[papercut]

Did anyone catch the entire interview with Wayne LaPierre on FoxNews' "The Big Story"? Was it any good? I just caught the last minute or so and so can't give a good review.

[dinosaur]

You didn`t miss much. It was only about 2 minutes long.:( When John Gibson said Nixon had an "enemies list" he should have countered that`s it`s not the same thing and besides, many socialist orgs. have them too.

Not much you can do in 2 minutes.:scrutiny:

[Standing Wolf]

I see nothing the least bit wrong in keeping a list of the avowed enemies of our nation's civil rights.

[Atticus]

Why is this any different than keeping lists of companies that used to do business with the "old" South Africa?

[PeteyPete]

The NRA just called me to solicite me to purchase LaPierre's latest tome Guns, Freedom, and Terrorism. Normally I would tell them to leave me alone, but overall I've been pleased w/ their proactive measures against the '04 AW Ban so I happily oblidged (and the guy selling the book was a cool guy from Alabama who really knew all the issues concerning us firearm owners, we bullsh1tted about firearms and our hate for liberals for damn near a half-hour).

[Mark Tyson]

Yeah I bought one too. I'm gonna read it and donate it to a library or friend.

[SC_shooter]

The NRA won't do anything meaningful about the AWB. But they will ask for more money afterwards to continue their fight. They are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Paul

[El Rojo]

The NRA won't do anything meaningful about the AWB. But they will ask for more money afterwards to continue their fight. They are part of the problem, not part of the solution.Care to make that a logical argument rather than an emotional "I said so" so prevelant in Michael Moore line of reasoning?

[SC_shooter]

Sure.

The NRA doesn't have the political will to win. They certainly have the numbers and the money to win almost any fight they would care to get in. But it is not in their interest to do so. They endorse politicians who, without fail, vote for every single "reasonable" gun control measure that comes down the pike. If they had the will to win, they could easily replace politicians like that. But they don't.

Here in South Carolina, they sell out gun owners on a regular basis. Who supported legislation that would have required all personal transfers to be registered? The NRA. Who supported legislation that would have put many shooting ranges out of business or force them to maintain current membership levels to avoid nuisance lawsuits? The NRA. Who opposed CWP reform legislation that expanded where a CWP holder could carry? That would also be the NRA. The list goes on and on. I have seen how the NRA operates at the state level.

Paul

[MrPink]

Remember it was the NRA that endorsed - even pushed for - the Firearms Owner Protection Act which had the ammendment that banned civilian ownership of machine guns produced after 1986. The limited pool of transferable MGs have now seen prices skyrocket: $10-12k for an M16.

The NRA also treats MG owners like second class citizens. Want to shoot one at their range in Fairfax, VA? Well only by special appointment and before or after regular range hours. Heavens to Betsy, would want anybody to see you shoot a MG......

[George Hill]

Did he explain why the NRA has been brushing its teeth with Vagisil lately? :cuss:

[Mark Tyson]

Remember it was the NRA that endorsed - even pushed for - the Firearms Owner Protection Act which had the ammendment that banned civilian ownership of machine guns produced after 1986

But didn't the amendment only get added in the last few minutes of the debate?

[Bartholomew Roberts]

SC_shooter
They certainly have the numbers and the money to win almost any fight they would care to get in.

The NRA has 4.2 million members. The population of the United States is over 274 million of which 130 million were registered voters in 2000. If you know the trick to win any fight you could care to get into with less than 4% of registered voters, then I would love to hear it.

I'm not familiar with your state level organization; but here in Texas, the TSRA is a tremendous organization that went on the offensive last session with a great deal of success.

Mr. Pink:
Remember it was the NRA that endorsed - even pushed for - the Firearms Owner Protection Act which had the ammendment that banned civilian ownership of machine guns produced after 1986.

http://www.guncite.com/journals/hardfopa.html

The authors had submitted the bill seven times previously and the Democratic controlled Congress had killed it in the House every year. So Eugene Volkmer submitted it yet again in 1986... the Dems controlled the House and were so overconfident that they didn't even bother to take the usual precaution of drawing up a heavily amended version of Volkmer's bill to report out of committee if things got tight.

So Volkmer organized all his votes on the sly and then filed a "Motion to Discharge" (Basically if you get a majority of the House to sign this petition, you force the controlling committee to discharge the bill for an immediate vote). He managed to get the petition through so fast the Democrats were caught flatfooted and didn't have time to write the normal full fledged attack of poison pills into the bill. Instead there was an amendment proposed in the last four minutes of debate - the machinegun ban amendment was passed on a contentious voice vote (basically the chairman said "Sounds like the amendment passed to me") and when the pro-gun crowd asked for a formal roll-call vote (recording who voted yes or no to verify the chairman's assumption), the Democrats nixed the roll call vote. Since they controlled the House, they also controlled the Rules committee that looks at these matters.

So the bill went to the barely Republican Senate with the machinegun ban attached and the Senate had two choices - pass a bill with a lot of good gun legislation and a machinegun ban or send it to a joint conference committee that the Democratic House would control and face the very likely chance that the entire bill would die. They decided to pass it as-is rather than take the risk.

Without that bill, ATF could still do unlimited warrantless inspections of FFLs (effectively inspecting them out of business instead of allowing them the appeals and due process that would come with revoking their FFL), we would still register handgun ammo, and there wouldn't be any definition that protected private citizens from having to have an FFL to sell guns at a gun show. The Clinton years would have looked mighty bleak without the 1986 FOPA.

[SC_shooter]

The 4% you mentioned is enough to swing a large number of elections. But you have groups in there that always vote Republican or Democratic or Libertarian. Only a fraction of the voters are one issue voters. There are also a large group of people (like hunters) that don't care what happens to handguns. They will eventually, when the anti-gunners come for their shotguns or bolt action rifles. But I digress.

Add to the above that some elections have turn outs of less than 20%, sometimes approaching 15%.

Paul

The NRA has done virtually nothing here. All that gets done legislatively in SC gets done by GrassRoots GunRights SC.

The NRA is also trying to sue NC's Grassroots organization out of existence. They claim that they are not involved but the attorney is an NRA attorney. Does anyone actually believe that they can't exercise some amount of control over him?

[Bartholomew Roberts]

Add to the above that some elections have turn outs of less than 20%, sometimes approaching 15%.

The 2000 election had a turnout of 111 million voters. While the 4% certainly could have swung that particular election, it could have only swung it to a Democrat or Republican.

They endorse politicians who, without fail, vote for every single "reasonable" gun control measure that comes down the pike.

OK, I not only give you all 4.2 million votes of NRA members in the 2000 election. I'm going to tack on an extra 10 million votes from sympathetic gun owners who are too lazy to join but still have enough of a pulse to vote and read who the NRA likes. Now use your 14.2 million votes to endorse the non-compromising politician you believe should get them and let's see how the 2000 election turns out.

[Fly320s]

Has the NRA pushed any member of Congress or Senate to submit a bill that would reverse the 1986 FOPA or the 1994 assault weapons ban or the 1934 GCA?

Just curious...

I wrote a letter to the NRA-ILA a few weeks ago on this very issue and received a standard "we are proactive" response.

[Bartholomew Roberts]

Has the NRA pushed any member of Congress or Senate to submit a bill that would reverse the 1986 FOPA or the 1994 assault weapons ban or the 1934 GCA?

We don't want to reverse the 1986 FOPA - just the ban portion of it. Several bills doing that (and the 1934 NFA) have been proposed and gone nowhere. Ron Paul usually submits one that would cover both.

As for the 1994 semi-auto ban, the NRA pushed a repeal in 1996 that passed the House by a large margin and had bipartisan support but it died in the Senate judiciary committee.