Firearms designer Len Savage put me in touch with Lt. Col. Robert K. Brown, publisher of Soldier of Fortune Magazine, who wanted to call our attention to the candidacy of Steve Schreiner for the National Rifle Association Board of Directors.
The Nominating Committee has not selected him, however. Per Brown:
NRA will not endorse him ‘cause they think he is "too much of a zealot." My response is that we could use a few more "zealots" on the BOD.
As a voting Life Member who remembers the treatment accorded the late Neal Knox, I concur, and note Jeff Knox refers to Schreiner as “an unrelenting Second Amendment advocate.”
Here’s an introduction to Mr. Schreiner, starting with a bio piece that you can read by clicking here. He’s a “Vietnam vet, Airborne Ranger: awarded CIB, Bronze Star with V Device and Silver Star.”
He’s written two essays that give us insight into issues that are important to him, one on range protection, the other on a subject that comes up frequently in this column, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. See:
Informal Shooting Ranges Threatened by Obama
and
BATFE's Colossal Screwup (Regular readers will recall we’ve touched on this before, including turf-building ATF management’s ridiculous and insulting “threat” assessment.)
We’ll be looking at the Board election again in the near future, when I plan to reissue my questionnaire for 2011. In the mean time, if you’re a voting member, check out Steve Schreiner, and if you like what you see, let others know.
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Comments
Thanks for the info, David. Got my ballot issue yesterday. I've already weeded out several names who's bio's amazingly have no mention of The Second Amendment whatsoever.
DDS -- NRA Life Member
As long as the NRA keeps collaborating with communists like reid and others they can KMA!
The part of your anatomy that you want kissed is already under water. People in the boat with you are bailing water as fast as they can. But the only thing you can apparently do is keep screaming that the hole is in the NRA's end of the boat. We shall be eternally in your debt for pointing that out for us. Now, if it's not too much trouble, do you thing you could find a bucket and help us deal with some of this water?
I guess the rest of us should be thankful that at least you got all of the words spelled correctly.
DDS -- NRA Life Member
I may not agree 100% with the NRA but I still maintain my membership. They are the 800 pound gorilla in the room when it comes to gun rights.
The NRA.... The best friend you thought you had.
Sorry, can't vote for him, I tore up my NRA Life Membership when they rolled over on Fincher and Olofson. Why don't we just kneecap the Nancyboy Retreat Arschloch and go with the people that actually are fighting for our side? By joining in the leadership of the NRA he would probably just get MARGINALIZED like everybody else that ever had any balls.
Had been joining NRA on a yearly basis depending on what they had accomplished or screwed up the previous year. After supporting McCain, supporting the "study" of microstamping, supporting other marginal or blatant anti-gun politicians, along with the history of supporting the ATF, the veteran disarmament bill, NICS, and other anti-second amendment "laws" over the last 70+ years, stepping in to claim credit for pro-second amendment legal actions of other organization, I WILL NOT REJOIN THE NRA UNTIL THEY GET RID OF LAPIERRE AND ALLOW ACTUAL PRO 2A MEMBERS ON THE BOARD. Leave Wayne!!
Some of your objections to NRA's behavior are flat wrong, some are subjects for honest debate, and some are dead on correct.
Where you lose it is "Leave Wayne". Wayne isn't going anywhere under his own power. He has a very cushy job and pulls in an eyepopping salary. All he has to do to keep it is act like he cares about the Second Amendment most of the time and control who's on the board of directors. Dose he really care about the Second Amendment? Have you read "The Gun Rights War"? Are you aware of what happened to Neal Knox, Harlon Carter, and Tanya Metaksa?
To Be Continued....
DDS -- NRA Life member
Many of the candidate's self written bio's don't even mention the Second. But they get elected anyway. There's something really wrong there that should be and could be turned to our advantage.
Bottom line is this. The overwhelming majority of the 4 million members can't vote for the board. Most of those who can don't bother to return their ballots. The actual return rates make America's voters look good. 20,000 hard core 2A supporting life members could take over the organization and throw Wayne out on his rear end. And America's gun owners can't even manage that. Pretty sad state of affairs, don't you think?
DDS -- NRA Life Member
That is absolutely a right on analysis, DDS. Jeff Knox estimates around 7% of eligible members even bother to vote. I've developed a means to help weed out the Fudds from the true believers, but I'm just spitting in the wind with it--see questionnaire link at end of this column. I don't pretend mine is the best approach, but I see no one else replacing it with something superior and advocating/promoting organized action by the hard core members.
The question has to be asked: If we can't even elect Board members that we want, why should anyone take our complaints seriously? What do Wayne & Co. care about disgruntled comments on a relatively obscure "blog" as long as these gripes have no chance of even influencing the status quo, let alone changing it?
At least I don't have to play with the "Anonymous Rex" BS anymore!
Most of the regular readers of David's articles are familiar with his sample questionnaire for candidates for public office. Or at least we should be. Those of us who haven't burned our NRA membership cards should also be sending his similar questionnaire to candidates for NRA's board of directors. But for some strange reason, NRA doesn't see the need to make it easy for us to communicate with them. My plan is to use the powers of "Mother Internet" to see how many of them I can track down and get to respond to a few questions about the depth of their commitment to RKBA. Range protection and promotion of Boy Scout merit badge programs is all good stuff, but not of much use if Sen. Feinstein gets her "Mrs. and Mr. America, turn them all in" wish. So we track them down, mail the questions, post their response or lack of one here, and see what happens. After all there's only 31 names on the list. How many of you think 31 registered letters is too much to spend to try and fix NRA's board?
@ DDS:
I'm aware that NRA forced Neal out because they thought he was "too radical" and was too closely identified with the militia movement. I know Harlon Carter was the man who started the ILA around 1975, in order to get NRA more involved in fighting gun control legislation. I know Tanya was the chief lobbyist of ILA before Chris Cox. Whatever happened to Tanya, BTW? What's she up to, these days?
NRA didn't force Neal out. Wayne LaPierre did. He and his allies have also been rolling back the bylaws changes made in a backlash to NRA's mishandling of GCA68 known as "The Cincinatti Reforms." Buy and read the book. Then read it again.
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