Category: Gun Rights Organizations

And it’s moving the corporate entity to Texas. Any bets on how much of Wayne’s mistakes get buried in that bankruptcy? Any bets on whether there’s new bylaws that will, de jure, end NRA as a member controlled organization? (I recognize that, de facto, membership control has been tenuous for some time). Will NRA move to Texas? We know Wayne has wanted to.

Leticia James will actually have a say in the dissolution of a New York non-profit. So I’m sure she has a next move, and I doubt this is over.

Finally, I will say this: my club has a provision requiring members to belong to the NRA. I am no fan of Bill and Wayne’s NRA, but I haven’t been willing to move on that issue, because if there was a power struggle, I wanted to be able to throw our weight behind the not-Wayne faction. It’s also a massive PITA to get bylaw changes done.

But if the door closes on members having the ultimate say, if it becomes just another group run by grifters who’s sole purpose is perpetuating the graft, if there’s no hope for a different NRA beyond Wayne and whoever he chooses to be his successor, that changes the calculus. Right the ship. My patience is not infinite.

To be honest, if they knew the price of their virtue signaling ahead of time, they probably would have still done it. Why wouldn’t they? It’s not like it’s their money. I expect ACB will change the balance of the Second Amendment on the Supreme Court, offering the lower courts the smack down they so richly deserve. But don’t get cocky. Next time the Dems are in charge, we’re probably looking at some court packing!

Speaking of that, Glenn Reynolds has a pretty good take on court packing, suggesting that maybe it would lower the stakes if the court were bigger anyway. My big problem with a packing scheme is that once it starts, what’s the limiting principle? But maybe it’s when an individual justice just doesn’t matter that much.

We could stand to do a lot of de-escalating. Politicians and bureaucrats are, for the most part, the worst kind of people to be found in society. The solution to what ails us, if you ask me, is to give them a lot less power.

NRA filed a civil rights lawsuit in the Northern District of New York yesterday. It is possible that Letitia James is a second rate tyrant who is violating the NRA’s civil rights, and that Wayne LaPierre is a hapless grifter. Both things can be true. I believe that both things are true. James does not have your best interests at heart as a gun owner and NRA member. She is trying to silence political opposition, and she should be ruined for it. I sincerely hope this suit succeeds. I’m surprised by how many gun people I see who seem fine with dissolution. James’ move here is unconscionable and naked totalitarianism. It will invite tit for tat if the courts are silent (note that SPLC is in Alabama, and probably has more skeletons in its closet than NRA does by far).

If I’m a judge, no way would I allow a politician to dissolve their political opposition. This is Soviet level shit. I would consider the remedy of removing Wayne. That needs to happen. But as guilty as they might be, most charities and non-profits are going to show issues if put under a microscope. Not saying Wayne is a straight shooter. We’ve known for years a lot of this stuff was going on, and shame on us as members for looking the other way because times were good.

I suspect James knows she won’t get dissolution, but she has political ambitions, and the Dem base will eat this shit up. The cancel cultural warriors will love this. But hopefully adults will intervene and we can just be rid of the problem at the top and move on.

I endorse this NRA ballot. Frank Tait is Chairman of the Board for Lower Providence Rod and Gun Club. Graham Hill is also one of the good guys. Both will support reform, which is desparately needed.

VCDL is getting the word out. I really hope my concern about this is severely misplaced. A strong rally can help stave off the worst. But it has to be an epic showing, and nothing can go wrong.

I’m very sorry to say that I can’t find much to argue with here.

But hey, maybe I’m all wrong, and it will be a Kumbaya love-fest between pro-gun 2A boomers arriving with their CCW pistols, Antifas from Redneck Revolt and The John Brown Gun Club with their shields and clubs (and guns?), actual neo-Nazi “accelerationist” idiots, lefty trolls dressed as Nazis, the Bloomberg “Everytown” gun grabbers, climate change activists, pro-life and pro-choice groups, the Richmond Police, the VSP, the FBI, the ATF, and all the other Lobby Day participants. What could possibly go wrong? (Not to mention that FBI and VSP super-high-res crowd scanning cameras will capture every face and cell phone interaction for social network analysis and future use.)

Except he’s a lot more optimistic about the Courts fixing things for us than I am. I’m hoping to be proved wrong. The crowd in Richmond on the 13th was peaceful. So has the sanctuary movement been. But there’s going to be a lot of assholes who will show up to cause trouble, and he’s right that VCDL isn’t going to stop them from showing up.

The Trace is reporting a startling statistic about people who are donating to NRA-PVF. NRA is lead by a septuagenarian (Wayne turns 70 today! Happy Birthday Wayne! My dad is 70 too, but unlike you, he retired 8 years ago) who hasn’t done a damned thing to appeal to younger shooters. “OK Boomer” is a meme absolutely made for the NRA under Wayne.

NRA needs to update its image. Really, they needed to do it a decade ago. Time is running out. I suspect NRA is facing the same demographic cliff my club is looking at in a decade, and for the same reason: nothing was done to cater to younger shooters for years. The Angry Dana Strategy was a waste of time. They would have done better to flush all that money down the toilet. Anger does not appeal to younger people. Anger appeals to old farts with nothing better to do than get themselves worked up on social media.

For years NRA has not at all played to their strengths. They trashed their own training programs for the Carry Guard debacle. They’ve deemphasized outreach to shooting communities and don’t focus on growing them. That should be NRA’s bread and butter. Political power will follow from that. But instead we’re bleeding NRA dry to cover for Wayne’s past sins.

This isn’t the huge victory NRA is making it out to be. Precedent is well-established, and San Francisco City Council has already achieved their primary objective:

Win a Second Amendment case, or the case against Cuomo, and make him pay personally, I’ll be a lot more impressed. Speaking of the Supreme Court, it was always my impression that the person who had the relationship with Paul Clement was Chris. Are we going to use Clement in any upcoming case? I hope NRA still has access to him. But in this day of Bill Brewer being NRA’s everything attorney, I won’t be surprised if it’s not Clement up there arguing for us.

Apparently the National African American Gun Association is thriving. Wayne is out of touch with younger shooters (and by younger, at this point, I mean anyone under 50), and he’s bitterly clinging to his EVP role despite the fact that he’s a few months away from becoming a septuagenarian. So I’m going to be a lot more supportive of groups that are reaching gun owners the NRA has no ability or even interest in reaching. Like African American shooters, or, you know, younger shooters.

Speaking of younger shooters…. I feel like Chris Cox and his inner circle got the typical Gen X treatment. It’s the curse of our generation. Gen Xers are utterly powerless: sandwiched between the much larger Boomer and Millennial cohorts. We’ll never be in charge of anything. The Boomers are going to pass that shit right to the Millennials, then spend their twilight years posting memes on Facebook about how they’re ruining the country.

So good on NAAGA. I hope they continue to grow.