NRA Membership Controversy

Anyone who reads my blog knows that I'm no great friend of the NRA ... they're too reluctant for my taste to take on the anti-gunners, so as far as I'm concerned the NRA is a bunch of woosies.

Which is another way of saying that the NRA is insufficiently aggressive for my taste.

I'm currently a dues-paying member  of the NRA, but that varies from year to year;  some days I am reluctant to pay my dues, some days not.   

I suspect that I'm not the only "NRA MEMBER" who doesn't consider the NRA to be a sufficiently conservative representative of his pro-gun views.    That doesn't mean we don't agree with the NRA   it might mean that the NRA is more politically correct, and less liberally cognizant, than I am

The mainstream-press (read:  "LIBERALS")  may choose to interpret a choice to declline a conservative statement with a choice to disavow agreement with with the NRA's political position.


 I may be an NRA member this year, and a cranky old poop  the next;  but I'm completely comfortable with my NRA affiliation, even though I question their politics on a daily basis.

I'm guessing that I'm not the only "cranky old poop" who (from year to year) declines to renew his membership because the NRA is too 'gentle' to represent my pro-gun opinions.   So ... some years I don't renew my NRA membership, and that skews the "representation" numbers of the NRA.


That doesn't mean that the NRA isn't the best representative of my politics from year to year.

So when the extreme liberal website "Mother Jones" questions the exact-at-this-moment membership numbers of of the NRA, I have to mention that the membership is probably much more conservative than the organization, and the pure numbers which are reported might not be as  significant a 'data point' as the casual observer chooses to report.

Speaking as  not-so-casual observer, the membership of the NRA is so controversial that even its own members are so politicially (and socially) involved that they question the goals and involvement of their political support on a daily basis?

The NRA Says It Has 5 Million Members. Its Magazines Tell Another Story. – Mother Jones:

The National Rifle Association likes to boast that it represents 5 million gun owners. Or maybe it’s “nearly” 5 million—or perhaps “more than” 5 million. The NRA has never provided solid numbers on how many members it has, yet a look at what data is out there suggests that its claims may be wide of the mark—and the real figure could have dropped by more than 10 percent in the year after Donald Trump was elected president.

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"Gun Control" Movement Unmasked

Who says there isn't an Elitist message in the Gun Control Movement?

Dem OK With Only Rich People Having Guns | The Daily Caller: (March 01, 2018):

Illinois Democratic Rep. Danny Davis says it is acceptable for only wealthy individuals having access firearms if a 50 percent federal tax on all guns and ammunition becomes law.

There's nothing new about Liberals using taxation to undermine your constitutional rights:

This is reminiscent of Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynahan's 1993 movement to impose a draconian tax on firearms and ammunition:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3— Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said today that he would insist that President Clinton's health-care plan include a huge increase in Federal taxes on handgun ammunition that would make some especially destructive bullets unaffordable.
The New York Democrat has often contended that the best way to attack gun violence would be to restrict the sale of ammunition, not guns. Today, for instance, he noted that the nation has a 200-year supply of guns but only a 4-year supply of ammunition.

So .. it's okay that you can have a GUN .. you just can't have AMMUNITION.

Factcheck.org offered  some expanded details on this theme in June of 1999:

We can’t say what might be proposed in the future. And in the past, there have been proposals to raise the tax on ammunition. In 1993, for example, the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Democrat from New York, proposed to raise the tax to 50 percent on most handgun ammunition, and to more than 10,000 percent on 9-millimeter hollow-tipped Black Talon cartridges, which were advertised as having a bullet that expanded "to expose razor-sharp reinforced jacket petals." However, his plan would not have raised taxes on .22-caliber ammunition, which is used for target shooting. He proposed these increases to help finance the health care plan then being proposed by President Clinton, but the proposal was ultimately rejected.

"They" weren't after the .22 caliber ammunition, so target shooting is okay?
And after all, the taxes on non-22 ammo went for a good cause. 

Which doesn't mean that, after we have digested this first step toward Gun Control, the (small increment), then the Second Step will not be more unconstitutional. 

And that's why we will not give an inch to those who would undermine our rights.

Here's how this incremental attack on your freedoms actually works:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist; Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist; Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist; Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew; Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak out for me.

TRANSLATION:

First the came for the Full-Autos, and I did not speak out because I did have a machine gun.
Then they came for the semi-auto rifles, and I did not speak out because I did not have a semi-auto rifle.
Then the came for the high-capacity magazines, and I did not speak out because I did not have a high-capacity magazine.
Then they came for the large-caliber pistols, and I did not speak out because I did not have a large-caliber pistol.
Then they came for the "snub-nosed, concealable pistols" and I did not speak out because I did have a 'snubby".
Then they came for the magazine-fed large caliber rifles, and I did not speak out because I did not have a magazine fed rifle.
Then the came for the sniper rifles, and I had a bolt-action .223 varmint rifle with a 10 power scope, and there was no one left to speak out for me..

Definition of a Liberal

A "Liberal" is someone who has no respect for the Constitution.

The most recent example is this:

Dem OK With Only Rich People Having Guns | The Daily Caller:

WASHINGTON — Illinois Democratic Rep. Danny Davis says it is acceptable for only wealthy individuals having access firearms if a 50 percent federal tax on all guns and ammunition becomes law.

The idea of Liberals imposing burdensome tax penalties for those who wish to exercise their Second Amendment rights is not new.
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