Some people already know this but I am running for the NRA Board of Directors. For a long time I thought I could be most useful outside looking in and reporting on what I saw. I think that is still valuable. Nonetheless, after much discussion between the Complementary Spouse and myself, I decided to take the plunge.
As to why I would submit myself to this, the answer is simple. Someone has to do it and better that the one doing it comes primed for reform. We in the Second Amendment community need a viable NRA. By viable, I mean one that can still put the fear of God in politicians, that will train people in proper firearm use and safety, and that will, in conjunction with other 2A groups, litigate the hell out of gun control laws.
Thanks to my friend Todd Vandermyde, my name has been submitted to the Nominating Committee. Likewise, I have submitted his name in nomination. I have returned the documentation that they have requested and the committee will be meeting in the last part of August to review those names submitted. Obviously, with the parties meeting on August 12th to hammer out the final court order the entire procedure may change. One interpretation of the interim court order is that anyone who met the qualifications – a Life Member of five years – will have their name on the ballot. We shall see.
Regardless of what the Nominating Committee or the court decides, I plan to run by petition. Ideally, I would be a dual-nominated candidate. My rationale is that a candidate who gets on the ballot by petition is there because the members want him or her there. Given my goal is to serve the members to the best of my abilities, that is as it should be.
To have my name placed on the ballot, I need to obtain the signatures of 398 voting members. More is better as some signatures will be ruled invalid. As a reminder, voting members are those who are either Life Members of any level or are Annual Members who have at least five years of continuous membership. The closing date for me to submit the petition with my name and your signatures on it is October 8th. Thus, I would need to have them back in my hand no later than October 1st.
My petition form is below. Please download and print it out on 8.5×11 inch letter size paper in landscape format.
UPDATE: I understand some people have had an issue downloading the petition from Scribd. I am attempting another method of making it available. If you can’t get it one way or another, just email me and I will be happy to send it by email.
In addition to your name and dated signature, the petition requires your membership number and your address as listed in the NRA’s files. If you look at the label on your official magazine, you will find your membership number in the upper right corner (see the picture below). You do not need the leading “zeros” in front of your membership number. Alternatively, your membership number is on your membership card.
Any help you can give in obtaining signatures will be gratefully accepted. I don’t care if it is one signature or multiple pages filled with signatures, they all are needed to get me on the ballot.
If you will email me at jpr9954 AT gmail DOT com, I will send you the address where to mail the signed petitions. Normally, I’d just put my address here but I’ve been getting a lot of spam comments from Russia and China. I don’t want to give them any more leeway if I can avoid it.
Again, thank you.
UPDATE II: I have received a very good response from you the readers. In the last two days I have received almost 20 letters with petitions containing almost 40 signatures. When added to what I picked up at the Gun Owners of America GOALS event in Knoxville this past weekend, I am off to a good start
I need to keep the momentum going. If you belong to a gun or sportsmen’s club, ask your fellow members to sign the petition. If you own a gun store or manage a range, please consider placing my petition on your counter. If you have friends who are as fed up as you and me with the grifting and corruption that has occurred, please forward them my petition. If you are a regular on a firearms, hunting, or outdoor forum, please put up a link to this post there. I will be doing that as well.
Remember, you can email me at jpr9954 AT gmail DOT com for instructions on where to send the petition. Given many procedures of the NRA remain in the 20th Century, petitions are required to be mailed back and not scanned/emailed. If you need a short bio to pass on to your friends, I even have one of those. I will say that was hard to write as I’m not the sort sing my own praises.
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