the (ir?)rational to not being a member
a one year NRA membership costs the same price as one box of bullets folks. im just not seeing the rational to not be a member.
I'm not trying to start anything here, and I admire the sentiment of gifting NRA memberships to others who don't have the extra cash right now to do so, but I thought I'd share with others why at least a few people find it hard to send the NRA our hard earned money.
If they would stick to fighting exclusively for our second amendment rights, it would be a lot easier for a lot of the 76 million gun owners out there who are not members to support them. I'm not going to get into detail here on all of the specifics, but my impression (and that of friends of mine who would otherwise support them) is that they stray into what could be described as "conservative politics" too much, instead focusing exclusively on second amendment rights. I'd be bothered if they were straying into so called "liberal politics" too. I'm not interested in arguing the merits of liberal vs. conservative on other issues, though many others may want to go down that road. I don't advocates of my second amendment rights wasting rights wasting a moment of their time trying to cure random social ills, from imagined (or real) voter fraud to childhood obesity, or anything else plaguing our nation. I want them advocating for my second amendment rights. If I wanted to advocate for or against anything else, I would (and I do) give money to other groups who lobby congress and educate the public about other things I find important. Our second amendment rights, however, should be something that people of all political persuasions should be fighting to protect. Hopefully that is something all of us who are members here at THR can get behind.
The other reason I have for not being a member (yet), is that my friend finally broke down and joined the NRA this summer, and they sent him some cheesy chinese made duffle bag as a thank you "gift". I don't know about y'all, but I'm not interested in giving them money so that they can go buy slave labor made duffle bags overseas to give to me. I want them spending every dime I give them lobbying congress and educating the public, so we can quit worrying about media figures spreading fear and misinformation regarding firearms.
Don't get me wrong, I'm entirely thankful for much of the work that the NRA does on behalf of all of us. But when they stray from their mission and get mixed up in other things, it complicates everything for those of us who would love to actively support them.
I'll probably join them anyway, since they do have a pretty good track record of pulling the votes together to oppose the idiots pushing to restrict our god given and constitutionally protected right to bear arms for our own and the common defense, but it will be grudgingly. I really hate to do anything grudgingly. If someone is feeling gracious, maybe please convince me that I should be happy about doing this (in a DM so as not to hijack the thread). If you can convince me, I'll have a hell of an easier time convincing my friends