by Tom Gresham, host of Gun Talk, arranged a deal with the NRA for Life Memberships at the reduced price of $300. The offer ran through the end of February and started in early January. The offer proved quite popular and the NRA had to set up a special toll-free number to handle the calls.
How successful was this offer? 16,630 new Life members successful! Or in dollar terms, $4,989,000 worth of membership dues.
To put this in perspective, the Brady Campaign has raised about the same amount of money since the Newtown shootings. However, it took their whole organization to raise the money as opposed to one guy who wanted to do something.
As a NRA Life Member, I say, thanks Tom!
Below is the announcement from Tom about the campaign’s success:
Mandeville, LA – In less than two months, radio and TV host Tom Gresham delivered 16,630 new Lifetime Members to the National Rifle Association, amounting to more than $4.9 million dollars in membership dues. Gresham announced a special $300 Lifetime Membership deal with the NRA on Thursday, January 10th, via Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/Guntalk, complete with a special direct phone number. The deal ended last Thursday.“It’s incredible that we were able to send the NRA almost five million dollars in only seven weeks,” said show host Tom Gresham. “America’s gun owners obviously want to be part of the fight to not only protect, but to regain gun rights, and they are saying so with their hard-earned dollars. At a time when money is short and people are concerned about the economy, this massive response shows just how important Second Amendment rights are to the public.”
What began with a tweet, the deal was announced on Tom Gresham’s Gun Talk Radio show each week, (http://www.guntalk.com), and went out to the 55,000-plus subscribers of the Truth Squad newsletter, (http://www.guntalk.com/truthsquad ), and to the Gun Talk Media Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/guntalkmedia). Word of the deal continued to spread through email, Twitter and Facebook and in gun shops, shooting clubs, and Internet forums all across the U.S..
In its 18th year of national syndication, Tom Gresham’s Gun Talk Radio airs live on Sundays from 2PM-5PM Eastern, and runs on more than 137 stations, plus on XM (Ch. 165) Satellite Radio. All Gun Talk shows can be downloaded as podcasts at http://www.guntalk.libsyn.com and Apple iTunes, or through one of the available Apps: the Gun Talk iPhone App, the Blackberry Podcast App, and the Gun Talk App for Android on Amazon. The Gun Talk Minute on XM also airs on XM 165, 166, 168 and Fox Sports every day throughout the week. More information is available at http://www.guntalk.com.
And what's even better is that over 16,000 people, in spite of the MSM Propaganda Blitz, have been willing to tell the "Gooberment" which side of Freedom they belong to. Keep in mind, if you carry a CHP, use Plastic to buy guns, use a FOID or get a Pistol Permit to purchase a Glock, or even get a Hunting License, that all goes into Data Bases, which, knowing how the Obama Regime thinks, are being accessed to maintain an "Enemies List."
Yeah, I know NICS is supposed to destroy the Records, but if one uses Plastic, the Credit Card Transaction for each Sale at a Gun Store is available. That's how they do an "End Around."
But it's still great to know that 16,000 people "Put Up or Shut Up!"
I gave up thinking long ago that I wasn't in some sort of enemies database given I have a C&R FFL.
Have I missed something or has the NRA not made a recent announcement about the new membership numbers recently?
If they haven't, I wonder if they are waiting to bring it out if something really moves in Congress? I know I've gotten a pile of new people to sign up, as have many of my friends. I'd like to think we're pushing over 5 million members by now.
As a Life Member, who paid $1000 for that position, I have a problem with them selling Life memberships at those prices. Life membership only pays for itself if the person makes special contributions throughout their lifetime, and $300 isn't nearly enough to endow the ongoing expense.
I have a bigger problem with the fact that this $5,000,000 doesn't quite cover the compensation packages for the NRA's top 5 executives for 2 years. Why are we paying anyone at NRA $500k to $1 million per year – much less five guys?
Sorry to be a wet blanket, but this makes no sense to me.