I think GB has done what I and others have done, and that is to look and see what the NRA has actually done for gun owners vs what they have compromised away with bills that restrict our rights.
I think we should look at what they DO, and not just what they say!
I couldn't agree more with the above.
I was an NRA member from 1976 to 2006. Aside from a year spent in Reno, Nevada, I was a resident of California during that time.
My dad is a Life Member and has been for over 20 years. He's one of those guys who thinks Wayne La Piere can do no wrong, and thinks that every corresepondence with La Piere's name on it is truth, triple distilled, which need not be doubted or subjected to scrutiny. Because my dad is a Life Member, he gets to participate in the NRA's internal elections. Because of that, he gets mailers and phone calls from cadidates.
Several years ago, he got a mailer from a candidate known to to oppose Mr. La Piere. In the mailer, there was a document billed as a true and correct copy of an internal policy memo, in which the rationale for writing off California as a "lost cause" was detailed. It had little to do with freedom or the preservation of liberty, and everything to do with self-preservation of the organization. The rationale behind the policy was that
projected revenue from members residing in California would steadily decline, due to continual urbanization In other words, if the copy of the memo was a genuine representation of an actual document, the NRA wasn't willing to concede California as a lost cause because of present membership, but over some perception of decline at some future date.
My dad wrote this stuff of as anti-Wayne mudslinging. I didn't want to believe it either.
The problem, though, is that memo was supposedly drafted shortly after California instituted a manditory waiting period for all firearm purchases. The timing is key.
While I was a member of the NRA, the State of California adopted:
1) The aforementioned maditory waiting period.
2) A law banning the private transfer of firearms between individuals, mandating that all transfers of ownership go through a licensed dealer and be subject to the manditory waiting period and a tax in the form of fees for Dealer Record of Sale.
3) Manditory handgun proficiency training for prospective handgun purchasers.
4) A law requiring that handguns pass a Departmen of Justice(DOJ) "drop test" prior to being offered for sale in California
5) A law requiring guns kept in the home to be secured by either a DOJ approved locking device or in a DOJ approved cabinet or safe. The law allows the DOJ to "list" or "de-list" locks, cabinets, and safes at their discreation. My once listed cabinet got de-listed, forcing me to either back out of the sale, by a new cabinet before picking up my gun, or lie on the application. I chose to back out of the sale.
6) A requirement that purchasers either: A. fill out an affidavit indicating the make and model of gun cabinet or safe used for storage, which is then compared by the transferring dealer to a list of DOJ approved locking devices, B. bring a DOJ approved locking device with them, or C. purchase a DOJ approved locking device from the transferring dealer immedately prior to the consumation of the transfer at the end of the waiting period.
7) A renewed Assault Rifle ban
A high capacity magazine ban
9) A ban on arms chambered for .50 BMG
10) A law, rarely enforced, which essentially prohibits the simulateous transport of firearms and ammunition in Jeeps, SUVS, station wagons, and hatchbacks, owing to their lack of a seperate cargo area divorced from the passenger compartment.
And they did virtually all of that after the NRA was purported by the aforementioned candidate for internal office to have "written off California as a lost cause."
While I have not been a member of the NRA for three years now, I have continued to contribute to the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, as you do not need to be a member to send them a donation. I have considered re-joining, and a couple of weeks ago, I almost did exactly that. I had the application all filled out, the check all filled out, with both stuffed into a sealed and stamped envelope, ready to go. In fact, I was on my way to the post office to mail the thing when the phone rang and I stopped to answer it before heading out the door.
It was the NRA. The girl representing them was nice and polite, and asked me to listen to a recorded message from Wayne La Piere that was vitally important. I held on the line and listed to Wayne prattle on about the imminent passage of H.R. 45, which would surely happen if I didn't join up right then and there.
The problem with that, of course, is that H.R. 45 was dead as a doornail when I heard Wayne's message. Now, I fully expect it to come back after the mid term elections in an even more restrictive form, but he wasn't talking about it coming back. He was talking about it being a present reality.
After the recording, the nice girl on the phone asked me if I was for or against many of the items on my "ten worst list" above. After I answered, she went on to say that the NRA is the only organization out there
fighting against the passage of such laws on a local, state, and federal level. Then, she tried to clinch the deal with, "So, can I count on you to join the fight for freedom today?"
All of those things that she said the NRA would fight for
on a local, state, and national levelwere the reality of my experience in exercising my second ammendment rights in California. The promise to prevent these things from happening suddenly had a hollow ring to it.
I politely told the girl on the phone that I actually was on my way to the post office to mail in my membership application. I didn't tell her that I changed my mind and decided not to go.
-JP
