Year: 2007

Last month, many of you may remember I attended one of the NRA board of director’s meetings. One of the things that was talked about with some of the folks at ILA was whether they could send someone over to our Gun Blogger Rendezvous in Reno that weekend. Since they were already going to be in the area, it looked like it was something they could do, so it was arranged for Glen Caroline and Ashley Varner to come talk with us for a bit.

The main issue centered around our belief that the NRA has an image problem with a lot of members of the shooting community. As examples, Kevin Baker brought up NRA’s attempts to derail Parker as one example where NRA created an image problem for itself. Chris Byrne focused on the organizations image problems in regards to Gun Owners of America and its supporters, and suggested a few things NRA could do to help appeal to shooters, such as getting the CMP refunded, and allowing the military to sell surplus ammunition to civilians rather than having to destroy it, as is current practice.  The subject of getting a hearing in Congress on ATF abuses was also suggested.

From my point of view, I think the discussion went well. I found most of the criticisms to be fair, and the suggestions to be reasonable and achievable. But the big question put before us bloggers is what NRA can do to change its image, while still remaining a viable organization for pushing the issue forward.

As Bitter mentioned, perception is in the eyes of the beholder, and the NRA is in the unenviable position of having to hold together a coalition of sport shooters, second amendment activists, police officers, self-defense advocates, hunters, and now bloggers. These groups all have common interests, but our pet issues are different. Dave Hardy had this to say in Bitter’s comments:

Egad. I can recall when the hunters were complaining that NRA could care less about hunting, it was all about competitive shooting and politics and handguns for self defense.

And the shotgunners were complaining (with, I think, a little more basis) that they were being ignored in favor of rifle and handgun shooters.

Sadly, the NRA is in a position where there’s not much they can do without pissing someone off. While I think there are things the Association can do to help improve its image among certain groups, to some degree, this is a fundamental problem. It will only be solved by the various groups getting over themselves and working together to move the issue forward. We shooters have to be willing to help hunters stick it to the HSUS on hunting issues if we want them to help us stick it to the Brady Campaign, and stand by our side the next time an “assault weapons” ban comes up. We all have to accept that in politics you rarely get everything you want.

It’s only really by working together we’ll be able to get anywhere, and working in a coalition with mostly common interests, but some divergent ones definitely requires getting over yourself, which is difficult. As I heard SayUncle say last weekend “I’m a GOA type, it’s just that I know they can’t win.” which also reflects how I feel. My objections to GOA have to do with their tactics, not their overall belief system. We all share the same goal. I think too many of us have forgotten that.

I notice that there’s a Jackson recall petition out there. I would highly urge everyone to not vote for Joaquin Jackson in the next election, but this recall provision is a bad idea and I’ll tell you why.

It’s an election year, which means the NRA is going to need to spend a lot of money to make sure we don’t ever have to hear “President Clinton” again. This recall provision will force a special election, which will require mailing all voting members, hiring firms to design the ballot, to count, audit, and certify the results. In short; this measure is not cheap, and I’m not sure getting rid of a single board member, who I very highly doubt had a prayer of keeping a seat on the board after this, is worth it. The damage on the Jackson thing has already been done.

I’m all for getting rid of Jackson, but this isn’t the way to go about it. I think it’s high time that Joaquin Jackson owned up and resigned his position. At this point, it’s the best thing for the movement as a whole.