NRA In Trouble With Its Base?
BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 10 months ago
WSJ:
Dustin Coleman has bought a booth at the National Rifle Association’s annual convention for his shooting accessories company for the past three years.
But last month, he canceled his reservation and donated the $1,400 rental fee to a rival group, the Firearms Policy Coalition. His reason: The NRA, the nation’s leading Second Amendment group with 5.5 million members, is no longer pro-gun enough.
“The NRA is appeasing to the middle, they’re not pro-gun enough,” said Mr. Coleman, who has a lifetime NRA membership. He said he chose to give money to the Firearms Policy Coalition because it is fighting the Trump administration’s December bump-stock ban in court.
Smaller organizations, often with Second Amendment positions more strident than the NRA, are seeking to capitalize on complaints from people like Mr. Coleman that the NRA didn’t do enough to stop the ban on the devices. Bump stocks convert semiautomatic rifles into simulacrums of machine guns and were used in 2017’s Las Vegas massacre.
The criticism of the NRA illustrates the difficult position the group finds itself in when President Trump, whose election it supported, takes a position that upsets the most ardent gun-rights advocates.
“There was overwhelming legislative support for proposals that went far beyond these specific devices,” the NRA said in a statement last month. The group asked Congress to allow the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to review the device, “rather than sit back and watch a legislative over-reaction,” it said.
The NRA said it doesn’t support bans on anything and that at a minimum there should be an amnesty period for those who own bump stocks.
The group, which had its biggest-ever annual convention in Dallas last year, is facing declining member dues and contributions, which fell 21% to $230 million, according to the most recent data. NRA officials say that is in line with previous years after gun-friendly presidents were elected.
It’s their own fault. It doesn’t matter if there was “overwhelming legislative support for proposals that went far beyond these specific devices,” and there is still no evidence to this day that bump stocks were used in the Las Vegas shooting. I defy the authors to produce it. A picture proves nothing at all, and given that the ATF was never allowed to examine the firearms by the FBI, I doubt anything the FBI has to say about the incident. This is one of the reasons I recommended that independent analysts be contracted to examine the firearms and crime scene.
The NRA could have thrown their weight around, threatened to score every vote, pour money into reelection campaigns coming up, and expose every politician for their work behind the scenes. Or in other words, the NRA could have done their jobs.
Instead, Trump did it for them in an end run around the constitution. That tells me that the politicians were scared. Good. They should have been, and we should have queued this up for them to deal with in order to expose them. The NRA gave Trump cover to keep the politicians covert.
I don’t want to hear any excuses. I consider all of them completely unacceptable.
Is the NRA in trouble with its base? That depends. The Fudds will always defend the NRA – right up until their bolt action hunting rifles and shotguns are confiscated and taken down to the local armory for “safe keeping.” Or in other words, right up until their own Ox gets gored.
On January 27, 2019 at 10:36 pm, Michael Donato said:
Any gun owner who believes the NRA is their friend is beyond delusional. I don’t care for big pharma but just maybe ‘meds’ might help.
On January 28, 2019 at 5:39 pm, June J said:
An NRA director stated publicly about the bump stock ban that it “wasn’t worth the political capital, you have to choose your battles wisely”.
And that sums up my problem with the NRA the last few years…they don’t seem to find any infringements worthy of fighting against.
Then the board brought in a supposed “warrior” in Oliver North…haven’t heard him make a wave about anything. Just another empty suit in the bread and circuses show.
On January 28, 2019 at 6:45 pm, Mike said:
“Then the board brought in a supposed “warrior” in Oliver North…haven’t heard him make a wave about anything. Just another empty suit in the bread and circuses show.” – June J
At least Charlton Heston hoisted a Fuddish flintlock above his head in defiance of further “infringement”, right??
On January 28, 2019 at 8:13 pm, Gryphon said:
The NRA’s origins are in Marksmanship and Safety Training (nothing Wrong with that) but that is essentially the province of the Fudds. It was only more Recently that the Organization began ‘marketing’ itself as a “Gun Rights/Second Amendment” advocacy, but that was Long After the group had Supported such Non-Constitutional Acts as the ’34 NFA and ’68 GCA.
They are Swamp Creatures, plain and simple, Determined to Protect their ‘lobby’ and Fat Salaries. Eventually, when the (((bolsheviks))) roll out the National Ban on Semi-Auto Firearms, the NRA Will NOT stand up and Urge the Citizens to Disobey a Non-Constitutional “Law”.
On January 30, 2019 at 12:33 pm, Fred said:
NRA is Gun Control Inc.