Archive for the 'National Rifle Association' Category

Seen at The Gun Feed.

In a slide presentation Sen. John Cornyn delivered to Senate Republicans at lunch on Wednesday, the Texas Republican went through areas where the NRA got want it wanted, per source — even though the pro-gun lobby is opposed to the bipartisan deal he cut

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 23, 2022

NRA asked for mental health funding, school hardening money and 10-year sunset on juvenile records in background check system, per this document.

— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) June 22, 2022

🚨BREAKING: NRA Announces Opposition to Senate Gun Control Legislation

"This legislation can be abused to restrict lawful gun purchases, infringe upon the rights of law-abiding Americans, & use fed dollars to fund gun control measures being adopted by state & local politicians." pic.twitter.com/tXriTiWLzw

— NRA (@NRA) June 21, 2022

🚨This is a gun control bill. That’s why NRA opposes it. End of story.

More by @FoxNews➡️https://t.co/kPSwV1sCNd pic.twitter.com/vFTFLMfkab

— NRA (@NRA) June 22, 2022

Despicable.  Loathsome and reprehensible.  If you work for the NRA, or are on the BoD, you are in bed with liars.

Expected news.

The first resolution? A dear-leader salute to Wayne:

Be it resolved that the members of the National Rifle Association of America, in convention assembled, does declare its profound support for the past, present and future leadership of its executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre.

The reading of that text was followed, in the convention hall arena, by nearly an hour of shout outs, props and praises for the embattled CEO, many of them delivered by loyalist members of NRA leadership, who queued up for a turn at the mic.

One prominent LaPierre backer, Janet Nyce, denounced Wayne’s critics as “the enemy within,” whom she blamed for taking “our beloved NRA down to her knees.” A former sheriff from Montana, who is also a board member, insisted he was “getting tired of these s*** o* b****** at every one of these meeting coming in and trashing Wayne LaPierre.”

Not every speaker was a lickspittle. An NRA member named Jerry — who touted his own second-amendment bonafides as author of the Texas “right-to-carry” law — took exception to the rhetoric calling LaPierre’s critics “enemies” of the NRA. “We have problems,” he said. “I believe that we’re whistling by the grave yard.”

“I mean look around at this forum,” he said, pointing to the two-thirds empty arena. “Would this be described as well attended?! Our problem is declining membership. Our problem is financial. Our problems are not just Letitia James,” he insisted, referring to the New York Attorney General. “Why are we not allowed to discuss substantive issues?”

When debate of the first resolution was finally capped — and the resolution passed, with a solid majority of members who held up cards in support — far-less flattering resolutions were read aloud by the clerk of the meeting.

One called on the NRA to settle its legal fight with the state of New York, including agreeing to a clean sweep of NRA leadership and appointment of an “outside overseer.” Another proposed an independent audit of 20 years of past NRA financial records, and the creation of a trust to receive payback of any misused funds. Yet another sought to place salary and travel expenditure limits on NRA executives like LaPierre.

But one-by-one these resolutions were shot down by NRA president Charles Cotton, who presided over the forum. Cotton ruled the resolutions “out of order” because, as he put it, they “invade the province of the board” and its officers to make such decisions. Cotton’s rulings prevented the the resolutions from coming up for a vote on the floor.

Robert Ryan, who had put forward many of the resolutions, lashed out in frustration. “They don’t want to hear from us,” he said. “They don’t want the truth to come out.”

(To avoid any misunderstanding: Ryan is not seeking to soften the firearms positions of the NRA. He’s a hardliner on guns, who is angry that the NRA and the Trump administration worked together to ban bump stocks — devices that make semiautomatic rifles fire more like machine guns — after the massacre at the 2017 concert in Las Vegas.)

A final resolution was brought by Jeff Knox — a prominent gun-rights activist, and Ammoland.com author, whose father helped stage a rebellion at an NRA meeting in the 1970s that turned a then-stodgy hunting organization into a hotbed of second-amendment fundamentalism.

Knox’s lengthy resolution, read aloud by the clerk, decried the recent declines of NRA membership, revenue, and assets — even as LaPierre’s pay has swelled, and the CEO enjoyed costly perks including private jet travel and lavish expense accounts. (It also — as a point of criticism — recalled LaPierre’s remarks after the Columbine massacre when the NRA executive demanded “absolutely gun-free” schools.)

The resolution concluded with a demand for LaPierre’s ouster: “We do hereby declare that we have no confidence in the ability of Wayne LaPierre to lead this organization going forward. [And] we call on him to resign his position of executive vice president.”

Yet Cotton found a way to dismiss this resolution too. Citing Robert’s Rules of Order, the parliamentary rulebook adhered to by the NRA, he insisted it was forbidden to bring up a censure motion of an officer during the same meeting where a motion to commend that person had already passed. Cotton ruled the resolution “out of order.”

I know something about Robert’s Rules of Order.  I read the book.  There is no such stipulation.  None at all.  Cotton is a liar.

Is there anyone out there who thinks there is a solution to the problems the NRA has other than ouster of Wayne (as a beginning), and if so, pray tell, what would that be?

Good riddance.

The NRA supported the NFA, the Hughes Amendment, the GCA, permitting schemes all across America, universal background checks, red flag laws, and even suggested the bump stock ban to Trump.

It is the most well funded and effective gun control organization on earth.  Fortunately for us, there are still morons out there who think there is such a thing as the “gun lobby.”

With that out of the way, one of the most powerful political lobbies in the US moved swiftly on to heralding the conference as a “a freedom-filled weekend for the entire family as we celebrate Freedom, Firearms, and the Second Amendment!”. Central to the fun was “over 14 acres of the latest guns and gear” on display.

The NRA’s defiance and swagger were not misplaced.

The NRA would be more aptly characterized as an anti-gun lobby.  The kids at reddit/Firearms, the boys over AR15.com, the commenters over the firearms forums, virtually all of the gun YouTubers, and virtually every significant gun rights blog, have all rejected the NRA for the gun control sellouts and the corruption they’ve embraced.  The prose at reddit/Firearms and videos from the gunners on YouTube is thick with hatred for the NRA.

It is a dying organization, and short of massive renewal of focus on the 2A with no more sellouts, a much smaller and more accountable board, a much more powerful membership, a change in many of the bylaws, and reelection of all board members to start a new chapter, it cannot be salvaged.  And even then maybe not.

I’m not making any of this up.  Watch the gun YouTubers yourself.  Read the gun rights blogs yourself.  Look at the declining membership yourself.

Then prove me wrong.  I’m waiting.

Gun rights aren’t for sale.  The NRA isn’t our “lobby.”  Gun rights are growing all across America in many states, and the NRA has had nothing whatsoever to do with it.

It’s as grass roots a movement as has been seen in recent history.  That’s why the collectivists fear it.  As long as they attack the “lobby” that wants to negotiate and then foist red flag laws and universal background checks on us, that’s fine by me.

The Washington Times.

Former President Donald Trump will headline the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) Leadership Forum later this month.

Mr. Trump will deliver remarks at the annual gathering of Second Amendment activists on May 27. He will be joined by other Republican speakers, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas, North Carolina Lt. Governor Mark Robinson and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.

This is the first NRA annual meeting since its cancellation last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and its 151st overall.

“It is truly an honor to have President Trump address NRA members for the sixth time at our 2022 NRA-ILA Leadership Forum in Houston,” said NRA Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre in a statement.

He said, “President Trump delivered on his promises by appointing judges who respect and value the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and in doing so helped ensure the freedom of generations of Americans. NRA members are excited to hear him speak and thank him for his support for our right to keep and bear arms.”

Isn’t that special.  Trump loves the NRA and they love him.  He will get a hero’s welcome, no doubt.  The two are made for each other.

Neither one has done anything for firearms owners.  Trump supported red flag laws and the bump stock ban, and appointed nothing but deep staters to positions of power (e.g., William Barr who organized a gaggle of former AGs to defend Lon Horiuchi from charges of manslaughter after he shot Randy Weaver’s wife, Vicki Weaver, and his dog).  His appointment to head the DHS stated that white supremacy was the most dangerous threat that America faced.  He left Comey and McCabe in charge of the FBI, and he failed to drive to the bottom of “fast and furious.”  That’s a short list of his many failures, the successes involving mostly tweeting angry rebuttals at those whom he saw as personal enemies, or people who didn’t fall down and worship him.

The NRA supported (in order) the NFA (and Hughes Amendment), the GCA, the Clinton AWB, universal background checks, red flag laws, and the bump stock ban.

They go together very well, I should say.  Beyond that, LaPierre has taken such bad positions, thrown so much money away and caused such division in the NRA, and caused such ineffectiveness that the organization is now ruined and cannot be saved.  The NRA board of directors allowed one man to destroy the entire organization.  They should be proud, that is, if they are terrible people.

By the way, here is an update on the current status of the NRA museum.

After being closed for two years, supposedly due to Covid (in fact, state and country restrictions were lifted about a year ago), the main National Firearms Museum has reopened. We’d written about concerns that the museum’s collections were being looted and sold off, and how a former curator who’d loaned guns to the museum was told they could not be found.

At last it is open, but the report is not good.

“There are a lot of missing guns and artifacts that used to be on display. So many great pieces. Where did they go? Some empty spots have the usual “Object Temporarily Removed” marker placed, but others – nope.  In the last two years, maintenance of the galleries really didn’t happen and the dust on so many historic pieces is not good.  Labels have fallen and are in the process of falling in many cases. Lighting has not been adjusted in several galleries – so there are very bright and very dim sections – not good for paper and textile artifacts in the brightness. Even from outside the glass, there were many guns that really needed cleaning and perhaps some conservation – including the premier collection of Gatling guns.  Damn…”

“So how does the HQ building look?  Not good. The outer tiles on both sides of the entry driveway have flaked off in a very unsightly manner.  The underside of the overhang has many patched areas from leaks. Inside – I saw evidence of other leaks. Rust staining is seeping from window joints all over the building exterior.  For those that may want to buy a souvenir – well – forget it.  The NRA Store is not open.”

“Walking through the galleries, I found myself looking at a cannon – right in the middle of a junction of four pathways.  No warning ropes even. In addition to impacting on ADA standards for the museum, it turns out the reason the cannon has been placed so awkwardly was to free up the Revolutionary War Gallery.  Why? – so that food and drink can be served for special donor receptions, inside the museum.  Professional museum folks are cringing by now and believe it or not, my old sign prohibiting food and drink inside was still posted outside. Bugs are attracted by food residues and move on to munch on museum objects quickly.”

The story mentions that there is no museum registrar. From the comments: “For those who don’t know, the Registrar is the individual responsible for the collection.  They must at the stroke of the finger know where each piece is located (on display, on loan, in transit, in conservation).  No registrar means that objects can disappear and there is no accounting for it.  Be warned if you were considering donating any object to them.  I wouldn’t.”

You’re a fool if you donate firearms to the NRA museum.  And I wouldn’t attend the NRA meeting if the NRA sent me on an all-expenses paid vacation to go there.

At Ammoland Jeff Knox apparently tried to persuade Allen West to run for Wayne LaPierre’s position.

Next, the horrible David Keene, a man without honor, slams West and does the talkie-talk about how great LaPierre is.  I won’t quote it.  You can read that crap if you want to.

Finally, Allen West agreed to take him on at the next board meeting.  Also see here.

Most of the cases against LaPierre are about his corruption.  Sure enough, he is also a man without honor.  But I prefer to base my case on the fact that the NRA is a gun control organization and has supported virtually every gun control measure ever proposed, from the NFA to the GCA and Hughes Amendment, to Clinton’s AWB, the bump stock ban, universal background checks, red flag laws and a permitting scheme.

LaPierre’s corruption is a corollary to the failures of the NRA.

I would be happy if West were to replace LaPierre and may even consider donating to the NRA again.  But that’s not going to happen.  The NRA cannot be saved.  It must perish.  Out of its ashes will rise a new and much better organization.

This post started with a reddit/Firearms thread, but I went to the source to find this.

“Legitimate Sportsmen” get beat up by bad guns laws, and the NRA comes to the rescue with “good guns laws.”  If you read the article there is this notion that the NFA is a good thing.

And by the way, see the following posts at NRA in Danger: here.

It might be tempting to say, “My, my how the NRA has fallen.” The truth is that it has always been what it is today.  The most influential, well funded, well connected and successful gun control organization on earth.

Are you still giving money to them?  So that Wayne can bed down with his girl while his wife ignores it, all paid for by NRA dues?

News to no one who watches and listens.

Russian agent who infiltrated the National Rifle Association says Ukraine should not hand out weapons to its citizens in case a child gets hurt.

Maria Butina condemned the embattled country’s leadership for dishing out more than 18,000 guns to civilian volunteers in an effort to drive back Russian invaders.

But that is apparently not acceptable for the convicted spy, who told Russian state media TV show Vremya Pokazhet on Saturday that “people don’t know how to handle them and a child might be killed at home”.

Gosh.  You mean the NRA is anti-gun?

I guess support for red flag laws, the NFA, GCA, bump stock ban, the Hughes Amendment, and AWB is for the children too.

Wayne.  But not just Wayne.

Mike laments the fact that the NRA has done good and could do good again.

I remarked in comments “Support for the NFA, support for the GCA, support for the Hughes Amendment, support for the AWB, support for UBC, support for red flag laws, support for the bump stock ban. They’ve been doing bad for years and years and years. And if people like Meadows are left around, it’ll be just as corrupt as it is now. NRA = the most powerful, most well connected, most well funded gun control organization on earth, as they always have been.”

Here is a fuller discussion of the facts.

Ammoland.

The fact is, life can be far more complicated than many of us want to admit. On Wayne LaPierre’s watch, the NRA has greatly expanded concealed carry, largely thwarted federal legislation that would have infringed on our Second Amendment rights, and he also secured the election of politicians who put pro-Second Amendment justices on the Supreme Court. On the political and legislative front, a substantial share of the credit for the undeniable improvement in the overall situation over the last 35 years has to go to the NRA and LaPierre.

But wait.  Is Wayne a saint?

That being said, LaPierre also has made some serious strategic errors. On his watch, the NRA got lax with Ackerman-McQueen, and while they appear to be winning legal battles with their former PR firm, the entire situation didn’t have to happen. Better oversight – or better yet, having multiple vendors to create competition – would have been better.

LaPierre also failed to anticipate the possibility that Andrew Cuomo and Letitia James would launch politically motivated abuses against the NRA. Cuomo in particular, gave an ominous warning in 2014 that should have prompted a move (and housecleaning) long before James would have had the power to abuse the NRA.

The NRA has also failed to get involved in the cultural arena, and it has left votes on the table by not hiring translators or engaging in outreach – which proved crucial for Glenn Youngkin in Virginia. Both of these failures also took place on LaPierre’s watch. The NRA needs to get started on rectifying those failures yesterday. And by the way, the threat posed to the entire Second Amendment community should James succeed in her politically-motivated hit on the NRA also exists.

Then comes this weird paragraph that I simply cannot explain.

But the NRA is not the only part of defending the Second Amendment that gets complicated. We rightly object when anti-Second Amendment extremists try to punish us for crimes and acts of madness – some of them horrific – that we did not commit. However, that doesn’t make the misuse of firearms to commit crimes and acts of madness – some of them horrific (Sandy Hook, Parkland, Las Vegas) something to ignore, or worse, brush off.

In 2020, FBI stats noted that 8,209 homicides were carried out with handguns, 455 with rifles, 203 with shotguns, and 4,283 were of “firearms, type not stated.” In addition, can any Second Amendment supporter deny that anti-Second Amendment extremists use those instances where firearms are misused as fodder for their unjust agenda? How many times have family members who lose loved ones in a tragedy sought to take their grief out against, especially when we are defending ourselves from having our rights infringed?

Second Amendment supporters need to have something to offer on this front. People might not like Project Exile and may have reservations about supporting legislation like the Restoring the Armed Career Criminal Act and the Protecting Communities and Preserving the Second Amendment Act, but the fact remains these bills can hold off much worse.

First, I don’t buy that any modicum of success the 2A has seen has been due to Wayne or the NRA.  There is no evidence to support that assertion.  They failed to score important votes, they allowed their rating of pols to suffer and lag behind, they backed awful people, in history they backed the NFA and GCA, the AWB, the bump stock ban and supported universal background checks.  This all runs directly contrary to the 2A.  The writer is clearly sucked up some very bad information – or simple propaganda.

When he wasn’t spending money on suits or his little booby girl in the swimming pool, he was jetting around the globe on NRA money.  Wayne is a terrible man.

Second, that this is a sinful world has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with whether I submit my God-given rights to the whims of a few.  God is no respecter of persons.  Furthermore, the role of the law isn’t rehabilitative or preventative.  It is punitive.  The role of the family and church fulfils all of the goals the writer is discussing, and to press the state into the service in the void left by family and church has always, throughout history, made matters worse.

God is judging America.  Trying to stop this judgment is a fool’s errand, and no amount of legislation will change the heart of men.  America needs revival and reformation, not more laws.

What an awful, awful commentary.  Just awful.  Not a single sentiment is worthy of consideration.

Do they still have editors over at Ammoland?

Newsweek.

Leaders of the National Rifle Association (NRA) expressed concern that the organization’s more radical members—who were described as “hillbillies” and “fruitcakes”—would embarrass the gun rights organization in the days following the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, according to tapes obtained by NPR and revealed on Tuesday.

In the wake of what had been one the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history, the NRA’s senior leaders—including lobbyist Marion Hammer and executive vice president Wayne LaPierre—held a conference call to discuss whether they would still hold the organization’s annual convention in Denver.

Recordings of those private meetings revealed Hammer and LaPierre mocking some of the NRA’s more activist members, who the organization worried would be the only ones showing up in the aftermath of the shooting.

“If you pull down the exhibit hall, that’s not going to leave anything for the media except the members meeting, and you’re going to have the wackos… with all kinds of crazy resolutions, with all kinds of, of dressing like a bunch of hillbillies and idiots. And, and it’s gonna, it’s gonna be the worst thing you can imagine,” Hammer is heard saying on the tapes.

LaPierre says: “The people you are most likely to get in that member meeting without an exhibit hall are the nuts.”

“I agree, the fruitcakes are going to show up,” consultant Tony Makris adds.

Tapes of the call show that several of the organization’s lobbyists were worried that the Columbine shooting would create a massive crisis for the NRA and its agenda, especially given the convention was scheduled to take place just days after the tragedy.

“At that same period where they’re going to be burying these children, we’re going to be having media… trying to run through the exhibit hall, looking at kids fondling firearms, which is going to be a horrible, horrible, horrible juxtaposition,” lobbyist Jim Baker can be heard saying.

You see, the NRA leadership has always thought of you and treated you just as the democratic and republican parties have always treated their own – with disdainful and patronizing sneer.

That’s why they supported the NFA, the GCA, the bump stock ban, the assault weapons ban, and universal background checks.

They don’t care about you or your concerns.  They only care about themselves, Wayne LaPierre’s suits, his little blond cohort in the swimming pool, their junkets and trips across the globe, and at the moment their scavenging of the NRA firearms museum for the loyalists (those firearms being donated in good faith by men who worked hard for a living).

Because they see you as goobers.  And maybe men who support the largest, most effective, most influential gun control organization on earth are just that.

At WoG, David posts an anecdote of “nobody home” when a reader tried to renew his NRA membership.

Why, I wondered, would anyone do that?  I was reminded of the answer when I read the comments.

NRA certification as a trainer still means something and is required by a lot of ranges if you apply for work.  It also still matters on your resume / CV for folks who weren’t military.

We need to change this.  With the NRA sponsorship of gun control, their waste of membership dues, and the total corruption of the board of directors, we need another body that respects and will fight for the second amendment, as well as publish good content and develop certifications for trainers.