I think that you willingly misunderstood my point. although i did use the word LEFT the point was that you are responsible for your own safety. while MS-13, Al-Qaeda,t he Mafia, etc are a threat, of late it would look to me that the "peaceful" protesters with their looting, burning, mace of counter protesters are more of a threat to me today. who knows what tomorrow may bring?
These protesters appear to be more of a threat to you? Then this video and the news are responsible for another fault -- grossly misleading you about how likely you are to face violence.
Unless you're an anti- protester, of course: one of those guys who heads down to the town square to engage in a little round of pushing and head-bashing with the protesters. Assuming not, these people seem to be very little threat to anyone outside of certain specific areas and situations which are well known ahead of time. They aren't randomly rolling out to the countryside to beat up suburbanites or farmers.
But that's beside the point as I did not at all get the impression from this video that the NRA was using it to alert it's members to a safety concern. Such a video would have had a
completely different tone and direction.
This is just a political posturing piece, used to rile up "us" against "them." For somebody's benefit. Now whose?
So, you agree then, that this is simply a manipulative screed designed to get more membership dollars rolling in?
i would remove the word manipulative. and change dollars rolling in to membership numbers but yes. and while i may not care for it it would appear to work. we have more members now than ever before. i dont like mud slinging in politics, that works also. welcome to the real world not the one we would have.
Oh, clearly it WORKS! That's why they do it! And to differentiate between "dollars" and "membership numbers" is a distinction without a difference. But to put that in perspective, they can't spend membership numbers and don't pay their salaries out in membership numbers, either.
I don't think anybody's even questioning that. However, to say that the NRA has been a great savior of our gun rights does NOT mean that one has to -- or SHOULD -- agree with any manipulative hi-jinks the Association leadership might get up to, nor every harebrained thing they might publish. The leadership of the NRA-ILA is made up of people, more or less just like you and me. They aren't infallible and questionable decisions should be questioned.
Absolutely! however when something go's on that i dont like taking my ball ( dues) and going home dose nothing but is simpler than working to change/ or accept what you dont like for the greater good.
Who said anything about taking my ball and going home? Though, by membership DOLLAR numbers do they live and die, so that's the only language the NRA is really able to clearly hear.
statement has no relevance to this conversation at all. A complete non sequitur.
no. others made reference to the reason for the NRA i was making a historical point pay attention please
I'm sorry. I meant to say the historical point you made was, itself, in the context of this thread, a
non sequitur. Since the formation and purpose of the NRA so many decades ago was fundamentally different from what the NRA-ILA is formed to do, saying "well maybe we should end that, too" makes no sense. The NRA itself still does that original function, and quite well.
What the NRA-ILA does is a different matter. Much of that is good, of course. But this thread is focused on whether this current effort by
NRA-ILA is helpful or hurtful to the cause of RKBA in society as it exists today.
The question isn't simple and how you feel about it depends a lot on whether you really like the split society, us-vs-them, Liberal-vs-Conservative, situation we're deep into right at the moment. If so, you probably like this video.
If you feel that society will not continue to be so rigidly fractured along party platform lines, then you probably see that gun rights should never be rigidly tied to any other social issues, or to either political party.
RKBA =/= abortion, religion, climate change, social justice, immigration, healthcare reform, Republican Party, prayer in schools, etc. =/= RKBA
Society may go in any number of directions as we sort out all of those other issues. We do not want tour right to bear arms tied to any of them in the public consciousness, to float or sink with them.
i think that it s popular to bash the NRA and some gun owners go out of their way to do so.
That's funny. When I defend the NRA, I'm accused of being a blind fanboy who can't see the facts.
When I point out where they're going wrong, I'm an NRA basher. Really can't win, can I? LOL.
But surely you'll admit that using the "oh, it's just popular to bash the NRA" line is just a cheap and lazy shortcut to try and make the position of someone else seem vulnerable, when they've made a serious point and you don't really want to bother to think very hard about it. Can we at least agree on that?