Thank you Graybeard. The letter below is my response to the NRA Offical Position Statement. It would be helpful if other members contacted the NRA and voiced their displeasure also.
This is my response.
"I see and appreciate your response. I also understand the Ruby Ridge episode but that is not the issue. My displeasure is at H-S Precision's use of the endorsement. HSP knew of the revulsion the shooting public has for this individual and used the endorsement anyway.
I want my NRA to express the same revulsion, not at Hourichui's action at Ruby Ridge, but at H-S Precision's use of the endorsement by this vile individual. This is not another email condemning Ruby Ridge; that has already been done by the Senate and the Courts. This is a letter protesting the action of H-S Precision. Do not confuse the two issues.
I also implore you not to camouflage our displeasure by rehashing the Ruby Ridge fiasco. I want a letter of condemnation, addressed to H-S Precision's owners and officers, condemning this action in no uncertain terms. If we cannot survive as an organization because of the dissolution of this "relationship" we are on pretty thin ice anyway.
Our membership knows the players in this controversy. H-S Precision is a maker of quality products. Government contracts go to the lowest and best bid. Any number of bureaucrats could have written a letter supporting the FBI purchase of the FBI sniper rifles. H-S Precision has said "to hell with the gun buying public" in this advertisement. "The gun buying public" that are their potential customers are also the NRA.
Please pass along my concerns and my request. I look forward to seeing more on this subject in upcoming issues of our magazine. Thank you for your response.
Sincerely,
Wiley E. Walker
Soso, MS
----- Original Message -----
From:
To: wileye@bayspringstel.net
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 10:58 AM
Subject: H-S Precision Response
Dear Mr. Walker,
The following is NRA’s officially position:
H-S Precision has a relationship with the NRA as a membership recruiter and as a member of NRA's "Insure Your Gun Rights" program. Because of that relationship, the company is authorized to use NRA's seal. However, the NRA had no role in writing or approving the text in the H-S Precision catalog attributed to Lon Horiuchi, a former FBI agent who shot Vicki Weaver during the 1992 tragedy at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
NRA's history on this issue should make clear why we are surprised and disappointed by the catalog text. In the 1990s, in the wake of episodes such as Ruby Ridge, the NRA played a key role in highlighting abuses of federal law enforcement power to the U.S. Congress. Our efforts with a coalition of other civil liberties groups resulted in the creation of a blue-ribbon commission to study problems in that field.
More specifically, NRA provided extensive coverage of the Ruby Ridge incident in its membership magazines. That included coverage of the events at Ruby Ridge, and of the later hearings before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Government Information, which examined Mr. Horiuchi's actions in depth.
NRA also covered the Senate committee's final report, including its finding that Mr. Horiuchi's shooting of Mrs. Weaver "clearly was inconsistent with standard FBI deadly force policy and violated the U.S. Constitution." No reasonable reader of our coverage could conclude that NRA endorsed Mr. Horiuchi's actions, and nothing has happened since that would change NRA's view of the incident.
Best Wishes,
NRA-ILA Grassroots Division
