Over at his blog, Sebastian has been accused (?) of being an NRA Apologist, with the presumption that being an NRA Apologist is a Bad Thing. Along with that, there’s been a lot of talk lately on this blog, his blog, and whole lot of other places about the NRA. The incident with their one of their board members, Joaquin Jackson did a lot to spark that.
I’m not here to be a cheerleader for NRA, despite what some of you may think. I have been a member of the NRA since I was 18 – joining was one of the requirements to shoot on the Academy’s pistol team at the time. I’ve had a lot of time to formulate my opinion on the NRA as a consequence of that. Shockingly, I don’t always agree with the NRA.
However, I do like the NRA. My url here and screename of TFL is a portmanteau of NRA and my pseudonym. I really do believe as I’ve said before that the NRA is the single most effective organization fighting for the 2nd Amendment in Washington. Don’t believe me? Look at the list of people scheduled to speak at the NRA Headquarters tomorrow. Courting the NRA is necessary for anyone who wants to win a national election as a Republican these days.
Do I think that the NRA is perfect? Of course not. If I had been alive in ’34, or ’68, I probably would have opposed both the NFA and the GCA. But I wasn’t. And to blame the NRA (and still be pissed) for things that happened 70 and 40 years ago is foolish; and it’s even more foolish if you focus on the past at the exclusion of the present.
If you’ve ever wondered why I’m an NRA Lifer, that’s precisely why. A lot of things have changed in 40 years, including the NRA. If I want my kids, and their kids to grow up in a place where I can take them shooting as I please, than its important that I throw my weight and money behind an organization that actually has muscle where it counts.
Do I think that every gun owning American should be a member of the NRA? Actually, I do. Can you imagine the political clout of an organization with 80 million members? To give you an idea – 122 million people voted in the last US presidential election.
Theres always an element in any movement that is disagreeable by nature. Progress is made in spite of them, not, as they wrongly believe, because of them.
Light a candle or curse the darkness.
When looking at what happened in 1934 and 1968, I think it’s important to remember that the NRA was not, in those years, a focused political organization. They were a national shooting club, not a political action machine. They’ve had to create the political action machine in response to the attacks on our rights.
Not even 80 million. If NRA had just 20 million members, and those members turned out to vote in any significant number, the sky would be the limit in terms of what we could get out of Washington.
But the reason we don’t have those numbers isn’t because of the folks who hate NRA because it’s a gun control organization. Based on GOA’s membership numbers, those folks are a small small minority. Most of why we don’t have more members is apathy, which is the real enemy.
” And to blame the NRA (and still be pissed) for things that happened 70 and 40 years ago is foolish; and it’s even more foolish if you focus on the past at the exclusion of the present.”
I agree that it’s foolish to still be angry over events that happened 40 years ago, but I think it is very important to remind the NRA at every opportunity that what they did or didn’t do then angered a lot of people enough to drop out for 10 or 20 years and that it can easily happen again if they screw the pooch.