Category: Gun Rights Organizations

We noticed SAF/CCRBKA’s booth on the NRA floor, but decided not to stop. But Think Progress did, and noticed they were handing out literature taking NRA to task over Manchin-Toomey:

But despite the bill’s (perhaps temporary) defeat in the Senate, CCRKBA doesn’t appear to be backing down — The Gun Mag, a Second Amendment Foundation publication, published an “NRA Meeting Special Issue” whose lead article takes apart the NRA’s line on Manchin-Toomey.

So it would seem that SAF/CCRKBA is doing their level best to help revive this bill, along with the Democratic leadership in the Senate. We’ve already started to see Jeff Flake go soft, and there’s rumors about Ayotte. I think both of them are hoping this issue goes away. But not, apparently, if Alan Gottlieb has his way.

If we end up losing on this, and there’s a good chance we will, you can lay the blame squarely at their feet on this one. I have been reluctant to be truly harsh to Alan Gottlieb’s organizations because I understand that lobbying is not a black and white game, and sometimes you get forced into concessions, or make a bad call. But the Manchin-Toomey deal is dead, and we should all be on the same page in trying to keep it dead, and CCRKBA/SAF are not on that page. We do not need this while the Dems, the White House, and Bloomberg are busy twisting arms to try to reanimate Manchin-Toomey.

This has forced me to take the unfortunate step of removing SAF from my side links. As long as they are still trying to make a case for Manchin-Toomey, I will not help promote them.

It’s no surprise the top vote getters this year were celebrity board members. The surprising thing to me is that Ollie North took the top spot and not Ted Nugent. I’m not reflexively opposed to celebrity Board Members, provided they are bringing something to the table, but I am of the opinion that the NRA Board has too many celebrities who aren’t brining anything, and who actively push contributing members off the Board. Often times losing Board members have skills the association needs. Joel Friedman comes to mind as a Board member who has been struggling to win another three year term.

This is not to say that none of the celebrities contribute. Susan Howard, of 1980s TV “Dallas” fame shows up and chairs a committee. R. Lee Ermey has been to every Board meeting I’ve attended, and has long been a competitor in NRA programs. Ollie North also shows up and participates on the Board. But how many people even know Karl Malone is associated with NRA? I’m not sure he’s even been sworn in.

These are some things to consider when it comes to well known names on your ballot. We’ll never endorse celebrities, mostly because they generally don’t need any help, but we’re happy to have the well known on the NRA Board of they participate.

NRA Security has implemented some security theater outside the Board Meeting, so we are unable to bring you the stats for this year live, but we’ll get close. NRA has traditionally not allowed recording devices in meetings, but it was never really enforced. This year you have to check your cell phones at the door. Oddly enough, they aren’t using the obvious measure of checking NRA membership cards. What’s wildly ironic about all this is that the person who has the recording device with an intent to cause embarrassment (which is itself kinda funny, given how dry Board meetings are) isn’t going to obey the “no recording devices allowed” sign, and it’s not like they are checking beyond asking. I’m just a big believer in, if you’re going to do security, do real security,or don’t bother with it. I’d feel sorry for any operative who had to sit through the whole thing anyway, just like I felt bad for the guy ThinkProgress sent to record the legal seminar. I doubt he could follow anything, and he sure as hell didn’t get anything juicy. But nonetheless I’m still flummoxed over the irony of a cell phone free zone. Or maybe I should call it a lefty-operative empowerment zone.

More to come when we have it.

After reports today revealed that Toomey wouldn’t appear with Chuck Schumer at the press conference, NRA releases this:

Dear Senator,

I am writing regarding the National Rifle Association’s position on several firearms-related proposals under consideration in the Senate.

S. 649, the “Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act of 2013”, introduced on March 21, contains a number of provisions that would unfairly infringe upon the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners.  This legislation would criminalize the private transfer of firearms by honest citizens, requiring friends, neighbors and many family members to get government permission to exercise a fundamental right or face prosecution. The NRA is unequivocally opposed to S. 649.

In addition, the NRA will oppose any amendments offered to S. 649 that restrict fundamental Second Amendment freedoms; including, but not limited to, proposals that would ban commonly and lawfully owned firearms and magazines or criminalize the private transfer of firearms through an expansion of background checks.  This includes the misguided “compromise” proposal drafted by Senators Joe Manchin, Pat Toomey and Chuck Schumer.  As we have noted previously, expanding background checks, at gun shows or elsewhere, will not reduce violent crime or keep our kids safe in their schools.  Given the importance of these issues, votes on all anti-gun amendments or proposals will be considered in NRA’s future candidate evaluations.

Rather than focus its efforts on restricting the rights of America’s 100 million law-abiding gun owners, there are things Congress can do to fix our broken mental health system; increase prosecutions of violent criminals; and make our schools safer.  During consideration of S. 649, should one or more amendments be offered that adequately address these important issues while protecting the fundamental rights of law-abiding gun owners, the NRA will offer our enthusiastic support and consider those votes in our future candidate evaluations as well.

We hope the Senate will replace the current provisions of S. 649 with language that is properly focused on addressing mental health inadequacies; prosecuting violent criminals; and keeping our kids safe in their schools.  Should it fail to do so, the NRA will make an exception to our standard policy of not “scoring” procedural votes and strongly oppose a cloture motion to move to final passage of S. 649.

Should you have any questions on these issues, please do not hesitate to contact me at (202) 651-2560.

Sincerely,

Chris W. Cox

Which mentions that the drafters of this compromise bill were Toomey, Manchin and Schumer. Tomorrow it would appear to be game on, and we’ll see where the chips will fall.

Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President of the National Rifle Association, plans to soon announce NRA’s next offensive in the struggle against gun control by running for Mayor of New York City.

“We gave this a lot of thought, and have decided the only way we’re going to stop MAIG once and for all is for your NRA to run New York City,” LaPierre said, to a private conference with gun friendly media and bloggers, “The only way to stop a bad guy in the Mayor’s office, is to put a good guy in the Mayor’s office!”

NRA plans to launch a multi-million dollar ad buy in New York to get ahead of potential rivals in the early stages of the campaign.

“We’re going to get out ahead of this thing. We expect our main rival to come at us hard, but we think this early ad campaign will soften him up,” LaPierre said of his likely rival, disgraced former Congressman Anthony Wiener, “by the time we head into the general election, we expect his campaign to be completely impotent.”

LaPierre noted the ad campaign will launch sometime in the next several weeks, after the press conference announcing the candidacy is finally scheduled.

Been a bit out of band this evening, attending an legislative meeting of a local gun rights group that’s popped into existence post-Newtown. They are called Concerned Gun Owners of Bucks County. They are just establishing themselves, and like any group just getting started are experiencing some growing pains, but I hope they will continue to grow and be successful. They are turning out 300+ people to monthly meetings, and local politicians are paying attention. The people we’ve spoken with on the legislative side are sharp, and with good communication skills, who are dedicated to making a local, single-issue grassroots organization.

Bitter and I are offering them help where we can offer it. We’ve long had a lot of ideas and thoughts about things that could work on the local level for years, but haven’t had a whole lot of success with organizing down to the grassroots level, since, to be honest, we’re both more comfortable in front of a computer screen than going forth in the community and making connections. It is our hope that this group can take some of those ideas and put them to work in practice.

Local action is going to be especially important given the resources that Bloomberg is dumping into Pennsylvania and other states. I’ve gotten word that MAIG is currently in a hiring frenzy, putting paid staffers into key states to continuously chip away at our rights while the rest of us are at work or otherwise trying to earn our livings, raise families, etc. There’s also the millions of Bloomberg bucks that are being dumped into advertising, even if it’s obvious that no one involved in these ads knows the first thing about guns or gun safety. No matter how things come out in the next few weeks, this battle is going to continue. Bloomberg is counting on the billions he has at his disposal wearing us down.

I don’t intend to be worn down, and I hope you won’t either. Just beating this guy isn’t enough for me. My goal is to eventually be able to legally carry a firearm of my choice in the City of New York, whether walking in front of City Hall or Gracie Mansion, and for there to be not a damned thing the Mayor or anyone else can do about it. I’m done with the idea of there being two Americas when it comes to guns. The Second Amendment applies to Chicago as much as Cheyenne, and to New York as much as it does Nashville.