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Ollie North To Be New NRA President

May 8, 2018 by 6 Comments

An alternative headline might be “The Triumph of the Staff”.

While I think Ollie North is an OK guy and a believer in the Second Amendment, I just don’t think he is the right person to be the next president of the National Rifle Association. In the release below he is being compared to Charlton Heston. In other words he will be a figurehead. What the NRA needs is not a figurehead but an effective leader in the corporate chairman of the board mold who will hold the hired staff – Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox – accountable. An effective president (or chairman of the board) would have slapped Wayne and Chris down when they sandbagged the board by suggesting regulation of bump fire stocks without consulting the board.

My second objection is North’s age. He is 74 years old. I’m sure he is a very vigorous 74 years old but it reinforces the notion that the NRA is old, white, conservative, and bit out of touch. That’s not the truth of many of the members but appearances matter. As Sebastian notes, “Exciting for whom?”

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Third, I think the gun control industry is jumping up and down with glee over the selection of Ollie North. Even though his convictions for gun running in the Iran-Contra scandal were thrown out, he will still be painted as a gun runner. This doesn’t help our cause.

Finally, his attendance record at NRA Board meetings is not stellar. For the eight meetings from January 2015 through May 2017, North only attended three meetings. He had excused absences three times and two unexcused absences. Let’s face it, it sucks.

The NRA has been in reactive mode since Parkland. We have lost more than we’ve gained since then and this is no way to win the war for the Second Amendment. We need to be proactive and I just don’t see the elevation of Ollie North to the presidency of the NRA as going in that direction.

I could be wrong. I hope I’m wrong. But the reality that I’m seeing on the ground right now seems to be saying I’m not wrong.

The full announcement of the North selection:

DALLAS – Lt. Colonel Oliver North, USMC (Ret.) will become President of the National Rifle Association of America within a few weeks, a process the NRA Board of Directors initiated this morning.

“This is the most exciting news for our members since Charlton Heston became President of our Association,” said NRA Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre. “Oliver North is a legendary warrior for American freedom, a gifted communicator and skilled leader. In these times, I can think of no one better suited to serve as our President.”

North said he was eager to take on this new role as soon as his business affairs were put in order. North is retiring from Fox News, effective immediately. “I am honored to have been selected by the NRA Board to soon serve as this great organization’s President,” North said. “I appreciate the board initiating a process that affords me a few weeks to set my affairs in order, and I am eager to hit the ground running as the new NRA President.”

The NRA Board acted quickly to begin the process for North to become President, after former NRA President Pete Brownell announced this morning that, in order to devote his full time and energy to his family business, he had decided not to seek election to a second term. In his letter to the Board, Brownell wholeheartedly endorsed North for President.

“Discussing this with Wayne LaPierre,” Brownell said in the letter, “he suggested we reach out to a warrior amongst our board members, Lt. Colonel Oliver North, to succeed me. Wayne and I feel that in these extraordinary times, a leader with his history as a communicator and resolute defender of the Second Amendment is precisely what the NRA needs. After consulting with NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris Cox, First Vice President Childress and Second Vice President Meadows, I can report there is extraordinary support for Lt. Colonel North.”

“Pete has served the NRA with great courage and distinction,” LaPierre said. “I am grateful that he joined me in enthusiastically recommending Oliver North to the Board of Directors.”

After the announcement, NRA First Vice President Richard Childress informed the board that he had multiple commitments in the next several weeks and was unable to be immediately available to serve as interim President. The Board then selected Second Vice President Carolyn Meadows to serve as its interim President. Meadows will step aside in a few weeks, when Lt. Colonel North is prepared to take on his new role as NRA President.

LaPierre congratulated the NRA Board for its action. “The board acted quickly and with great vision,” LaPierre said. “Oliver North is, hands down, the absolute best choice to lead our NRA Board, to fully engage with our members, and to unflinchingly stand and fight for the great freedoms he has defended his entire life.”

“Oliver North is a true hero and warrior for freedom,” LaPierre said, “and NRA members are proud to stand with him.”

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FASTER Program In Colorado

May 7, 2018 by

My friend Laura Carno helped bring the FASTER program to Colorado in an effort to protect students there. Kelsey Harkness of The Daily Signal traveled to Colorado to find out more about their program. She produced a video of what she found out with interviews with Laura, a SWAT commander, and a charter school founder. I think it is a great overview of what they are doing in Colorado to protect students where school boards will allow it.

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NRA Annual Meeting Attendance Sets New Record

May 7, 2018 by

Thank you, Texas!

The attendance figures released for the 2018 NRA Annual Meeting have been released. 87,154 people attended this year which broke the record set in Houston in 2013.

Bitter at Shall Not Be Questioned posted a very good graph showing attendance at NRA Annual Meetings since 2004.

I was there each day and it didn’t feel crowded. I think this might have to do with the layout of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. I will say the line to get into the Leadership Forum to see President Trump and VP Mike Pence was very, very long.

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NSSF Expels Dick’s Sporting Goods

May 5, 2018 by

The National Shooting Sports Foundation Board of Governors voted to expel Dick’s Sporting Goods from membership in the organization.  They were expelled for “conduct detrimental to the best interests of the Foundation.” The conduct was hiring a firm of anti-gun lobbyists to push more gun control.  If a company wanted to push away the hunters and shooters in their customer base, Dick’s is doing a damn good job of it.

The full release is below:

NEWTOWN, Conn. — The National Shooting Sports Foundation® (NSSF®), the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industries, Board of Governors today unanimously voted to expel Dick’s Sporting Goods from membership for conduct detrimental to the best interests of the Foundation.
Dick’s Sporting Goods recently hired a Washington D.C.-based government affairs firm, for “[l]obbying related to gun control.” Dick’s Sporting Goods CEO Edward W. Stack announced earlier this year the retail chain would end sales of modern sporting rifles, voluntarily raise the age to 21 to purchase firearms in their stores and called for more restrictive legislation. Dick’s later announced they would destroy the remaining modern sporting rifle inventory. NSSF responded that business decisions should be individually made, but was nonetheless disappointed and the decision does not reflect the reality of the vast majority of law-abiding gun owners.
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NPR Interviews “A NRA Member”

May 5, 2018 by 1 Comment

NPR covered the Leadership Forum at the NRA Annual Meeting today. In addition to the speeches by the various politicians, they sought out individual NRA members.. My friend and roommate at the NRA Annual Meeting Liston Matthews agreed to be interviewed. Liston gave what I think was a great, reasoned interview even though there were some “gotcha” questions by Mary Louise Kelly.

You can hear the whole interview embedded below.

Kudos to Liston for doing such a good job.

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NRA AM 2018 Begins

May 4, 2018 by

My first impressions of the NRA Annual Meeting is that there are a lot of people here. Moreover, there are more press and media here than normal. I had to wait about 45 minutes to get my media credentials this morning. In all the years since 2011 when I first got media credentials, I’ve never, ever had to wait to pick up my credentials.

I was in line with gun bloggers, a reporter from HuffPo, and lots of local media outlets. I don’t know whether it is because of President Trump being here or because of the potential for demonstrators post-Parkland but they are here.

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Springfield Armory Severs Ties With Dick’s

May 4, 2018 by 1 Comment

Springfield Armory issued a press release today saying that they will be severing all ties with Dick’s Sporting Goods as well as their Field and Stream subsidiary. The move comes as a result of Dick’s hiring anti-gun lobbyists to push for more gun control.

I say more firearms companies need to do like Springfield Armory.

From their release:

GENESEO, IL, (05/03/18) – Springfield Armory is severing ties with Dick’s Sporting Goods and its  subsidiary, Field & Stream, in response to their hiring a group for anti-Second Amendment  lobbying.This latest action follows Dick’s Sporting Goods’ decision to remove and destroy all modern sporting rifles (MSR) from their inventory. In addition, they have denied Second Amendment  rights to Americans under the age of 21. We at Springfield Armory believe that all law abiding American citizens of adult age are guaranteed this sacred right under our Constitution.It is clear where Dick’s Sporting Goods and its subsidiary, Field & Stream, stand on the Second Amendment, and we want to be clear about our message in response. Their position  runs counter to what we stand for as a company. At Springfield Armory, we believe in the right  and principles fought for and secured by American patriots and our founding forefathers,  without question. We will not accept Dick’s Sporting Goods’ continued attempts to deny  Second Amendment freedoms to our fellow Americans.

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Win Guns!

May 2, 2018 by

Aaron at The Weapon Blog has posted his monthly list of contests giving away firearms. I see such items as the hot new Sig P365, the Glock 19X, the new Springfield 911, and a Scar 16S

Remember like they say about the lottery, you can’t win if you don’t play. Somebody has to win one of those nice new shiny guns. Why not you?

Thanks to Aaron for this monthly service. I know keeping up with all of these is a chore.

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The Truth Is Scary To The Gun Prohibitionists!

May 2, 2018 by 1 Comment

The cult of personality known as Giffords sent out a fundraising email this afternoon. They called attention to the NRA Annual Meeting in Dallas and, in particular, to a seminar put on by Dr. John Lott regarding the false and misleading claims made by the gun control industry.

This weekend, the NRA gathers for its annual convention in Dallas, Texas.

And on Sunday morning, at 11 am, one of the most important events happens in two combined meeting rooms, D163 and D165, on the ground floor of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Conference Center. It’s titled:

“The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against the False Claims That Will be Made Against Guns During the Election”

Here’s the truth: the American people are wise to the game. They know that if more guns made America safer, we would be the safest nation on the planet.

But change will never happen until candidates and elected officials understand there is more to fear from all of us than what’s happening in Dallas this weekend.

They are correct about two things: the NRA gathers this weekend in Dallas and John Lott’s message is important. If Dr. Lott’s message, facts, and figures were not valid and not important, they would not have brought attention to it. If they didn’t consider it a threat, then they wouldn’t have attacked it.

Notice their sleight of hand in saying “if more guns made America safer, we would be the safest nation”. The former is comparative while the latter is superlative. Thus, in their false comparison used to attack gun ownership, one more firearm would make the US the safest country in the world. No one in the gun rights community has makes that argument.

Jonathan Sullivan aka Linoge at the blog Graphical Represention and its predecessor Walls of the City looked the gun control argument of more guns equal more deaths.  He found a negative correlation between the two. Moreover, he has replicated this study for a number of years as new data has become available. Using both firearms/death per capita and total firearms/deaths, he found a negative correlation. While it can’t prove that more guns equal less deaths, it can be used to show that more guns does not more deaths.

Read Sullivan’s work and read Dr. Lott’s work. Both have delved into the numbers and found the arguments of the gun prohibitionists and their gun control industry lacking.

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If You Are Conservative At The NY Times, Do You Get A Brain Transplant?

May 2, 2018 by

When Bret Stephens was a columnist and deputy editorial page editor for the Wall Street Journal, he was fairly reasonable in a country club Republican sort of fashion. He became a “NeverTrumper” in 2016 and then departed for the New York Times in 2017 to be one of their pet conservatives. Somewhere along the way, I swear his brain was sucked out and he was transformed into a Stepford conservative. That is, servile, compliant, and submissive to the progressive orthodoxy at the Times while maintaining his bland Republican ostensibly conservative face.

Yesterday, he did a joint “conversational” column with Gail Collins, a reliable lefty gun hater, on Donald Trump. In it, Stephens was asked if he still wanted to repeal the Second Amendment.

Bret: Yes, and you ought to join me in it.

Gail: Repealing the Second Amendment is totally impossible and talking about it just gives the N.R.A. another paranoia point to exploit. I say focus on the reforms that could actually happen. Like banning assault rifles. Tightening background checks.

Bret: I’m a believer in advocating supposedly impossible ideas, at least editorially. If not us, with the fantastic freedom and reach that The Times gives us as columnists, then who? Anyway, it’s not as if the N.R.A. will ever lack for paranoid fantasies about the deep state coming for their guns. So, if nothing else, starting a serious movement to repeal the Second Amendment might scare them into accepting the kind of sensible restrictions you advocate.

Gail: Instead of giving the N.R.A., um, ammunition to claim we’re out to take away every hunting rifle, I’d rather demand they defend teenage gun purchases and their “open carry” Eden in which every Applebee’s patron is packing heat.

They then return to their conversation regarding the firing of the House Chaplain by Speaker Paul Ryan.

It is kind of amazing when the 72 year old die hard lefty makes more sense that the younger pet conservative. Like I said, I swear his brains were sucked out when he joined the Times.