At least until there’s more news, I think this controversy has been about as hashed out as it can be. It’s certainly raised a lot of passion. Chris doesn’t hold anything back against GOA, and this post is brutal on the opponents of NRA’s tactic. But I think the final word, and closest to my own view, has to go to Cam Edwards of NRA News:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBceuvInlcs[/youtube]
I think that’s about as well as it can be said. Until there’s new news, it’s time to move on to other issues.
Let me get this straight, the Democrats offered a “carve-out” to the NRA which allows the NRA to keep protecting our 2nd Amendment rights, a bill that if made law, will effectively silence the Brady Campaign, the Violence Policy Center, and Bloomberg’s Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns and this is a sell-out?
Right now there are a lot of ‘conservative’ groups drooling at the chance to sell out the Second Amendment to gain power/momentum in whatever area they are most interested in.
Is ‘disclose’ bad?
Can the NRA opposition stop ‘disclose’?
Should the NRA accept quarter from those attempting to lesson one of our other core freedoms?
Seriously? sell out free speech to be given the ‘right’ to free speech?
Disclose passes, I leave the NRA.
Finally! Some sanity on this subject. I fully support what the NRA did as a member of the NRA. As a conservative, I wish this was a perfect world and every organization I believe in supported the other’s beliefs, but that’s now how things work.
I will do my best to answer.
DISCLOSE is bad, and unconstitutional.
Whether NRA can stop DISCLOSE is an open ended question. We had this fight earlier in the decade with McCain-Feingold, which NRA fought and lost. NRA has a bit more juice in this Congress than in the Congress that passed McCain-Feingold, but that’s not to say they can derail the bill altogether. It looks like the first attempt to exempt all 501(c)(4) non-profits failed.
NRA made what they think is the best call for their members. Keep in mind the cost of not taking this deal could be everyone being subject to DISCLOSE which would effectively silence NRA, or force them to turn over their membership list to the government.
This is not a perfect world, and this Congress sucks. You do what you have to do to survive to fight another day. The fact is DISCLOSE would be a serious impediment if passed with no exemptions. Given the choice between DISCLOSE with no exemption, and DISCLOSE with an exemption for NRA, I’ll take the latter.
People who are bitching are assuming NRA can defeat DISCLOSE. Maybe they can. But maybe they can’t. You don’t know until you start counting votes. But the consequences of misjudging here are severe.
This is kind of like war. You don’t really want to go to war. Sometimes you have to, but great powers that go to war over everything end up ruined by war.
the NRA can f-ing dislose my name to whoever they want if this bill becomes law. or they could simply refuse to obey and fight in court.
but i don’t want my NRA to be part of a terrible attack on freedom of speech. standing silent (ie not “being part of the final debate”) because the enemy offered you a deal at the expense of “others” is despicable.
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing” (E Burke)
there comes a point in time where enough is enough. this is one of them.
NRA, are you listening yet. I’m a 40+ year Life Member and you are on the verge of getting my card back!
I think you see things in terms of black or white. Things are good or evil. You can either stop a bill or let it pass. If you’re not fighting, you’re giving in.
That’s one way of looking at things, but virtually nothing in politics is black and white. It’s more like chess, poker, or other such strategy games. Sometimes you’re faced only with a series of bad moves. But you have to pick one to stay in the game.
We are done with the NRA. My daughter and I are endowment members, but will now only contribute the GOA. Like he said in the video, “I don’t get it”. It is quite evident that the decision makers don’t get it either. This is a very sad day for supporters of individual liberty. Reminds me of the S&W sellout.
You’d do better flushing it down the toilet than giving to GOA.