Why we're ultimately going to lose the fight

He is a parasite. All groups have them. The most common is the employee who refuses to join the union, yet expects to reap the benefits of the union when the union negotiates for better wages, benefits, etc.

Pilgrim

Heck,
I read somewhere that less than 6% of the people in America during the Revolution had anything to do with it at all.

We won't loose because of idiots like that, but it will take a lot longer.
Freeloader like that, probably on welfare too!

Sam

I'm not an member of the NRA because I disagree with their methods. I write my delegates constantly about upcoming legislation, and make sure my voice is heard when it comes to gun rights. Does that make a parasite?

Gun control is an issue that requires intelligent debate and compromise on BOTH sides. What the NRA (and the other side) does is inject fearmongering and paranoia into the system, poisoning the dialogue and creating an atmosphere of propoganda and dogma.

Gun control is an issue that requires intelligent debate and compromise on BOTH sides. What the NRA (and the other side) does is inject fearmongering and paranoia into the system, poisoning the dialogue and creating an atmosphere of propoganda and dogma.

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I don't know where you went to school, young fella, but one does not compromise with antis. No way. No how.

There is something to be said for a poisoned dialogue when one is immune to the other side's venom. In case you hadn't noticed, we are incrementally killing them politically.

When the Left openly ponders chucking gun control as a core issue rather than suffer another round of abject defeat in part due to yet more ineffective repackaging of their anti-gun totalitarianism, it's a sure sign that we are not losing despite all of our free riders.

Compromise can help, but we have to draw a line. They've proven that compromise is all they need. The NRA gives up a tiny bit, and a tiny bit more, and a tiny bit more, and a tiny bit more, and a tiny bit more, and a tiny bit more, and a tiny bit more, and a tiny bit more, and a tiny bit more, and a tiny bit more, and a tiny bit more, and a tiny bit more, and a tiny bit more, and a tiny bit more, and a tiny bit more, and a tiny bit more, and a tiny bit more, and a tiny bit more, and a tiny bit more, and a tiny bit more, and a tiny bit more, and a tiny bit more, and a tiny bit more, and a tiny more, and before line we have no more to surrender.

You only compromise when both sides have a gun to the others head. Right now they've got one to our head, but we don't have one to theirs.

The failure of many gun owners to support pro-RKBA organizations is actually immaterial to the problem. The NRA alone already has a larger membership base than at least any one anti-RKBA organization. There are also plenty of “parasites†in the gun-control crowd.

The real reason why we are going to lose is that gun owners are not generally pro-freedom. They also largely fail to see the logical disconnect between supporting one right (RKBA) and suppressing another (take your pick). This has to change before we can have a realistic chance at long-term success.

~G. Fink

Gun control is an issue that requires intelligent debate and compromise on BOTH sides.

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I completely disagree. First, there can be no 'intelligent debate' with rabid statists whose only agenda is to compel everyone else to fall in line with their views, using the force of government. 'Compromise' is not in their vocabulary. 'Compromise' is exactly how we got to the limited RKBA position we have today.

I’m a member of the NRA but their fund rasing tactics can be a bit annoying but I guess that’s what they have to do. I vote, but I need to write some of these boneheads in Congress and let them know how I feel.

I need to support the industry as well, haven’t bought a gun since last April.

Join whatever pro-2nd group that you see fit IN ADDITION to the NRA. Why they are far from perfect, they are the strongest kid on the block and wield more influence than any lobbying group in the US.

Without the NRA, we would have lost this fight long ago. It's ironic to see the NRA characterized as being too resistant to compromise, when many in the pro-2nd community would accuse them of the exact opposite.

Know what I'm afeard of?

Complacency.

Bush won re-election, and while it's great we don't have to worry about John Kerry over the next four years, we as a whole might mellow out and forget that there is some jacka$$ out there who wants to push another assault weapons ban (or worse) when the opportunity arises.

I think the NRA realizes this and you almost get the sense that the NRA wants to create a strong enemy in our minds so that we don't forget. I'll admit that's a little annoying, especially when every letter you get from them is a plea for money, and maybe it's crying wolf too often, but it is what it is.

With our majority in house and senate, I wish we could repeal that stupid '86 machine gun ban and enact concealed carry in all 50 states. :banghead:

Join and support or forever be know as a PARASITE....

The American political system is a construct of endless compromises. No single party or organization gets its way all the time.

However, the NRA has been behind getting RKBA candidates elected repeatedly. They say in the last national election 85% of the candidates they supported won their elections. What other organization can boast that?

And the NRA is a multi-front operation, operating at a national level, State level, local level and grass-roots level.

Look at how many States are now "shall issue CCW" compared to 10-20 years ago. Even Alaska went the way of Vermont and pretty much ditched their CCW laws. The NRA was behind a lot of that.

Actually, I could take the position that a whole lot of gunnies are parasites because they have not contributed the thousands of dollars I have sent over the decades to the NRA, or to their endorsed candidates. Of course, one of the reasons I have sent a lot of money is because I live in Maryland, which is one of the most hostile States for gun owners, which is pretty scary. I do not have the luxury of living in RKBA friendly State.


The NRA is a big dog in Washington and I think it is getting bigger.

So, bitch and whine all you want, just do not become part of the problem.

I plan to become a life member of the NRA, but I just can't afford it now.
I'm only 18 and between jobs, and I'm going to try to be furthering my education soon.

You can get a lifetime membership in the NRA for quarterly payments of $25. That's a few boxes of cheap ammo every three months. There aren't many people who can't afford that.

You could throw your pocket change in a jar every night and have that much at the end of three months.

There's no such thing as "compromise."

Every time WE "compromise," we're giving up rights. Every time they grudgingly accept our "compromise," they have taken our rights away.

Bush won re-election, and while it's great we don't have to worry about John Kerry over the next four years, we as a whole might mellow out and forget that there is some jacka$$ out there who wants to push another assault weapons ban (or worse) when the opportunity arises.

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And there is a jacka$$ in the whitehouse who will sign it if it gets to his desk. And, I've already read it on this and other forums - THE REPUBLICAN CONTROLLED CONGRESS WILL NEVER LET IT PASS - but it passed the first time; how'd that happen?

The NRA only compromised because the votes were never there. Now the situation has changed and we can start some progun legislation. It would also help if we had that 60 member majority in the Senate. We can also retire some of the anti-gun Supreme Court Justices.
I would also like to see all the gun groups coming together against the common enemy. I'm really tired of members of that other gun group never once mentioning what they have accomplished. If they had something to brag about, maybe they would quit mentioning the NRA.

I'm a lifer,an EPL lifer

Most folks on this board are making far more $$ then me...I make a little over 14 an hour in "frisco" which is like gettting minimum wage anywhere else. It's the least you can do...I do more when I can.

but it passed the first time; how'd that happen?

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You're not being serious are you? The AWB passed in 1994 by a 216-214 vote in a Democratic controlled Congress and was signed into law by Captain Happypants the Democrat, who said in My Life (as a Cad), that the NRA spanked him into near irrelevance by 1995.

Since the Republicans came to power in the House, and the last eleven years have been remarkably different for 2A issues.

Gun friendly politicians (for the most part) lead the House.
They eventually took the Senate (This past election in fact since some Dems were replaced by solid Repubs though there is still a significant RINO problem there.)
They stopped post-Columbine legislation cold.
They beat Al "National FOID" Gore in so many states in the South that Florida actually mattered.
Haven't heard from HUD or the CDC in a good long while.
Ashcroft actually changed DOJ's tune on the 2A
They sunsetted the AWB despite a high profile effort to renew it last March.
They skewered Ketchup Boy and his 100% pro-Brady voting record.
This year the gun liability suits will be put to death once and for all.
It's a good bet that with every judicial appointment that gets through, lefty activists will have an increasingly harder time judge shopping for some unelected usurper who would actually listen to them.

Yep. Nothing's changed with the Republicans in charge, nothing at all.

You're not being serious are you? The AWB passed in 1994 by a 216-214 vote in a Democratic controlled Congress

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Yes, I am serious - if it passed 216 to 214 - it must have received some (R) votes and if the House leadership wasn't keeping it off the floor it might pass again.

Captain Happy Pants the Democrat

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Reason #3547 why I love this forum!

But seriously, anyone who gets involved in 2A has to first get over the hurdle of being labelled as a ‘gun nut’. I recently got over this hurdle because of Washington State's attempt to pass an AWB (see this thread).

That being said - there is a role for compromise in politics, but when you’re in a position of power it isn't your role. Compromise is for those who are losing. Politicians need strong voices on both sides of the ideological map telling them why there is no compromise on their particular issue. This dialogue is one of the things that keeps our country basically free. When both sides are being 'unreasonable' the politician who’s on the fence will vote with the most powerful 'unreasonable' organization. These organizations get their power from the people who give them donations, hence the system still basically represents the will of the people. If the NRA was so 'unreasonable' in refusing to compromise they wouldn't have the power they do. All that to say that the NRA shouldn’t compromise - politicians should compromise.

Boats, you have my vote!

Boats in '08!