Sailorcurt offers me some criticism in the comments:
Sebastian, I have a lot of respect for you. You seem to be a very reasonable, wise, and responsible person…but I fail to understand your seemingly vested interest in supporting the NRA no matter what.
I do it because we need a national gun rights movement, and the NRA is the only organization out there that represents that. SAF, JPFO, and even GOA sometimes can have their uses, but if we had to rely on those organizations we’d be finished. I support the NRA even when they make mistakes because I want to win this. For me, and for future generations.
But I’m also not supporting this situation. I’ve said repeatedly I disagree with the NRA’s priorities in Georgia. I have told them the same. But my perspective is one of a concealed carry license holder. An important thing to remember is that people who carry guns are a minority among gun owners. Reforming carry laws may be a priority to you and me, but there is a lot of support for the “Parking Lot” initiative among gun owners in general, especially gun owners who hunt and shoot recreationally after work.  Should NRA abandon those interests in favor of ours? Would the people who support the Parking Lot initiative as their priority also be justified in their anger at NRA for abandoning them?
Maybe I’m wrong for not being more outraged by this. If you think that’s the case don’t be shy in the comments. But I think we need to distinguish between making some interests of gun owners a priority over others, and throwing other groups of gun owners under the bus for the sake of others. Carry reform is not dead in Georgia because of this. If NRA had agreed to, say, add more restrictions on concealed carry to get their parking lot bill, my level of anger would be a a lot higher.  That’s the kind of thing we can’t do.
GeorgiaCarry.org is pissed because their legislation, which seemed likely to pass, got killed when NRA attached their Parking Lot provision to it. I don’t blame GCO for being pissed about it. They represent a certain constituency, and NRA decided another one was more important. Was this a smart thing for NRA to do? From my point of view, no.  But my point of view isn’t the only one that matters.
Would it have not been better and of more service to their membership for the NRA not to have killed any chance the GCO backed bill had, especially since they had years of effort and work involved in it? Would it not have made it easier then for the NRA’s preferred bill to have passed in light of a prior victory for gun rights?
You base your defense of them on the competing interests within the organization itself, but there was no need for the competition when both positions could have been successfully achieved. NRA chose not to tolerate any success by any other rights advocates. That does not serve their membership, not even the ones you claim the NRA was trying to serve.
You don’t really think that one more bill was all that would ever be considered or voted upon by the Ga. legislature, do you? The NRA could have achieved their goal without destroying another worthy effort. They chose not to do that.
Sorry, I think this was a glory grab, meant to emphasize the fact that in NRA’s esitmation nobody else counts, and that they will sabotage others’ worthy efforts if there is not credit attributable to the 800 lb. gorilla available.
You base your defense of them on the competing interests within the organization itself, but there was no need for the competition when both positions could have been successfully achieved. NRA chose not to tolerate any success by any other rights advocates.
Do you know this or is it just what you think? It’s quite possible NRA thought the same thing, which is why it attached their parking lot bill to the carry bill. It would appear they misjudged, but I wouldn’t attribute to malice which could have merely been poor judgment on their part.
“Do you know this or is it just what you think? It’s quite possible NRA thought the same thing, which is why it attached their parking lot bill to the carry bill. It would appear they misjudged, but I wouldn’t attribute to malice which could have merely been poor judgment on their part.”-Sebastian
Couldn’t the same be said of the Brady Campaign?
Of course it is what I think. However, what I think has more history of the same tactics ending the same way that were the NRA not stupid they would have known this was likely to happen and therefore could have avoided unintended poor judgment.
Is it your position that the operatives for the NRA are stupid? If it isn’t, then other motives must be examined.
A little tip for you that applies through all strata of data, if the same person hits you in the teeth more than once it is probably unlikely that it was accidental, despite his protestations to the contrary.
Is it your position that the operatives for the NRA are stupid?
Clearly some of them are dimmer bulbs than others, same as any organization. Plus, even if you’re brilliant, predicting outcomes legislatively is not an exact science.
The law of probablilities can be invoked in that if the same result occurred every time you attempted a certain action previously, it would probably end in the same result in the current attempt. That isn’t any kind of science, just good sense.
I accept your explanation that the NRA was too stupid to foresee this. I admit, I thought they knew exactly what they were doing and knew what the results would be. But hey, since you say they’re stupid, I’ll consider it as a possibility.
Or are you saying they had rogue dim bulbs who accomplished this stupidity without the knowledge of the organization? Oh wait, that would still make them stupid, wouldn’t it?
Well, you know them better than I. I’ll certainly consider your judgment of their mental acumen.
You’re speaking of NRA as if it’s a single entity. There are very smart people at NRA. There are dim bulbs at NRA. It’s the same as any other large organization or workplace. I don’t know whether the person who handles Georgia is a sharp guy or not. I don’t know him and never talked to him. Either way, predicting legislative outcomes isn’t easy even if you’re talented.
I think the NRA can be forgiven this lapse in judgment. After all, if this law sailed right through the Indiana state house, with strong bipartisan support and next to no opposition, wouldn’t you expect it to do the same in Georgia (not Maryland, not California, not Masschusetts, but Georgia)? I would, and I’m surprised it didn’t.
Are you now saying there is no oversight by the organization of its operatives and the guy in Ga. could have disaccomplished this without the organization’s knowledge?
Yeah, but any boss is going to depend on his underlings to know what’s going on in their areas of responsibility. The information the boss gets can be good information, or bad information.
It’s not like NRA woke up one day and said “Hey, you know what we should do today? Let’s screw GeorgiaCarry.org!” even though it might seem like that sometimes.
unfortunately, I think it was exactly like that. Not because of any animosity for Georgia Carry.org, but just out of political self-interest as opposed to service to their members.
It occurs to me that the NRA parking lot issue could be pretty important to concealed carry in Georgia.
Consider the following: the metropolitan Atlanta area is a car-commuter town. Even a seven-mile suburban commute can be 30 minutes or longer. In the absence of completely unrestricted concealed (or open) carry “permission,” the inablility to secure a weapon at one’s workplace effectively eliminates the law-abiding exercise of bearing arms during work hours.