Today’s NRA-hates us state is Massachusetts. Sure, sure, bitch and moan that NRA isn’t spending any of your dues in your backyard. You’d be wrong.
The NRA Foundation spent more than $47,000 on grants for 18 organizations in the state last year. If you want more, well, get thee to a Friends dinner. Because I know quite a few of the gun blogging folks like to shoot at Harvard, you can support an upcoming dinner not far down the road in Leominster. And tell your buddies at the Leominster gun clubs to get their butts into those seats as well.
The Civil Rights Defense Fund gave financial support to two Massachusetts cases in 2010.
Can you provide links to what those cases are?
I don’t think the kind of stuff that the Foundation does is what people bitch about. What has ILA done relative to our draconian laws? In following the hearings in the MA legislature relative to gun laws, I’ve seen no mention of anyone from NRA.
Of course, given what they seem to have done in New Hampshire, that may be a good thing. Whatever happened to Sebastian’s pending post on that?
While GOAL is a separate organization, they are the recognized NRA state association in Massachusetts. Because the Bay State has a competent and full-time group that works with NRA on legislative issues, they don’t have to spend as much time directly in the state. But given that they do mailings, alerts, and work with GOAL, it’s unreasonable for anyone there to dismiss the role they do play. If you really get involved, you’ll see how both groups work together in the state.
But, since you’re so quick to pick on ILA, I’ll remind you that the Foundation & these programs are at the core of what will actually win these fights in the long-term.
On the cases, you can try the links I provided for you to do research to click through and see what they mention. Or, you can lend a few bucks to the cause and donate to CRDF so you receive their annual reports.
GOAL is great and carries the lions share of lobbying duties in the state. Having NSSF close by in CT is also a help.
But a discussion of what is happening in MA would be incomplete without a plug for the org I helped create and run which is Comm2A (http://www.comm2a.org). Hit the website and check out our actions in Hightower v. Boston and Fletcher v. Haas.
I don’t see how anyone could complain about the NRA’s role in Massachusetts. With regards to how far gone the state is with anti-gun legislation, if the NRA could sponsor a bill that would ban all guns, and it passed, wouldn’t it be be an improvement? :-)
My post probably came out snippier than I intended. I’m not an NRA basher (I’m a life member), I just think there are probably better places to donate to effect change here. I think that’s the core of the argument of the ‘NRA doesn’t do squat for X’ types.
GOAL does a great job, but they can only accomplish so much. They’ve done very well at preventing more bad laws from passing, but haven’t gotten much traction at reducing the bad laws we already have.
I’m sure you’re right that NRA is very supportive behind the scenes, but they have almost no visibility politically here. That may well be a good strategy, but it does fuel the ‘NRA has abandoned MA’ meme.
From looking at the CRDF site, it looks like they got one guy’s LTC reinstated. The 2nd case is harder to follow, but it sounds like it’s been bouncing up and down the MA courts for years. I don’t think we’ll see much in the way of relief out of the MA state courts; it’ll take the federal courts to really fix anything.
I think SAF and Comm2A are the only way we’ll see real change here, as the political climate is just too far gone. I did however proudly volunteer at GOAL’s annual shooting event for legislators.
I for one would not be able to be a Concealed Carry Instructor in this state without my NRA Instructor Certification and associated Liability Insurance afforded to me by them.
I would also venture many affiliated ranges would not have insurance as well without the NRA.
I also participate in the Boy Scout rifle merit badge certifications for the Scouts in my area. If they go to the annual outing, almost all of the costs for the ammo and rifles comes from funds raised by the Friends of the NRA events.
Make no mistake, I do not consider the NRA perfect, but there are a lot of things that go under the radar with them.
So where are all the NFA cases listed? W
I don’t mean to knock your posts, cause I am an NRA supporter. But, $47,000 is not that much money.
Does the money raised in a state stay in that state?
What did the $47,000 go towards? Education programs? Training programs? Range services? Legal defense?
From what I read, the NRA foundation is an organization that is funded from separate fund raising activities and not directly from membership dues. So to say that foundation expenditures are dues expenditures might not be totally true.
It’s not a ton of money, but that’s because there aren’t as many gun owners left in Massachusetts and they aren’t supporting the programs to the same degree that other states do.
A minimum of 50% raised through the Friends program stays in state.
NRA Foundation is a wing of the NRA family, but it supports many of the programs that are operated out of General Operations.
As Kelly points out, without the programs that these events & the Foundation and your dues fund, there would be no training, no range support, no new shooter programs. All of that comes out of the side that you throw under the bus when you attack NRA as a blanket organization. That’s why, unless there are specific complaints, I don’t take the bitching seriously. There are more than 180 programs focused on shooters, and any one gripe you have about the organization doesn’t apply to those other programs.
Along the lines of what Jeff’s saying, I’m from New Jersey. And whatever the absolute dollar value of NRA’s contribution to Jersey issues, it’s clear we’re very, very far down their list of priorities.
But honestly, that’s as it should be. I don’t tend to think of NRA as my advocate in the state, but as my advocate in Washington. We’re so far gone here that they can do little good, and the liberal bias and general ignorance of gun rights issues that prevails here means that the NRA brand is usually a liability in the court of public opinion in the Garden State. When I contribute to the NRA, I don’t expect them to lobby NJ politicians; I expect them to lobby the Congress, and to keep the gun culture alive in the greater US, so that we can make sure Jersey and states like her are isolated enclaves in a nation friendly to gun rights.
I think NRA does very little for New Jersey, and that’s why I’m a member.
Very very well put Elmo. I agree 100% with your post.