a local hotel in Fairfax?
OK. Got it.
Who the flip are you ? Just another pos troll in the wrong place !! Dan is absolutely correct. WLP has to go , no more dollars from this member until and if the NRA cleans house.
I agree 100% – LaPierre is trash, and he’s gutted the NRA.
LOL, NRA is trash.
What difference does it make who he is? His words either make make sense or they don’t.
^^^This^^^
What difference does it make who he is? Either his argument is valid, or it isn’t.
Personally, I believe that the NRA will not have the credibility that it absolutely needs as long as Wanye LaPierre is in charge.
Do you disagree with Zimmerman? His points are dead on.
“While you may not agree with everything they’ve done or advocated — and we certainly don’t — they can and should be a positive force for safeguarding the right to keep and bear arms in this country.”
I believe the honorable Mr Zimmerman summed it up quite well in the quote above.
Those unhappy with TTAG should go elsewhere.
Who the hell are you and I’ll ask the same second question.
Sorry, Narcoossee, but the one thing the NRA never has been is a pro-2A, pro-RKBA organization.
The NRA was NOT founded to defend the Second Amendment, and it never has.
The NRA was NOT founded to defend the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and it never has.
The NRA was founded specifically to promote rifle marksmanship through training and organized competition. It did that very well and it still does that reasonably well.
As a natural outgrowth of its rifle competition function, the NRA became involved in firearms safety training. It has done that very well (although recently it has become more concerned about protecting its intellectual property than in accomplishing the function).
But exactly what has the NRA done about the Right to Keep and Bear Arms?
Well the NRA became interested in federal legislation in the 1930’s, when the NRA lobbied congress to start regulating guns. Yes, it was the NRA that lobbied for the National Firearms Act of 1934. And it was the NRA that came back four years later lobbying for more gun control in the form of the Federal Firearms Act of 1938 (the law that gave us the current FFL system).
In 1934 while testifying to Congress in support of the National Firearms Act, NRA President Karl Frederick stated “I have never believed in the general practice of carrying weapons. I seldom carry one,” and continued “I do not believe in the general promiscuous toting of guns. I think it should be sharply restricted and only under licenses.”
The NRA also supported the Gun Control Act of 1968, opposing only President Johnson’s proposal for a national registry of all firearms.
The NRA supported the mis-named Firearms Owners Protection Act of 1986, including the infamous Hughes Amendment.
The NRA supported the Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994 once the 10-year sunset provision was added.
In fact, not one piece of anti-RKBA legislation has passed the US Congress without the blessing of the NRA.
After supporting the GCA of 1968, the NRA did suddenly discover the Second Amendment – NOT as a guiding principal, but just as a recruiting and fund-raising ploy.
Yes, the NRA is now interested in fighting for our rights — the problem is that they are interested in the fight because it brings in money, they don’t want to win because that would stop the flow of money into the pockets of the NRA leadership and their pals.
The NRA leadership’s worst nightmare was the Republican Hat Trick in 2016 taking both houses of Congress and the White House! Suddenly gun owners felt safer and hopeful of making progress to push back some of the “compromises” — but the NRA wasn’t interested in making any progress. Sure, the NRA joined the real pro-gun organizations in talking about national reciprocity and the Hearing Protection Act, but they quickly found that talking about pro-gun legislation didn’t bring in the big money that all those “Urgent Appeal” emails and letters used to get when they could warn us about some Dire Threat.
With no credible threats to our rights coming from the Republican-controlled Congress and White House, the NRA had to work harder to find or fabricate a threat to fight. After the Las Vegas shooting, it was Wayne LaPierre who appeared on the national media making the first serious call for a Bump Stock Ban. Then when the NRA couldn’t get the Republican Congress to enact the ban, it was Wayne who went to the White House to personally assure President Trump that the NRA supported a Bump Stock Ban, and to suggest a strategy to bypass Congress to enact the ban.
Bottom line: The NRA is the largest and best-funded ANTI-RKBA organization in the US.
Three things.
1. What the NRA did before anybody here was born is irrelevant.
2. The FOPA was a very good bill until the amendment in question was added at the last second by an illegal procedure in Congress. The NRA’s support for the original bill is not a bad thing.
3. The 1994 AWB was going to happen. Fighting for a 10 year sunset provision is what got it to go away at all. If the NRA hadn’t gotten behind the sunset provision, that ban would still be in force today.
If you’re going to bring up history, at least have the decency to bring up things that aren’t easily debunked.
I am not saying your points aren’t valid but it does matter what happened before 1968 when people try to claim that it is “America’s oldest civil rights organization”. The NRA did nothing that I am aware of civil rights wise before opposing only a part of the 1968 legislation. One could argue that it became at least partly a civil rights org at that point, but that doesn’t come any where near the oldest.
“One could argue that it became at least partly a civil rights org at that point, but that doesn’t come any where near the oldest.”
This whole “oldest” claim is specious. When NRA was created, guns in the hands of Americans was not a rare thing (and did not need defending). The NRA was a response to poor marksmanship of the Union army during the second civil war (or second revolution, if you like). There was not a hint of protecting any “right” to keep and bear arms. And if IRC, NRA didn’t get into defense of the Second Amendment until mid-20th century.
The ACLU, and a bunch of other civil rights organizations already existed at the time NRA “got into” protecting. NRA cannot claim that the morph into “civil rights” mid-century makes it the “oldest” just because it existed with a different mission prior.
Nobody thought they had to defend the Second Amendment before the 1970s. The Bill of Rights was a given.
The ACLU is three lies in one.
What about the NRA’s history of pushing for licensed carry over unrestricted/constitutional carrying of weapons? The NRA has actively pushed to get CCW laws in all states because the NRA offers training, which means they will make money if there are CCW laws nation wide.
Remember Florida? The so called “gun shine” state.
Florida is just an expansion of New York. You will see in time.
The NRA has fought for gun rights, for teachers to carry. higher capacity magazines in California, campus carries. The NRA has done more then any other gun organizations in America combined, tenfold…. I could not even imagine the kind of the Financial stress at that company is under right now, in court with more Cuomo, Bloomberg and States, Democrats, liberals, governors, congressman then in the history of mankind. And here we are bitching about $25 a year? Grow up and go look in the mirror and get in this fight or don’t bitch when this mess comes your way, I’ve seen this a hundred times reap the benefits, but don’t want to pay a dime. Not me I’ll be the first to fight!! At least I can sleep well at night knowing I tried to fight for y’all,
Are you arguing that we must defend, support, save a corrupt organization in order to have any chance to protect our right to own firearms? Not sure we get merit badges for being proud members of the Mafia.
Because all-or-nothing political moves almost always get nothing. If it wasn’t for the NRA pushing concealed carry in every state of the union, there wouldn’t be more than a dozen constitutional carry states today. It’s called incrementalism and it’s the most effective way to get anything done politically. The left has known this for decades.
You must have forgotten that the NRA doesn’t like the open carrying of arms.
Bunch of BS, User1. Name anywhere the NRA has lobbied against or written opposition to a constitutional or open carry bill. In few “nonissue” states did they even push for a CCW. Most states had discretionary/”may” issue, and they lobbied for “shall” issue. There’s enough legitimate reasons to criticize them without making something up.
@Anymouse
You haven’t heard the story of Marion Hammer in Florida pushing for current Florida law as a “compromise”? You haven’t read the statements of former NRA president saying he did not agree with “promiscuous toting” of weapons? You haven’t heard about the NRA giving support to states like California to ban unlicensed open carry? There’s more…
The NRA has been and still is in support of licensing. They currently support a national licensing scheme for “reciprocity” in America.
Licensing is not considered a negative by the NRA because the NRA makes money off the required training licensing eventually requires. The NRA has created itself a profit motive to have government permission slips or required training. They also started to create a profit motive for required insurance for gun owners, but New York stopped that quickly.
The average Fudd does not mind permission slips. They are fine with them as long as they can get one. Once they are out of the circle they get angry, before that, they are proud CCWers. Some have even said they wouldn’t mind if the 2nd Amendment was treated like cars because they could get a license to carry like they have a license to drive. They also frown on the open carrying of guns. This is something they were conditioned to think, that conditioning came from somewhere.
Hammer is one of Wayne’s cronies. She referred to 2-A focused board candidates like Adam Kraut as “The enemy within.”
She is definitely part of the problem.
TomC, very well stated. Some of your points
are the reason we never joined this liberal gun
group but opted out for the GOA.
Mr Zimmerman, excellent editorial. I fully endorse
your comments and criticizes. Frankly, even with
reforms, there are several more pro-firearm organizations
that I would rather join.
TomC is 100% correct, NRA has always been an anti gun owner org. Primarily they cooperate with police unions to define gun ownership as a privilege for “good guys” and “law abiding citizens” (the favorite buzzword of Richard Pearson, executive director of ISRA, Illinois State Rifle Association, the NRA state affiliate.)
Pearson and ISRA did NOTHING to promote citizen carry in Illinois for at least thirty years. When 2nd Amendment lawyer Alan Gura filed McDonald v. Chicago, NRA tried to discourage the suit and worked against him to quash it. McDonald was funded by Alan Gottlieb and SAF, not NRA. After Gura got the McDonald case to the Supreme Court in 2010, NRA hired insider former Solicitor General Paul Clement to barge into Gura’s lawsuit and steal ten minutes from Gura’s thirty minute oral argument time in front of SCOTUS. Thanks for nothing NRA!
When it came time to introduce a citizen carry bill in the Illinois legislature, NRA contract lobbyist for Illinois Donald Todd Vandermyde supplied Duty to Inform language for state Rep. Brandon Phelps’ “NRA backed” concealed carry bill, because the anti-gun police unions wanted legal cover to execute any licensed citizen they contact, like Philando Castile in Minnesota. The Duty to Inform was personally negotiated with the IL Chiefs of Police by Vandermyde, Valinda Rowe from (southern) Illinois Carry, and John Boch. The problem in the pro-gun “movement” and the NRA is that it’s full of traitors like Vandermyde, Pearson, Rowe and Boch that will sell out their own membership to be killed by police. Nothing is more dangerous than traitors.
Yep.
Wayne gotta go, yo.
Yup. LaPierre is not the NRA and his presence continues to be polarizing for the organization. Once it’s begun to fracture from within it begins to become irrelevant and the anti-gun crowd smells blood in the water. He needs to resign and make room for new leadership before it’s too late and the NRA no longer has influence in DC. Wait too long and those politicians will see the NRA as toxic to their campaigns and political strength and will drop it like a hot potato. Then, where will the NRA be?
The NRA must be fixed – not de-funded. We are screwed if the NRA can’t lobby elected officials.
I agree. Without the NRA’s effective lobbying we’d have had gun-confiscation prohibition after Sandy Hook. That we didn’t have that happen is the direct result of the NRA’s decades long political relationships with elected officials. Unsurprisingly, most of these are corrupt in one way or another. The NRA understands the “realpolitik” of national politics and has proven itself—-warts and all—to be enormously effective in working with this collection of knaves and thieves.
I think what’s happened within the NRA leadership is piss-poor leadership and is indicative of an organizational culture in free-fall. The NRA board needs to get off it’s collective ass and fix this slow-motion train-wreck right now. And bring back Chris Cox. With the enemy at the gates, this is no time to dismantle the trebuchet because you think someone painted it the wrong color.
They’ll get my dues, but nothing else.
Chris Cox is one of the trolls. Don’t feed him. You have been warned.
Ditto, no Chris Cox
Chris Cox is directly responsible for allowing NRA contract lobbyist for Illinois Donald Todd Vandermyde place Duty to Inform w/criminal penalties in Illinois state Rep. Brandon Phelps’ “NRA backed” concealed carry bill in 2011, prior to the McDonald v. Chicago Supreme Court ruling.
After the U.S. Federal Court 7th District in Chicago totally struck down Illinois’ weapons law in Moore v. Madigan in December 2012, based on the McDonald v. Chicago case, the court gave a stay of six months for the Illinois legislature to pass some sort of citizen carry bill. NRA lobbyist Donald Todd Vandermyde, Richard Pearson from ISRA, Valinda Rowe from (southern) Illinois Carry and John Boch all crawled on their knees for the anti-gun police unions to once again place Duty to Inform in the NRA bill, because most NRA types are cop worshipers who don’t know how to do anything else but lose.
Chuck Cunningham from NRA-ILA was director of state and local affairs under Chris Cox at the time Vandermyde placed Duty to Inform in Illinois’ carry bill, and he didn’t know that Vandermyde had done it. Cunningham and Cox also did nothing to stop the DTI. Considering that Donald Todd Vandermyde was formerly the lobbyist for William Dugan at the Intl. Union of OPerating Engineers local 150 from Countryside, IL, and the fact that Vandermyde’s boss Dugan was convicted by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in 2010, NRA is not even capable of conducting a criminal background check on their employees. NRA is a whorehouse filled with traitors and scum that sell out the lives of their own membership to be killed by cops.
What has their lobbying accomplished, vs. the influence of the millions of voters who refer to their scores/recommendations? The NRA is a tiny fish among tiny fish in the lobbying circuit; their paltry millions pale before Finance & Pharma’s billions –the only influence those lobbyists have stems from the voters they are failing to represent as opposing gun control. Even the president says they’re nothing to be concerned with; I don’t think there’s another special interest lobby group he’s humiliated similarly.
Lobbying reminds them that those scores have weight. Generally, your average politician is fairly stupid and needs constant reminders. Remember the other side is aware of this and is working to dissuade them otherwise.
Although I believe it worthwhile and have periodically contributed to NRA-ILA in the past, I think the only thing that will get the BOD’s attention at this point is watching the funds dry up in direct response to this dumpster fire. They have to decide if loyalty to Wayne is worth bringing down the entire organization. As Dan said, there is no good time for this, but now is better than next year.
How are we screwed? Republicans already take us for granted, and Democrats are scared to be pro gun rights because of their base. The NRA being a far right organization is part of the problem.
There are a good amount of Democrats that own and like guns. I remember growing up surrounded by registered Democrats who owned guns and even had reloading machines. They were registered Democrat although they are conservatives because of the Republican party’s and NRA’s “marketing.” They only felt welcomed in the Democrat party — at the time that is — so out of survival they chose a side. Now they feel left out entirely.
The first time I saw reloading machines it wasn’t the stereotypical NRA man who had them. I didn’t even know what they were until later when I got myself into firearms. That guy was very secretive about his 2A stuff because he wasn’t dumb, but I was a curious kid.
I find that a lot of people where I grew up own guns but refuse to let anyone know about that. Once you get to know them, and go to the range, they bring out all kinds of stuff you wouldn’t imagine them owning. Otherwise, they do not go around showing people their guns or talking about them.
I belong to a union that has structured it’s board of directors as delegates and only delegates can vote on changes to the self serving executive committee… the union took a huge hit when we voted down their proposed contract…the union didn’t like our refusal so they scheduled another vote. Prior to the second vote layoff letters went out to many mebers as a show of force…the second vote, the union got its way. Many members became objecting members and started to pay only administrative fees, not dues. And since that has been ruled against and members can opt out of dues now…even more have deserted the union…sadly this is what needs to be done to the NRA until they clean house and it becomes Our Voice.
The unions started taking their members for granted. All but something like 3% of the people paying because they were obligated to stopped paying entirely after. Who wants to be a member of a collective bargaining group that advocates for political positions they object to?
The difference between the union and the NRA is that a shop typically doesn’t have a lot of options when a union is picked; There’s plenty of excellent gun rights groups that are moving the ball down the field and are excellent alternatives to give dollars to than the NRA.
Tinfoil hat Going on:
“Looks like the New World 🌎 Order/ One-World Global Governance/aka, Globalism, got them….” Hopefully , the other group’s are able to take up the slack! They have my support!
I agree – it’s time for the NRA’s current leadership and their cronies to leave and for the organization to rebuild under new leadership. I just renewed my NRA membership at the basic rate for one year. I will contribute no other funds to the NRA, and at the end of that year, I’ll re-evaluate where the NRA is and consider whether I’ll renew or contribute again. As stated in the editorial, the NRA has been an important part in some pro-gun decisions and laws in recent years, and I think it’s important for the NRA to remain a vibrant force in securing our gun rights. Without the NRA, what have we got left nationally to represent our rights. A few smaller organizations that don’t have the clout of the NRA with Congress or state legislatures. So the NRA must remain and continue doing its work – but not under the current leadership.
I personaly already have. 3 years ago. Not another nickle until LaPierre is gone.
Same here…just waiting for the NRA to get there stuff together.
Total train wreck. You can keep up the good fight. Like the crew of the Titanic….good luck with that. My support now goes to GOA.
….Funny thing is…I used to laugh at people in the 80s, 90s, 00s, etc…About being paranoid, fringe, crackpots that were warning us that the “sky was falling…” Well, not so much NOW….Just look how much has happened….
I have always been that kid that doesn’t accept BS. When I was a teenager I learned a lot about the secret America. The lodges are right there, but most people just walk past them and don’t ever pay attention. Once you stop dismissing reality you see all kinds of stuff.
The problem with being enlightened is fatigue. Eventually it starts becoming very enticing to join the group that wins. It’s easy to forfeit and win at the same time.
Even when things are exposed into the consciousness of the public it is then intentionally turned into a joke so no one will take it seriously… It’s a high level play to allow the people the opportunity to escape reality again.
Most people just take the money.
Hear hear! I agree Dan. No NRA renewal unless old Wayne goes…
It’s about time, TTAG.
I’ve been returning NRA fundraising letters with a nasty note for a few months now.
Removing LoppyEars, not matter the means, will change nothing. There is, somewhere in the executive/BoD ranks, an heir apparent, chosen by Wayne. Result? More of the same.
Not aware of any non-profit or political organization to survive complete removal of the executive ranks, and wholesale replacement of the BoD. Such a change would need to be colossal, abrupt and disruptive to the point of fatal disarray. Indeed, all the internal rules would need to be wiped away, and new rules of accounting for the behavior of leadership and BoD would need to be written prior to the slaughter. Thinking this would require a shadow organization, existent, prepared, available to move with 24hr notice.
I guess this is like our congress , to much time on the job equals to much power. Changes need made before this can happen in all things it seems especially where money is involved.
I recieved a contribution letter just last week . They want that cash , yet act like it’s business as usual. They must think members don’t read . We do , get your house in order , or we will all suffer the consequences. Everything Dan Zimmerman said is the truth . SAF . GOA . FPC . deserve , and will receive my donations .NRA we shall see.
Someone needs to start a class action lawsuit on behalf of members against the leadership.
Why not you?
What OTHER meme advanced in the mainstream media would you guys believe? I operate under the assumption that like Obumer, they lie whenever they talk. Is there a valid way to verify ANYTHING to the contrary? What I do know is:
1. The bastard progs live in fear of the political clout that the NRA can muster. Such was NOT the case until a couple decades ago.
2. The progs/demtards would do ANYTHING and say ANYTHING to damage the NRA.
No politician is afraid of the NRA anymore. In fact, candidates on both sides of the isle are trying to tie their opponents to that sinking ship and the NRA can’t do a damn thing about it. The NRA proved their complete impotence with the bump stock ban and everybody in office noticed.
Yet Colion Noir is still playing 4D chess while no one at the NRA/Ackerman has told him yet that he was fired. He is one of the few black guys… At least they could tell him he is no longer useful.
Hank Strange and Colion Noir will take that 2A mouth piece money and buy themselves some expensive cars like they always wanted. Not much different than Demolition Ranch and Hickok45.
It’s fun taking that 2A money from gun owners to live in an expensive downtown apartment in Texas, buy some nice guns and drive around in supercars. It’s a taste of the good life Wayne and other NRA despots live. Even the doorman appreciates the large tips.
It pays to be a political Fudd.
You know you seem to Hate Everything, about guns and you degrade everybody, let’s hear your guy? Let’s hear your company you back? Let’s hear what they’ve done? Let’s hear what you’ve done? We all know you don’t like Hickok you don’t like Colion you don’t like Hank strange you don’t like the NRA you don’t like Demolition Ranch, hell here’s what I believe, I believe, I believe you or the Yankee Marshal, or you’re paid by Governor Cuomo
I don’t like people that are phonies. I don’t like liars. I don’t like manipulators.
I watched a lot of Hank Strange’s podcast. I saw some recurring behaviors with him that are not beneficial for forward progress. He won’t even have a conversation/confrontation with the people he says he disagrees with, or who are problematic, yet he says we should be inclusive. He runs from confrontation but acts as if he wouldn’t mind it. He also gives people a pass who have harmed others or are harming forward progress, especially if those people are of dark complexion.
Colion Noir sold out for the good life and defended the NRA/Ackerman when he shouldn’t have. Even today he defends them, probably because he thinks they will continue business with him. He made two fellow black men (who are 2A supporters) not so happy by the things he and the NRA/Ackerman did to them. He acts like it wasn’t his fault or his employers’. Now there is two less major opportunities for the NRA to reach out to the “urban” demographics, but it was worth it to get an Aston Martin.
I don’t even have to say anything about those two millionaire gun channels. They say it themselves.
I don’t like an organization that was created by Union soldiers to train their men to oppress/kill Americans and was aided in its creation by the state of New York. It’s not a good history. They have actually supported the passage of gun control that affects my friends, my family and myself today. Why would I want to give them money as a reward for the restrictions they supported that stop me from defending myself?
By the way, The Yankee Marshal banned me from chat. He is a stubborn old man that won’t listen to your points if he doesn’t agree. He is quick to attack without thinking. It’s not easy to have a conversation with such a man unless you come prepared to make him look bad.
Maybe it’s the culture I grew up around that makes me not satisfied like others. If it’s an “A-” it can and should be better next time. The standard is perfection, which you might only reach a few times regardless of effort but that is not an excuse to do less. So it’s easy to apply such a mentality/culture to the 2nd Amendment as it does say, “shall not be infringed.”
If you are the type with the culture to “compromise,” I am the type to say “not good enough” when you do. That’s how everyone around me is.
User1- based on the the actions of their actors in Illinois, NRA is a totally racist org. ISRA director Richard Pearson did nothing whatsoever to promote concealed carry for thirty years. After Pearson helped recruit Chicago black man Otis McDonald for Alan Gura’s Supreme Court lawsuit, he now thinks that concealed carry in Illinois was his idea all along.
Pearson and ISRA signed off on the Duty to Inform that was placed in the Illinois carry bill by NRA contract lobbyist Donald Todd Vandermyde because most NRA members are brain dead hicks that are too stupid to read the bills. The rubes don’t care about Duty to Inform, because they live in all-white small towns where they think that the police are their friends. NRA uses blacks like Otis McDonald as fronts for lawsuits, then sell them out in their bills.
NRA is composed of fascist authoritarian cop worshipers like Richard Pearson from ISRA, Valinda Rowe from (southern) Illinois Carry and John Boch. They are all losers who couldn’t punch their way or of a paper bag. These turds do not have the brainpower to go up against professional politicians like Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel or Speaker of the House Mike Madigan.
Why should any politician fear, or even respect the NRA after Trump made fun of senators on national tv for being afraid of it? The same Trump, for whose election NRA energized its membership and sympathizers and gave 30 millions to his campaign. The same guy, who was then AGAIN invited as a guest of honor to the NRA annual meeting in Indianapolis.
Hell, I don’t have much respect for the NRA left myself and I’m a member. As I’ve told to the nice gentleman on the phone, who asked for donation – “Right after you guys stop compromising on my natural rights and start fighting in offensive!” Which is not going to happen under current management. They seem to think that if they keep saying that everything is under control, nothing to see here, business as usual, it will blow over.
I’m gonna second the whole class-action lawsuit proposal against the NRA Leadership. This entire fiasco has revealed that the NRA Leadership is just an extension of the Country-Club, Bush-Mafia, Establishment Republican Party. Talk big, get elected, then proceed to feathering their nests.
The absolute failures to enact so much as one pro-2nd Amendment campaign proposal into law is just the icing on the cake in confirming that. It’s also the reason that membership donations dried up beginning in the summer of 2017.
Dan is right that we need to de-fund the NRA
BUT he leaves out the other necessary step.
The answer is not to JUST de-fund the NRA. That money is still needed – but we need to be giving that money to a real pro-2A pro-RKBA organization.
Sorry, to all the Life Members, Benefactors and other fancy titled Big Donors, but it’s time to admit that the NRA cannot be saved. Ousting Wayne won’t fix the fact that the NRA has never been a pro-2A, pro-RKBA organization. We need to vote, not just with our check books and credit cards, we need to vote with our feet — we need to leave the NRA behind and rally behind an organization willing to fight and win.
Speaking personally, I’ve thrown some bucks to the GOA recently. They are not the Big Man On Campus like the NRA has been…but they’re aimed in the right direction.
If NRA gets its act together I will contribute to them again, too.
P.S. – SAF is a good one, too. I’ve given to them in the past. Will do again in future.
I am well aware of Cuomo’s War with the NRA and Donald Trump, he has a party of people writing false stories about Trump and the NRA to destroy them, he has already said he will spend as much of the state of New York money as it takes to destroy both parties, which is illegal and there is an ongoing Court battle about this situation, and rumors of the NRA moving to Texas.
I stand with Trump in the NRA, all others can exit the door to the left.
Got it. You support the ban on bump stocks, you support “get the guns first, due process second” Red Flag laws, and you don’t like silencers.
Any other destruction of civil liberties you stand with?
Well what else are you going to do? I don’t agree with 100% of what anybody is doing, but without the NRA fighting these battles in court and no one else even comes close to the power that they have, what else can you do? They are still fighting the fight and they are chalking up wins, even though I live in a state that is protected and we have Dan Crenshaw I can still look down the pipe and see what’s coming. I don’t support illegal immigrants, but my Texas taxes pay a lot to give them room and board what are you going to do ? I don’t support abortions but they’re still going on, my tax dollars at work, I don’t agree with it, what are you going to do? My NRA dues are 25 to $35 a year, big deal, a small price to pay and if those of you choose not to pay, it so be it, but I’m not a ship jumper and I will stay in the fight, we’re all in the same fight
Mr. Lynch, you said you stand with the NRA and President Trump, and everyone else can leave.
Do you stand for the policies I listed? Those policies have all been promoted by the NRA and/or our President. They are diametrically opposed to the ideals our Republic were founded on. They are unAmerican.
Do you stand for them or not?
We are all in the same fight, but I’m not sure you know what team you’re playing for.
“…I’m not a ship jumper and I will stay in the fight,…”
Not being totally unbiased, I read your statement to essentially declare, “A corrupt organization in the fight is better than nothing. And besides, it doesn’t cost much to be swindled”.
There are a number of recognized defenders of the Second Amendment actually in the fight (which is different from crony lobbying), a fight where NRA is seldom seen.
From a business perspective, NRA is selling below cost, and making it up on volume. Slowly eroding civil rights is truly not evidence of defending civil rights.
Definitely some big holes in the ship and a lot of patchwork needs to be done
“Definitely some big holes in the ship and a lot of patchwork needs to be done…”
Which is the root complaint of all the “anti-NRA” commenters here, with the corollary that if the Captain will not put in for drydock, let the tub go down.
@JWTaylor
That’s right!
Zero compromise b!tches!
Mr. Lynch, yes, some big holes need to be filled.
The current NRA leadership has made it crystal clear they have no intention of fixing them.
Since that’s the case, responsible supporters of the 2nd Amendment are left with no choice but to starve the pig.
Yes, sir I agree and I would also like to apologize for the other days NRA discussion, you were completely right, I guess when you invest all kinds of time and money in an organization and you left with the possibility of an empty hand, it is very disheartening after your constructive disciplined speech, I further investigated into the situation.
Anonymous,
I’m good with compromise. It’s an inherent part of the political system of our Republic.
I’m willing to compromise on how much more free exercise of our rights we can gain, but never on how little we can keep.
“I’m willing to compromise on how much more free exercise of our rights we can gain, but never on how little we can keep.”
I like it !
Stealing it for myself.
Thanx
Wow, somebody has been a little bit humbled since his last NRA discussion. Must have checked into who he was talking so tough to. Which is fine, humility is a good thing. As is loyalty, a trait I admire. Sometimes, though, loyalty becomes unwarranted, undeserved, and one is well-served to know when that moment is.
Yes sir, I’ll lick my wounds and I educated myself, still in the fight
Mr. Lynch, I applaud your zeal. If we apply that same dedication to holding those responsible accountable for their mistakes you won’t be left with an empty hand. To mix methaphors, you’ll be trading that losing hand in for better cards.
All leftists like to move to places like Texas. They eventually end up there. It’s fitting place to be for a leftist.
“False stories” yup, nothing but lies, and notarized federal financial disclosure forms of also lies, lol
I find it disconcerting that this article is being denigrated for no legitimate reason. I find it well-balanced and pertinent. So much so I posted it to Facebook. The downside to my action is people (friends/family) will be reading some of the whacko drivel that is being posted here.
WE NEED MORE CONSTRUCTIVE COMMENTS!!!
Your comment isn’t constructive. It’s a whinebag screed.
Waiting on you to initiate constructive comments.
Boom!
As much as it chafes me to respond to a cowardly moniker, you have a point.
The ONLY way I will renew my NRA membership is for Lapierre and the rest of his cronies to be removed…and a rewrite of the rules for elections.
There’s got be better checks and balances so the abuses will stop.
SAF and GOA
Before I comment, let me state the information upon which my comment is based:
1. Like it or dislike it, the NRA is the best-known (and largest?) pro-gun organization in the country;
2. The NRA-ILA has been fairly effective, particularly at the state level, in opposing anti-2A legislation;
3. The anti-gun Left has become increasingly strident, activist, and anti-Constitutional.
We NEED a recognized advocacy organization to represent our interests. The NRA, for all its (myriad) flaws, has been that organization. In some instances, it has done well. In others, it has been anything from ineffective to horrible. Wayne, eff you up the poop chute with a barbed-wire wrapped Louisville Slugger – I would never own a bump stock, but how DARE you try to legislate against them?? You are no friend to the 2A. Plus, and I acknowledge that there appears to be malfeasance on BOTH sides, Wayne and his cronies have gotten WAAAYYY too comfortable in DC, with their lobbyist-purchased luncheons and member-purchased $10,000 suits.
If the NRA wants to be MY spokesman, they need to clean house. They need to set a clear agenda (this “case by case” BS that the NRA has long pursued won’t work, anymore), and pursue it without wavering.
If the NRA does that, I will rejoin, happily pay my dues, and contribute to a new ILA effort (which we NEED) on top of that. Until that day? Wayne can kiss my hairy rear end. I won’t give them another DIME.
I approve of this editorial.
This comment section is full of people with NRA bumper stickers.
Hilarious.
If you have a NRA bumper sticker you must live in a safe space. Try living in an area full of gun control and statism with that sticker on your car.
“Try living in an area full of gun control and statism with that sticker on your car.”
Yyyuuuupppp!! Concealed is concealed.
I live in western suburb of Chicago and I drive my van with ISRA, NRA and gun family (AR, AK, Beretta 92 and HK USP) stickers all around the northeast Illinois, including the city. I had the same stickers on my previous truck and on my motorcycle. Never a single problem of any kind.
It’s easy for gun grabbers to claim that Americans don’t own guns anymore and that it’s just few old guys buing all of them, when we all conceal them and our support for the 2A.
Just watch how the media will twist our displeasure with the NRA for above described problems. I bet dollars against donuts they will make it look like we don’t care about the RKBA anymore and that’s why the NRA loses money and support.
Where I grew up you don’t put political stickers on your car if you want your car to stay in nice condition. Pro gun stickers can also bring unwanted police attention.
I won’t be surprised if there is more road range once the elections start to heat up. If you got a Trump sticker you better be prepared. If you live anywhere there is Antifa, they will mess your car up.
Wait – you don’t have one? Not even an old one from 20 years ago?
I had a ’78 Bronco with a DeadHead sticker on one window and an NRA sticker on the other. Those were the days…
I have an even better idea.
Before committing ritual seppuku as Dan suggests, let’s all vote for Kamala Harris or some other gungrabbing Democrat so we can prove our moral superiority over Wayne LaPierre.
Then we can take great pride in our victimhood just before the lights go out.
I have serious questions when a supposedly pro-gun site goes full blown anti. Don’t you?
“I have serious questions when a supposedly pro-gun site goes full blown anti. Don’t you?”
Specious proposition. It is quite possible, and not illogical that one (many) can be rabidly pro-gun (absolutists), and refuse to fund/defend a corrupt organization. If the NRA is the only thing standing between us and complete loss of the Second Amendment, we are doomed. A single point of failure is a disaster in the waiting.
It hasn’t gone anti-gun, just anti WLP. Which I can understand. I have never thought he was a particularity good spokesman/ face of the organization.
Kamala’s ancestors were slave owners in Jamaica. Her great grand father owned hundreds of slaves throughout Europe’s legal period to do so. Then he “imported” Irish people when he couldn’t “own” his slaves anymore.
Some of those slaves were documented and registered in England as property as required.
So we can’t vote for Kamala. She isn’t that far removed from being a person that uses government to enslave human beings as resources/property. She doesn’t want slaves/citizens to own guns for a good reason… She loves putting slaves/citizens in cages as a lawyer. When she pulls a Trump her intention will be to enslave you like her family did back on the island.
Maybe I will vote for Kamala Harris. Sometimes I do think it would be better to have someone who openly and publicly hates us in office than someone who secretly despises and uses us as most of the Republicans do…and as WLP’s corrupt NRA evidently also does.
I wonder if anyone got pics of Wayne surrounded by his private security when he meets the little old gun owner in person. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if his suits are made to stop bullets considering how expensive they are. We know he doesn’t want to be around the little people when he travels… It’s much safer and easier to take private planes and cars.
There actually is a company (in South America) that makes such suits for those can afford them.
WLP’s suits came from Zegna on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills according to the leaked credit card receipts.
I’m passionate about the NRA surviving this fiasco, but I am also passionate about WLP , some other staff, and about 1/2 the Board resigning. We need the NRA but we do not need these people.
A lot of truth here.
I have serious questions as to if you’re serious.
Quit playing the battered spouse.
That comment is very unbecoming of TTAG’s resident war hero.
Besides, while I’m fairly sure that none of TTAG’s staff voted for Hildabeast, I know for a fact that some of them were rooting for her to win because they thought it would be good for TTAG’s business.
I wonder if the same logic applies to TTAG’s death wish for the NRA.
Did you express similar concern when a supposedly pro-gun org went full anti in 2018?
When Jefferson said,
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants
what do you think he was seeing?
Every organization loses focus over time, and must be either redirected or destroyed, in favor of something carrying the zeal and focus of new birth.
With broad and plain enough corruption and ineffectiveness to go undisputed by even its strongest external supporters, and a structure designed to resist change, the NRA has reached this point. I don’t understand how you can look at it in its current state and see otherwise.
Defund the NRA and fund up the GOA! lets get some people that are FOR our rights
I don’t understand, is someone holding the GOA back?
The government’s taxes?
If people had more money they could spend it in more places. With limited funds they pick and choose.
Maybe a combined effort? A joint venture? Maybe if we all wrote to the presidents of our gun organizations, to combine, maybe the GOA president in charge ? Now that would be a hell of a Force !!!
Yes; many people support the NRA because they’re the biggest; that support would go elsewhere, otherwise. NRA has a tremendous incentive to overstate their influence & importance…and they have. That’s why it was so utterly damaging when Trump finally called them out as the paper tiger they are.
My only issue is almost all of the ranges around here will only accept you as a member if you specifically are a member of the NRA. I mean honestly i haven’t joined but it’s being between a rock and a hard place as I can’t shoot because I don’t want to give a penny to that scumbag LaPierre.
“I don’t want to give a penny to that scumbag LaPierre.”
Had to join NRA three years ago because a visit to a non-local range required the membership. Happily, there is (was?) a $10 affiliate level that lasted only a year. Cutting the contribution by 2/3ds was a reluctant, but limited donation to LoppyEars.
PS: Gave a fake address, so none of the junk mail arrived at my house.
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Great men are almost always bad men.”
John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely…”
To update that mildly….”Power corrupts; PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.”
That quote was wrong the first day it was said, and is still wrong today.
Power does not corrupt. Power illuminates.
Power reflects.
Yeah POWER ILLUMINATES the fact that CORRUPTION is way more profitable than honesty….
It’s time to fix it. We’re morons if we start this kind of internal fighting when every Tom, Dick, Harry, and Kamala wants to take guns. The NRA must continue the battle because it is the most publicly recognized name. We don’t need the public asking, “Who is that?’ when another name suddenly pops up!!
Common Sense talk right here……this is exactly what the left want, internal fighting…….
I read that Kavanaugh (and other “conservative” judges) recently ruled there is this thing called “implied consent” when you decide to use your government sanctioned “private” property to travel on “public” land that you payed for [roads]. You wave your human/civil rights doing so.
That case was about if it is lawful for the government to take/test your blood if you are unconscious and can’t consent. The ruling was that it is okay for government to violate your 4th and 5th amendment protections because the “exigent circumstances doctrine” allows it and/or “implied consent” is given if you use the “public” roads. Only 1 Democrat judge said it was okay, the rest were “conservative” judges (including Kavanaugh). The only Republican judge to say no was Gorsuch.
It’s all for public safety and catching that criminal.
I keep hearing “conservative” judges are all for human rights and the U.S. constitution, that it’s the liberals who are destroying our rights. I even hear that Kavanaugh will always decide to side with human rights and the constitution.
If Trump is pro 2nd Amendment than “conservative” judges are pro human rights. Why? Because someone said so.
What was the name of the case? I find it odd they’d use that line of reasoning, vs. the far more logical & well-defined doctrine of probable cause. Being unconscious in a vehicle on a public road seems like sufficient probable cause for a search, including of the person’s blood-chemistry. I personally don’t *like* how heavily officers weigh on blood/breath tests vs. common sense to determine intoxication, but that’s due to lawyers, judges, and crooked cops corrupting our faith in humans to determine the obvious reliably. So it just leaves us the one option to remove all reasonable doubt the person is criminally intoxicated. And if officers come upon someone passed out in their car on the side of the road, it’s their job to determine if they are criminally intoxicated.
Give us money. We want your money. Without money you can’t buy your freedom in America. Send us all your money. All your monies belong to us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEPjOD9MIuc
Find me a group that doesn’t need money, including Church
You can’t buy the lord’s favor. You must be active.
Profiteers want you to send them a lot of money (in hopes things get better after doing so) but they have no intention of making change. “The lord will heal you after you send enough money.”
It’s the same con fortune tellers and card readers use.
Good pivot Hillary
The NRA doesn’t need money. They make hundreds of millions a year. They had enough money to open up a useless TV propaganda channel to market to their own members. They don’t need anymore money. Giving them more money means you condone their behavior and you want more of it. When you put them on a budget they have to make decisions, the choices they make will show you what they prioritize.
If you can’t see that, you are not being genuine or you are not very intelligent.
Sorry, that showing you the strategies and tactics of people that have been used for thousands of years is too much for you to comprehend. I don’t like having to explain stuff as if I am talking to a 10 year old. It’s not like someone is sending me money to do that. Maybe I should…
That TV show on YouTube was useless and seemed like every show was an argument about nothing and I agree with a lot of your views , but the fact remains but the NRA needs an overhaul you and I both agree on that, a major overhaul that’s for sure but the fact remains that liberals scream NRA at the beginning of every one of their debates and New York work is spending billions of dollars to destroy the NRA, why do you think that is? And it seems like that the same people that would want the NRA out of the way to get your gun then, they have said they’re going to get your guns in the NRA the only thing in their way, wouldn’t we want the same thing, to rebuild, or join forces in some way. They do need a better PR person and they need to get busy now, get back to basics and teach the youth shooting skills and safety practices, do we not want this? Don’t we all want this? Things are definitely coming at us from every angle and we sure as hell don’t need to be fighting with each other about a common goal to protect our rights and our freedom, we have to work together to achieve the same goal.
The point of NRATV was not to market or even advocate; it’s purpose was to exist as an excuse to pad Ackerman McQueen’s expense accounts, which LaPierre himself was charging to. That’s where his suit-costs went, and then each month the NRA ‘audit board’ was presented a sum-total from Ackerman McQueen for reimbursement approval, with no further detail about what it contained. It was a money-laundering scheme for LaPierre & probably everyone else involved in the management of NRATV (maybe also some of the personalities involved, but more likely the guys behind the scenes with access to the expense accounts)
The NRA-ILA has been extremely active both in lobbying and taking lead in any number of lawsuits filed around the country (although not without occasional controversy as to the positions taken vis-a-vis the plaintiffs). Without it, California would be even more of a gun control paradise than it is now. I suggest spinning off the ILA (which as it is is a separate charitable entity) and re-instating Cox as its head. Then the rest of the organization can return to its traditional roles/
Don’t be so distracted by Wayne you put his buddy Chris Cox in charge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sNiklO506A
WLP’s buddy, who tried to get rid him, and then WLP suspended. If that’s how you think buddies behave, I’d hate to be your enemy.
Criminals tend to turn on each other pretty quick when it comes time to divide the loot…
YEAH i have a feeling Wayne is a extreme narcissist who thinks he can do no wrong like Diane FIVESteins….
All it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing!
F Nike …Buy New Balance.
Did anyone else see the US Women’s Soccer team drop our flag on the ground and drag it around?
Here.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BzoErWxhQ-5/
Spread the freedom!
https://www.instagram.com/2020americamatters/
Mailed my renewal notice to the main Virginia office, not the payment drop box address, with a note stating I was NOT rejoining nor paying until Wayne LaPierre was gone. I am hoping other members will do likewise. Hopefully we will see a change before the New York prosecutors can pull down the whole organization.
Wouldn’t it be best to circle the wagons right about now? Wouldn’t it be wiser to sort this out after November 2020?
You assuming Trump and the Republicans are going to win?
In a fair election I think Trump will win. I think the Democrats could possibly win by fraud. Either way, the Socialist/Communist Left has made it quite clear that they wont rest till we are completely disarmed .. by force if you listen to some of them. Dividing our side right before an important election seems like a stupid idea.
But Trump is one of the leftists! He is self described Democrat. He was a Democrat until he wanted to be president. He still supports and actually passed gun control, then he gloats about it. He even said we need to get the NRA on board or fight them to get more gun control passed.
If you listen to Trump all the time you will see who he really is. The speeches he gives are written for him by people that look up the analytics of what is popular, which is how he can fool people so easily. Lucky for him he isn’t dumb enough to put on a bad accent when he reads his prepared speech/remarks.
Obama sounded like a dummy and was horrible at public speaking until he got a nice set of writers and a teleprompter. Then he became the most intelligent president and a wonderful speaker in the eyes of many statists. The leftists still think Obama was a great president that did no wrongs purely because he spoke well and had a good demeanor. The presentation trumped his behaviors/actions.
Americans are dumb enough to think if it looks good and sounds good it must be good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkkIGH40eL4&t=0m15s
I don’t see how Trump having someone write his speeches based on public polling data is different than just about any other president in recent memory. As for the NRA, I joined when Barack Obama was first elected. I allowed my membership to stop after a time, as I saw some of the things that the NRA was doing as wrong, and not helpful to the cause of freedom.
But a couple of years ago, I rejoined, because I decided that I could best make a difference only if I were on the inside. Just like the old saw, don’t complain about your government if you didn’t vote.
Just because the NRA is so messed up right now, means that I made the right call, not the wrong one. Change is needed, and desperately so. Does anyone actually think that by withholding their yearly dues, they can cause the leadership to change? Or will you have more luck by being able to remain a member and continue to stir up the leadership with letters, and phone calls, emails, etc?
I also belong to the GOA. They are a very good group, that is a true no compromise gun rights advocate. They are always on the front line of legal issues, writing briefs for Supreme Court cases, and being involved with local and state issues. The problem is that they are just too small. At least the NRA has 5 million members, which in reality should be more like 25 million members. Then, the power to force leadership to act in our best interests would be much easier to do, since there is always power in numbers.
This is not an issue that is going away any time soon. And like most of you, I think that the top leadership needs to go. The problem is that right now, we have no way of forcing that to happen, and we have an important presidential election coming up.
I am just as upset with the president’s lack of spine on the 2nd amendment issues as anyone. But I have hope in that he has at least started to change the SCOTUS from liberal to balanced. If we abandon the NRA at this point, the effect on the presidential election could be a huge problem, one that certainly put an extreme leftist/socialist into office, especially since that is pretty much all that is running for the Democrats. So I hope that if you choose to abandon the NRA, you consider all of the things that it may affect, before you do. I certainly won’t send them any extra money, just my dues, until such time as they clean house, and I mean squeaky clean. But I also won’t cut my own nose off to spite my face.
“Does anyone actually think that by withholding their yearly dues, they can cause the leadership to change?”
Does anyone actually think that by sending more and more money, they can cause the leadership to change?
Trump made more bump stock owners into felons (I assume, since exactly zero stocks have been turned in or reported destroyed, as of last check) than TWICE what he won the 2016 election by. Plus, Florida added a million felons (read: predominantly black [read: Democrat]) to the voter roles by constitutional amendment. Plus, Trump himself promoted the gun control initiatives in Florida that were then passed by majority Republican congress & Republican governor, before campaigning for said governor’s senate run (Scott then very nearly lost an election he had been dominating up until he passed gun control). I don’t see him carrying Florida, frankly, and I see Obama-2012 levels of justified dissatisfaction with Trump. The election is possibly already lost, and solely due to Trump’s needless own-goals.
@PigPen: “. . . I rejoined, because I decided that I could best make a difference only if I were on the inside. Just like the old saw, don’t complain about your government if you didn’t vote.”
I find a lot of wisdom in your remarks. I read the OP with considerable ambivalence.
Here is the thought that occurs to me at the moment. Let us suppose that NRA’s membership department reported that annual members were graciously accepting deeply discounted Life memberships. And, that many annual members were not renewing. If the directors were properly informed they should become alarmed that the membership is restless.
The directors might be kept in the dark. Or, they may be determined to go down with the ship; or that the ship will somehow survive a modest dip in renewals.
In any case, apart from expressing our sentiment publicly and either converting to Life memberships or non-renewal, how else can members express their dissatisfaction? Thus far, I haven’t seen evidence that directors are reading the web blogs. I hope that more is going on behind the scenes than has been made public so far.
No, it wouldn’t be better to “sort this out” (as if we haven’t) when we, the NRA membership, are not needed as badly. That’s retarded.
Both the NRA and Trump need us on board, badly; how about they earn our support for a goddam change? Milquetoasts like you are why they piss on us at every turn & demand we thank them for the rain.
Too bad about Wayne. The progs hated him so much, that I kind of liked him.
“Jack booted thugs” was a phrase commonly attributed to Wayne when we said in 1995:
“…the semiauto-auto ban gives jack-booted government thugs more power to take away our constitutional rights, break in our doors, seize our guns, destroy our property, and even injure or kill us.”
These are jackboots:
http://ayay.co.uk/backgrounds/historical/nazi_third_reich/hitler-walking-in-jackboots.jpg
LOL!
LOL. George “I like the 2A, But…” Bush Sr., said that wasn’t the NRA he grew up with, and tore up his lifetime membership. LOL. Which I enjoyed – because Bush Sr. passed a bunch of garbage loser unnecessary gun controls on a whim that I have to live with. I can’t even put together a foreign parts kit without thinking about Bush’s 922R (I think the “R” is for “retardation”).
Wayne had a good run. Watching leftists heads explode after his statements after Sandy hook were most satisfying. The phrase “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun” – is a phrase attributed to his remarks. And that statement is 100% true.
Long story short – Wayne’s act was good. It might have just been an act, but it was still good. But all things come to an end. Wayne’s about to hit the big “7” – “0” and despite his record, allegations don’t look good. Maybe it’s time to hand over the reigns to next guy. Even if he managed to dodge the IRS guys, the FBI guys, the smiling democrats behind them, all the members trying to get him out, all his past buddies at Ackerman McQueen, and angry NRA elected officials within, he still has the bad reputation brought on by what looks like “more than a coincidence” type of events, and he can’t stop time. In other 10 years he will be 80. Now is a great time for him to take the high road, and duck out.
Yeah, he should have left when things were good. Instead he thinks he is the best, the King, while he dodges attempts to take him out. It’s only a matter of time…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D62Uc7l3Go
Neal Knox and his band of reformers managed to get many directors on the NRA Board in the 1990s. In Seattle in 1997 they lost a bid to remove Wayne as EVP/CEO by a single vote in a 32-33 ballot to block his re-election. Wayne and the Directors devoted to him and not the organization then purged all of the reformers. They then amended the By-laws to block any further attempt to put activist blood on the Board. Today, to remove Wayne requires a 3/4 vote of the “protect Wayne” board committee AND a 3/4 vote of the entire Board. Ain’t gonna happen.
Even if the head of the snake (Wayne) is removed the body of the snake ( the directors RESPONSIBLE for enabling the current disaster) remains in POWER. They MUST be removed NOW as well or they will just do it with a new figurehead. They will never surrender.
The NRA is doomed.
Who wrote this article, someone from Schumer’s staff?
Way too many Soros/Democrat trolls on this site. And all the noise about “Bump Stocks” is utterly ridiculous. No serious gunner gives a flying **** about Bump Stocks, which are simply a toy for idiots. Not a hill worth dying on.
That’s exactly how we lost our liberties, one by one. None of them was the hill worth defending, which leads inevitably to next hill, then next and so on.
I never owned a bump stock and I consider them dumb range toy. Now real machine gun is a different story. But that was one of those hills not worth dying on, so we can’t get any new machine guns and the registered old one’s prices are exorbitant.
If the administration can ban bump stocks after they pronounced them perfectly legal, they can ban anything and everything they don’t like. Believe me, Democrats don’t like great many (so far legal) things we have and actually care about.
@Someone: “. . . that was one of those hills not worth dying on”
Your point about the bump-stock ban, and the debate about FFL background checks, are worthy of our reflection.
We simply can not say with confidence whether one course or another would have been best had one (NRA) chosen differently at the time, under the circumstances. Was NRA’s concession on bump-stocks or FFL background checks a slippery-slope concession? Or, was it prudence being the better part of valor? We can’t say for sure; at least I don’t know for sure.
With somewhat more confidence we can judge that NRA’s effort to sun-set the Federal Assault Weapons Ban proved to be an effective tactic. We lived with a foolish law for 10 years during which it was shown to be foolish. The law sunset as Congress neglected to muster the votes to extend it. Was NRA wrong? In principle, they were wrong. There is no compromise on principle. And the cemeteries are filled with the soldiers of generals who stood on principle. Was it an effective tactic? Probably so.
The bump-stock ban is too fresh to evaluate with any legitimacy. The NICS system is now demonstrably proven to be a waste of money on patching – partially – a single hole in a sieve. Would we really have been better off if NRA had the backbone to stand on principle? Congress would have maintained a waiting period and sheriffs’ wastebaskets would have filled with unopened mail from FFLs. Every few years, Congress might have extended the waiting period by a few days because, we all agree, “We MUST do SOMETHING!!!”. Nevertheless, we would all be much happier that NRA had stood firm on principle.
After reading three books on negotiations, one lesson seemed most recurrent…if someone is willing to compromise by giving on an issue, you could have won that point without compromise. People only relent on an issue when it is of no real consequence. Which explains why gun-grabbers treat compromise as surrender on the part of gun owners.
As to the AWB sunset provision, the gun-grabbers were convinced they would always have political power to renew, so the clause was considered of no real consequence. The Demoncrats bet wrong at the time, but restoration is always just an election away. The gun grabbers permitted the compromise because the ban was a victory, no matter how you look at it.
As a long time Life Member of NRA, had that status since 1975, I used to make financial contributions to the NRA. They weren’t earthshaking, but every bit helps. Then along came Wayne and his, in my view really dumb Background Checks For Everyone, comment, which led to the cessation of such financial support as previously offered. By the way, so far as I’m aware, LaPierre never retracted or altered, in any way, the undesirable position he took.
The NRA did write the law for background checks to make every gun sold from a FFL (which they also helped create) require a background check. Their excuse was they didn’t want a waiting period on handguns. Recently they called for increasing the list of prohibited persons to strengthen the background checks. After a meeting with the NRA, Trumps called for even stronger background checks than there are now.
We all know that background checks are fated to become a registry.
Just like the beginning of Our War of Independence, we are fractured into competing groups and unfocused on the Cause of our unalienable rights. We need to wake up, unite, and stand strong together. We need a George Washington to patiently lead us from fight to fight until the victory is won. If WLP is the man or someone else that leader needs to step up now. The Army is is ready but they need a General with vision and courage. It is time to stop the belly aching and stand up for our RKBA.
Let’s not forget that Washington needed the (now hated) French to win. Without them the United States wouldn’t exist.
Who are the French in the NRA’s scenario?
Don’t take the analogy too far. Point is in-fighting is self destructive, especially when anti-constitutional progressives are united in their agenda to disarm the citizens of this Republic.
The French were blood-soaked, blood-thirsty, hard-fighting sons of bitches in those days. We ‘hate’ (despise) them now because they lost their fangs.
@User1: “. . . Washington needed the (now hated) French to win. Without them the United States wouldn’t exist. Who are the French in the NRA’s scenario?” A provocative question; I will meditate on it.
Similarly, I have read that Washington’s troops were composed of about 45% Scots-Irishmen. (Kindly bear in mind that members of this ethnicity were, at that time, not lof the cheerful easy-going personality we know them to be today.) Without these Scots-Irish, the United States wouldn’t exist.
Who are the Scots-Irish in the NRA scenario today? Are these as effective as those who served Washington?
Wayne LaPierre definitely needs to go, preferably by stepping down for the sake of unity in the NRA and the Pro-2A community. But telling gun owners to clean up the NRA “by starving it of cash” is just plain stupid and is a disservice to the Pro-2A movement when we need unity in our ranks and the horsepower of the NRA the most. Every time someone cancels their membership or refuses to contribute because they hate LaPierre the antis cackle and rub their hands together.
I am pissed at the NRA and I have told them he needs to go. But I will not abandon the fight against the common enemy because of this. And anyone who does is just not thinking straight. And I say this as someone who is a member of the GOA, and Front Line Defender in the NAGR, and a member of my state gun rights organization. People need to quit flying off the handle and stand together or we will be doing the Democrat’s job for them.
I’ve been an NRA Member and donor since the 70’s. I do not plan to cancel my membership yet but they’ve seen the last of my dollars until Wayne and Co. have left the building.
Some people have claimed that WLP is a helluva guy, would never intentionally harm the organization. Others say he is slick as shit.
I don’t know, I don’t care. He has caused irreparable harm to NRA, he has defrauded its membership and he has damaged the entire national effort to advocate for and support 2A.
Is/was he a shill for Soros or Is he just an arrogant jerk? Doesn’t matter, he needs to be gone and so does the Board.
Any correspondence I receive from any arm of NRA gets the same reply:
Not one more dime until Wayne is gone!
I quit them after they built the grand ‘Taj Mahal’ office building back in the 80’s (anyone else remember that?)and never once looked back. Every once in a while WLP acts like he actually gives a crap-then I find out him and the scumbag democommie hairy reid are hanging out together. I will never will give another penny to such a poorly run organization. They and their ‘leadership’ are worse than useless!
It was just a matter of time. Who the hell cares, NRA doesn’t care if anyone jumps ship, just keep sending them the dues baby. Got to keep those expense accounts active so “I” can pay for my personal expenses and take those RATPUBLICANS out to lunch and dinners. Oh yeah, gimme, gimme gimme.
I’ve said it before………I don’t see why a MALFEASANCE LAWSUIT can’t be filed against WLP and the entire board. Name each and every board member in the suit, to make them equally responsible for the current state of affairs; when in actuality, they are.
Get the backing of those ” large donors ” who were mentioned on here previously as stating they were withholding their funds until the NRA got their shit together and straightened things out. If every current NRA member would kick in $10 to help clean up this mess, it would make a rather formidable monetary war chest.
It was stated earlier that, even if we got rid of WLP, there was no one on the BoD who would be a good replacement. That is true, but if we can get rid of everyone and start with a clean slate, I would suggest ADAM KRAUT and ALLEN WEST would be 2 good choices to begin with.
Mr. West stated that 2 MILLION NRA ballots were mailed to eligible voters for the last election, with less than 15 K of them being returned. So, were some of you complainers too damn lazy and cheap to fill out your ballot and put a stamp on the envelope ?
“. . . If every current NRA member would kick in $10 to help clean up this mess . . . ”
Bear in mind that Gov. Cuomo is cheerfully doing (approximately) this at taxpayer expense. Moreover, he is focused and determined to achieve his goal without infighting distracting and delaying him.
If Cuomo can’t get the board’s attention alone, no private lawsuit funded by 5,000,000 X $10 contributions would succeed.
The seriousness of the situation is manifest from the observation that a simple majority of board members has yet to take Cuomo’s threat seriously.
The NRA is no longer a supporter of the Second Amendment. Based on recent TTAG posts I’m not sure they ever were a supporter. The founders of this country were not perfect men. But they trusted the citizens with all Manor of Arms.
The current national leadership does not. And sadly neither does the NRA. I agree defund them. But it’s not just Wayne LaPierre. Most of the board needs to go. They do not take their duties seriously. No matter who they are.
The NRA is supposed to be a civil rights organization. But they do not act like it.
I hope the leadership of the NRA including the board members most of them need to go to jail for failure of their fiduciary responsibilities.
I hope people are prepared when the real properties of a NRA, are possibly confiscated and or sold to pay off debts. Such as the gun collection museums in Washington DC and Springfield Missouri.
You say that won’t happen? Guess again. The government (confiscation) plays for Keeps.
Chris T- “Most of the board needs to go. They do not take their duties seriously. No matter who they are.”
NRA is not run by the board, it’s run by professional staffers, the Deep State, people like Chris Cox and Chuck Cunningham at ILA, both of whom let NRA contract lobbyist for Illinois Donald Todd Vandermyde place Duty to Inform language in state Rep. Brandon Phelps’s “NRA backed” concealed carry bill in 2013. Try figuring out which board members are on what committees, much less their contact information. NRA is a private country club for good old boys and Freemasons, it’s not any sort of legitimate or transparent org. Willes Lee is an arrogant blowhard, try “talking” to that guy sometime at an NRA function and let me know how that goes.
The Duty to Inform was probably supplied by NRA lawyers, or the IL Chiefs of Police. Vandermyde, Valinda Rowe from (southern) Illinois Carry and John Boch personally met with the IL Chiefs of Police lobbyist in 2010-2011 and voluntarily agreed to Duty to Inform in the Illinois carry bill if the anti-gun police unions would not publicly oppose the NRA bill. Those whining about Bloomberg trolls are to stupid to look in the mirror and see that NRA lobbyists and affiliates are the traitors who are selling out their lives to police criminals. NRA is a whorehouse crammed full of traitors and scum.
Thank you, Dan Zimmerman. I agree.
“As a result of the accumulated and ongoing controversies, allegations, mismanagement and malfeasance, Wayne LaPierre has unquestionably become a liability to the National Rifle Association, its membership, and the cause of defending and extending gun rights in America.”
Such a liberal thing to do
https://www.change.org/p/nra-board-of-trustees-wayne-lapierre-needs-to-step-down-as-the-ceo-of-the-nra
Broken clock. LaPierre can be the hated face of their enemy, and a shitty manager hindering the advocacy of gun rights at the same time. Libs are ignorant, remember? And ignorant people take the NRA’s claims of effectiveness & staunch support of the RKBA at face value.
Facing the 2020 Presidential election season, the Democrat Party thanks TTAG for its service to the socialists of America. Nice job guys!
Don’t shoot the messenger. NRA leadership brought this mess on itself and on us all. We need a strong and agressive organization. This is an attempt to make our NRA better.
“Facing the 2020 Presidential election season, the Democrat Party thanks TTAG for its service to the socialists of America. Nice job guys!”
Working to correct or dispatch a corrupt organization somehow empowers the Dimwitocrats? We are to just flush money down the tubes so we can lose a little slower?
As noted earlier, if the NRA is the sole defense against further erosion of our RTKBA, if everything we hold near and dear will be lost if the NRA disappears, then NRA can dictate to us what we may and may not have. The difference between NRA and the anti-gun mafia is negligible already.
Giving more money to NRA who has declared the membership will accept what it is given, and like it, doesn’t seem to be a wise trade.
Not one penny until the NRA is purged and back on the track they were set up to be.
I think the demoKrats are succeeding. they made all of you hate the NRA and their plan is going well. get rid of the largest progun org and then they can get everyones guns. and you are all falling for it.
“I think the demoKrats are succeeding. they made all of you hate the NRA ”
NRA fund-raising letter:
We are the premier, longest existing, biggest gorilla in the fight for your right to own firearms. We support your Second Amendment rights, with reasonable restrictions, and have a pretty nice thing going. We will spend your money anyway we choose, and members and the Board of Directors will be ignored at our pleasure. Because we are the scary monster on the political scene, you cannot afford to not have us protecting you. Should we go out of business, you will lose your right to firearms much faster than with us holding your cash. While we appreciate all your contributions to our well-being and personal aggrandizement, rest assured nobody does it better. Face it America, you will eventually be disarmed, but NRA will hold that off longer than any other pro-gun organization you can find. We are all in this together. Naturally, we live a better life style than you, but that is just the natural order of things. Make America Great Again, and God bless.
(Doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. is what, again?)
A Sad day in Civil Rights Movement..Absolute Power of Money Corrupts absolutely. Ask Barrack Obama and his Wife. So what do we do now? The racket goes like this. The US Politicians fight us with our own tax $ and yet we put trust in them by their words before we see the results, but who has the time besides retirees who want to just enjoy life after trusting the system, but America has always been a struggle because we are Gods Chosen but failing away,. and for the longest time, the NRA like Judicial watch caught them lying. But we keep putting faith in man and all of us are flawed. Now Reality hurts and just is just no matter what political party. No matter our freedom of speech, horrible bad speech comes from the heart and has consequences on Judgement day. Whoever fed Trump the BS from inside the NRA is guilty of Treason, and Violating our freedoms on Gun Rights, is going to get his very soon as Chaos is upon us if we do not deport and build the wall with the U.S Military on the ground. Civil Militias are being harassed now by UnAmerican Federal Agents. Jesus is Coming! Who cares about This Country now. Repent and leave this earth before The 7-year tribulation. I am Locked and loaded since My coming home from Vietnam.
Those officers and directors responsible for the current situation will go down with the ship. Their egos are invested in defending their behavior that brought us to this point. The situation will not be cured by any epiphony on the part of those responsible.
Think of it as a wild-fire that will be brought under control only by starting a back-fire burn. The directors will muscle-through until brought to account by NY State and a long slow bleed of expenses exceeding revenue. Then, something will happen. Directors will see that their personal liability is unsustainable and they will resign leaving a smaller board of reformers and culpables to battle-it-out. Finally, reformers willing to take the heat will eject the remaining culpables. This will probably take us beyond November 2020. Big damage.
Then will come the re-build. The election system can’t be reformed easily. So, there will continue to be long-time/life members who continue to shot-gun (rather than bullet-vote) vote for directors. ‘I’ll vote for Tom and Dick and Harry and . . . again this year because Tom’s a hunter and Dick’s a marksman and Harry’s a celebrity and I’ve always voted for them and I’ll continue to vote for them for the rest of my life!’ A reform board can’t fix this by itself in one stroke of an articles-of-association pen.
NRA’s membership has KEPT the NRA in its current out-of-control state for years; and, NRA’s membership will continue to keep it in such a state after the fires have burned out. The NRA – after all – IS what it’s members have made it to be, kept it to be. If NRA rises as a phoenix from ashes, it will become whatever we, these same members, vote it to be.
MarkPA- “NRA’s membership has KEPT the NRA in its current out-of-control state for years; and, NRA’s membership will continue to keep it in such a state after the fires have burned out. The NRA – after all – IS what it’s members have made it to be, kept it to be.”
NRA’s membership is mostly old people in small towns that are stupid enough to believe that “the police” are their friends. People like Richard Pearson, executive director of ISRA (Illinois State Rifle Association, the NRA state affiliate). Pearson lives in Chatsworth, Illinois, a decaying farm town next to the railroad tracks with a few grain bins and hound dogs on the porch. ISRA World Headquarters is his insurance office.
Pearson and ISRA did NOTHING to promote citizen carry for at least thirty years, but after he had a part in recruiting Otis McDonald for Alan Gura’s lawsuit against the city of Chicago handgun ban, he now thinks concealed carry was his idea all along. Pearson was not in the room when NRA contract lobbyist for Illinois Donald Todd Vandermyde negotiated Duty to Inform with the IL Chiefs of Police lobbyist in 2010-2011, but Valinda Rowe from (southern) Illinois Carry and John Boch were there to personally sign off on the DTI.
Vandermyde, Pearson, Rowe and Boch perfectly represent everything that’s wrong with the NRA: losers that grovel for police unions and sell out their own members to be set up and killed by police criminals. Racist hicks that use blacks like Otis McDonald as fronts for their shitty bills, then sell out blacks like Philando Castile with Duty to Inform, because the anti-gun police unions that opposed citizen carry for FIFTY YEARS want legal cover to execute armed citizens. Good riddance to NRA and the fossilized old farts that feed their lies.
The NRA should reject politics and go back to being a bastion of gun SAFETY issues like it originally was. By advocating a reading of the 2nd Am. that was NEVER INTENDED by the original founders (Where are the “well-regulated militia”s?) , you get into trouble and make this a country of hate and trouble by pushing for more guns-more places-more shootings are a-ok it’s not okay. And it goes beyond one man. The entire organization is CORRUPT and a corrupting influence on our democracy.
Your history is way off. The NRA was not founded as a gun safety organization, but a rifle ownership and marksmanship training organization.
The founders of our Republic were quite clear about who the militia was and what its purpose was:
“the whole people” and insurection against an unjust government.
They were clear that guns should be anywhere and everywhere neccessary for that cause.
y’all missing the point, it’s a case of follow the money and who’s pocket its going into and for what supposed cause! Pagpapalaglag Wayne LaPierre needs too resign.
Lincoln had a bunch of useless generals one after the other until he found his Grant. Washington had to fight delaying actions until the right moment and the French joined in our fight. Valley Forge was a horrible time but the army came out stronger and more disciplined. We are in a battle. We may have useless generals, may not be able to do anything except delay for a more opportune time, we may be at our darkest moments, but courage works through all of this by determined dedication to the cause. Our RKBA is more than guns, it is our right to be a free people in a free Republic. Time to wake up and gird up the loins of our mind for the fight.
Do you suppose that a company like Ackerman McQueen or an organization like the NRA, with their tens of millions of dollars of advocacy & advertising resources, maybe, just MAYBE, employs people to mindlessly defend & excuse their actions on some of the higher profile media outlets? I’m sure Bloomberg isn’t the first person to come up with the “shareblue” concept.
Ok.
To avoid cutting our nose off despite our face, let’s redirect any would-have-been NRA contributions to another pro-2A organization.
GOA, JPFO, state associations, local groups, whatever. Let’s not lose the war while fighting an internal battle.
I am all for us cutting funding to the NRA as long as we put it towards better organizations. I haven’t donated to NRA in a few years but my SAF donation has doubled and GOA has also started getting the money that used to go to the NRA.
The NRA has been a gun-control pansy for years and ensured that none of that information can be found on their website. I left a long time ago. It is time for those serious about fighting for their Second Amendment Rights to abandon the NRA and join Gun Owners of America (GOA). No silly magazines, no glitz, just no-holds-barred, no-compromise Second Amendment fighters. There are any number of video clips with anti-gun politicians saying the NRA is bad, but GOA is terrible! Best compliment you can have!
TomC is right. See his longest comment above. He gave us the big picture on the NRA.
BUT there is one more piece that makes the big picture the Full Picture.
* What are “arms”? Open your mind and consider the actually long list. Note the arms that the U.S. government and the militarized police use against us whenever they want. What did they use against the peaceful WACO group? (You don’t have to have liked that group to know that they were peaceful.)
* Now, under the NRA reign, what has happened to “arms” for us? ONLY shotguns, rifles, and pistols.
Let that sink in.
ONLY shotguns, rifles, and pistols. And even they are further INFRINGED. Can’t be auto. Can’t cut your shotgun barrel. … You have to beg and pay the govt just to suppress the noise.
What I have said is simply correct. Right?
Now, let me go one step further. If you don’t like it, it doesn’t change the truth of what I said above.
If you don’t know what jews really are and what they really do, you will simply be led from one jew-controlled organization (NRA) to another jew-controlled organization.
Gen. George Patton way back in 1945 learned about the jews.
Henry Ford 100 years ago published dozens of articles and a book about the jews.
Charles Lindbergh Jr. and Sr. knew about the jews.
Why don’t you?
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