Like what the NRA’s done by signing Colion Noir? Then you’ll probably be on board with two new faces they’ve added to keep him company and broaden their message and appeal. New to the NRA News stable are Natalie Foster, Editor of ‘A Girl’s Guide to Guns’, and former Navy SEAL Don Raso. It won’t surprise anyone that the intent is to “make the point that the NRA is not made up of one type of person, but is as diverse as these commentators.” You good with that?

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63 COMMENTS

  1. No offense to any of my friends in the Special Forces community, but at this point is there anything more cliched than hiring a Navy SEAL to lend credibility to whatever cause you represent?

    • I’m thinking your input is vital here. Special Forces? Ach, so YESTERDAY, RIGHT? I’m with you, bro! Why don’t you suggest yourself, for, like, a breath of fresh air!!

      • Yes, because clearly the diversity the NRA needs to bring to the fore is best represented by a fit white liberal/libertarian 40-something male from Silicon Valley. Absolutely.

        • Liberal/ libertarian… Does not compute.

          Unless you’re defaulting to an older definition which is pretty much the converse of what it is today. If that’s the case you can probably just say libertarian 🙂

        • Hal, Only in the current ‘freedom is slavery’ ‘war is peace’ doublespeak reality.

          Not 60 years ago a conservative wanted to regulate the strip fishing of the oceans so that there were fish for future generations to catch and eat. They actually wanted to save forests, not clear cut them for quick cash. They believed in conserving.

          Our Great Nation was founded by liberals. After reading Alpha’s posts for quite a while, I’m rather confident he is of the ‘classical’ liberal/libertarian bent. Which I’m all in favor of.

        • More freedom and full rights for everybody, balanced with the minimum possible level of encumbrances such as may be required to produce a functional economy and society.

          I’m eternally surprised at how many people get uncomfortable with the results of “full rights for everybody”. It’s the philosophical basis of my strong support for both individual 2A rights AND marriage equality.

      • Hey, William, be nice to Alpha. He’s cool, and I appreciate a “liberal” take from a gunny.

        It’s a Big Tent that we’re all huddling under.

        • YOu know what happens to the tent after the camel (or jackass) gets his nose under the the side? He drags his entire body into the tent. And it doesn’t work out well for the tent (or anyone in the tent).

          What you do when the jackass sticks his nose in he tent is shoot it between the eyes (see the thead above about headshot of ferral deer in UK) and have roast beast for lunch.

  2. Excellent !!! The NRA has to show more faces then just Wayne’s. I happen to like Wayne… but the world should know that the NRA is more then just Wayne. Adding a female is a great idea… as well as a military guide. The NRA seems to have done a lot of contemplating and come up with a solution to counter Obama and his friends.

    • They already have Ginny Simone (sigh) doing the news on NRA News. Why doesn’t NRA bring back Tanya Metaksa as the ILA chief lobbyist?

      I don’t know anything about Natalie Foster, in all honesty, but if she’s half as passionate about the Second Amendment as Ginny is, she’ll be OK It’s good to see more women getting involved in exercising their Second Amendment rights.

  3. AlphaGeek is right, SEALs are cliche. How about Air Force pararesuceman or combat air controller? Of course, me being Air Force might have something to do with that.

    • My oldest offspring wants to be a PJ. PJs kick ass.

      Pretty sure he’s going to have to start joining me at Crossfit if he’s going to have a chance of surviving the PJ program, though…

    • Heck, non-combat air controllers have one of the most mentally stressful jobs around from what I have learned, I couldn’t even imagine trying that job when all the pieces are moving around ten or twenty times faster. Kudos to anyone wearing that hat.

  4. What about somebody like Travis Haley? Or as long as they are recruiting Youtube all stars what about Cory and Erika?

    • Don’t get me wrong, I dig Travis Haley, but I don’t think a high-speed low drag operator, of whom there are videos of him sniping insurgents with an AR, sends the message the NRA is looking for.

  5. Question from the entertainment media challenged… WHO is watching the “NRA News?” Because if its not on some prime time television channel its probably preaching to the choir. We can oogle at these gun world celebrities all we want, it isnt supporting much of a cause if it is just us.

        • seems like they created a network radio show first then added the regular videos. I am new to the NRA and to the 2nd amendment culture but it sold me! I love it.

        • NRA News was created by NRA, after the McCain-Feingold Act passed in 2001. MCain-Feingold’s supporters said they wanted this legislation in order to squelch NRA, whom they blamed for Al Gore’s presidential loss in 2000.

          In response, NRA launched NRA News to ensure that pro-Second Amendment viewpoints would be heard.

  6. The more they can get MCN and Natalie Foster into the spotlight the better.

    There are many young people who need to hear what the Pro-2A community is saying and the message will not be received when it’s broadcast by OFWGs and the Fudd nation. Especially with the ongoing wave of stereotypes and irrational attacks by the Repressives– I mean ‘Progressives’ like Bloomberg and co.

  7. I say its about time. I’ve been trying to get my 4’10” Guatemalan wife up to speed on the philosophical aspects of firearms ownership and natural rights but she has been buried with English classes first and then nurse’s training. Hopefully soon, as I saw the value of her speaking out on this topic years ago. All the racist invective they hurl at me is moot when she is the one speaking out. Now we just need to get rid of LaPierre.

  8. Clichés become cliché for a reason. To most listeners, he’ll radiate credibility.

    In ’97 in McMurdo, one of the Navy contingent with whom I worked was a SEAL. He’d frickin’ RUN to the top of the thousand foot cinder cone east of town and back down in the pitch dark of mid-May, just for the fun of it.

    I respects SEALs, I does.

    • I had a former working for me a decade ago when I was in slightly better shape. He always wanted me to join him for a daily 5 miler before work. Ooop ack! Last way I wanna start my day more than once a week.

  9. do any of them have tips where to buy some freaking ammo, i’ll listen to that one.

    haha i like them all.

  10. Kinda like Chevy puting a wing on a car, and fake dual exhast.
    Then call it a GT. LOL!
    Should have done the real thing 20 years ago!!!
    Guy22

  11. Well, I’m Air Force too, Alpha, and as much as I’d like to see the guys in blue supporting the 2A, I’m fine with the cliche. To most of the public, the SEALs are the last word.

    Now if I could just get that P-51 Mustang before the Mommie Mayor finds out a civilian can own one.

    • Oh, I understand the marketing value, and I’ve met enough active duty and former SEALs to totally respect what it takes to make it in the teams. After the last decade of massively expanding the SF ranks, though, popular culture has definitely been steered towards putting the “quiet professionals” on a bit of a pedestal.

      One of the occasionally annoying aspects of living where I do is that there are plenty of people with crazy amounts of money. One guy I know is up to (I think) four working fighter-class jet trainer aircraft. And that’s not counting his armored vehicle collection. Pretty sure the nanny-state types would crap their pants if they realized how easily he could remilitarize them and field his own private expeditionary force.

  12. Anyone who shows sincerity, is articulate and experienced with firearms is welcome as a spokesman, especially converts who have educated themselves on the 2A issues and are astonished at the misleading rhetoric and injustice being perpetrated by those who would try to identify all firearms owners and ultimately seize their guns.

  14. I know that from a marketing perspective this hiring of people “who don’t look like me” is probably a good thing but crikey, aren’t some truths, like the God-given right to self defense self evident even if they’re not elucidated in ebonics?

      • What’s disgusting? Many of the people who use ebonics feel it is their right to be able to steal, carjack and rape, and then, if they get shot at; foam at the mouth about how “racist” their intended victims are.

        What TF, we’re seeing that now, in the Zimmerman trial. Apparently Martin’s family feels Zimmerman had no right whatsoever, to use deadly force, even as he was getting his head stove in by Skittles Man.

  15. Like the new additions. Well done NRA. Let’s keep the gun grabbers on the ropes. Next step, expand our rights.

  16. Maybe TTAG should try to emulate this a bit.

    I’m a pro-gun progressive living and NYC and a graduate student in health policy (gun issues fall under this purview). Almost every day in class or in person, I bring up a discussion of gun issues in an attempt to persuade my colleagues, expose their prejudices, and open their minds. I frame my arguments to appeal to my audience. While I love this site, the uniformity of opinion and attitudes expressed here does very little to change the debate over gun rights and gun policy in this country. I have great respect for the writers of this site, but I really think that this could be a venue to start changing the terms of the debate. It’s not going to happen from traditional media or political organization. It’s gonna happen from the grass roots.

    Most folks on the left just line up behind gun control because they support progressive causes in general. They know few facts about guns. They know that folks that like guns and the NRA tend to be conservative and say nasty things about them and the things that they believe. They know they have no experience with guns. They don’t understand why people want or need guns, especially those with greater firepower, and because this idea that these “military style assault weapons” are killing children all the time is so pervasive, they want something to change. Explain to them the facts. That while you may not see a need for these firearms and they may scare you, they are not a statistically significant source of harm to anybody. Remind them that the sources of violence are poverty and the war on drugs. That gun violence is actually on the decline. Talk to them about things that are really killing people. Talk to them about entrenched poverty. Talk to them about our failed educational system. Talk to them about climate change. Remind them that gun voters are single issue voters (I’m voting a straight Republican ticket in 2014 to protest Cuomo), and that they risk losing out on their priorities if they allow their leaders to be co-opted by the civilian disarmament zealots. Remind them that part of the reason they don’t like guns is because they don’t like the people who own guns. Talk to them about rampant wealth disparity and the effects that that could have on our society now and in the future. Talk to them about the control of government that folks like the Kochs and Bloomberg has. Remind them that the rich and powerful will always have whatever weapons and private security they want. Remind them that while they may not fear their government now but that the future is uncertain. And the trends in wealth disparity may bode ill for our nation’s future. Remind them that a monopoly on the ability to commit violence allows the government to decide when a movement for change has gone far enough.

    Then, offer to take them shooting.

    Don’t assume that people are stupid. Don’t malign them. Don’t let gun rights continue to be this right vs left paradigm. There is no good reason for it. Don’t let yourself be manipulated by the right because of this one issue as they are manipulated by anti-gun zealots.

      • An interesting story in this vein.

        I was walking in my neighborhood yesterday and ran into a colleague from my time as a staffer on the Obama campaign in 2008 and brought up the gun issue with her. She actually said that though she really wanted to go shooting that she was afraid to. Her fear, however, was that if she tried it she would end up switching her stance on the gun control issue entirely.

        • Then by all means you should take her shooting. Tell her its not so bad and we have cookies…..

    • In one fell swoop, point out/convience them that every mindless RELIGIOUS belief they hold dear is moronic nonsense?

      These “progressives” aren’t aren’t fools because they have been sucked in by “gunsafety” indoctination. They are fools, and/or the enemy, because they are idiot “progressives”. For whatever reason; malicious, stupidity, naivety, drug addled, or going where the “loose” chicks are.

    • Don’t blame violence on poverty and the war on drugs. That’s being an apologist for violent criminals.

      Adam Lanza and James Holmes committed acts of horrific violence, as did Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. None of these guys were brought up in poverty-stricken environments.

  17. The NRA is getting on the right track. Sure NRA News is what one would call a “small market” medium and largely preaches to the choir. However, Mr. Noir made quite a stir in the MSM with his first NRA video. If you looked at some of the commentary on Mr. Noir in the MSM, he shook a lot of people up. And that’s a good thing. His incisive commentary hits them at their core. With time and proper cultivation, his message will reach out well beyond the NRA’s base and that message will become more orthodox with the larger culture.

    Adding Ms. Foster and Mr. Raso are very solid steps in the right direction. Out reach and mainstreaming our message will be key to our continued success. It’s imperative that the NRA be viewed as far more that just a bunch of out of touch OFWG’s. The NRA needs to get more women, minorities and urbanites under the tent.

  18. NRA probably needs to start its own version of YouTube so all the gun channels have a backup in the event that Google decides to do something monumentally stupid.

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