In order to avoid getting lost in the entire yes replies to the question, "are you an NRA member", I am starting another thread.

I WISH I could be an NRA member in good conscience. But, the truth of the matter is that NRA leadership is just extreme enough, and just truculent enough to give anti-gun interests a target of their own. This posture is unnecessary and counter productive.

Yes, the 2nd amendment rights need an advocate and protection, but NO the NRA way is not going to work in the long run. The structural problem is that the NRA does not have effective competition for the privilege of protecting the 2nd Amendment. Another organization is desperately needed.

It is possible to be firm and quite effective without being inflammatory.

Sabot,

You are entitled to your opinion and, no, the NRA isn't perfect, but basically you are "out to lunch."

The political arena and the D.C. Beltway is s different world than the rest of live in. Look around you at what is happening in the world where "the voice of reason" and "moderation" and "firm but not inflamitory" has been tried: England, Australia & Canada (the later of which I have lived in).

It it wasn't for the NRA, we would not enjoy the same "non-inflamitory" prohibition to own guns that they do. AND, if we had every one of the 70 million gun owners in the US supporting the NRA (despite their flaws) we would have the political clout to not HAVE to be so LOUD about our 2nd ammendment rights!

I AM the NRA. I take pride it trying to preserve our rights through the NRA because it is and has been the only effective national political organization for gunowners rights.

The structure of the NRA is one which bestows huge benefits and privileges on a handful of the elite (when's the last time you got an invitation to hunt elk year-round at the Whittington Center in New Mexico?) Such perks are being paid for with the dues of the membership and the profits from various enterprises. All members of the organization are hardly equal, which is one reason that I do not care to participate.

I'm in the NRA. I don't give a damn about what happens at the Whittington center. They can keep it for Wayne LaPierre to birdwatch on for all I care. The fact is that the NRA benefits me in a far greater way than any of the perks some find offensive(if they exist at all)...they have kept my right to bear arms from being eliminated. If we all stopped worrying about what the other guy supposedly has and measure worth by the big picture...the Second Amendment...there'd be far less heartburn.

No offense, but the second amendment isn't about elk hunting or perks, and as long as the NRA continues to fulfill it's mission, I'll be a member.

Stonecreek,

Same goes for quite a few other conservation organizations like DU, RMEF, etc.

I worked for a manufacturer that sold many products to DU, TU, FNAWS, RMEF, Quails/Pheasants/Crows/Forever, NRA, you name it. The local people were great, the national organizations were questionable at times. Here are a few examples:

The NRA's new statue series (can't remember the name) of "freedom fighters" or whatever: The NRA waves the flag as much as anyone, but they would not buy the statues if they were made in the USA, had to be China so they could make a bunch more money on them. Nothing wrong with making money. Lots wrong with being short sighted (a company in Arizona laid off several workers that could have been making the statues) about our country's real needs. So...the NRA takes your money, buys a statue from a USA company that buys it from communist China that is eroding our country's economy and they did it with knowledge and foresight. That's just one example; they do it all the time.

DU: same thing. "Hey, that sculpture sold really well this year, could you make WAY cheaper without making it look cheaper?" Most of the sculptures went from using American hardwoods to Chinese gum wood, putting several US workers out of jobs. Why? Money. Look at the DU catalogs from 6 - 7 years ago to today. Good luck finding things that are made by your neighbors. They knowingly have switched from good artwork to cheap throwaway crap. The items are made in a country where there are no environmental laws. Is that consistent with DU's published agenda? No, but it is consistent with DU making a bunch of money. Some of the money is used for habitat resto; some is used to pamper the rich. For instance, some of your DU money has been used to help make wetland habitat on private ranches. You can't hunt on it, but it does help produce ducks for you to shoot on public land.

FACT: many people have a desire to feel like they belong to something that promotes and protects their interests. They feel a sense of community and "brotherhood". The national organizations know this and know that promoting this feeling is the only way to get Bubba, Joe Six-pack and Johnny Professional to pay their annual dues.
FACT: many of these people are a bit gullible (me) and don't see the whole picture.
FACT: most of these organizations are quite well run and really do a decent job of protecting rights, habitat, etc. However, if they were totally honest about how they spent their money and managed their fund raising most people would be very disappointed.

The company that used to make all of these items for flag waving, hunter's rights protecting organizations barely even exists today. The national organizations don't give a rip. They only care that they get more money every year, regardless of how they increase the trade deficit, eliminate jobs and falsely promote a sense of belonging.

If you want to belong to something real, go to a decent honest church, not to some hunting organization.

Sabot: You are confused. Very confused! To say that the NRA's way will not work in the long run is just ludicrous on its face. It most certainly has been working! For a long time!

If you have a criticism of the NRA get in there and work to correct what you feel is amiss. I tend to think you are looking for a reason to be lazy and not get involved!

As an Endowment Member of the NRA I have been on the front lines of "the battle" for decades! I have contributed both time and money and effort til I was tired of it all myself. But then I would remember that once "we" lose a Gun Right - it ain't coming back!

No I have not agreed with everything the NRA has done over the decades of my membership and have criticized and worked to correct things I thought they should be doing. This is the way one works within any organization! I have never felt that it was futile to work on any aspect of Gun Rights with the NRA!

I have testified (pro-Gun) at hearings held in city, county and state governments - travelling and taking time off from my jobs without recompense! I did it because I wanted to and it had to be done! I have held pro-Gun candidates placards in the rain countless times prior to elections! I have worked phone banks for pro-Gun candidates (I would rather have hemorrhoid surgery than do this thankless task!). I have written letters to the editors and called and written countless politicians and met with them in person. I served for 9 years as a director of the largest Gun Collecting Association west of the Mississippi. Most of our efforts and time were spent funding and fighting the war against the Gun grabbers! The NRA helped us at every chance they could!

To besmirch the NRA in such ludicrous and ambiguous terms as you have is simply irresponsible and ridiculous!

Again let me say the NRA is not perfect but I have confidence in them and I am confident that without them you would have to find something else besides Gun Rights to complain about - because you would have no Gun Rights without the NRA!

I knew a fellow once who was nearly as stupid as you! He quit the NRA because (if you can believe this!) he felt he was getting to much mail from the NRA soliciting contributions! Now granted his criticism is more specific than your nonsensical statement regarding the NRA. But without solicitation and the resulting funds from the membership how can the NRA lobby, fight anti-Gun politicians, laws and judges? Kind of closed minded and infantile on my former friends part wouldn't you say? Yes is the correct answer by the way.

If you are not smart enough to realize the good the NRA has done and is doing then for Christs sake man do not display your stupidity in public! Get off your lazy ass and start your own lobbying and Gun Rights Organization! It would be an enormous and difficult task. I feel you are not up to it! So join the NRA and work to correct what you perceive as what is wrong with them and FOR Gun Rights.

Thank God for the NRA!

Long live the NRA!

Hold into the wind

VarmintGuy

Another organization that benefits at the top, but not where it counts is the Ruffed Grouse Society. It is frustrating, but what can be done ? I'm very bothered also by the fact that many so-called leaders of these national hunting organizations have private agendas, and maybe don't give a hoot about the cause they're supposed to represent. I belong to a couple, but sometimes I pose to myself the question "WHY".

VERY WELL SAID, VarmintGuy! Without the NRA, which is certainly not perfect, we almost surely would have lost our right to own or poccess guns in this country already, and a hell of a lot more! And the guy with the idea that someone, anyone, is hunting elk year round at the WC has swallowed a load of foul smelling stuff from someone. That is all under NM regulations and there ain't no hunting out of season there! The people of this country need to wake up. This battle over gun rights isn't really over gun rights. It's over control and rights in general. The majority of those that want the Second Amendment gone, particularly the politicians, want it gone because it lies in the way of taking away all the other "rights" we enjoy, namely freedom. They want to control us, i.e. all people. They cannot accomplish that if the public is armed. They know that, and to attain their goal, they must disarm the populace. Make no mistake about it. It has nothing to do with hunting or safety or crime. It has everything to do with control. The NRA is not perfect, far from it, but it is the only real life saver there is out there fighting for us. If you aren't part of the cure, you are part of the problem. To own and shoot a firearm and not be a supporting member of the NRA is as ludicrous as it can be. It is 100% two faced. I guarandamntee that were it not for the NRA, neither you (nor I) would own a gun today! You don't have to agree with everything they do to be smart enough to know they are good for you in the long run. Do you agree with everything our US government does? I'm pretty confident not. But because of that, are you leaving the US for another country, abandoning it? I suspect not. Wake up, my friend, before it's too late!

As to the purchase of products from foreign sources, that is a whole different issue, but the american worker has done this to himself by pricing himself out of the market, but at the same time always demanding things cheap for themselves.

don't want to flame anyone, but my understanding is that the Whitington Center is self supporting. Hunt prices are very high, but camping, and use of the shooting facility is within the normal range. By the way it is a superb shooting facility.

HUMMMM, LETS SEE???? Should we take care of the member that wants to donate $100,000 taxable dollars to the political victory fund, or tell him is exactly the same as a one year $35 membership? Guess what if you donate money to the cause you'll get the "top end" treatment. If you don't have the money you could still get the "top end" treatment if you work hard enough. My bother is a full time lobbist for a different non-gun organization. They take non-money citizens back to DC for testimony and give them "top end" treatment. Others that may quitely donate hundereds of thousands of dollars are doing their part too and hardly get a real thank you. It really takes both kinds of members. If anything the NRA in the past has not always fought as hard as I think they should have. If you think they are extreme you've been watching a little to much Roxie Odonnald.

Thanks all, for being so civilized about this. I admit I find merit in the "can do" attitude expressed by some of you...getting in there and doing something to make the NRA better is a sound suggestion.

My experience has been that you have a better chance for success in an adversarial confrontation if your opponent does not know what you are up to, and that includes your true priorities and where you are hard and soft on issues. For lack of a better term, I subscribe to the Samauri code of competition, where you only confront your enemy as a last resort, and in place of confrontation, bring as many other forces to bear on him as possible. Why be an avowed enemy right out of the gate? ESPECIALLY in a democracy with mant, many options for political manipulation.

Appearing open, tolerant and willing to negotiate with a knife behind your back makes more sense to me...just a personality trait, I guess.

No, I am not an NRA Member.
I am however a Gun Owners of America Member.

Happy Hunting

Lifetime Member of the NRA, here.

My home was broken into about two years ago, and I had several guns stolen. I filled out the insurance claim thru the NRA and recieved a $1000 check in the mail. I gave $750 of it back to them for a Lifetime Membership, and have no regrets. I still make donations from time to time.

They are not perfect. No organization is. If you're not a member because you're looking for the "perfect" organization, then you shouldn't even waste your time looking. The NRA as a whole is certainly on the right track, and I'm more than willing to overlook their short comings in favor of the huge benefit that ALL gun owners recieve from the NRA.



/

I am a life member and I also dont always agree with the NRA but we sure need them. The thing that gets me down is going to some of the sportsman clubs or shoots and see the attitude of fellow shooters makes me think why am I spending my money to support this. I figured it out though because I like to shoot so I stopped going to the shoots and the sportsman club. I send my money to keep me shooting. That old line of prying my gun out of my hands is just a line. Let them pass a law 10 years in the federal big house for having a gun you will find the trash full of them.

I am not currently an NRA member but for differnet reasons than those expressed hear. I se the NRA as to willing to compromise and "give away" some "smaller rights" in order to DELAY the loss of others. I see this appeasment posture as an abomination. It is happening ( more and more frequently) and it is just a matter of time until it is your favorite tool on the trading block. No in my mind this a battle that can only be completely won or completely lost no room for compromise on Gun rights or any rights in my mind. As can be seen in the congrestional budget fights, the more youo give the Left leaning members the more they will demand the next day. They ar enever satisfied so we MUST hold a firm line else we will find ourselfs soon with no more room to back up. Then we all will be lost. If the NRA would make real efforts to overturn existigng laws, or truly OPPOSE pending legislation or truly only back candidates that are PRO GUN( instead of the candidate who says what they want to hear but votes otherwise) then maybe I would come back but until such time my time and monety is beter spent elsewhere. For others the NRA may be a perfect fit ( or at least a tollerable one) and for those people I say GREAT, the NRA needs you. Just don't think the NRA is the only game in town there a re many ways to fight in the political arena and many organizations that are helping to do so.

I am a life member. But Tom you are right the NRA has compromised away to many of are rights. They have been in the past and could be in the future willing to see us die by a thousand cuts.

Sabot seems to be to will or afaid to stand up for his and are rights because he has brought into the liberal idea that if you make the anti's mad at us it well get worse. BS. they don't like us never well never had. They have one goal that is to out law guns. If they do it one stupid law at a time or all at once to doesn't matter to them.

Look at history we have been doing nothing but giving away are rights. Before 34 anybody could own anything they wanted. Before 68 you could order full autos and any other fire arm through the mail no matter all old you were. You did not need a lic. to ship guns to freinds ect. In 86 we lost the right to own or manufacture new full auto weapons. In 94 we give up the right to buy new manufacture some types of simi autos. We also are subject to stuip back ground checks, limited to 10 round mags. Can not process a firearm for a lot of minor crimes.

All these have been past with the NRA's blessing.


Sabot get off your butt and stop kissing the goverments ASS stop worring about making the anti's mad at you because they don't like you anyway. Compromise is just a slow death. The only compromise that I am willing to make is the repeal of these unconsitutional gun laws.

Perhaps you don't understand what I meant by the "knife behind my back". I could elaborate, but this would be contrary to my overall philosophy concerning confrontation.

Lets ust say that no unjust law is worth the paper it is printed on...there is no "higher" or "moral" duty to obey it.

I used to be a member brfore the NRA became too political. Heck, I can remember when the Rifleman actually had articles in it about guns.

The whole point of the NRA is to be poltical, at least now days. Not so 50 years ago, but now, politics is the NRA. Has to be! Hello? Sounds like the lights are on but nobody's home!



All those things passed in the past that hurt our rights were NOT passed with the NRA's blessing. They were passed despite the NRA's opposition. It is fairly obvious that too many folks are believing what they hear, not what they verify to be truth.



Sabot, you last statement lost me. A law on paper isn't meaningful, there is no "higher" or "moral" reason to obey it?

Sabot, when you find the organization that is absolutely perfect and still protects your right to keep and bear arms energetically, please email me at
gnaugle@comcast.net
I will join it in a heartbeat. Until then, I am stuck with the most effective organization out there, and will keep renewing my membership.

Too damn many posts and I don't have time to read them all.
First off, I'm an Endowment member, and proud of that fact.
I definitely do not agree with how the NRA does things.
I feel they no longer want to win. If they ever did, Mr. La Pierre and cronies would be out of a job and lose all there big salaries and perks. JMHO!
They do nothing now but compromise. The did it on the National Firearms act of 1934 (NFA34), the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA68), The Firearms Owners Protection Act of 1986 (FOPA86) Clinton's gun ban bullshit in 1994, and so on.
About twenty years ago, there was a big shake up called the Cincinatti reforms where mosy, if not all the "good old boys" were kicked and serious people who wished to protect out gun rights were palced in office, including Harlan Carter, who unfortunately succumbed to cancer. Since then, the "good old boys" have gottern back in power. We need more people in the membership who are willing to insist that they either do their job, or get the hell out and let people who are willing to do the job get in and do it. We need another reform, and we need it now!
We need to let the NRA know that they should join up with GOA, JPFO, 2nd Amendment Foundation, and all the other gun supporting groups and form a coalition to fight for our right to own guns. They need to get together and literally gang up on the Kennedy, Schumer, Feinstien, Lautenburg bunch of gun grabbing assholes and get them out of office. Put the bastards on the unemployment line.
The NRA is only taking on fights it is guaranteed to win. Harsh words? Talk to a friend of mine who was in the thick of the fight to stop California's assault rifle ban. Every gun club and local state pro-gun group got into the fight, collected money and called the NRA for help, which was promised, but never came.Why? because they knew they would lose due to the liberal anti-gun power in San Diego, Los Angeles complex and San Francisco Bay Area.
Just my personal opinion, but I don't think they want to win. As long as they can do a "holding" action, they can justify their enormous salaries, expense accounts and other perks. It's back to being a good old boys club.
A few years back, they posted a list of thirteen people who were running for the board of diretors. They said we should not vote for them. They were the only three I voted for. They were trying to pull off another reform to get the NRA back on track and fight hard for our rights. Too many of the sheeple didn't vote for them, and none got in. Too damn bad.
Paul B.

I dont have time to read them all either, but against my better judgement I'll bite.



Why should I join the NRA? Show me the current proposed legislation that truly threatens my Gun interests.. I know there are anti's that are fanatics and that the NRA is their greatest opposition, but as far as Im concerned there is no immediate danger to my "right to bear arms" and never has been. Prove me wrong! Show me the current proposed legislation that truly threatens my interests in sporting arms and I will honestly give joining some consideration. Frankly I dont think the general public will ever stand for a total ban on firearms anymore than they will a total ban on meat in the grocery store and I feel about as threatened by one group of anti's as the other. When I do feel threatened I will act, and my right to vote is a great tool for that.



When I have looked into membership in the past it seems like 99% of the NRA's membership activities exist on the eastern half of the US which would exclude me from participation. Another reason for me to not have an interest.



And finally there are a lot of great causes that I have interest in. The Enviropuke/ATV access war. The Mule deer restoration cause just to name a few of the top of my head.

Last year my household grossed little enough that joining any of these organizations were not a budget priority, something that many of the non member critics will never understand, this year I expect to improve on that and am considering joining one of them. Sell me if you can but please skip the BS. I havent the time for that either.

You make some excellent points and few that I would disagree with, at least not very hard. However, and I belive you basically support this by your second sentence, it's pretty much all we have right now, and to be anti-NRA is pretty much being anti-second amendment. I'm not a politician, and I'm not in DC, so I really can get nothing done myself. The NRA gets at least something done--NOT ENOUGH I agree wholeheartedly.

As long as you stick your head in the sand and let others carry the fight. Your helping the other side.

We might not have a bill right now that is up for a vote but in the past there has been many passed that restricts are rights little by little. You do not think registration would be a bad thing. You do not think haveing to wait to buy certain guns is a bad thing. You do not think that certain states that all ready ban the use and type of firearms are a bad thing.

You most likely live for now in a state that is fairly free. Is it a good thing that people are getting arrested in certain states just for the procession of firearms. do you care so little for the rights of others that you are willing to sit back and let them suffer. Do you think it is right for someone to go to jail not for defending his family but for having the gun use to.(happens in NY city all the time.)

Do you realy belive it can not happen to you. Do you really belive there are not people willing to take your guns away. If you do you need to get your head out of the sand and see what is happening in the states on the east and west coasts.

I hope you never have to travel to some of these states they are very hazardous to have a gun in.(like the two ccw permit holders that were traveling through NJ. They defended then selfs from a armed car jacker. They went to jail not for shooting the sob. but for having the guns they used to defend themselfs with.)


No it might not happen in Ut. but be sure not to travel with you guns to some of the other states that restrict them. Be sure never to break any of the other thousands of laws restricting owning the sale of or the type of guns you can own. Be sure not to have any body take a restaining order out on you. If you can do all these the government just might be nice enough to let you keep yours.

Sabot- I'm 52 and grew up in the NRA. My family has always been a shooting family- both firearms & archery. My grandfather was a custom rifle builder and he enrolled my cousin and I in the NRA's CivilianMarksmanshipProgram when we were 10. He also gave us LifeMemberships when we were about 12.
Our local gun club was an NRA club. Most all of the rifle ranges I shot at were NRA affiliated. All the shoots we attended were under the NRA guidlines. My cousin and I competed all the way through our Distingushed Expert pins. I even competed at Nationals at Camp Perry twice. It was a great experience and I still have many lifetime friends from that experience. When I went into the Army it was logical that I would be an infantryman- after all, I already knew how to shoot...

I agree that in the last 15years the NRA seems a little rabid at times but I have to support them to represent my interests in the on-going battle against the anti-gun and anti-hunter groups. In many ways they are like our political parties. I don't completely agree with either party but agree with points from each. If it was up to me- Texas would succeed from the Union one more time and we could work our own problems out.
For now- as a LifeMember of the NRA I will support my organization to represent my interests. They may not be perfect but they are the best thing we have to keep our rights.

Wstrnhuntr. I'll try and answer your question as to why you should join the NRA.
Diane Feinstein: "If I had the votes, Mr. and Mrs. America, I'd take them all away."
Teddy Kennedy: Votes to pass all gun control bills, would prefer confiscation without compensation.
Frank Lautenburg: Made firearms ownership illegal for a misdemeanor domestic violence conviction. Most of those incurred no physical contact, but were loud shouting matches.
Schumer: Wants all personally owned firearms outlawed.
Hillery Clinton: Nuff said there. She might be president in 2008. Doesn't that scare you? She's for total confiscation as well.
These are all very powerful people in our government. They must be removed from office.
You live in a gun friendly state, as do I. Other people don't. If you do not support them, who will support you when push comes to shove. It's like watching your six.
personally, I feel that evry person who owns a gun should belong to the NRA. If all 80 million plus gun owners did eblong, and voted their guns, Congress would look a lot differently at how and what laws they pass.
I don't feel the NRA is as agressive as they should be, but I've already posted on that.
I do feel that ALL gun control laws are a violation of the Second Amendment of the Constitution and therefore are ILLEGAL! (www.goa.org) Check ouit their firearms facts section, especially on the Militia Act of 1792, Title 10 of the U.S. Code and the results of a 1982 Senate subcommittee meeting on the Militia Act and Title 10. Their findings just might surprise your and support my claims of the illigality of gun control laws.
Groups like GOA and JPFO are more agressive than the NRA, but are too small. They don't have the political clout the NRA has. If all the pro-gun groups would band together, we could get something done. But each group wants to be the leader of the groups, so nothing gets done.
"United we stand. Divided we fall." That covers much territory. You don't like assault rifle? So ban them? I don't much care for shotguns. Should I ask that they be banned? Oh, now the shoe is on the other foot. My type of gun is OK, but as I don't like your type of gun, let's outlaw it. Get my point? We, each and every one of us has to support the other guy. NO COMPROMISE.
Whether I convince you or not is irrelevent. What I do want you to do is think very seriously about what is needed to be done. Take the time to educate yourself as to what those illegal laws are about, and if possible, what in hell can we do to get rid of them. That's priority #1.
Paul B.

Excellent post, sir. Just about what I was going to say, but I get so tired of telling these people that don't care or just don't want to care. It gets depressing. Yet it is so obvious! Talk to a few people who have come from countries like Bulgaria or (former) Chekeslovakia(sp?) that went through it. They will tell you how they saw it happen a tiny bit at a time, how people didn't worry about one little step at a time until they realized it was too late. Talk to people from England, Australia, hell, next door in Canada! The writing is plain, yet so many people want to bury their heads in the sand and say "it won't happen". It will happen if we don't fight together, and there is no one else of significance to lead the fight, to unite the forces. We must all hang together, else surely, we will all hang seperatly.

You guys have given me some food for thought. But one side of this issue that I am passionate about is the issue of possesion of weapons by repeat criminal offenders. I read the paper and I watch the news, the levels of crime today especially in highly populated areas is absoloutly sickening. Day after day innocent people are murdered by sons-a-bitches with no reguard for human life. I have no problem whatsoever with removing THEIR right to bear arms, but that is where it gets tricky, isnt it? Give the fanatics an inch and they want the whole smorgasbord.

I also am passionate about the right to bear arms by responbsible individuals, law abiding citizens. But when push comes to shove and the threat does become a reality, Im afraid that the answer is not going to be the NRA. There is only one thing that can prevent that when and if it does happen, revolt.. The refusal of the masses to comply. And if that happens here, in my lifetime, I will be one of them. Yes I do understand the implications of a total weapons ban, and there are also issues reguarding firearms possesion that I see as exceptions to our "right to bear arms" and these issues fall under the need for law enforcement which was also an intention of the founding fathers.

In short, I have no faith in the NRA. They seem to see these gray areas as black and white, as do their parasitic opposition. Im not trying to make excuses, Im telling it like it is, and even some of the members seem to agree. When an entity becomes as large as the NRA, or our own Government, the original intent of the orginization becomes lost in corruption and obscurity and for the most part serves the whims of those in control.

First off, the law (federal) absolutely does not allow a convicted felon to own, poccess, or even be around firearms. The NRA supports this wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, law breakers don't abide by the law, hence the criminals have firearms, but certainly not by or with any support or approval or backing of the NRA. Quite the contrary.



You are correct about rebellion. I certainly don't advocate such (yet), but keep in mind, if the populace is disarmed, revolt is thwarted before it begins. That is specifically what every dictator in history has has done--disarm the populace. The 1968 gun law is a direct copy of Hitlers--not similar, but a copy of it. If you question that, read each. That indeed is the basis of why the founding fathers included the Second Amendment, so that the populace could defend itself against governmental tyrany if necessary. I hope it doesn't become necessary in the USA. No one of significance fights to defend the Second Amendment but the NRA, no one that has enough power or infuence to accomplish anything. If the Second is lost, how long before the First and others soon follow suit? The Second amendment hence becomes the most significant of the Amendments, and indeed is the protectorant of the Constitution. We must work to defend it, and if something better than the NRA comes along, I'll be there, but for now, the NRA is it. We, as gun owners, owe it to ourselves and all other citizens to support the NRA for that reason. Think it over, friend. Don't throw the baby out with the wash water!

Arts

Well I certainly agree with you that we ALL need to be involved in the politcal fight, I do not see the NRA as the answer any more. To me they seem to willing to COMPREOMISE t. They try to "hold the line" instead of trying to make progress. every compormise has been a small set back, enough of these small setbacks and the fight is lost.

The NRa is certainly a component in the battle but it not the only one. to say that if you don't belong to the NRA you are not "in the fight " is just not true. I for one am very involved in the entire political process at the local and state level. I am a member of GOA, I speak one on one to anybody who will listen( and even some who don;t). No sir the NRA is NOT the only avenue to "get in this game" nto by a long shot. They are not even the "best" avenue in my opinion. There a re MANY other approaches and some of them are far more effective.

True the NRA is not the only answer but it is ONE of the many parts that do add up to the answer. In fact a big part of the answer. Not belonging to a pro gun group is like not voting. I remember my grandfather telling me when I was very little that to NOT vote took away your rights. Your right to complain about the person that won the election. Your right to complain about the way the government is being run. Basically he said you just loose your rights. Grandpa was right. That is why I am a NRA member and will be so for life. Lawdog

Any person in the U.S. who owns a gun and does not support the NRA is a stone-cold hypocrite. Hopefully, you also support even more aggressive pro-gun organizations like GOA. But if you don't even belong to the largest, most widely known and most politically effective pro-gun organization we have, then you are nothing but a scavenger living off the efforts of the rest of us.

All of the psycho-spiritual-babble of the person who started this thread only reveals his cowardice in the face of opposition.

Very good, on target, interboat, and Paul, I agree 100%. All we do is make crime pay!

A few thoughts on this:



- If you own guns and you're not a member of the NRA I doubt you really have any passion for keeping any of your rights.



- Only joining the NRA when there's a perceived threat to your rights is a real threat to those rights. Here in the Albuquerque area membership has dropped by about 35% since Clinton left office and I believe its because of this phenomenon.



- The vast majority of people don't want to take the time to actually do something to support organizations that represent their views. Anyone here ever had a son in Boy Scouts where better than 9-out-of-10 parents barely can find the time to drop their kids off at the meetings, let alone help with a fund-raiser of a campout? (I served as Committee Chairman and Assistant Scout Master). How about volunteering for the NRA? How many of you are part of a local FNRA committee raising funds that stay in your State and are used mostly for funding kids programs like Eddie Eagle, 4-H, JROTC? I've been the Committee Chairman here for 3 years and in a city of nearly 500,000 I have a hard time getting six people to help put together an annual banquet and haven't seen 200 in attendance yet--what's that all about? (Banquet is May 15th at Santa Anna Star Hotel and Casino. Contact me if you want to help and/or attend)



- Thank God for those who are actively involved or at least send a check for membership and/or donation. If you're not doing anything they're the ones carrying your lazy ass.

Among other things, I am on the FNRA committee (6 years) and chairman this year; asst. chair the past 4. Banquet is this coming Saturday night, May 8th.

I was a member of the NRA for awhile, but what I don't like is this "for us or against us" attitude. They always have the issue where they tell you who to vote for to protect your rights. Obviously 99% of those you're supposed to vote for are Republican. Now I don't consider myself republican or democrat, and I'm certainly not going to vote for some tool solely because he protects my rights to own a firearm.

But what if you vote for a politician who supports your interests, but it's not someone the NRA has tagged as a gun-rights supporter? I'm betting they'll say you're against the cause, and that's a shame.
--I also wonder how many people would be members of the NRA if a membership only consisted of a contribution and not a magazine subscription in return...I can see a lot of you here would be fine with that, but I'm sure there are plenty of members out there that would cancel their membership the second this happened.

My point being that if they are out to protect our rights, then stop wasting money printing gun rags and use it where it's needed. I'd love to see them do this, it would be a bold move. It would also show who is really passionate about protecting their rights. Do you think the NRA would ever consider this? I don't believe so...the reason being that it risks losing current members.