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The February 2010 issue of GUNS Magazine is online, and a letter by NRA Life Member David Lundeen regarding my Firearms Freedom Act "Rights Watch" column caught my eye. He cited the September 2009 issue of their American Hunter magazine, and observed:
[I]t is clearly stated “Firearms Freedom Act “ supporters have never planned to test these laws in criminal cases, and no one who puts himself in that situation should expect support from the NRA.”
It's true. I'm a Life Member and get American Rifleman, and it's on page 18. Their rationale?
[T]his kind of litigation faces major obstacles–mainly because the Supreme Court has given Congress a very long leash when it comes to activities that could affect interstate commerce....Because of these issues, the NRA will continue to focus on the other kinds of pro-gun legislation described in these pages.
[No] one should try to take advantage of the Montana or Tennessee 'Firearms Freedom Acts' without consulting a competent attorney and being prepared to pay large legal fees. Anyone who makes firearms commercially, without complying with federal law, is likely to be prosecuted.
Going into any kind of challenge without knowing the terrain and having your eyes wide open would indeed be a mistake. The merits of the Firearms Freedom Acts should be debated, and they have, as is to be expected, drawn supporters and detractors. Attorney Evan Nappen is among the latter, and spelled out his reasons in "The Achilles Heels of the Firearms Freedom Act." Gary Marbut of Montana Shooting Sports Association disagrees, and responded to Nappen with "Hold the Fort--Don't Surrender So Quickly."
NRA certainly has the right to decide which legal strategies it perceives as advantageous and eligible for their support, and in this case, it's helpful to know that if we get in trouble, they don't want us to come running to them to fix it. Whether we agree with their position or not, we can't say we haven't been warned: they've washed their hands of the matter.
You can read the current issue of GUNS Magazine in digital format by visiting their website and clicking on the flash magazine graphic (you can even sign up for a free digital subscription). For those of you on dial-up or who have trouble downloading such features, much of the content is still available from the main page, including my latest "Rights Watch" column--an analysis of the Chicago gun ban case.
Tomorrow, barring unforeseen developments that push it to the back burner, I want to talk about a book review I wrote that also appears in this issue.
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When facts don't matter
Jennifer Freeman tells us how "phony do-gooders use propaganda to dupe unsuspecting Americans out of their money and their freedoms."
Click here to read this Liberty Belles exclusive.
Comments
Has anyone exercised their regained rights in Montana yet? I'd think someone with a little building knowledge has made an unregistered silencer by now.
There's a plan. They are or have vetted potential individuals after the Heller model. Get several sympathetic squeaky clean people with what looks like no brainer issues that still run afoul of the law. Get several in case the anti-rights crowd and complicit courts find some way to derail one or more. I don't know whether the plan is to file civil litigation against the law, or to break it and get arrested, or maybe some of both.
What edition of the American Rifleman was that quote from?
I receive the NRA publication "First Freedom" This same article was in it as well. I assume that the major articles are found in all of their magazines.
I truly feel that the NRA with all their money and members should support ALL gun rights that are LEGAL!
They always seem to pick and choose WINNERS as in cases that they will win, or just cases that keep them in the NATIONAL news and gets them great press.
I disagree with them on many issues, however they are our best force for fighting "BS" gun laws in Washington. That is why I am a member and always will be. I am also a member of Gun Owners of America, The ONLY NO-COMPROMISE Gun Lobby in Washington!
Lenny Benedetto
Vice President
Connecticut Citizens
Defense League, Inc.
www.ccdl.us
Once again the NRA's true colors come out. Stop sending money to this "elite" organization, instead give your money to a Non-NRA group in your state.
Like Lenny, I saw that quote in "America's First Freedom" (another of the NRA's "official journals") as well.
NRA: The nation's biggest gun control organization. (I am a disgruntled Life Member).
Luke, Sept 2009 per my column. They have several different magazines based on reader interest--Rifleman, First Freedom, Hunter...members get to choose which one they receive--but while tailored article content varies, all the mags contain the same official journal info each month.
it would be a bad strategy for the NRA to financially and legally support the Firearms Freedom Acts....they seem to be badly written and over-reaching...this would become a financial moneypit for the NRA and then to fight it at each and every state level would become the end of the NRA...before blaming the NRA remember that it has NATIONAL, not STATE in the title...the NRA is in it to fight for gunrights for all, not to fight for states' rights or the tenth amendment...the NRA is there, and always has been, for the second ammendment.(not the tenth)...unless you want your memembership dues to triple and quadruple from the NRA fighting state to state for the TENTH amendment, leave them out of it.
A. Bouchard says:
"Once again the NRA's true colors come out. Stop sending money to this "elite" organization, instead give your money to a Non-NRA group in your state."
great way to weaken the second amendment at the national level...the NRA is the barking dog that holds politicians away from the second amendment.
sorry walrus, but the NRA is a government shill whose job is to keep the fantasy of hope alive so as to avoid sterner challenges to the illegitimate powers of the state. For this service they get to send "Send more money, this job's lasting longer than we thought" letters to the marks (members) they are defrauding while being allowed to feel important by being invited to sit at tables with powerful political figures. Barking dog, maybe, but it's biting the wrong people.
However, in this instance, I think it better to not have NRA involvement, they sell out too cheaply and too frequently.
And yes, I am again a member, I gave them another chance, they again sold me out, I will quit them again and permanently because of it. If I wanted to support them I would just send my money to Chuck Shumer directly and avoid the betrayal, at least Shumer is upfront about wanting to deny me civil rights. The NRA doesn't really care one way or the other they just want to sit with the winner
Let's not forget that NRA is the same association that actively tried to DERAIL Heller in the lower courts because they were a-skeered to put the Second Amendment in front of the Supreme Court. In general, the NRA would rather preserve its golden eggs than risk making a brand new omelet for the benefit of its members.
I guess you could call them power whores. You know, groupies. If they come to think we, the citizens, will win, they will join us in action, after the heavy lifting is done by someone else. They're good at that,and of course, forgetting to acknowledge that others did the work, they just wrote the self-congratulatory press releases.
Don't tell me about barking dogs, this dog is anybody's dog who will throw him a table scrap.
walrus said:
"it would be a bad strategy for the NRA to financially and legally support the Firearms Freedom Acts....they seem to be badly written and over-reaching...this would become a financial moneypit for the NRA and then to fight it at each and every state level would become the end of the NRA...before blaming the NRA remember that it has NATIONAL, not STATE in the title...the NRA is in it to fight for gunrights for all, not to fight for states' rights or the tenth amendment"
I think your analysis is off the mark, because these acts will be tested in federal court, eventually shaping the landscape across the nation. And "over-reaching"??? I thought if anything they were overly timid. Nothing in either MT or TN, for example, about state LEO's and sheriffs providing armed protection for state citizens acting within the parameters of these laws (which simply exert what's already supposed to be law anyway) from fed's trying to arrest them.
Why am I flashing on Henry V?
"The Dauphin, of whose succor we entreated,
Returns us that his powers are yet not ready
To raise so great a siege. Therefore, dread King,
Enter our gates, dispose of us and ours,
For we no longer are defensible."
sorry, I didn't know I had walked into a den of the anti-NRA....peace and good luck ta ya with the second and tenth amendment...and good luck with you all's secessionist-tenthers cult...I'll just walk on over to the blog that is for a strong, level-headed, run of the mill, second amendment.
"sorry, I didn't know I had walked into a den of the anti-NRA....peace and good luck ta ya with the second and tenth amendment...and good luck with you all's secessionist-tenthers cult...I'll just walk on over to the blog that is for a strong, level-headed, run of the mill, second amendment."
Not anti-NRA; pro-rights.
<blockquote>I'll just walk on over to the blog that is for a strong, level-headed, run of the mill, second amendment. </blockquote>
Don't bother Mike @ Sispey St Irregulars ..... he's trying to finish a book.
I too was disgusted by the NRA's lack of support for the Firearms Freedoms Act laws in several states. Just like their unfulfilled promise to work to repeal the Hughes Amendment of the FOPA (banning civ ownership of machineguns manufactured post-1986), they talk like they're for preserving rights, but fall far short. I sent the NRA a letter to that effect, but I suppose my remarks will be ignored.
Granted, the Montana law was intended to force a showdown regarding the enforceability of intra-state jurisdiction of the ATF. They didn't intend to make use of the law until a ruling was solidified at the SCOTUS level. The NRA is right that actually ignoring the un-Constitutional 1968 GCA is dangerous (the ATF will kick down your door and shoot you), but the wording was highly unsatisfactory.
Support the NRA since the gun-rights winds are judged by their membership. Then really support the Gun Owners of America. The GOA is by far the best pro-gun rights group out there.
THe NRA picks battles they think they can win. I can remember trying to get help on a Texas CHL law back in 1991 or 92. Florida had one and we could as well. THe NRA refused to put resources in on it. The TSRA and a bunch of individuals pushed it through and it wasn't nearly what we needed but it was done around the NRA, not through it. That's the bill Ann Richards vetoed. When the momentum was up, then the NRA came in and took credit as theycould. But when it was all up in the air, there was no NRA support. I am an NRA and a TSRA lifer. But since the NRA backed away from the Jackboooted thugs statement in the early 90s, have haven't trusted them to lead the ight.
For the past several years Illinois has been under a liberal political majority controlled from Chicago. Down state voters do not have enough clout to come close to passing a CCW bill. Early last year gun activists managed to get a CCW bill HB2257 sponsered by down state Illinois Rep Brandon Phelps. Because handguns in Chicago are prohibited this bill would allow municipalities to opt out. Another point is 60 votes could pass it compared to 71 if it was written statewide. Some day the dissenting votes may come around. That was the case in two other states. Then here comes the NRA and proceeded to lobby against hb2257 CCW bill for Illinois. The NRA explaination was it would be too confusing so it will be all or none so it was none. I am an NRA member but I disagree with their policy some times. They did take some heat over this action however I must add that the NRA later lobbied correctly in a couple of other bills & rulings that were very helpful here. I am still a member for now.
I will renew my membership with the NRA - ONLY- to continue certain certifications that are required for what I do, however, I am honestly upset with them almost all of the time.
Gun Owners of America deserves our support- and maybe it is time to get all of us gun owners together and "prove" that the Second Amendment is not a toy for high paid NRA lawyers and administrators as well as those in power in DC!~
I'm a Life member of the NRA, and I haven't sent them a dime in years. They sniff the wind, and roll over at the first opportunity.
Believe it or not, I understand what NRA is saying and they've been saying that same thing for a very long time. To their credit, they've filed the current Chicago suit that challenges to hell statewide bans on guns. They claim to be select in their pursuits for good reasons. They can't take on every issue. Not that they're so perfect. They aren't, but they're usually the only one in court. They kicked can with San Francisco, even getting $320k payback from the shattered city. SF moaned as they signed the check over. Remember stuff like that and that NRA will prevail again in March in SCOTUS.
What the NRA said is further proof of how late the hour is. Basically they are admitting that they can't get anywhere with the Feds because SCOTUS will back the congress, who backs the ATF jack-boot thugs. The rule of law is so corrupted that we can no longer count on it to protect us.
Resistance is futile, they say, but refuse to consider alternatives to the current programme.
The collectivists are just like the Borg in the Star Trek universe. There's no negotiating with them or ignoring them. Play by their rules and you are guaranteed to lose. They want to destroy everything that makes us who we are and turn our children and our grandchildren and unborn generations into their drones.
Funny how in Star Trek the only thing that could reliably kill a drone was a projectile weapon. And so it is for us.
This isn't about survival, it's about prevailing. We must be in this to win, whatever it takes.
Among other things I was a previous NRA Director. Among other such comments on my website, Think.ws, I summarize NRA in my most recent comment on my Home page, one of the long paragraphs about half way through the article on the laughter of the author.
When I speak or write, my words anger most people. Regaining gun owner rights is amusingly easy, but for the same reason NRA leaders refuse to learn the boring paperwork process, the other gun rights organization leaders have done likewise.
As I have often stated, let me know if any significant group of gun owner rights organizations would like to learn how to regain gun owner rights. Therefore learn from their avoiding your efforts, and from your perception that no mere individual without impressive titles and credentials could possibly know any more than the "leaders", "lawyers, "government officials" and their ilk who learned how to acquire titles, not manifest human rights against power-damaged minds. DougBuchanan.com
The NRA is not the friend of gun owners!
In the march 1968 edition of the NRA publication the American Rifleman the NRA clearly stated in an article titled, Where the NRA Stands on Gun Legislation, “That the purpose of the NRA since their inception was to support “Reasonable Gun control Legislation”
The NRA supported the 1968 GCA and the Illinois FOID card. The Illinois FOID card has a symbiotic relationship to the 68GCA. The Illinois law was passed as a way to encourage the Federal Government that gun control could in fact be passed.
The NRA helped make the Illinois possible. NRA facilitators using the Delphi technique created a phoney consensus on the need of gun control as a way to stop current and future racial violence.
There was even the promise that after the riots were over the law would be repealed. Some police even told gun owners to shut up because the law was needed to control the uppity blacks and that the law would not be applied to White people.
The NRA
Continued…
The NRA played along with the racist fears that liberals like Mayor Daley was promoting.
Today we are suffering from the concessions and compromises of the NRA.
The NRA opened the door for the disqualifiers that we have today and are standing in the way of any attempt to restore the 2A to its original intent.
McDonald VS Chicago is based on the 14th amendment and NOT original intent. If the privileges and immunity protections are not restored then the best we can hope for is a paper tiger.
I believe the reason the States are trying to protect the 2A through the firearms Freedoms Acts is to save the 2A against a weak supreme court decisions and the NRA wants NO parts of it.
If you want to know where the NRA's head is at, just count the number of times the oxymoronic phrase "RIGHT to carry PERMIT" appears in each issue of any of their magazines.
Arizona is a state where no license at all is required for "open" carry. We had an in-state group pushing to change a law forbidding guns in certain areas. When we had it halfway through the legislature, the NRA swooped in and got it amended to apply to permit holders only!!
I'm an NRA member so I can continue to teach NRA classes and because a large membership number scares the ignorati in DC, but the bottom line is that I don't expect the NRA to do anything more effective for me on gun rights than I expect the police to do for me during a crime in progress.
NRA = Negotiating Rights Away
Greetings from Wyoming
As far as im concerned , the price i paid for a Life membership over 20 yrs ago got me alife time subscription to 1 of their monthly Mags,Since they have have over the yrs , negotiated away some of my rights, and called them victories in the name of the 2nd Amend, if there is any infringements , there are no victories. i see no reason to send them a penny, and as such, i also declare , they do NOT speak for me, any negotiated infringement , is still an infringment , so maybe they should have aplace on their home site , for members to tell them not to send out anymore donation flyers , thus saving themselves the cost of postage that , i just burn anyways , after of course having another use for them, i will let your imagination tell you what else other than burning them is.if your imagination is lacking , check the outhouse.
To Walrus and other naive NRA supporters;
The NRA is responsible for almost every single piece of anti-gun legislation since the NFA of 1934. Not once have they EVER stood up and said NO! Not NO but HELL NO! We have the guns and we're willing to use them. How do you think that would have gone over in 1934? Instead they want to negotiate every single issue and reach some kind of fair agreement so no one get's their knickers in a bind. And above all else, keep those contributions coming in. We need to go on more free safaris with your hard earned $. Those people live like kings and have no desire to resolve this issue, that would be monetary suicide. So we'll just keep working hand in hand with the Brady bunch and act like we're doing something. Kinda like the rest of the gov't. But pleeeze, keep those contributions coming in, every week.
They love stupid people.
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