Since it is we gun owners who are the NRA, what have you done to spread the word?
Have you contacted your district rep and volunteered to work the gun shows to sign up members and offer voter registration documents? Have you donated any hard earned dollars to the cause?
There are by some estimates, over 80,000,000 gun owners in the United States. The NRA reports about 4 - 5 million members. Does anyone see anything wrong there? We who are working to protect and defend our rights are tired of pulling the load for the freeloaders among us. If you are not a member, join. If you know gun owners who are not members, bug them until they join us. Imagine if every gun owner in America were to stand up and be counted. We would be unbeatable and Barack Hussein Obama would become a footnote to history.
(http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb294/pioneer461/Me/police.png) (http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb294/pioneer461/NRA/NRA-Life-120.gif)
Since it is we gun owners who are the NRA, what have you done to spread the word?
Have you contacted your district rep and volunteered to work the gun shows to sign up members and offer voter registration documents? Have you donated any hard earned dollars to the cause? .....
(http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb294/pioneer461/Me/police.png) (http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb294/pioneer461/NRA/NRA-Life-120.gif)
The real "HIT" is in the first line. A past post complained about the NRA not doing enough and still hasn't acknowledged being a member of any 2nd Ammendment rights organization. Most gun owners aren't members. If you lament how a 2nd Ammendment rights organization performs, then join to make them change by having a better way and working to accomplish it...we're all about being more effective....or start a new one. Rather than pointing a finger and complaining, if there is a better more productive idea join and share it. Pissing and moaning is just that...pissing and moaning...doing nothing but complaining produces nothing but self-bitterness and ill will. It may impress friends but more importantly it impresses those who are not friends that base their opinions upon pissing and moaning...ooops there goes another almost could have been a member but was turned away by a sour apple that bitches without contributing gun rights guy...bitterness is a turn off, eh? I have no doubt that the complaining of hundreds has affected ten's of thousands and has done MY NRA more harm than good.
To my buddy out there, I hear you about the rights we have lost. We both evidently grew up at around the same time...try to remember what it was like 30-40 years ago and what it a great victory it was for the NRA to change and to preserve what we now have. You were serving in the Marines so you probably don't have the same perspective of the fight that I have. The old NRA focus was to be a target shooting organizer type of organization. Had it not been for the great Cincinatti Revolution membership revolt (remember?) we might not own anything now. A lot of good has been done but, any organization must plan for the long road and accomplish what it can from within it's membership. We lament about what we have lost and, for instance, most gun owners still think MG and supressors are illegal and..."Why do you need that for hunting anyway?" Perhaps more can be done on education, but I have heard the NRA for years saying it's about guns not hunting (though they do help with that as well)....so why hasn't everyone picked up that the 2nd Ammendment is about guns not hunting?
Truth is, if the bulk of a membership (this board is far more educated in gun law and is to the right of most gun owners...no doubt about it..Thank you MB, Outdoor Channel, Jim Scoutten, Tom Gresham, etc.) doesn't support something the NRA, can't go out and say, hey Uncle Sam, either you let us buy, for instance, MG's like any other weapon or we will vote you all out of office...they would lose 1/2 of the members, become a laughing stock in their failure and then what would happen to their power? Evidently some people think the NRA can rule the nation....instead of realizing they can only guide the nation based upon their membership support.
Moving on...lots of you guys are OK and encourage voting for the lesser of 2 evils, which we will evidently do this year, but then you complain because the NRA was wise enough to not waste political capital on something that can't be won or that would have made them look more foolish to the general public than they are now portrayed because they would stepped outside their membership support? Stepping outside the membership base to push an issue most people don't know enough to support would play well into the liberals hands as in...see the NRA is run by a bunch of right-wing kooks who are not in touch with America or their members...that would help a lot, eh? 80,000,000 gun owners and it's important enough for...how many....to join to support? Either gun rights are not so important to them as we here on this board (evidently....that is the reality) or someone has fishhooks in their pockets while striving to be a bitter butt and sit on the sidelines and point fingers.
You want to know what I get for my membership....everything I need in a political tool kit to know what's going on in my area, my nation, who is behind it, and where to write the letter as a front man that says I am behind the NRA covering it's back with support and a vote. What I do need most I can't get from my dues---I need more fellow members to join in this fight. The big bad NRA is nothing without member support. The NRA supports me just fine and is doing an otherwise great job to advance, yes advance, gun rights in areas and is working simultaneously to hold the line in other areas. Look around and the local threat....without the coordinated NRA support.....from local policiticians would would have banned most guns by now in many large cities and concealed carry across most of our nation would be a mere fantasy.
Make a difference. Join.