Author: Sebastian

I noticed some have taken my criticism of some aspects of NRA’s performance on Friday to hate on the NRA in general, and Wayne LaPierre in particular. It was my intention to offer some constructive criticism, rather than be a funnel for NRA hate. Because to be honest, we do not have time for this.

You go to war with the NRA and the Wayne LaPierre you have, not the NRA and Wayne LaPierre you want. And we are going to war. We are arrayed against the entire left-wing apparatus, and they mean to extract their pint of blood. They mean to extract gallons of it from us if they can get away with it. While the independent grassroots action we’ve seen this week is a huge components of the battle plan, you still need what NRA can bring to the table, which is specifically a huge network of people who tend to only be peripherally involved in this issue (and this goes beyond their 4 million dues paying members), and access to lawmakers that no other gun rights groups can match, and really no or few other lobbies in DC and the 50 state capitols can match.

I’ve heard a lot of folks saying they’ll just keep donating money to SAF. I do not want to discourage this because SAF is doing some excellent work. It’s important that SAF and the Court strategy be well funded. But understand that is a fallback strategy. If we need SAF, it means we’ve already lost, and are now relying on good lawyering and the Courts to save us where it can. While I have a great deal of faith in the former part of that equation, particularly when it comes to SAF (Alan Gura), I have very little faith in the latter (the Courts). Suggesting donating to SAF is all it takes is the equivalent of, before even seriously engaging the enemy, suggesting we cede the entire battlefield, and retreat to the outskirts of the capital and make a last, desperate stand there. We might have a lot of faith in our generals who will be leading that fight, but it’s not a winning strategy. We fight them here. And NRA is the only organization that has the capability to fight on this ground. So if you have some money to donate to NRA, or can spare the dollars to buy a membership do it!

If you think it’s time for Wayne to retire, or think NRA’s performance here or there left a lot to be desired, we can have those discussions after we’re out of danger. We do not have time right now to scream for Wayne’s head on a platter. The opposition is going to see replacing generals at this point as a sign of weakness and disarray. It can only serve to provoke a broader and more fierce attack. We’re going to war, and this is the NRA we have, and more importantly, this is the NRA we can win with. But only if we hang together, because our alternative is to surely hang separately. There is certainly time to discuss strategy, and offer constructive criticism about where we each individually we think the movement should go, but as for pooh flinging, there is no time for that.

I meant to get this up yesterday, but there is, allegedly, an annual holiday of some importance coming up, and we headed out to my dad’s immediately after the presser to do an early Christmas. Having initially been sorely disappointed in NRA’s performance, I think I’m ready to offer thoughts, and some constructive criticism.

The Bad

While sleeping on it helped my sense of perspective some, no amount of time is making me feel better about the parts of the press conference I thought were a disaster. So let’s start with an obvious thing; it was infiltrated by Code Pink — twice. Despite some jabs being made by anti-gun folks about NRA checking out media more than they want to check out gun owners, clearly they didn’t check very hard. You could take this two ways. NRA members generally take attacks on the organization personally, so a visible and rude attack on NRA’s ability to speak is likely to motivate members to action. But the protesters also interfere with NRA’s ability to try to change the narrative, with the media burying the rest of the story to tell everyone how NRA was so bravely protested by gun violence prevention advocates demanding an assault weapons ban. In the big picture, I think the Code Pink protesters were a minor setback. I thought there was worse.

Wayne’s introductory speech detracted from what could have been a very persuasive and focused message. I’d say about 1/3rd of Wayne’s introduction was good and on point, and 2/3rds of it was unnecessary, unproductive, and unpersuasive. NRA faces the same issue that many causes on the center-right face; we’re not reaching young people. The youth vote went overwhelmingly to Obama. So why in the world would Wayne decide attacking violent video games and lambasting popular culture was a smart thing to do? You might reach a lot of NRA’s core audience with that message, but it turns off NRA’s future, most of whom play those games. Whether Wayne realizes it or not, many young people who are getting into guns and the shooting sports, developed that interest because of those very video games that Wayne derided. Does NRA really want to end up having to do a marketing campaign years from now, like Oldsmobile did, saying “It’s not your father’s NRA?” And we know what happened to Oldsmobile. While I understand we need to win this fight today, I’d hate to do that at the cost of sacrificing NRA’s future.

I agree the topic of mental health needed to be touched upon, but why go so far as to advocate creating a national database of the mentally ill? Why pick a fight with mental health and privacy  advocates? I think there are better ways to frame that issue than suggesting we need to create some Orwellian national database. My final criticism is that I think Wayne’s speech writers, and his delivery, left much to be desired. I think one problem with Wayne is that they keep his rhetoric folksy and, to be blunt, simple minded. I don’t think LaPierre is naturally either of those two things; it’s not his background, and not who he is. He should be himself. When Wayne delivers speeches, they don’t honestly connect with me at all, and I often feel like his speech writers don’t have a very high opinion of the education level of NRA members. We can make our case for our beliefs without boiling away real substance and going with simplistic notions like “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun,” like our people have about the same moral depth of understanding as you’d get from a spaghetti western. Also, when we’re increasingly dealing with shooters who have a mental illness, they aren’t “bad guys”, they are deranged. They are sick in the head. That changes the moral dimension.

The Good

I thought the policy proposal was quite good, and as we showed a few days ago, is very much in line with what people think will work. Recruiting Former Representative Asa Hutchinson to spearhead the effort was a stroke of brilliance. By suggesting we bring more police officers, retired police or military, give them proper training and establishing clear and responsible standards, we will help keep law enforcement on our side when it comes to the legislative fight. Folks who can remember back to the 1994 assault weapons ban remember that Clinton included it in an overall crime bill that put 100,000 new law enforcement officers on the street. This cost us the support of the Fraternal Order of Police, which was a huge blow in the fight to stop it. The police were basically bought. I suspect the White House will try to similar maneuver, though with mental health being the focus instead of crime. Despite much criticism about the timing, I think NRA’s timing was good, as the media is now covering this stories as people are starting to get with family. I just wish NRA had put more emphasis on the policy, and gotten to it more quickly, after briefly framing the issue (and some of the framing in Wayne’s speech, like explaining contexts in which no one argues guns are a bad thing, was genuinely good).

It is easy to Monday Morning quarterback. I can sympathize with the fact that Wayne LaPierre likely didn’t get any sleep this entire week, and under those circumstances, it can be difficult to deliver your A game. Also, having the entire media, the White House, celebrities, talking heads, fair weather conservatives, and the left-wing activists all playing pile on is tiring and demoralizing. The death threats probably didn’t help either. But I firmly believe that Wayne’s style and rhetoric is sorely in need of an update, and after a week of taking a beating, I was looking for something different, and I didn’t quite get it.