Category: Gun Rights Organizations

Still rolling along here with the MiFi, through the highways and biways of the Great Commonwealth of Virginia. Should be home fairly soon, fortunately, and back to real bandwidth. Bitter is busy re-caffienating as we speak to go the last leg.

I’ve noticed while catching up on reading that some are troubled, particularly over at Ace of Spades, about NRA’s School Shield proposal. Some contributors don’t understand why we need a brand new federal program. While I agree with the criticism directed at NRA for demonizing video games (a position I share), I agree with this contributor about the purpose of the proposal:

…whether it was an accident or by intent, the NRA succeeded in forcing the MBM and the left (but I repeat myself) to refocus their attention away from “ASSAULT WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION!” and onto something different. And who cares that the new topic doesn’t make perfect sense. It puts into the public consciousness the idea that maybe gun-free zones aren’t such a good idea.

The ideal solution is not a new federal program, I agree. But it’s a way to deal with the “Something must be done!” voters, who politicians are generally eager to appease (because it’s a huge swath of voters). If there’s one thing a politician fears is that when something must be done, they are not seen as a public figure busy trying to do something.

So is it an ideal program? No. Would it be better with a security solution that had state and local funding and control? Sure. But is it something? Yes. Does the “something involved gun control? No. Does the something reframe the issue culturally? Yes.

It’s something that can be done that’s not gun control, and it may actually help prevent more Newtowns, which I think we can all agree aren’t good for anyone, except gun control advocacy organizations. A new federal program, that in the big scheme of things won’t actually cost much, is a far better result for liberty than major new limitations on our Second Amendment rights.

Wayne was facing an outright hostile interview — one of the worst I’ve seen in recent memory. I think Wayne does a much better job with this interview than he did in the Press Conference Friday, and under much harder circumstances.

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That said, he still looks flustered and tired. He looks like he even may have a cold sore, I’m guessing stress induced. He has a lot riding on his shoulders, and I’m hoping he’s not getting too old to carry a burden like this, and at this pace. David Keene was on Face the Nation, and got a much fairer interview, which is not to say I think it was fair. Keene is a very good spokesman, but I still wish he would have mentioned CT already has the proposed ban, or talked about how quick it takes to change a magazine versus law enforcement response times to these kinds of incidents.

BTW, Mark Warner and Kay Bailey Hutchison were on afterwards, and (I think, because she was a bit incoherent) she went squishy on the magazine issue. In my opinion, this is the issue we are most vulnerable on, because it’s an easy place for cowardly politicians to split the difference and rally around as a compromise. That’s why we need to get everyone in this fight. If you’re an AR shooter, you need to be in this. You need to get every other AR shooter in this.

Yet another White House petition, to demand the White get behind NRA, but unlike the one for Piers Morgan, this one is serious. Some folks are questioning the value of these petitions. Here’s the value:

• It shows the White House there are people out there with passion on the issue.
• It shows the White House we’re organized enough to reach real people, outside traditional top-down communication networks. Think Brian Anse Patrick’s horizontal interpretive communities.
• It’s really not that much effort.

So I think they have some value. Do I expect them to result in a reaction from the White House? Do I expect it to translate into real policy? No. But it at least let’s them know we’re here and paying attention.

I noticed some have taken my criticism of some aspects of NRA’s performance on Friday to hate on the NRA in general, and Wayne LaPierre in particular. It was my intention to offer some constructive criticism, rather than be a funnel for NRA hate. Because to be honest, we do not have time for this.

You go to war with the NRA and the Wayne LaPierre you have, not the NRA and Wayne LaPierre you want. And we are going to war. We are arrayed against the entire left-wing apparatus, and they mean to extract their pint of blood. They mean to extract gallons of it from us if they can get away with it. While the independent grassroots action we’ve seen this week is a huge components of the battle plan, you still need what NRA can bring to the table, which is specifically a huge network of people who tend to only be peripherally involved in this issue (and this goes beyond their 4 million dues paying members), and access to lawmakers that no other gun rights groups can match, and really no or few other lobbies in DC and the 50 state capitols can match.

I’ve heard a lot of folks saying they’ll just keep donating money to SAF. I do not want to discourage this because SAF is doing some excellent work. It’s important that SAF and the Court strategy be well funded. But understand that is a fallback strategy. If we need SAF, it means we’ve already lost, and are now relying on good lawyering and the Courts to save us where it can. While I have a great deal of faith in the former part of that equation, particularly when it comes to SAF (Alan Gura), I have very little faith in the latter (the Courts). Suggesting donating to SAF is all it takes is the equivalent of, before even seriously engaging the enemy, suggesting we cede the entire battlefield, and retreat to the outskirts of the capital and make a last, desperate stand there. We might have a lot of faith in our generals who will be leading that fight, but it’s not a winning strategy. We fight them here. And NRA is the only organization that has the capability to fight on this ground. So if you have some money to donate to NRA, or can spare the dollars to buy a membership do it!

If you think it’s time for Wayne to retire, or think NRA’s performance here or there left a lot to be desired, we can have those discussions after we’re out of danger. We do not have time right now to scream for Wayne’s head on a platter. The opposition is going to see replacing generals at this point as a sign of weakness and disarray. It can only serve to provoke a broader and more fierce attack. We’re going to war, and this is the NRA we have, and more importantly, this is the NRA we can win with. But only if we hang together, because our alternative is to surely hang separately. There is certainly time to discuss strategy, and offer constructive criticism about where we each individually we think the movement should go, but as for pooh flinging, there is no time for that.

I meant to get this up yesterday, but there is, allegedly, an annual holiday of some importance coming up, and we headed out to my dad’s immediately after the presser to do an early Christmas. Having initially been sorely disappointed in NRA’s performance, I think I’m ready to offer thoughts, and some constructive criticism.

The Bad

While sleeping on it helped my sense of perspective some, no amount of time is making me feel better about the parts of the press conference I thought were a disaster. So let’s start with an obvious thing; it was infiltrated by Code Pink — twice. Despite some jabs being made by anti-gun folks about NRA checking out media more than they want to check out gun owners, clearly they didn’t check very hard. You could take this two ways. NRA members generally take attacks on the organization personally, so a visible and rude attack on NRA’s ability to speak is likely to motivate members to action. But the protesters also interfere with NRA’s ability to try to change the narrative, with the media burying the rest of the story to tell everyone how NRA was so bravely protested by gun violence prevention advocates demanding an assault weapons ban. In the big picture, I think the Code Pink protesters were a minor setback. I thought there was worse.

Wayne’s introductory speech detracted from what could have been a very persuasive and focused message. I’d say about 1/3rd of Wayne’s introduction was good and on point, and 2/3rds of it was unnecessary, unproductive, and unpersuasive. NRA faces the same issue that many causes on the center-right face; we’re not reaching young people. The youth vote went overwhelmingly to Obama. So why in the world would Wayne decide attacking violent video games and lambasting popular culture was a smart thing to do? You might reach a lot of NRA’s core audience with that message, but it turns off NRA’s future, most of whom play those games. Whether Wayne realizes it or not, many young people who are getting into guns and the shooting sports, developed that interest because of those very video games that Wayne derided. Does NRA really want to end up having to do a marketing campaign years from now, like Oldsmobile did, saying “It’s not your father’s NRA?” And we know what happened to Oldsmobile. While I understand we need to win this fight today, I’d hate to do that at the cost of sacrificing NRA’s future.

I agree the topic of mental health needed to be touched upon, but why go so far as to advocate creating a national database of the mentally ill? Why pick a fight with mental health and privacy  advocates? I think there are better ways to frame that issue than suggesting we need to create some Orwellian national database. My final criticism is that I think Wayne’s speech writers, and his delivery, left much to be desired. I think one problem with Wayne is that they keep his rhetoric folksy and, to be blunt, simple minded. I don’t think LaPierre is naturally either of those two things; it’s not his background, and not who he is. He should be himself. When Wayne delivers speeches, they don’t honestly connect with me at all, and I often feel like his speech writers don’t have a very high opinion of the education level of NRA members. We can make our case for our beliefs without boiling away real substance and going with simplistic notions like “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun,” like our people have about the same moral depth of understanding as you’d get from a spaghetti western. Also, when we’re increasingly dealing with shooters who have a mental illness, they aren’t “bad guys”, they are deranged. They are sick in the head. That changes the moral dimension.

The Good

I thought the policy proposal was quite good, and as we showed a few days ago, is very much in line with what people think will work. Recruiting Former Representative Asa Hutchinson to spearhead the effort was a stroke of brilliance. By suggesting we bring more police officers, retired police or military, give them proper training and establishing clear and responsible standards, we will help keep law enforcement on our side when it comes to the legislative fight. Folks who can remember back to the 1994 assault weapons ban remember that Clinton included it in an overall crime bill that put 100,000 new law enforcement officers on the street. This cost us the support of the Fraternal Order of Police, which was a huge blow in the fight to stop it. The police were basically bought. I suspect the White House will try to similar maneuver, though with mental health being the focus instead of crime. Despite much criticism about the timing, I think NRA’s timing was good, as the media is now covering this stories as people are starting to get with family. I just wish NRA had put more emphasis on the policy, and gotten to it more quickly, after briefly framing the issue (and some of the framing in Wayne’s speech, like explaining contexts in which no one argues guns are a bad thing, was genuinely good).

It is easy to Monday Morning quarterback. I can sympathize with the fact that Wayne LaPierre likely didn’t get any sleep this entire week, and under those circumstances, it can be difficult to deliver your A game. Also, having the entire media, the White House, celebrities, talking heads, fair weather conservatives, and the left-wing activists all playing pile on is tiring and demoralizing. The death threats probably didn’t help either. But I firmly believe that Wayne’s style and rhetoric is sorely in need of an update, and after a week of taking a beating, I was looking for something different, and I didn’t quite get it.

Hardly surprising, because I’ve seen kittens that have more fight in them than Boehner. The Republicans can always be counted on to not be counted on. This is what we reap from making our rights dependent on a single party:

Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio) noted the change on Tuesday, telling The Hill that the mood in the conference among “even the strongest gun supporters” is that they “don’t object to having a conversation about it — which is a big shift.”

We have to put the fear of God us into the GOP. Obama didn’t win by a landslide, but the GOP is acting like he did. The Democrats would never make this kind of mistake if they were in our position. As one of Glenn’s readers noted “I am puzzled why the Republicans continue to want John Boehner to remain speaker. He is genuinely not good at his job.”

This was just posted to the re-published Facebook page:

The NRA is made up of four million moms and dads, sons and daughters – and we were shocked, saddened and heartbroken by the news of the horrific and senseless murders in Newtown. Out of respect for the families, and as a matter of common decency, we have given time for mourning, prayer and a full investigation of the facts before commenting. The NRA is prepared to offer meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again.

Amen to that.

UPDATE: And, a very bold announcement about a press conference on Friday.

Thirdpower notes that the local gun show near him broke records. This weekend around here, the Oaks gun show was absolutely swamped. I just hope all these people panic buying are planning to join the fight, because there’s no guarantee you’re going to get to keep what you panic buy if you don’t. Voting with your wallet is part of the picture, but only part.

But we also need to make the Obama Adminstration sorry they decided to fuck with gun owners, and make sure lawmakers and policy makers can’t take a dump without running into some gun owner asking them to vote against more gun control. We have to hold feet to the fire, of Democrats and Republicans alike. So what do we do?

• Know the facts.
• Communicate with lawmakers. Communicate with them now. Communicate with them when we have an actual bill, and keep the pressure on.
• Show up at rallies and protests when asked.
• Give them idea of things to do (Something must be done!) that doesn’t involve more gun control.
• Talk to neighbors, friends co-workers and family. This can often be more productive than shouting at people on the Internet. Use some of the same idea you use with lawmakers.
• Do you belong to a gun club? Get them involved.
• Sign people up for NRA. I know a lot of people don’t like them, but they are who the politicians pay attention to, and a surge in NRA membership would make them pay attention.

I believe our opponents response was planned and coordinated, and they were ready to execute the moment the awful news hit the airways. I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure where I would have found professionally made signs late on a Friday ready for noon Monday delivery. I don’t know how so many of the same outlets were right on message. We were told by anti-gun groups in the weeks approaching that change was coming, and that the writing was on the wall for our day in the sun being soon over. That smacks of someone who knows of a brilliant plan, and who were just waiting for a moment to execute.

Our side is not quite so coordinated. We are composed of a great many more people than our opponents have ever given us credit for. We take time to mobilize, but the Powder Alarm has sounded, and we’re seeing signs of it. The petition at the White House is getting close to 40,000 (it was 18,000 when I posted yesterday about it). The NRA’s plan was radio silence. We did this without them. If Joe Manchin, who is backpedaling a bit, think what they are facing right now is scary, well, sir, I think you ain’t seen nothing yet. Today I’ve been focusing dark clouds on the horizon, and make no mistake, we’re in the fight of our lives. We emerged from the 1994 AWB beaten up, but our strength renewed. If we fight them back now, this will be it for them. They will no longer be able to keep up the narrative of the NRA, and gun voters as a paper tiger. But that depends on what we’re willing to do.

Even when NRA is in a strict blackout, Cam & Company has to go on. If you think your job is tough, you ought to tune in. Cam’s job is the last on earth I’d want to have right now. I guess the question is when does it go from wisely allowing things to calm down a bit, to unwisely yielding the narrative to the other side? At some point the political fight begins, and we need to see leadership.How can we expect that legislators stand with us, when NRA is nowhere to be seen in the public debate? I don’t pretend to have all the answers. There’s no textbook for this kind of thing.

Tech Crunch notes NRA un-publishing its Facebook page.

Some have accused the organization of cowardice for taking down the Page and ceasing to tweet. However, this crisis-management strategy may be succeeding. It’s prevented creating a centralized place under the NRA banner where perspectives of its independent supporters could have been taken as its own. The last thing the NRA wants is to be characterized as sharing an extremist or offensive position posted by someone who doesn’t speak for it or the rest of its fans. Other brands and organizations might follow the NRA’s lead by retreating from social media when they face times of crisis.

It’s an interesting point of view. I think the tactic is correct in the immediate aftermath of a tragedy, but at some point, people need to hear from NRA. At some point it flips from helping to hurting. When is that point? Damned if I know. I’m playing this by ear just like everyone else.