This is my first post here. Finally registered and joined after trying to log on to TFL and getting an internal servor error. Won't keep me from TFL, but have enjoyed reading here.
Richard Feldman isn't pro-gun. Richard Feldman is pro-Richard Feldman. And he'll compromise, wheel, deal, lie, fabricate, misrepresent, stretch, bend, break, change, conveniently forget, redefine whatever necessary (he is a lawyer, after all) to put himself in the most favorable, profitable light.
He was dismissed from the NRA not once, but twice. The way he tells it, he was the Lone Ranger standing up for Joe Gun Owner. The way everyone else in the NRA tells it, he was a maverick manipulater who often made deals, suggestions and innuendo without the knowledge or consent of his bosses.
That will get you reprimanded and even court-martialed in the military. It will get you reprimanded and/or outright fired in most private sector jobs. Only tenured professors and federal judges can get away unscathed with such actions. Feldman is neither, and as a result, was booted twice.
It's painfully easy to read between the lines in his book, Ricochet, to see his maverick leanings. It's painful to this day to see what those maverick leanings resulted in, namely the mandatory trigger locks. Had the NRA not done some feverish, expensive last-minute behind the scenes work while Feldman was selling gun owners down the Arkansas River, we'd also have mandatory gun safes and retroactive gun locks.
I've been an NRA member for 37 years. I've never believed 100% in 100% of what they say, do, report or claim. But I can say the same thing about my wife. Doesn't mean I'm going to betray her or leave her. Looking at the big picture, she is the best thing that has ever happened to me.
As a gun owner, the NRA is the best thing I have going for me. They keep me an honest, law-abiding citizen. Without them and their efforts, I'd be a criminal--because I'm going to have guns regardless of what the politicos may say or laws they may enact and attempt to enforce.
When I left federal law enforcement and finished grad school, I went to work for the agency that handles and creates the majority of the NRA's marketing, advertising, public relations and educational materials. Being a writer, I wrote a lot of headlines/ads, several columns for LaPierre, Baker and other Association senior managers, many speechs for LaPierre, Baker and later on, Charlton Heston.
I brought an insight to the agency from the experienced standpoint of an ex-military man, former law enforcement and long-time Second Amendment supporter. In exchange, the agency helped groom me as a writer and advertising man. After leaving the NRA's ad agency, I went on to enjoy a very successful, lucrative career in advertising and was able to comfortably semi-retire several years ago.
I was there when the infamous "Jackbooted Thugs" campaign was concepted, pitched and produced. There was a lot going on behind the scenes in 1993 when that campaign was being created. Justice Clarence Thomas was being libeled and slandered during his confirmation hearings, Judge Louie Freeh was being confirmed as Director of the FBI, and the infamous Clinton Assault Weapons Ban was being inked. That momentum spurred the Brady pukes and the Brady Bill was on its way.
Behind the scenes were high-ranking Clinton appointees in Treasury, Justice and Commerce pushing for more. My old friends in Justice and Treasury agencies told me first hand that ATF was "licking their chops" at the prospect of growing and being funded like never before."
When one of our art directors found an old archived photo of facist German soldiers goosestepping on parade in front of Adolf Hitler, I remarked to the agency executive vice president and chief creative officer that, "That could be ATF marching on Pennsylvania Avenue sig heiling Bill Clinton and Janet Reno." Remember--we'd already seen the government in action at Ruby Ridge, then at Waco.
And an idea was born.
The "jackbooted thugs" comment came later in a speech by LaPierre that was written by the agency, but the origin came from an ad we wrote and produced warning members about the perils that lay ahead.
But as usual, the media took it far out of its original context. And Feldman jumped all over it as an excuse to show NRA's "hysteria and radical right agenda." What a lowlife, self-centered piece of crap. He even KNEW the situation and context, but rather than show solidarity for something he professed to believe in, he began back-stabbing the very second it got hot in the kitchen.
Even Judas Iscariot was more trustworthy than Feldman.
Sorry for the excessively long (first) post, but this struck a huge nerve with me. Having been on the inside of the NRA, having sat down and had lunch with LaPierre and with Heston and other dignitaries, I am PROUD AS HELL of what the NRA does for us.
Does LaPierre have a lucrative compensation package? Hell, yes. As THE most prestigious, effective and respected pro-gun organization in the world, I WANT my leaders to be paid as such and look like the top executives they are. They are being paid to lead the one organization that stands watch over the steel and muscle of our Bill of Rights. They are damned if they do, damned if they don't. Let the NRA lose a fight and it's all LaPierre's fault. The media villifies him, anti-gunners despise him. He can't win.
But under his leadership, we've won a whole lot more than we've lost. A helluva lot more.
And, there's a lot more to the NRA that most members never see. It's a fantastic association for gun-owners and freedom lovers.
There's a lot more I could tell you, but I'm not sure THR's server is big enough (grin).
Jeff
