by Lawrence Person in his Battleswarm Blog does a great job in providing a summation of the issues facing the NRA. I think it is a must read. In full disclosure he does quote me in his post but don’t hold that against him!
As to getting its house in order, he writes:
There are some that claim cleaning up the NRA would offer too much succor to the gun-grabbers. But the organizational dysfunction and self-dealing is already out in the open, and is already hurting the NRA’s effectiveness (and has been for several years). If not now, when? Better to do it now, the year before an Presidential election, with Republicans holding the White House and the Senate able to block gun-grabbing initiatives, than during it.
Other than being a member, I am very far indeed from the center of NRA power. For all the grumbling over the NRA caving over bump-stocks, there’s no other organization with the size, scope and political power of the NRA to protect Second Amendment rights in America. But to do that, the NRA has to be on solid organizational and financial footing, and right now it does not appear to be on either. The NRA has to get its own house in order, this year, or expect forces hostile to it and its goals to do it for them.
Sebastian at Shall Not Be Questioned also links to this blog post. He endorses the idea of an independent outside audit team from one of the Big Four accounting firms to come in and do an audit. He is a bit skeptical that it will happen and that even if it does happen then the results will be kept internally.
But just because its sensible doesn’t mean it will happen. I’ve seen a lot of sensible things fall by the wayside in a non-profit and we don’t have to deal with paid staff who also have opinions, and have a lot more time and incentive to manipulate things to come out in their favor. I’m not holding my breath. Even if it does happen, it’ll probably be kept internal.
I hope he is wrong in his skepticism but he has always had a better feel for the inner workings in Fairfax than most anyone else not named Knox.
I joined the NRA for the first time the day after Obama was elected president. I just knew that the fight was going to be needing all hands on deck. I stayed for 2 years, and then, after I saw some of the things that the NRA did, and the ratings they gave to politicians that I knew for a fact to be anti gun were positive, I withdrew from them. Of course it was not the dues cost. For most anyone who claims that it is too much, I am certain that they could find some believer to pay it for them.
I went along for a few years, and then, when I saw how things seemed to be heading again, I did some soul searching and joined the GOA. I knew that they are a no compromise group, who are always at the forefront of the gun rights battle. Given some real hard thought, and not a little prayer, I finally decided that I would add my name back again to the NRA, and hopefully allow them to add enough numbers to make it to 6 million members some day soon. I still had about 6 months left on my membership, when the midterms came up, and I re-upped my membership, to get just a tiny bit of money into the hands of the NRA for the fight against the anti gun crowd. I am not a rich person, in fact, I am on a fixed income. So I tend to pay attention where I spend my money.
To say that I am disappointed in the NRA would be putting it mildly. Oliver North as president this past year was a good choice, I think, and by him being booted out,which we can assume he was, and replaced by one of the gang, does not look good on the part of leadership. If they do not get their act together and very, very soon, they are possibly looking at a revolt of the membership that was done in the 1970's, when things were all torn apart. Might that be a good thing? Who knows, but I wish it could be avoided. I have suggested that some of the leading pro gun groups attempt to get themselves together and stop working at odds with each other. The NRA seems to be doing anything that they can to fight the things that the GOA is doing, even when it is the GOA that is responsible for most of the legislative fights going on at the state level. Working on the same page, would seem like a much better use of resources, which are always at a premium.
But I am just a single gun owner, who has less than no power or support. But I suspect that many others feel the same way. I have not fought the fight for the length of time that many have. But I have the advantage that many of them have also got. I would never lose a distance foot race, because no matter how long the other person would run, I would not quit, until they either quit, or I died. That is the secret to winning. Don't quit. That is how we can win the gun rights battle.
I would say to also join your state's gun rights group. Make sure it is a real gun rights group and not a money making venture of some parasite who thinks he can make money off of gun owners. In North Carolina, that would be Grass Roots North Carolina. While we didn't get pro-gun bills across the line, we did stop a bill that would have allowed judges to have your guns destroyed at his or her discretion even if you were found innocent.