The NRA tried to torpedo two Pro-Gun Bills in Georgia

[Samuel Adams]

NRA at odds with gun law reform in Georgia

Sad but true, and this isn't the first time. GCO will get my loyalty. My NRA membership will not be renewed and the link to their website has been removed from our IDPA club website.

 

[s&wchad]

Please reconsider

I think you're making a mistake. If it wasn't for the NRA, our firearms rights would have been gone a long time ago.
While you may not agree with everything they do, they're still our strongest voice and best hope.

 

[n4zov]

I don't pretend to know exactly what is going on, but you folks in Georgia are fully capable of deciding what you want and need without the NRA. I generally support the NRA, but there have been occasions when I strongly disagreed with them. However, they are the only effective voice protecting gun owners and their rights.

 

[handejector]

Your statement that NRA tried to torpedo two Pro-Gun Bills doesn't appear to be correct.
The NRA backed SB291.

They obviously opposed SB 308. That does not mean they opposed any and all points in the bill. You have to understand politics. They probably opposed it because they were hoping for a better bill, or disliked some points in it.
I don't have time to research the issue, but abandoning the NRA over a point that is not yet fully understood is simply throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
I don't believe I am ready to abandon the NRA because of one article that may or may not be correct. Also, as I said, even if the article is correct, there may have been an invisible motive for opposing 291 that we don't yet know.

 

[Samuel Adams]

I understand that some will not abandon the NRA for the same reason some voters won't abandon the GOP. I also understand that the NRA is too willing to compromise our 2nd Amendment rights. They have a long history of it. The information contained in the article posted in the OP is not the only source I used. Anyone the reads the Georgia Packing forum will read of several first hand accounts of the NRA's treachery that night.

 

[oldRoger]

Clearly according to the referenced article the NRA-ILA now supports both bills.

When someone says the "NRA" this or the "NRA" that, it is sometimes difficult to know what part of the NRA we are talking about. The NRA is not a monolith I doubt that there was time to refer this to the Executive board. Someone on the spot made a decision which seems to have been over ruled.

In any event, the NRA is the best game in town, in some respects it's the only game. Certainly we need to support our state organizations as well, but they will not be fighting on the national front for us.

As for the GOP, if you would be on the winning side you can vote Democrat or Republican. Someday there may be a viable third choice, but not soon.

If you don't like the GOP or the NRA, the only workable solution is to try to change the organization, vote for board members in the NRA, be active in the primaries for the GOP.
If you don't or won't support the GOP for example, it is hard to see how you can complain about the present administration in DC, or the Congress.

 

[Samuel Adams]

Since we have gone off on a tangent (my fault), I vote for the candidate who follows the US Constitution the closest and not the party. As for the NRA, they know they are the biggest game in town. Whatever was posted on the NRA-ILA site was not was they demonstrated in the Georgia General Assembly this week.

 

[handejector]

OK.
I do have to ask who you will have representing you at the national level?
The GCO?
I am simply always amazed when the NRA screws up, or misses something, or we POSSIBLY don't always know the underlying motives for what they do, and everyone wants to abandon them.
I think a better plan might be to fix what is broken, if anything.
Thay are meeting in Charlotte in a couple of weeks. Are you going?

 

[oldRoger]

+1 or we POSSIBLY don't always know the underlying motives for what they do,
I might even say we probably don't know their motives, and that goes for the things they don't do as well.
My Boss's old Motto;
NOTHING is Impossible---If you don't have to do it yourself.

The level of horse trading which is needed to accomplish seeming simple tasks in government is mind boggling.

 

[bk43]

I could not find anything, anywhere that says the NRA opposed either of these bills that does not lead back to Georgia Public Broadcasting. They reference a couple anti-gun legislators that the NRA says are not telling the truth. The NRA site says they support both bills and there is nothing to indicate they ever did otherwise.

I think a smart anti somewhere, like GPB, has gotten some of the RKBA folks to form another circular firing squad.

Bob

 

[handejector]

Divide, and conquer.

 

[DonD]

Misrepresentation of reality is so common on the internet that it is disgusting.

Unfortunately, many gun owners, rightfully focused on anti gun efforts, accept criticism of our friends such as the NRA before the evidence is in.

I submit that the enemy, people like the Brady group and others, are very adept at seeding disinformation much like the Taliban and Al Qaida.

As Handejector said "divide and conquer." It's the same disease many shooters fall victim to. Shotgunners say "I don't care if black rifles are banned, I don't use them." Black power shooters might accept limits on handguns because they don't use them.

Best support the NRA, there isn't another organization that has a fraction of the clout they do in fighting for our 2nd Amendment rights. Don

 

[PDL]

+1 on I didn't see any conflict with the NRA position.
And it's a very poor reason regardless to abandon the only voice out there for firearms rights.

 

[Andy Griffith]

I do not trust Georgia Public Broadcasting any more than I trust any other piece of newsprint coming out of Atlanta.

Since I was not there, I cannot say what went on down there...

I do know one thing, what people blame as "The NRA" may just be one or more "pushers" for want of a better word at the capital. Those are the folks to talk with and the ones to give a shout to- not other NRA members or membership. I'll have to agree with others on this...simply because I've seen it happen here around our little town...because someone don't agree with someone else, the whole place takes sides and we can't come together on a common goal and the enemy will divide and conquer.

If there were bad decisions made that you, or one out of the several Georgia shooting organizations don't like, I think it is not in the best interests to sever ties with the NRA, but they should by all means get to the bottom of it and investigate and uncover the truth, whatever that may be.

It's much easier to be reactionary than to dig and find the truth. I should know, as I have been very reactionary in the past. Times like these demand cool heads, a cup of coffee and a bit collective reasoning. There is no reason to cancel an NRA membership no matter how mad you get (however, I've thought about canceling my magazine subscriptions though). The NRA isn't those fellers lobbying in Washington- it's me and you when we teach and train others to shoot, collect and enjoy our sport and most importantly, pass it on to those coming after us.

I would not be the type to do research on it anyway, as I can be a hothead too and I'd be mad before I got started- that's why people like us sit back and get someone (by staffing our weaknesses) to find out what went down- and more importantly why or why not things happened the way they did.

Then, take appropriate action. Keep your focus on long term, and the fact that everything changes, and to try to stay an important part of that change- whether that is local, state or national. Every man's life touches so many others...


I really don't know what I just said...

I do want to add...most threads in the 2A forum just give me a headache. I'm a positive type of feller, and don't digest gloom, doom, despair and worry too well at all. Not to say it shouldn't be known in small doses, but alarmist stuff makes my head hurt and upsets my stomach so much, I need a quart of pepto.

 

[george minze]

Well said Andy.....I think it is easy to go off half cocked. There is so much BS on the internet that seems true but isn't or is misstated that we do ourselves a real disservice passing it on. I have been guilty in my fervor to get back to the constitution. I have passed on some stuff I wanted to believe only to find it was just propaganda. Difference was it was propaganda I wanted to believe....Shame on Me.

 

[DeathGrip]

Why don't you and others just challenge their decision instead of bringing it here?No group can be right 100% of the time.But as others have stated,there might be good reason.At the very least let them explain their reasoning.If you don't ask you'll never know.

D.G.

 

[sheriffoconee]

Why don't you and others just challenge their decision instead of bringing it here?No group can be right 100% of the time.But as others have stated,there might be good reason.At the very least let them explain their reasoning.If you don't ask you'll never know.

D.G.

In order to understand what happened outside the Senate on the last day of the session, you must go back a day.
SB 291 passed the day before, which for sake of this discussion has two provisions in it.....non secure area of the Atlanta airport carry with a license, and "Katrina" language forbidding the confiscation of firearms. The leadership at the Capitol, for good reason, believes that the Governor may not sign 291 due to his previous comments on non restricting the Governors powers during an emergency. However, it passed both houses and is now on his desk, time will tell.
On the last day of the session, the House sent SB 308 back to the Senate with changes, the Senate denied the changes, and both Houses appointed a conference committee.
During this conference committee, with less than two hours left in a very busy legislative session, according to the people that were there, the NRA-ILA lobbyist advocated the Senate scrapping 308 altogether because it didn't contain specific airport language, which as you may remember, was passed the day before.
Never mind the fact it it was light years ahead of the Jim Crow era "public gathering" prohibition that was left intentionally vague....along with a 1000' school safety zone around all schools, made the carrying of virtually any pocketknife illegal, and a host of other onerous, detrimental aspects to a law abiding citizen carrying a firearm in Georgia. The lobbyist was in favor of throwing the baby out with the bathwater......mind you, the day before the Senate sent airport carry to the Governor.....
So, the lobbyist for NRA wanted the Senate to abandon the most sweeping gun legislation in the last 140 years in Georgia for NO GOOD REASON. GCO, and obviously, the rest of the Senate, and any other reasonable human being who was interested in the legislation, pushed it forward...
The two Senators speaking from the well truthfully told the Senate that the NRA was giving them a way out....which would have killed a GREAT gun rights bill for Georgians......
So far, all I have heard from is the NRA-ILA headquarters is that this is a misunderstanding, and a bunch of waffling around.....
What NO ONE HAS HEARD YET is the lobbyist denying it.....or calling those who have repeated this story liars...
Hearing from a bunch of folks in "headquarters" ain't cutting it with a lot of Georgians.....the NRA lobbyist position that night is indefensible.....however, if the lobbyist wants to deny it, I will get him in the same room as my Senator, who was part of the caucus that discussed this legislation, along with others I trust..

With the information I have from first person reliable sources who have NO REASON TO LIE, the NRA lobbyist didn't defend the gun rights of Georgians that night...and he should be held accountable, or at least, given to account for his actions.

Does that mean the NRA-ILA is evil?? No. Does it mean they need to force their lobbyist to account for what he did and said that night.....YES

 

[sheriffoconee]

A couple of other things.....These are things I know, cause I was there.
I spent a LOT of time at the Capitol in offices of various senators and legislators. I was a representing the Georgia Sheriff's Association. The lobbyist for GCO was there present for at least 5 of these meetings. The NRA lobbyist WAS NOT present at these meetings...
Whatever else you may think, the "ball" on this legislation was carried by GCO, and NOT the NRA. I honestly think had it been left to the NRA it never would have passed....
FWIW, I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of GCO.

 

[Tom Servo]

Does that mean the NRA-ILA is evil?? No. Does it mean they need to force their lobbyist to account for what he did and said that night.....YES

Mistakes will happen, and people can be held to account. If you don't like the actions of the ILA, fine, but quitting the NRA proper over it seems a little disingenuous. You do know there's a difference, right?

Quitting the NRA means turning your back on an organization that likely sponsors some of your shoots, provides insurance to the ranges where they occur, trains the range officers, and set the culture and safety standards we all take for granted.

The ILA does not receive any of your dues. They collect their funding through direct donation. You know all those phone calls and letters you get? That's because the ILA has to get their money on their own. If you're mad at them, don't send them money. But remember that the NRA proper is a different animal.

If a lobbyist did do this, then he can be removed. Anyone who's been a continuous member for five years is eligible to vote for the Board of Directors, and your phone calls matter. Interface with other local members and get the ball rolling.

This is a much more sensible and productive measure than simply quitting.

 

[sheriffoconee]

TomServo, I am not the original poster, nor did I write the title of this thread.
I assume since you are quoting me, the questions you ask are directed to me.
I know the difference between the two organizations. I know where they get their money. I never suggested in anything I wrote that I was quitting anything.
I am not swayed by the lack of direct clarity on behalf of the ILA on the behavior of their lobbyist....not only that night, but quite frankly, for a total lack of perceptible effort on his part to push SB 308. I hold the lobbyist personally responsible, but I am totally dismayed at the ILA's unwillingness to have him speak directly to the issue, or his inability to speak directly to the issue. The ILA merely stands on it's previous updates which do support both pieces of legislation. For a lot of Georgians, that ain't enough.
In my opinion, the NRA-ILA needs to make this right. It is up to them to do it.