NRA

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NRA is NOT Endorsing Harry Reid

August 28, 2010 by

This statement was posted this afternoon on the NRA-Political Victory Fund site:

Statement From NRA-PVF Chairman Chris W. Cox On The 2010 Nevada U.S. Senate Race

Friday, August 27, 2010

In the coming days and weeks, the NRA Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF) will be announcing endorsements and candidate ratings in hundreds of federal races, as well as thousands of state legislative races. Unless these announcements are required by the timing of primary or special elections, the NRA-PVF generally does not issue endorsements while important legislative business is pending. The NRA-PVF also operates under a long-standing policy that gives preference to incumbent candidates who have voted with the NRA on key issues, which is explained in more detail here.

The U.S. Senate recently considered a number of issues important to NRA members, including the confirmation of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. Out of respect for the confirmation process, the NRA did not announce its position on Ms. Kagan’s confirmation until the conclusion of her testimony before the Senate Judiciary committee. Her evasive testimony exacerbated grave concerns we had about her long-standing hostility towards the Second Amendment. As a result, the NRA strongly opposed her confirmation and made it clear at the time that we would be scoring this important vote.

The vote on Elena Kagan’s confirmation to the Court, along with the previous year’s confirmation vote on Sonia Sotomayor, are critical for the future of the Second Amendment. After careful consideration, the NRA-PVF announced today that it will not be endorsing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for re-election in the 2010 U.S. Senate race in Nevada.

NRA members and other interested parties are encouraged to visit www.NRAPVF.org for more information as Election Day draws near.

Given that the NRA’s Chris Cox and Wayne LaPierre are about as Washington Insider as it comes, the non-endorsement of Reid is recognition of two things. First, that the membership would rise up in protest if Harry Reid were endorsed. Second is the recognition that the tide against the status quo is so strong that most who get in its way will get wiped out. Just ask Republican incumbents like Robert Bennett, Bob Inglis of South Carolina, and quite probably, Lisa Murkowski.

Charlie Cook of the Cook Report is one of the best political handicappers in Washington. He has called this election a “wave election” akin to the 1994 Republican landslide. I think he is quite accurate in his description of it. When one looks at the number of political outsiders who have taken on the establishment and won by fighting a guerrilla war, it is astounding – and that is just in the primaries to date. The NRA is not an agile organization but it is smart enough to recognize reality when it is staring it in the face. Harry Reid is in trouble and they don’t want to go down with the ship.

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Time to Bork Kagan?

June 22, 2010 by

The Bork judicial confirmation hearings were where civility and respect were first thrown out the window by the liberal members of the Senate including our current Vice President Joe Biden.

To say that they were a good thing for “constitutional democracy” is ludicrous. Serious inquiry was replaced with ideological fervor and we as a nation have paid for it ever since. Serious jurists with strong opinions as judges in lower courts have been replaced by shadowy figures whose true intellect and true judicial philosophy never comes to fore until after they are appointed to a lifetime position.


The National Review has examined papers released by the Clinton Presidential Library from the time that Elena Kagan served Bill Clinton as Deputy White House Counsel. Amongst these papers were notes that said the NRA and the KKK were equivalent organizations. While not signed by Kagan, the handwriting appears to be very similar to her handwriting. I’m sure a handwriting expert could say for sure. Robert VerBruggen who broke the story has more here and here. Nonetheless, to equate the NRA with the KKK is repugnant.

Kagan seems to have no regard for Second Amendment rights nor the organizations that defend them. Moreover, she has no judicial experience, no trial court experience, and a mediocre research record. And, finally, she doesn’t seem to understand the United States is a representative republic and not a constitutional democracy.

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A Pact with the Devil

June 16, 2010 by

On August 23, 1939, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, as the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union was unofficially known, was approved by Stalin and Hitler. Less than two years later, Hitler unleashed Operation Barbarossa upon Stalin’s Soviet Union. Russian losses in the first few months, including killed, wounded, or taken prisoner, ran into the millions. This is what happens when you make a pact with the devil.

The NRA has made such a pact with the House Democrats on HR 5175, the DISCLOSE Act, in which in return for a carve-out exempting them from it provisions they will not oppose it. Congressman Heath Shuler (D-NC 11) has submitted an amendment to the DISCLOSE Act that will reportedly exempt 501(c)4 nonprofit political organizations that have “more than one million members, have been in existence for more than 10 years, have members in all 50 states and raise 15 percent or less of their funds from corporations”. The DISCLOSE Act is the Democrat’s reaction to the Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case.

According to the Center for Competitive Politics, the DISCLOSE Act proposes legislation that:

would ban many companies from airing political ads, give candidates a windfall subsidy in ad time to respond to independent ads, regulate long-protected issue advocacy with more restrictive coordination rules and force nonprofits and trade groups to disclose their donors-even if donors don’t intend their funds to be used for influencing elections.

The NRA has obviously started to feel heat from conservative groups as well as their members. The NRA Institute for Legislative Action released this statement by email yesterday evening:

Statement From The National Rifle
Association On H.R. 5175, The Disclose Act


The National Rifle Association believes that any restrictions on the political speech of Americans are unconstitutional.

In the past, through the courts and in Congress, the NRA has opposed any effort to restrict the rights of its four million members to speak and have their voices heard on behalf of gun owners nationwide.

The NRA’s opposition to restrictions on political speech includes its May 26, 2010 letter to Members of Congress expressing strong concerns about H.R. 5175, the DISCLOSE Act. As it stood at the time of that letter, the measure would have undermined or obliterated virtually all of the NRA’s right to free political speech and, therefore, jeopardized the Second Amendment rights of every law-abiding American.

The most potent defense of the Second Amendment requires the most adamant exercise of the First Amendment. The NRA stands absolutely obligated to its members to ensure maximum access to the First Amendment, in order to protect and preserve the freedom of the Second Amendment.

The NRA must preserve its ability to speak. It cannot risk a strategy that would deny its rights, for the Second Amendment cannot be defended without them.

Thus, the NRA’s first obligation must be to its members and to its most ardent defense of firearms freedom for America’s lawful gun owners.

On June 14, 2010, Democratic leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives pledged that H.R. 5175 would be amended to exempt groups like the NRA, that meet certain criteria, from its onerous restrictions on political speech. As a result, and as long as that remains the case, the NRA will not be involved in final consideration of the House bill.

The NRA cannot defend the Second Amendment from the attacks we face in the local, state, federal, international and judicial arenas without the ability to speak. We will not allow ourselves to be silenced while the national news media, politicians and others are allowed to attack us freely.

The NRA will continue to fight for its right to speak out in defense of the Second Amendment. Any efforts to silence the political speech of NRA members will, as has been the case in the past, be met with strong opposition.

 The NRA thinks of its own needs first and I understand that. They didn’t get to be the 800-pound gorilla of gun rights by being selfless. However, and I say this as a Life Member of the NRA, they are thinking in “Inside the Beltway” terms which may be tactically sound but strategically unwise. Local and regional gun rights groups who are much more agile in responding to state and local threats to gun rights will be hung out to dry.

Instead of playing with the Democrats, the NRA should heed the advice of Niccolo Machiavelli.

A prince, therefore, being compelled knowingly to adopt the beast, ought to choose the fox and the lion; because the lion cannot defend himself against snares and the fox cannot defend himself against wolves. Therefore, it is necessary to be a fox to discover the snares and a lion to terrify the wolves.

The Prince, Chapter XVIII

Those proposing the DISCLOSE Act are nothing but wolves and the NRA should make the vote on HR 5175 a graded vote. They need to be the Lion and quit trying to play the Fox.

UPDATE:  Pelosi has pulled the DISCLOSE Act.

UPDATE #2: Put up for a vote on June 24th and it passes.

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Keyword: NRA

May 27, 2010 by

Lexicalist.com is a website that analyzes word usage on the Internet and then breaks it down by demographics. The three demographics analyzed are age, gender, and geography.

Even two weeks after the NRA Annual Meeting, North Carolina is still buzzing about the NRA coming to Charlotte as seen by this map from Lexicalist.com.


Demographics of “nra” on May 26, 2010 (from Lexicalist.com).

I used the keyword “NRA” to generate this map. As you can see, people are still buzzing more about the NRA today than they were a month ago. Lexicalist.com estimates that it is up 128%.

Go here for the full breakdown.

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NRA convention underscores anti-gun camp’s irrelevancy

May 26, 2010 by
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First Impressions of the NRA Annual Meeting

May 21, 2010 by

We attended the NRA Annual Meeting this past weekend in Charlotte. When the Complementary Spouse asked what I wanted for my birthday, I said I wanted her to go with me to Charlotte. Being the good woman that she is, she agreed.
Even though this was my first NRA show, I had an idea of what to expect in the Charlotte Convention Center since I had attended the 1996 SHOT Show in Dallas. I was working for a knife company then and helped to work their booth.
My first impression is that the NRA show was smaller but friendlier. There were less “booth babes” than at a SHOT Show which given the family-oriented composition of the crowd was probably a smart thing. The vendors seemed more willing to take the time to explain their products than I expected. That was nice feature of the show.
We were met in Charlotte by the Complementary Spouse’s brother Larry and two of his sons. The boys were more interested in the Bushmaster ACR, the FN SCAR, and the Barrett Model 82A1 than anything else. Larry and I were more interested in the higher end 1911’s, the exquisite wood of the Dakota Arms rifles, and other stuff of that ilk. Blame Call of Duty Modern Warfare and other video games!
The Complementary Spouse is not of the Gun Culture. Her father did collect guns and she has shot skeet with her late dad many years ago. The one thing that really stood out for her is how polite everyone was. You saw Mom and Pop Kettle, bikers, servicemen, cops, hippies, old people, young kids, etc. People didn’t jostle in line, they held doors for one another, they said “excuse me” and “please”, and they were just nice to one another. When you have more than 70,000 people in one place this is a rare thing. Robert Heinlein was right – an armed society is a polite society – even when you aren’t allowed to carry your arms like in Charlotte.