Just completed sending my last payment in for the ELP and am now a full life member. $750.00 dollars later, I do not believe that the NRA is perfect. I believe that sometimes the NRA is viewed as unwilling to yield to compromise. I believe that the NRA sometimes supports the fringes of the sport that the majority of us will never be members of or care about (ie: supporting legal sporting use of .50 cal BMG ). I believe they drive me crazy with request for money for legislative action (endlessly it seems). I believe that the NRA is viewed as a wing of the Republican party by some. All that may be true...I also know that there is not another organization that "scares" a politician as much as the NRA. Whether Republican, Independent, or Democrat, the politician knows that they will be graded by the NRA. Whether they care or not is up to them, but I think they all acknowledge that the NRA means voter power and is a force to be reckoned with. If ALL gunowners were members of the NRA (that would be about 80 million Americans) imagine the power we would have over our elected officials to quite screwing around with law abiding gun owners and the 2nd amendment once and for all. 80 million vice 3 million members would be very powerfull indeed. Whatever the perceived or real faults of the NRA, there is no other force that does what it does. So I say join the NRA, make your voice heard.
Don't throw the baby out with the bath water or cut your nose off to spite your face..it is the best and really the only thing we have that FIGHTS for our gun rights. It's not perfect.
I am proud to be a life member and will work to make it a better NRA. Charleton Heston is still my President.
David Berry