The National Rifle Association’s default option: keep on keeping on. They have so much money and power that you’re about as likely to hear the words “we must change” at NRA HQ as “let’s get behind gun registration.” We’ve already pointed out that the gun rights org’s cultural complacency is not without its costs. For example, the NRA isn’t exactly minority-friendly; they’re so white the marketing mavens are considering selling NRA-branded bleach. Not really. While most of their corporate hook-ups are harmless enough (I’ve got the toaster), the NRA runs the risk of striking exactly the wrong note with “outsiders.” The above image—ripped from an email come-on for Lifelock—does nothing to burnish the org’s rep for reasoned debate. I reckon they should tread carefully with this stuff, even if it is unimaginably profitable.

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45 COMMENTS

  1. I’m no fan of the NRA, but I don’t understand your complaint. What are you saying that they’ve done now?

  2. Especially since LifeLock’s overall service is close to being a ripoff, its basically placing a fraud alert on all your credit reports.

    http://www.thegeekprofessor.com/lifelock-sucks/

    Overall, the NRA does not impress me. The NRA is not even really about the 2nd amendment, its about supporting the NRA. There are far better resources for those who want to defend the 2nd amendment, ones that are actual 501(c)3s.

  3. I do think the add is in poor taste by LifeLock. What is the connection with the NRA (no, I’m not a supporter and agree they are too white) and this add that was created and promoted by LifeLock?

    • You got something against white people? Racist? Have you any evidence that the NRA actively discourages minority membership?

      I thought not.

      The corporate connection may be this: Lifelock offers a discount to NRA members. So do hotels, rental car companies, and many other services.

      Is this really panty-twist worthy?

      • ‘You got something against white people?’

        I got something against an organization that is a white-neocon corporate obese dinosaur being the publics image for the pro gun community. The NRA needs to be more focused on recruiting and promoting minorities, and to have less of a religious revival theme in its attitude.

        • Screw recruiting minorities. Its not white peoples job to bend over backwards. When the NBA starts actively recruiting white people then I’ll start supporting pages that

        • My smart phone published but I’ll say it again. I don’t give a damn if any organization recruits minorities. It’s not white peoples job to bend over backwards for minorities. If they want to join, I’m more than willing to invite them to the club but I’m not about to try and change an organization just so some liberal can feel good about themselves. The NBA doesn’t actively try and recruit white players, and neither does the NFL. Anytime there are too many white people it’s “bad” but anytime it’s majority any other race that is overwhelmingly a member, it’s not seen as a problem. Get over your white guilt.

        • Why should the NRA “promote” minorities? Are you implying that people of color lack agency and need paternalistic care? Why can’t they make their voices heard without white leadership?

          I agree with Scott. Get over white guilt and leave minorities out of shallow attempts to assuage said guilt. Leave paternalism to liberals.

      • The nation’s demographics are changing. There is strength in numbers. Eventually the whites (if trends continue) will be a small minority. Numbers and the money that comes from the numbers provide political clout. Do the math.

  4. This was a targeted e-mailing to NRA members, yes? I don’t understand why a member would get his panties in a bunch over this. I’m a member and I don’t find anything wrong with it. Am I missing something?

  5. Didnt that life-lock guy get his identity stolen a bunch of times, proving his service is next to worthless, after he sent trucks around cities with his SSN on them?

  6. NRA was founded in 1871 by former Union Army officers to address the apalling lack of marksmanship skills they observed among the troops during the civil war. The organization has indeed changed, expanding into lobbying and lawsuits to fight for preservation of The Second Ammendment from those who would deprive us of our rights. If they’re “too white” it is because non-whites aren’t stepping up and joining the oldest civil rights organization in the country. No other firearms organization has the impact on legislation that NRA does. If you own a firearm or would like to have that option one day, you need to join the NRA and be represented in Washington and the UN where they’re an official NGO in order to monitor the “global norms” treaties. Freedom ain’t free folks and nobody else has got your back.

    • Yeah, because the NRA protected our rights by bringing 2nd Amendment cases to the Supreme Court in 1934 and 1968. Oh, wait. No they didn’t.

      Oh, because they brought District of Columbia v. Heller to the Supreme Court. Oh, wait. No they didn’t. In fact, they tried to sabotage it.

      But they sure are good at asking for money.

      • They didn’t try to sabotage the Heller case — their lawyers thought it was a loser and it would sink gun rights forever. Guess what — they were only wrong by one unpredictable judge.

        If it wasn’t for the NRA, there wouldn’t be a gun left in America. That’s why the left hates the NRA so much. And the left’s propaganda is damn effective — they got you falling for it.

        • Or, the NRA got you falling for their schtick.

          They are good for training and such, but they’ve done far less than they should have to protect the second amendment and far too much scaring people to give them money.

        • I agree with everyone who’s with the NRA. I’m a minority & a member. Its true if we all step will be fine. The NRA didn’t turn me down so plz stop with all the white ppl crap. I’m all for the NRA.

    • Gun Owners of America
      gunowners.org/
      Gun Owners of America (GOA) is a non-profit lobbying organization formed in 1975 to preserve and defend the Second Amendment rights of gun owners.
      I don’t belong to the NRA anymore. I have numerous friends that do. I’m sure their membership is helpful to the cause of unfettered gun-ownership at some level. I just feel my dollars are better spent working through GOA.

        • I just want to make a point of saying a little something: I’m new to this site and these forums and it is exactly this kind of thread that has me hooked. Do you all realize that you are having respectful discourse and good-natured disagreements ON THE INTERNET! I’m pretty sure there are rules against that.

          This matters to me because it’s nice to see opinions from a broad spectrum of folks who do and don’t fit the stereotype of “gun owner.” Me personally? I’m thinking about writing a book called A Social Liberal’s Guide To Zen And The Soothing Sound Of Gunfire: How I Found Inner Peace Through Superior Firepower

  7. It’s the NRA’s continual effort to sell me as a market to unscrupulous vendors that is trying my patience.

    As an example I received an unsolicited DvD on, well, something gun related I’m sure, apparently from the NRA.

    With this DvD was a mailer to return it (although it wouldn’t actually fit int he mailer) and something that looked exactly like an invoice, but for the small print saying “this is not an invoice.”

    Please note that if you receive something in the mail that you didn’t order, it’s yours. That’s the law. This is why the invoice like object is marked “this is not an invoice”.

    I tossed it in the trash (well, the paper went through a shredder than into the recycle bin, but you get the idea). However, I kept getting invoice like objects marked “this is not an invoice” and even phonecalls.

    Now invoice like objects marked “this is not an invoice” is usually the purview of mail-fraudsters. They’ll send them to companies with labels about dial in phone support or something else intangible in the hopes that some clerk will cut them a check. Even though this wasn’t mail fraud it is sleazy and beneath the dignity of what we hope the NRA to be.

    Note that if you Google NRA mail fraud dvd you’ll find that I’m not the only one disappointed in their behavior.

  10. If an organization doesn’t fit your agenda, start a new one. NRA isn’t black or Martian enough? Tough.

    • How about this? The NRA, by not recruiting more minorities, is hamstringing its longterm political effectiveness because whites are a shrinking proportion of the electorate and will someday be a actually smaller portion of the population than the other groups combined. So if the NRA isn’t reaching those other groups with its message, then at some point it may not be able to effectively defend the Second Amendment. However, if the NRA can make inroads into those other groups, and build a broad base of support for gun rights and the right to self defense, then those rights can be preserved and strengthed indefinitely.

      Now do you care?

      • The catch-22 being that the NRA will lose it’s core base by pushing an artificial “diversity.” We had to destroy the village to save it.

        • So don’t be artificial about it. Figure out how to make gun rights and self defense appeal to all people. It shouldn’t really be that hard, because you’re appealing to a fundamental human right. What could be better?

          Are you really just resigned to defeat in the long term? Is the “core base” so resistant to change that it would rather lose the Second Amendment than make some effort to bring in new groups of members?

          The demographic trends are in motion now and they’re set to come to fruition in the next generation. If the NRA starts now, they can capture that generation before its born. If you get those voters growing up in pro-gun households, then when they come of voting age and they’re the majority, gun rights could enjoy bigger voting block than they’ve ever had.

        • I don’t think that the NRA’s “core base” is as change-resistant as you might think. But I do think that black people have been very brainwashed by their “leaders.” If the NRA were to try to recruit more black members in the black communities, they’d be run out of town by Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and their ilk.

          I’m not writing off black membership as a lost cause. Well, not yet, but then again, I’m stubborn.

        • Ralph, I’m not making any assumptions about the NRA’s core base one way or another, I was questioning Charlie’s assertions.

          As for the black community, I think that may be true to a large degree, which is why winning them over will have to be a long term project. It’s not going to happen overnight, but the sooner the NRA gets started the better.

          In any case, blacks are just one group, and there are a lot of others to work on in the meantime. Bringing Hispanics to the pro-gun side would be a huge win. Sure, California is a gun rights wasteland right now, but if the next generation of Californian Hispanics is pro-gun, then the fight for Second Amendment in California gets a huge boost. Getting these traditionally Democratic groups invested in gun rights also neuters the ability of the Democrats to pass gun control measures. If proposed gun control measures produces internal dissent within the Democratic party, then they’re that much less likely to go anywhere. Again, yet another win for gun rights.

          None of this has to be artificial. You’ve told me before, Ralph, that you enjoy seeing the scales drop from people’s eyes. That’s what the NRA needs to commit itself to do: to help everyone see the truth about gun rights and self defense.

        • CarlosT, I was responding to Charlie, too. And I agree about recruiting among Hispanic people. There’s a demographic that is growing in numbers, power, prestige and wealth. Most of them are Democrats and will parrot the party line, but there is a growing right-wing voice there that should be and will be heard.

      • Except that it probably will be artificial, at least concerning American Africans and Hispanics. After giving it some more thought, MDMs (market dominant minorities) would be a profitable group to work with that wouldn’t alienate the base. East Asians, Indians, and Europeans have the financial clout to benefit the NRA. Time will tell.

  11. The NRA is wise to not try to be something its not.

    The Black demographic has groupthink down to an art form.A good deal of minorities assume ownership of a gun is tantamount to violent crime. Heck, selling drugs is more acceptable in the culture than owning a firearm legally to some black folks I know-selling drugs is “doing what you gotta do”, but there’s no material benefit to owning a weapon of “destruction”. Then there’s the cultural leadership problem.

    If “Dah Reverund” Jesse Jackson says the NRA is bad news, then it must be gospel-after all, he was a ‘part’ of the civil rights movement! Most black folks live in urban places which are liberal by political nature . As such if the NRA dared put a dark face on an ad like this “Dah Reverund” would be blowharding on TV about how the NRA somehow causes criminals in inner city neighborhood to shoot each other.

    Any attempt the NRA makes to reach the minority demographic right now will go down in flames. In perhaps 10 years when the cultural acceptance of the RKBA germinates among the minority neighborhoods,this dynamic may change.

  13. I am not currently a member, but if I get a Taurus I get a free one year membership yippee!
    Like any organization they are large, probably the largest with regards to firearms. As such they are like a large whale, slow moving to do much of anything.
    smaller organizations can move much quicker to changing situations.
    I would like to see the NRA partner with smaller groups. the smaller organizations would be the front runners in litigation, and such. The NRA would be on the hill getting support and promoting the little guys. The first two states they need to hit is DC and California.. I am sure we would be on the streets waving flags welcoming them here…

  14. I like white cheddar cheese, but don’t care for the nra. Everything is a scam these days even most cheese.

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