Shall Not Be Questioned » Gun Rights Organizations

Congratulations to SAF

Sebastian — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:35:10 +0000

That’s the best picture I’ve seen in a while. I just wish there was an extra zero on the end of that.

NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund Needs Your Help

Sebastian — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:18:56 +0000

I am currently running an ad for the NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund, which you will notice right under my normal ads on the right side bar. We heard they were a bit short on funds during the NRA Board Meeting, so I offered to run an ad for them for free until Annual Meeting. Unlike my other ads, I can encourage you to click on that one to make a donation to CRDF. The work CRDF does is unbelievably important right now. Not all of it is legal trial work. Much of their work is academic in nature, and CRDF has been instrumental in building the scholarship on the Second Amendment, and turning academics around into recognizing the nature of the right as individual. I encourage everyone to give as much as you can. Any donation is targeted, and does not go into NRA’s general fund. It will go directly to support building good case law, and funding the research necessary to lay the groundwork for the next big case.

NRA Meeting Expected to Be Record Breaking

Sebastian — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:03:41 +0000

The Joplin-Independent notes that the NRA event in St. Louis this year is expected to break records. It’s certainly possible, since the current record holding event was the last time NRA was in St. Louis. It’s good to be heading back there for an election year event. Part of all the hoopla surrounding the NRA Annual Meeting is a flexing of NRA’s grassroots political power, in demonstrating to elected leaders that NRA can get 60 to 70 thousand people to drive or fly hundreds and thousands of miles to attend. Our opponents can’t even get that many people not to go to Starbucks for a day.

Scott Bach for NRA Board of Directors Video

Bitter — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:50:27 +0000

This year, NRA board candidate Scott Bach also decided to put together a video highlighting some of his work on behalf of gun owners in the last few years. Take a look at it, and I think you’ll see why we consider him worth your support.

No related posts.

Missing Your NRA Ballot?

Bitter — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 14:00:22 +0000

If you’re an NRA voting member, you should have received your ballot magazine in the mail by now. If you did, then you can go right back to our endorsement post and fill out the little circles next to the names of all of those fine gentlemen.

However, I be a good number of you are about to start commenting and emailing that you never got your ballot this year! Type and rant away…please. Unless you belong to one of the following groups:

You live in Hawaii. (I’m jealous.)
You went green (or simply hassle-free) and get your magazine digitally.
You just recently became eligible to vote.
You don’t take a magazine at all.

This isn’t the full list of exemptions, but it’s the overwhelming majority. I’m in this category because of the digital subscription.

Anyway, we all get our ballots by first class mail, and the first mailing is going out on February 1. So, provided Congress doesn’t say to hell with it and shut down the USPS, your ballot should arrive sometime shortly after this date. I presume that members in Hawaii get their ballots by first class mail because of the snail’s pace mail at other classes can take to get out there.

For anyone who has recently become eligible to vote or will become so before the “deadline” in mid-February, there will be another first class mailing towards the end of February.

If you are not in any of those categories and your February magazine has not yet arrived, give it a little extra time. It’s not impossible that mail is moving a little slower right now, as it has been for us for the last couple of months. I would say that if you still haven’t received it by February 4, give NRA a call and inquire. You will probably need to ask to speak with the Secretary’s Office about a missing ballot, but they may have procedures for their standard member number phone folks to handle it with so many different kinds of ballots now going out thanks to the digital subscriptions.

David Coy for NRA Board of Directors Video Introduction

Bitter — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:00:54 +0000

I am almost always happy to see it when candidates for the NRA Board of Directors try new ways to engage with NRA members. There are certainly enough empty seats on the Board, and there are many who you simply won’t ever have the chance to engage with if you don’t live in their state.

Anyway, David Coy put this together for his 2011 run, but I think it’s an introduction worth sharing this year.

NRA Board of Director Election 2012 – Endorsements

Bitter — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:03:36 +0000

It’s that time of year again. As you start to receive the ballots for the NRA Board of Directors Elections in your mailboxes, we hope you’ll consider casting a vote for some of the candidates we believe contribute something unique to the Board.

***Scott Bach – Newfoundland, New Jersey

When most gun owners have given up on New Jersey, Scott has stayed to fight. He defends gun owners regardless of their interest – .50 caliber bans, bear hunters, collectors who want the freedom to buy more than one gun a month, and many more. Scott is the Executive Director of the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs, the state organization leading the fight for gun rights in the Garden State. He’s an attorney who has used his skills and network to defend both the First & Second Amendment. When a public school was caught sending home anti-gun literature, he sued to mandate that pro-gun literature be honored in the same way. When NY/NJ Port Authority police locked up a Utah man for lawfully traveling with firearms, Bach put the resources of ANJRPC to work to sue the officials who unlawfully arrested him in violation of federal protections. Through ANJRPC, Scott also works with competitive shooters and manages a large shooting range. Their member clubs have trained Olympic shooters. He is also a member of state groups in seven other states, actively supporting their efforts with what he has learned from the political and cultural fights to preserve gun rights in New Jersey.

Scott also gets new media and the importance of embracing new technology to advance the issue, and at one time, he launched his own blog on the Star-Ledger’s website to counter the anti-gun Bryan Miller. He has done interviews to discuss his thoughts on how new media can be leveraged to advance the Second Amendment and develop the shooting sports as well as where he saw the push for our rights headed in light of Heller the last time he ran for the board. He notes that the ANJRPC range may have been the first in the country to offer its members free wifi in the clubhouse.

***Joseph DeBergalis – Buffalo, New York

Joe DeBergalis is a career law enforcement professional fighting for gun rights in New York as Vice-President of the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association. He’s also a competitive shooter in pistol, rifle, and shotgun sports, as well as a certified instructor.

DeBergalis has put his background to good use by serving as the Chair of the Education & Training Committee, Vice-Chair of the Action Pistol Committee of the Board. He’s no slacker politically, either. He’s the Election Volunteer Coordinator for four New York Congressional Districts and the District of Columbia. On the new media front, he’s a moderator at AR15.com and Match Chairman of AR15.com/Rockcastle Shooting Complex Pro AM Three Gun Championship.

It’s worth noting his work in New York, and not just because it’s a challenging state. Other pro-gun leaders in the state have heaped praise on Joe for his efforts there, and that speaks volumes for his usefulness in serving the pro-Second Amendment cause. Here’s his take on what gun owners could do to get more people involved in our community.

***Jeffrey Crane – Annapolis, Maryland

As President of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, Jeff Crane knows how to make sure hunting & shooting sports aren’t overlooked by Congress. He currently serves on the Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council that advises the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture on agency activities that related to our the hunting and shooting communities. He has recently been serving on the NRA’s Hunting and Wildlife Conservation Committee and the Government Affairs Committee for Safari Club International.

In his role with CSF, Jeff also oversees sportsmen’s caucuses in 38 state capitals. Some are more active than others, but they’ve played an important role over the years not just working on hunting policy, but also worked on general gun issues in their states. The caucuses are a vehicle to help organize friendly lawmakers and get them talking about the issues.

I realize that this is heavily hunting, but that’s because it’s his background. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t “get” the Second Amendment or gun ownership for self-defense or the shooting sports. Considering NRA has to have a well-rounded board to represent all parties interested in our rights, we believe that Jeff would make an absolutely great addition to the Board to represent hunting rights and the shooting sports while making sure that the core issues in the Second Amendment debates are heard by leaders.

***David Coy – Adrian, Michigan

If there was one thing we have heard in the last year from board members, staffers, and people who pay attention to the needs of running NRA as an organization, it was that David Coy, an accounting professor from Michigan, needed to be put back onto the Board of Directors. Unfortunately, he was just under 2,500 votes shy of re-election last year, and he passed on running a campaign for 76th Director to someone else. That’s not because he is unwilling to serve, though.

His biography doesn’t sound nearly as exciting on the shooting front as some because his financial background is most needed on the Audit & Finance Committees. In other words, he contributes to the areas that keeps NRA running, not just the fun stuff at the range. (Though, he has also served on shooting sports committees, too.) The strengths we had highlighted to us over and over by so many people were his knowledge subjects of accounting, financial reporting, and internal control procedures for non-profit organizations. Besides the number crunching, he’s also active in the political battles as an Election Volunteer Coordinator.

***Joel Friedman – Pasadena, California

As the 76th Director, Joel has had to run twice in the last couple of years, and he could use the help to secure a three year term on the board. We sat down with him in Pittsburgh and talked about various issues, namely the struggles of gun owners in California.

He plays well with other organizations, as evidenced by this endorsement thread by several folks involved in Calguns. Based on much of the history you can find on the web, Joel has been involved in the many sides of this issue that need attention & support in a state that is otherwise so frustrating to gun owners. Whether it’s the NRA Foundation & shooting sports & youth programs supported by the Friends of NRA or the legislative battles at the state level, you can find he’s been involved at every level.

________

As always, there are plenty of good people on the ballot. Just because we did not list someone here does not mean they aren’t worthy of a seat on the board. These are people we have either worked with directly or know enough about their contributions to the organization that they stand out and deserve your vote.

In the next few weeks, we’ll put up videos from the candidates and more.

Telling Our Own Stories

Bitter — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:39:44 +0000

I attended the NRA Board of Directors meeting this weekend, and anyone interested in the general commentary can check my Twitter timeline. But there was at least one topic I thought worthy of a longer post.

Susan Howard of the Public Affairs Committee made an important point to the rest of the NRA Board of Directors when she gave her committee report on Saturday. She felt it was time for the board to tell their own stories about what they do and how they are involved with the movement to protect our rights. Susan reported that she talked to both Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox about some kind of page or site to really meet your NRA board of directors and get the information on what moves them to serve and stand up for the Second Amendment.

Personally, I say that it’s about damn time. Susan argued it was time to tell the stories that show we’re really the good guys. I think this is a good lesson we can apply more in the broader movement, too.

The anti-gun groups will try to say that if you care about the safety of your family, you’re just paranoid. We need to make sure that we counter with the fact we care about the safety of our families because we love them, and we will do what we must to protect their lives. The best way to counter it isn’t to argue with those groups. It’s to tell others who are undecided on the issue why we’re good folks who can be trusted to safely exercise our rights.

When it comes to the shooting sports, we can apply the same ideas. Anti-gunners will try to say shooters are just compensating for something else, but we know that recreational shooting is fun. The best way to counter it is to tell non-shooters why about what that great time at the range, along with an offer to get them out there to see for themselves. We’re the fun folks, and that’s our story to tell.

As much as we’ve mocked Meet the NRA before, this kind of project should really be CSGV’s worst nightmare. When our people start showing that they are normal folks who simply believe in the Constitution, want to defend their loved ones, and know how to safely have a great time at the range, it will be a perfect illustration to how out-of-touch the extremist anti-gun groups really are with average Americans.

2A Scholars: The Next Generation

Sebastian — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:16:05 +0000

Anyone who’s aware of the history of the black civil rights movement knows that it was a multi-generational struggle. There’s little reason to believe that the movement to protect the civil right of keeping and bearing arms is going to be any different. The greats of our movement, who laid the scholarly foundations that made the successes in Heller and McDonald possible, are unfortunately getting old. It is necessary to incubate and foster a new generation of legal minds to continue the scholarship necessary to take this struggle well into the 21st century. It is with this in mind that I spent the weekend as a guest to NRA’s Civil Rights Defense Fund.

The CRDF hosted a seminar for up-and coming legal scholars, hosted by the very people who put Second Amendment legal scholarship on the map, and made the “standard model” the mainstream viewpoint. It featured lectures from Don Kates, Dave Hardy, Joyce Malcolm, Bob Cottrol, Dave Kopel, Nick Johnson, Steve Halbrook, and several others folks who I will feature as I speak more about the weekend in upcoming posts. I should note that if the caliber of people I met this weekend is any indication, the Second Amendment will be in good hands. As someone with no formal legal training, I certainly felt out of my league. The seminar attendees came from all four corners of North America. From Maine to Florida, over to California, up to Idaho and onward to Alberta. Yes, we even had a Canadian attendee.

I’ll have more to relay as the week progresses, but while the Brady Campaign were busy lighting candles to mourn the passing of their relevance, we were busy trying to secure the future of Second Amendment scholarship. This was a first of its kind event, but if this weekend is any indication, I’m very optimistic for future successes.

The NRA App

Sebastian — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:11:46 +0000

I’ve been bugging folks at NRA that they need to do apps for iOS and Android apps for a while now. Looks like they’ve gotten around to producing one. Essentially it acts as a portal to NRA News, ILA alerts, and a lot of NRA’s social media efforts. As a just out of the gate app, I’d give a B-. Some things I’d change:

Make a version that is iPad/Tablet enabled.
Allow live viewing of NRA News, though it may do that. I’ll have to see when the show rolls around. But judging from what I see now, it does not have such a feature.
Donate/Join/Vote/Contact should happen either in app, or go to highly mobile optimized sites. It looks fine from my iPad, but from my iPhone it’s not something that could be done easily.
It should be using iOS push to get critical time sensitive information out to members. Members have to approve this on their devices.
The “Near Me” feature is a good thing to have, and probably the best feature of the App, but the information provided is very raw. It needs a bit more refinement. For instance, when I search on clubs and associations, I get a lot of police clubs. Those aren’t relevant to me. Some of the information seems to be incomplete, such as local Friends of the NRA events, and I don’t see a complete list of matches in the area.
Rep Finder should also be under “Take Action”

In short, I think this is a good start, but it could be a lot better. In general, I feel the app could be better organized. It makes some assumptions that you understand how NRA is structured. For instance, the uninitiated aren’t going to know what “ILA Alerts” are, and that the NRA Blog is only run by a subset of NRA, and is generally non-political.

I’d think a lot bigger on an app than just to act as a portal for various efforts NRA is already doing. It’s essentially a portal, but I don’t really feel it’s engaging.