What Should NRA Do Now ?

Pay some attention to member feedback to try to keep most of them past the current crisis.

They should take any TV and magazine money, and get schools to hold safety and shooting courses. The future generation is what will keep the 2nd amendment around.

I'd like to see the NRA actually go on the OFFENSIVE as far as legislation and repeal of existing infringements goes. I'm tired of the gun culture in this nation being on the defensive. It's time to stand up and take back our country, and our rights.

With the NRA's history of compromise the only way they can earn back my respect is fight tooth and nail to regain the lost ground they helped surrender.
Safety education ads and no-nonsense work to help states forge Nullification laws (like that just signed by Kansas Gov. Brownback) would be a good start.

Rebuild the war chest , expand gun safety training for non shooters, push the Fed to expand Mental heath care.

Regroup and refocus on 2014. That means broadening membership esp to minority groups. And it means doing some pretty serious reevaluations of some of these "A" listed candidates. And maybe giving A's to some of the lower ranked ones who actually stood with us. The NRA needs to have a go team set up to address these incidents quickly. Waiting weeks and then coming up with a warmed over rehash of 1990's arguments was a very bad idea. Thankfully the other side failed to move fast enough to take advantage.

One great thing to come out of this have been some new faces for our side.

1.) A rewards program for submitting (non-form) letters to congress critters during the slow(er) days ahead
2.) A push toward de-regulating suppressors and SBRs/SBSs
3.) Continued push for increased or universal carry reciprocity
4.) Agitating for respect of guns/gunowners in big cities
4a.) Agitating for minorities' and the poors' gun rights from a blatantly Civil Rights angle
5.) Move ATF money from enforcement to Applications, Tech Branch, and the CMP
6.) A fleet of B-17s for dropping full-length magazines on little parachutes behind enemy lines
7.) Get the Supreme Court to get off its butt and rule on a gun-case--preferably a case involving "a right delayed being a right denied"

And it means doing some pretty serious reevaluations of some of these "A" listed candidates.

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8.) Get rid of the stupid rating system.

Politicians change their colors too frequently to be graded the way they currently are on these special interests, and the ratings themselves have become little more than poker chips that elected officials chase when it suits them. A better system would be an online "leaderboard" ranking the politicians against eachother (instead of some arbitrary standard), which includes links to the quotes, articles, voting habits, etc. of each candidate. "Number 1 NRA ranked Senator" should be the brass ring, not some "A" rating that can be discarded as is convenient.

TCB

I'd like to see the NRA actually go on the OFFENSIVE as far as legislation and repeal of existing infringements goes.

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Yes! this is it right here.

+1

What should the NRA do now? Keep their promises, make double good on their threats, and start saving for the mid-term.

Culturally we need to do more..

NRA is right to be very careful of the mental health issue. The last thing we need is for the NRA to get painted with a broader discrimination brush. Leave that delicate balancing act for others to fight over.

My advice (and I am a voting endowment member, not _just_ peanut gallery :

• Rebuild war chest
  
  • Focus on outreach to expand responsible urban ownership
  • Training for city-folk
  • education on secure and responsible ownership/carry in high-density areas
• Take the initiative (sente) on changing public image
  
  • Another poster mentioned it a while back - build a clearinghouse website for consolidating all reports of guns used in self-defense, catalog and mine that data to produce good statistics on the role guns play in stopping baddies. Crowdsource the acquisition of data, pay trained moderators/editors to validate to keep credibility up.
  • Aggressively cater to the female and minority demographics by designing tailored training programs, promoting open (accessible, friendly, approachable) environments in indoor shooting ranges. Think industrial design and the kind of thought that goes into making stores appealing to their target demographic, and availing that to ranges as part of a certification or something.
  • Engage the police chiefs in education efforts, outreach, and let them participate in training program design. Get the astronaut to help.
  • co-op with Pink Pistols, GOA, JPFO, and ride that tide. First, NRA should be entirely neutral on any social cause or issue not related to core mission. My sense is that the external perception of NRA is otherwise. We'll be more successful by focusing on core mission, helping to build a bigger tent, and supporting any effort that's aligned with ours. I'd like to think more about ways we can view these groups (and I'm also a life GOA member, btw) not as lost NRA memberships, but adjunct or special interest groups. Offer help where asked, not interfere when not, encourage multiple memberships, give discounted subscriptions through the groups - e.g. get a life GOA membership and for an extra bit get life or 25-year membership in NRA. Then offer reciprocal structure - life members in NRA get discounted memberships in the other groups.
• Continue to promote the shooting sports
  
  • 3-gun is awesome, but might be too video game for everyone. There's a sport for all, and I think promoting the range of them from practical shooting to marksmanship is really important. It gives people context and an excuse for making frequent contact with their weapon, reinforces safe handling practices, gets people outdoors!!! Can you imagine the first lady promoting the shooting sports as part of a national wellness campaign? Well, neither can I, but we can help fill that void.

My bottom line, if not apparent, is that we need to do more to evangelize the culture, not let it wither.

NRA needs to keep the pressure on.

We need to repeat history and remove as many senators that voted for this as we can. Hopefully people will be as pissed off as they were with the 1994 AWB.

There are some good suggestions so far.

i would like to see the NRA do some pro-active stances on getting some crime control law improvements enacted.

If nothing is done, if there is another tragedy, the opposition will have some ammunition to say the gun lobby prevented any improvements.

If bills are brought forward, and even if voted down, then we can point fingers to the gun control crowd as they would try to point fingers at the pro gun side. We need to make them part of the problem. They will certainly call us part of the problem.

Personally, I wish there was more discussion on alternate uses of AR style rifles other than self defense. The AR is more than just a defense rifle these days but any other use is lost in all the "assault weapon" rhetoric.

Finally, I never contributed to the NRA before this year. While I do not necessarily agree with everything the NRA does, they are the major game in town and they need united support from EVERYONE. If folks will not support the NRA just because the NRA does not support a particular pet want or desire, we will not succeed.

Personally - I'd like to see the NRA give more money to it's Grants Division - and then use that money to build more Jr. Air Rifle/ Smallbore rifle facilities across the country.

Once they're built, we can get back to the business of making our children better marksmen; killing two birds with one stone: parents spend more time with their kids, and our parents & kids are better marksmen, and more apt to be future sports shooting enthusiasts (and hopefully, NRA members).

I vote for Offense. A simple but effective approach would be to hammer the message home with commercials, etc about the true statistics in these "perfect societies" such as Chicago. Also, highlight the stories (many have video/surveillance footage proof!) that slip through the cracks of the puppet media outlets about would-be assailants stopped in their tracks by regular folks who God put in the right place at the right time with a CC.

Even though I'm a life member, I'd like to see the NRA offer a really stupidly low price on a basic membership.
A whole lot of folks can't afford $300, or whatever the rate is these days.
I'm certain membership, and a feeling of belonging would strengthen our numbers and cause for those who want to, but can't afford to join.

They need to make a huge push to unseat some of the politicians that went the wrong way on this thing. They also need to work hard to unseat some people at the state level, particularly in places like CO.

Making these people pay at the polls in their next election will go a long ways towards protecting against future attacks on our rights.

The NRA needs articulate, well-spoken younger executive members. WLP has come-off looking and sounding like a basket case on many of his appearances to date.

I'd like to see some semblance of professional broadcast personality in all those on-camera.

While you want all these wonderful things----DON'T FORGET they cost money.
Keep up the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ to the NRA---they did a great job

I give what I can when I can which unfortunately is not as much as I'd like. I'd like to see the NRA run some ads that show that members are average Americans and not crazy right wing extremists. I would also like the NRA to start declaring that they are a civil rights advocate by supporting the Second Amendment. Lots of good ideas especially those that address public interaction. I'd volunteer some time and I'd be willing to bet others would too.


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The NRA has to articulate how it would place armed security into the schools to protect our nation's children. Further how it would train those teachers that are willing to carry a firearm, concealed into the schools. Obviously the gun free zones is absolutely ridiculous, and custom made for a deranged idiot to shoot the place up.

They should go on the offensive and run PSA's explaining the Eagle safety program and all the other great workshops the NRA supports. While I do agree they should expose anti-second amendment politicians, they ought to show they aren't defined by who they are against.

The NRA should also continue to fund states like CA, NY, etc. and sue the hell out of the legislation that is totally illegal. They need call out things like this per-round tax and how it is totally illegal to tax a constitutionally guaranteed right.

All of us need to give as much as we can to the NRA-ILA and support these fights. It may not be in your neighborhood this time around, but do you think the gun grabbers will stop in NY or CA? Heck no, they won't stop! We have to fight them back and be unified as one, with the NRA leading the counter charge.

The NRA needs articulate, well-spoken younger executive members. WLP has come-off looking and sounding like a basket case on many of his appearances to date.

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I have to agree pretty strongly with this. Mr. Pierre made some pretty absurd moves during this. His diatribe about video games put him on the same level as antis talking about guns. There is no credible evidence to support the idea that such video games lead to violence or mass shootings. In fact, the evidence that exists is completely to the contrary. It was just another instance of blacing blame where it doesn't belong and ignoring the important issues. The NRA is at its best buying loyalty from politicians and serving as a political boogey man. They really do need a better spokes person and better ideas with respect to what they are putting out to the general public.

One thing that we need to do is elect better board members. When you have POS board members like Joaquin Jackson can we really expect ideal results. When an NRA board member is out there saying the exact same things or worse than antis (arguing for a 5 round magazine capacity) that is a very bad sign.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSGySNLyACE&feature=youtu.be

The NRA rating system of politicians and endorsements have also been pretty troubling. They need to vindictively go after these "A" rated and/or endorsed politicians that were pushing for gun control.

In time of peace prepare for war.