by The Everytown Gun Safety (sic) Action Fund – their PAC for supporting anti-rights candidates – is trying to use the 154th anniversary of the NRA’s founding to raise money. They are seeking $154,000 or $1,000 for each year the NRA has been around. This is according to an email I received from them this morning.
I’ll be honest. I wish the NRA was the all-powerful, big bad wolf that Bloomberg’s Everytown uses in money raising fear mongering. I really do. Reality says differently.
While it would be easy to blame Tish James and the New York lawsuit for the NRA’s decline in political power, that would be a false narrative. I place the blame squarely on the heads of the grifters and those who enabled them along with the law firm who thought it was fine to rape and pillage the NRA’s coffers. The repugnance felt by many current and former members over their actions is certainly justified.
That said, all of the grifters are gone and most of their enablers as well. As my friend and former director Tim Knight has said, it is time to come back. Tim was one of the first directors who called out the problems and left when he was prevented from fulfilling his fiduciary duties. The people running the NRA today from the executive staff to the officers to the majority of the board are not those who almost ran it into the ground.
Thus, some alternative suggestions on where to make donations to support gun rights.
First, if you let your membership lapse, now is the time to rejoin.
Second, the mid-term elections are less than one year away. The NRA-Political Victory Fund needs to replenish it funds in order to fight the good fight. You can donate here.
Third, you can donate to the NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund which helps support 2A litigation. Here is where you can donate.
Finally, you can just send a check made out to NRA-ILA. If you want to specify it is for litigation, put litigation in the memo field. That is what I’ve done. Send that check to NRA-ILA, attn John Commerford, 11250 Waples Mill Road, Fairfax, VA 22030.
Any or all of the above are a good way to tell Bloomberg and his minions who would take away your right to defend yourself and your family to go screw themselves.
Another place to lay blame: Wayne & his helpers focused messaging exclusively on what appealed primarily to one generation. That generation is now bowing out of civil society and, to be honest in coming years, life itself. The 2-3 generations of adults behind that would normally be refilling these roles weren’t raised to be nearly as civically minded on social participation, plus when they went looking for these spaces, NRA wasn’t speaking their language or doing things that interested them.
One example I still sometimes see mocked is when Wayne used the NRA microphone to get up and tell generations of young men who grew up just fine playing video games that they are part of the school shooter problem. NRA will always struggle to get those men back because at that point, he declared that the NRA was out of touch with society and gun owners.
I don’t know how NRA fixes the messaging problem to be honest. My gut is that it doesn’t directly as much as rebuilding services and being a name that gun owners always hear in a positive way from others around them is really the only way. I have specific ideas and examples of ways that could happen, but so far the traction and interest on actually engaging in any meaningful discussion (other than you and one additional candidate) is nil. I suspect I know some of the reasons why, and it’s not exactly inspiring or promising for change.
NRA’s going to get some more money from me regardless. At least, assuming that I get the trigger time in to pass my rifle instructor qual in the old lady glasses I got last year. First time looking through my scope with progressive lenses and – yeah. That’s taken a little adjustment.
While I am a Boomer, I agree wholeheartedly. I should not be in the younger half of the BOD! Everyone I nominated this year is younger than me and one younger than my younger daughter.
As to “old lady glasses”, I sympathize. I now have “bionic” eyes as thanks to cataract surgery last month I have new lens implants. I am not sure how things will look through a scope yet. I know I am still stuck with using readers for close up stuff.
Funny, I just got my long-overdue Rx update myself. One eye got a little better, other a little worse, still single-vision high-index though. My optician’s a shooter, and she worked out the best Rx’s to be specifically optimized for pistol, rifle and “general purpose everyday,” and said that unless I was going to be earning serious coin on the competition circuiit the three were so close together that my GP’s are still “match grade” for both.
And now that I have the eyes to see my targets again, I get a broken collarbone in a car accident. Go figure… guess I can forget about quality time with a Garand for Memorial Day next year.
I just shot some metallic silhouette the other night for the first time in ages with my scoped CZ. I went in and did a fast pre-match practice, knocking down 9 of 10 rams. I joked with someone, “And this will probably be the best I shoot all night.” So true. On my first animal, I was doing good taking my time getting my position adjusted the right spot in my glasses and scope. Then I had a malfunction and didn’t have my timer up in front of me. I overcompensated in rushing to clear it so I missed high in my speed shooting. After that point, score was shot. Oh well.
One silver lining: I ended up just 2 points behind a teen girl shooting it for the 2nd time ever who was elated by not coming in last. I’ll come in last 100 times to create that kind of joy in a future trainer. (She’s working on the process of becoming an apprentice instructor for pistol. In taking her student class, she outshot guys who have been shooting since before her dad was born!)
There was a teen girl in one of my classes who outshot her father in the man on man semifinals and then went up against a Special Forces operator in the finals. That was a straight up tie and had to be reshot. Second time he barely won and said if he didn’t have 1000 rounds a month of government ammo, he couldn’t have done it.
That sounds kinda like my ex and I in college, and the cops we were training with. The range tradition was “worst score buys the burritos for everybody,” and somehow while I was way down in the pack there was always SOMEBODY a point or two below me. The Ex? She was actually a better shot but too young to have a carry permit of her own.
Cataract surgery is the greatest thing ever. After being legally blind (without correction) for my whole life, I can actually see. I can shoot and even drive without glasses. Still need them for reading. So if ever get a middle of the night home invasion, I will just have to find my gun and light (ear pro if I have enough time) without groping for my glasses. Nothing helps on the cross dominant problem though.
Richard, have you tried McMillan Tilt? Cross-dominant Olympic gold medalist who canted his 1911 at about 45 degrees bringing the sights in front of his left eye.
Not really a problem with pistol. I just move the gun slightly to align. Long gun, I have to switch sides. When I do the one handed drills, strong hand is like I am shooting bullseye and weak hand is a gang banger special.
Maybe the NRA could start winning over the Electronic Generation by partnering with a game dev. Back in 9-11/GWOT days Kahr Arms commissioned a couple cheap, simple and fun Flash games where your job was to shoot Osama or Saddam popups but not hostages… and IIRC about 10-15 years ago Mastiff Games had a pretty good shooting range simulator called Recoil.
So why couldn’t the NRA partner with some young, lean and hungry game dev to hatch “NRA Range Day”? Have it start with a little Basic Safety stuff then move into a range of scenarios using partner-licensed firearms. Ideally, even have AI representations of some of the great competitors of yore, like going head-to-head with Elmer Keith or Bart Skelton in big-bore sixgun…
May not be an issue with progressives or rifles scopes but when I first got bifocals, I looked like a literal turkey moving my head to try to get the front sight in focus. Got trifocals and the problem went away as the middle band was perfect.
Ironically, I was a Doom player as a teen in the 1990s, and that was what drove me away from the NRA despite enjoying shooting with friends. It was great stress relief, but I never equated pixels on a screen with other people.
I’ll shove what I can to ILA.