Do you think the NRA is doing a good job? How can we get the word out to the masses (Like an 'assult' rifle is FULL auto not semi auto?)
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NRA, are they doing a good job?
- Thread starter Texas Diesel
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I've been a life member for well over 20 years now. I also wish that they could, "Get the Word Out", with more effect! I guess with a combination of limited finances and the political attitude towards firearms, they have to walk a fine line regarding the best way to utilize their assets for the best effect.
Jes,,,, get a load of that last line! I should be in politics!!!
Back to the subject. It still amazes me how such a basic principal as responsible firearms ownership cannot be understood by the "supposed" majority of the populas!
I recently moved to central Virginia. I only wish that I was within a local commute of the NRA headquarters for the possibility of employment. Maybe then I could further understand their policies and ,,, who knows,,, maybe make a difference!
Jes,,,, get a load of that last line! I should be in politics!!!
Back to the subject. It still amazes me how such a basic principal as responsible firearms ownership cannot be understood by the "supposed" majority of the populas!
I recently moved to central Virginia. I only wish that I was within a local commute of the NRA headquarters for the possibility of employment. Maybe then I could further understand their policies and ,,, who knows,,, maybe make a difference!
Mike Ellis
TDR MEMBER
I think they do a good job, I have been a member for many years and they have always been the strongest voice defending the rights of American gun owners.
Unfortunately, they are handicapped by the very fact that they are indeed a member-driven organization. Like any other group, there are factions with different viewpoints, and a good amount of time and resources is spent squabbling. For the last few years, for example, there has been some vocal dissent with the "Winning Team" officer slate in general and Charlton Heston in particular. Many felt that Mr. Heston was not aggressive enough and that he didn't help our interests with comments about assault weapons.
I personally think Mr. Heston did an OUTSTANDING job. In a time when many celebrities are so afraid of the hugely liberal Hollywood power crowd that they won't even admit to owning guns, Mr. Heston stood up bravely and took a stand. He has been relentlessly villified for it by all his peers in Hollywood ever since. Think of this - how many people, even the aggressive TDR member types, are willing to stand up and PUBLICALLY defend a position that 95% of their peers oppose? Most folks won't even do that at a school board meeting, or in a meeting at work. Many times I have been to management meetings with 200+ supervisors being read the riot act by a VP, and have only 3-4 of us willing to speak up. I bet most of you have seen the same, so if you think about the personal risk to his career and safety that Mr. Heston took by standing up, you have to admit he has a lot of sand.
What people don't understand, even a fair % of the conservatives who read this board I wager, is that the 2nd Amendment is still in critical danger. The shooting sports are DYING in front of our very eyes and as the population of shooting enthusiasts dwindles, there will be fewer people defending the 2nd.
I can hear people right now, "How can you say that, Mike? My local sporting clays matches are packed to the brim. " Yeah, but look at the people who make up that crowd. Mostly older folks, still a few who have their kids involved but not many. The absence of KIDS ensures that the future is going to be very, very different.
Think of the things that have happened since the 1960's - we have gone from a country where just about everybody in the rural areas (and a lot from the cities) grew up shooting and learning about guns, to one where a child can be EXPELLED from his school simply for having a DRAWING OR PHOTO of a firearm! Where people under 18 are routinely treated like scum at gun shows and gun shops and not allowed to even TOUCH the firearms on display. Where Christmas catalogs no longer have BB guns and toy rifle sets to dream over. Where the only gun usage the average child ever sees is the rampant slaughter depicted in our entertainment media and criminal usage sensationalized on the tube every day. Where places to shoot have become harder and harder to find.
I think gun owners are responsible for a lot of that decline, not the NRA. We have sat meekly back and accepted "zero tolerance" laws at our schools, shuffled into the gun show eager to buy our new "gotta have it" and to busy to be concerned if kids are treated like 2nd class citizens, etc etc etc. One of the most damaging behaviors , in my humble opinion, is that people continue to patronize gun ranges and gun stores where the proprietors act like "Grumpy Old Men" and give kids and newcomers to the sport an experience that sours their attitudes toward guns and gun owners in general.
It isn't the NRA that isn't defending our rights - it's the guy next to you at the Cowboy Shooting match who won't write letters to his congressmen. It's the guys at my former (now closed) gun club who had no problem making concessions to the neighbors that closed down our indoor . 22 range, because after all they were still able to shoot trap and skeet so it didn't affect them. It's the guys who are happy to buy extremely powerful rifles for hunting purposes but who oppose magazine-fed semi-auto "assault rifles" (not even the correct term!) because they are ugly, unpopular, look menacing, nobody needs more than 5 rounds, etc etc freakin' etc. It's the people who think no one should be allowed to own handguns, and don't see a problem with any of the gun laws as long as it doesn't interfere with their ability to buy $10,000 Kreighoff shotguns or Palma match rifles.
The NRA is doing a pretty good job overall. The real question that gun owers should ask is: Are we?
Unfortunately, they are handicapped by the very fact that they are indeed a member-driven organization. Like any other group, there are factions with different viewpoints, and a good amount of time and resources is spent squabbling. For the last few years, for example, there has been some vocal dissent with the "Winning Team" officer slate in general and Charlton Heston in particular. Many felt that Mr. Heston was not aggressive enough and that he didn't help our interests with comments about assault weapons.
I personally think Mr. Heston did an OUTSTANDING job. In a time when many celebrities are so afraid of the hugely liberal Hollywood power crowd that they won't even admit to owning guns, Mr. Heston stood up bravely and took a stand. He has been relentlessly villified for it by all his peers in Hollywood ever since. Think of this - how many people, even the aggressive TDR member types, are willing to stand up and PUBLICALLY defend a position that 95% of their peers oppose? Most folks won't even do that at a school board meeting, or in a meeting at work. Many times I have been to management meetings with 200+ supervisors being read the riot act by a VP, and have only 3-4 of us willing to speak up. I bet most of you have seen the same, so if you think about the personal risk to his career and safety that Mr. Heston took by standing up, you have to admit he has a lot of sand.
What people don't understand, even a fair % of the conservatives who read this board I wager, is that the 2nd Amendment is still in critical danger. The shooting sports are DYING in front of our very eyes and as the population of shooting enthusiasts dwindles, there will be fewer people defending the 2nd.
I can hear people right now, "How can you say that, Mike? My local sporting clays matches are packed to the brim. " Yeah, but look at the people who make up that crowd. Mostly older folks, still a few who have their kids involved but not many. The absence of KIDS ensures that the future is going to be very, very different.
Think of the things that have happened since the 1960's - we have gone from a country where just about everybody in the rural areas (and a lot from the cities) grew up shooting and learning about guns, to one where a child can be EXPELLED from his school simply for having a DRAWING OR PHOTO of a firearm! Where people under 18 are routinely treated like scum at gun shows and gun shops and not allowed to even TOUCH the firearms on display. Where Christmas catalogs no longer have BB guns and toy rifle sets to dream over. Where the only gun usage the average child ever sees is the rampant slaughter depicted in our entertainment media and criminal usage sensationalized on the tube every day. Where places to shoot have become harder and harder to find.
I think gun owners are responsible for a lot of that decline, not the NRA. We have sat meekly back and accepted "zero tolerance" laws at our schools, shuffled into the gun show eager to buy our new "gotta have it" and to busy to be concerned if kids are treated like 2nd class citizens, etc etc etc. One of the most damaging behaviors , in my humble opinion, is that people continue to patronize gun ranges and gun stores where the proprietors act like "Grumpy Old Men" and give kids and newcomers to the sport an experience that sours their attitudes toward guns and gun owners in general.
It isn't the NRA that isn't defending our rights - it's the guy next to you at the Cowboy Shooting match who won't write letters to his congressmen. It's the guys at my former (now closed) gun club who had no problem making concessions to the neighbors that closed down our indoor . 22 range, because after all they were still able to shoot trap and skeet so it didn't affect them. It's the guys who are happy to buy extremely powerful rifles for hunting purposes but who oppose magazine-fed semi-auto "assault rifles" (not even the correct term!) because they are ugly, unpopular, look menacing, nobody needs more than 5 rounds, etc etc freakin' etc. It's the people who think no one should be allowed to own handguns, and don't see a problem with any of the gun laws as long as it doesn't interfere with their ability to buy $10,000 Kreighoff shotguns or Palma match rifles.
The NRA is doing a pretty good job overall. The real question that gun owers should ask is: Are we?
I think theyre doing an OK job. I wish they were more agressive too.
I dont see WHY we even have to "comprimise" with one of our rights. Either you have it, or you dont.
The reason I quoted the word comprimise is... I dont remember ever getting something back in one of these so called "comprimises".
It's more like "this big dude is going to hit you over the head with this baseball bat, would you like to be hit 10 or 20 times?"
I dont agree in principle with selectively cutting up rights, but it it led down to it, how about getting something in return... . like a nation wide CCW.
I find it ironic that we have our rights bargained with, and what I want back is some of the right were bargaining with.
I need more sleep.
Eric
I dont see WHY we even have to "comprimise" with one of our rights. Either you have it, or you dont.
The reason I quoted the word comprimise is... I dont remember ever getting something back in one of these so called "comprimises".
It's more like "this big dude is going to hit you over the head with this baseball bat, would you like to be hit 10 or 20 times?"
I dont agree in principle with selectively cutting up rights, but it it led down to it, how about getting something in return... . like a nation wide CCW.
I find it ironic that we have our rights bargained with, and what I want back is some of the right were bargaining with.
I need more sleep.
Eric
I think they could be more aggressive also, but I also think they are being careful not to get a test case in front of the wrong court.
What really torques me off is that 3-4 million NRA members carry the water for 80 million gun owners. If every gun owner was an NRA member, we woudn't have any silly gun laws.
What really torques me off is that 3-4 million NRA members carry the water for 80 million gun owners. If every gun owner was an NRA member, we woudn't have any silly gun laws.
I disagree with some of their compromises but I guess it could all be part of the politics game.
Every gun owner needs to join a pro guns organization or two or three, and not only send in that $20-50 dollars a year or more. But gun owners need to write letters and go meet their representatives at the state and national level.
One of the posts said that we need to get the kids involved in the shooting sports, absolutely!
A few years ago a soldier (ft lewis is nearby) brought his son and three other 10-11 year olds out. He is an enlisted guy (if I recall he said he was an E-6) he had a couple of boxes of . 22 ammo and two rifles. I had lots of 9mm, . 40s&w ammo, 12 rounds of . 44 mag, and 5 lets see if this load is any good 30-06 rounds. I talked to the man and we showed the boys how to use my guns and then supervised their shooting. I left having shot 1, 15 round mag of 9mm, and the reward of seeing those boys very happy and with even more respect for firearms. It cost me very little money wise to hopefully get these boys to be strong pro-gun rights voters in a few years when they are old enough to vote.
The above is a long winded way of saying take others out to shoot, show them that it is safe and FUN!
steve
Every gun owner needs to join a pro guns organization or two or three, and not only send in that $20-50 dollars a year or more. But gun owners need to write letters and go meet their representatives at the state and national level.
One of the posts said that we need to get the kids involved in the shooting sports, absolutely!
A few years ago a soldier (ft lewis is nearby) brought his son and three other 10-11 year olds out. He is an enlisted guy (if I recall he said he was an E-6) he had a couple of boxes of . 22 ammo and two rifles. I had lots of 9mm, . 40s&w ammo, 12 rounds of . 44 mag, and 5 lets see if this load is any good 30-06 rounds. I talked to the man and we showed the boys how to use my guns and then supervised their shooting. I left having shot 1, 15 round mag of 9mm, and the reward of seeing those boys very happy and with even more respect for firearms. It cost me very little money wise to hopefully get these boys to be strong pro-gun rights voters in a few years when they are old enough to vote.
The above is a long winded way of saying take others out to shoot, show them that it is safe and FUN!
steve
Wayne LaPierre
I wish that he could have not been so easy to get off message when confronted with hostility when he was interviewed. His oponents were going for the jugular and Wayne was put on the defensive. I hope the new Prez does a better job. I wonder if the spokesmen job would be better handled by a ''press secretary'' instead of the president.
Although I am a life member of the NRA, I am thinking that GOA is sometimes more involved in getting out detailed messages on the state level.
I wish that he could have not been so easy to get off message when confronted with hostility when he was interviewed. His oponents were going for the jugular and Wayne was put on the defensive. I hope the new Prez does a better job. I wonder if the spokesmen job would be better handled by a ''press secretary'' instead of the president.
Although I am a life member of the NRA, I am thinking that GOA is sometimes more involved in getting out detailed messages on the state level.
I think the NRA us doing a great job and getting better all the time.
One of the biggest problems we have are the lies the news media speads and the unfair treatment they give guns and gun owners and the good guns do.
Read this little story, Half cocked: why most of what you see in the media about guns is wrong. It's really really good. Forward it on to everyone you know.
Blake
One of the biggest problems we have are the lies the news media speads and the unfair treatment they give guns and gun owners and the good guns do.
Read this little story, Half cocked: why most of what you see in the media about guns is wrong. It's really really good. Forward it on to everyone you know.
Blake
I support the NRA and am a letter writing fool however with Feinstein and Boxer as Senators [we do have a reasonable member of the House semi-conservative] don't see much chance of change in Ca. 
guys another great site to join up with is this link
http://www.keepandbeararms.com/
at the moment they are doing site work [I think a gun "activist" got to them]... but keep the link on your favorites and go back... well worth the time. . they do a great news letter also
however with Feinstein and Boxer as Senators [we do have a reasonable member of the House semi-conservative] don't see much chance of change in Ca. guys another great site to join up with is this link
http://www.keepandbeararms.com/
at the moment they are doing site work [I think a gun "activist" got to them]... but keep the link on your favorites and go back... well worth the time. . they do a great news letter also
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