Why won't ILA step up?

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Smurfslayer

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Check out these 2 press releases, rec'd by email today:

Note that SAF mentions NRA, but the opposite is not true. Why is it that SAF is gracious enough to acknowledge NRA, but NRA-ILA won't even mention, or acknowledge the existence of another group, much less one that has actually outdone them?

ILA seems to have a problem, and it's not just with SAF. They've been conspicuously absent from quite a few 'grassroots' efforts, especially getting shall issue passed in several different places.

What gives here?


SAF alert:
SAF VICTORY IN NEW ORLEANS, JUDGE GRANTS CONTEMPT MOTION
BELLEVUE, WA – A United States District Judge in New Orleans has granted a motion to hold Mayor C. Ray Nagin and Police Superintendent Warren Riley in contempt for failure to provide initial disclosures and answers to discovery in a lawsuit filed by the Second Amendment Foundation.

Judge Carl J. Barbier issued a blistering rebuke to New Orleans’ defense counsel for conduct that is “wholly unprofessional” and warned that it “shall not be condoned.” Judge Barbier ordered defense counsel to reimburse SAF’s attorney $1,365. SAF is joined in the lawsuit by the National Rifle Association.

In his ruling, Judge Barbier noted, “Defense counsel has caused time and money to be wasted by Plaintiffs’ counsel and further admits that he has ‘no good reason’ to explain his behavior.”

“Throughout the past 17 months,” said SAF founder Alan M. Gottlieb, “our attorneys have acted professionally and they have been stonewalled or ignored by the city and especially its defense attorney. This seems to be the only thing that gets their attention, and it appears that Judge Barbier’s patience has grown as thin as our own.”

“We gave New Orleans every opportunity to act like adults and deal with this lawsuit in a professional manner,” Gottlieb said, “and they’ve acted as if this case didn’t exist. Judge Barbier’s ruling is a wake-up call.

“They seem to forget that we went to court over a serious civil rights violation,” Gottlieb continued. “In the days following Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans dispatched police officers and National Guard troopers to confiscate firearms. In many cases, citizens were disarmed at gunpoint, without warrant and without probable cause. Nagin and Riley, and every other official in New Orleans who was part of this outrage, need to understand that the Constitution may not be suspended in New Orleans or anywhere else by a natural disaster, or on somebody’s whim.

“This is the first step toward forcing New Orleans to return seized firearms to their rightful owners, and in our effort to find out who issued that illegal order, and hold them responsible,” Gottlieb stated. “We will not rest until this case is resolved.”

ILA alert:
City of New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin
Once Again Found in Contempt of Court
District Court Judge to City Attorney:
Conduct "wholly unprofessional"
Fairfax, VA-The National Rifle Association (NRA) and law abiding gun owners have won yet another victory this morning against New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and former police chief Warren Riley.

Judge Carl J. Barbier, presiding over the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, granted NRA's motion for contempt against New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Warren Riley for "failure to provide initial disclosures and to compel answers to discovery" during NRA's injunction against the City for their illegal gun confiscation of law abiding citizens following Hurricane Katrina in 2006.

"Once more, Mayor Ray Nagin and former police chief Warren Riley are held accountable for considering themselves above the law," said Chris W. Cox, NRA's chief lobbyist. "These men have had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, every step of the way in this process to return the lawfully owned firearms to their own citizens, and Judge Barbier rightly found them in contempt of court for their complete lack of respect for the rule of law."

Furthermore, Judge Barbier concluded the delaying tactics by the City's attorney, Joseph Vincent DiRosa, Jr, to be "wholly unprofessional and shall not be condoned". Mr. DiRosa admitted in Court that he had "no good reason" to explain his actions and has been ordered to pay partial legal fees to NRA's attorneys for their wasted time and money.

"Ray Nagin, Warren Riley and their attorney refused to provide vital information to the U.S. District Court for their unconstitutional acts in their city's time of great need," concluded Cox. "On behalf of the lawful gun owners of New Orleans, NRA is pleased with this outcome, we thank Judge Barbier for his swift decision and we will continue to press for the full return of all the city's confiscated firearms."
 
It is NRA's policy to take credit for anything positive that happens regarding guns (even if they weren't involved at all) and never, never, to share credit with any other organization (except NRA controlled "State Associations" on occasion). After all, it would hurt their unremitting fundraising if gun owners thought there was someone else they could support.

It's all about perceived power and, of course, money.
 
Sorry folks, but when push comes to shove the NRA is our last best hope to preserve americans gun rights. If we don't stop shooting at each other in the gun community we will all hang together as someone once said.
 
Blue4:

Sorry folks, but when push comes to shove the NRA is our last best hope to preserve americans gun rights. If we don't stop shooting at each other in the gun community we will all hang together as someone once said.

You use good common sense.

We don't like people who think that way. :)
 
I think NRA funds or aids/supports a lot of these smaller one-horse organizations, esp w/legal services.

If NRA's regional or state law firm Smith, Wesson & Winchester happens to work for another gun org like SAF, who's to say who's paying the bills?

It behooves NRA to have allied organizations do work too, so it looks like a 'unified front'.

Many of these progun organizations are really one-horse shows whose limited membership basically pays part of one or two people's salaries.


Bill Wiese
San Jose CA
 
Can someone please tell me

Does anyone have __actual first hand knowledge__ of an instance in which NRA-ILA joined or helped a grassroots effort they did not initiate?

No "I heard", no friend of a friend, no internet rumor... How much of Shall issue is actually NRA-ILA's doing? Really.

Virginia? Zero. What of the other states?

Anybody here ever tried to get NRA-ILA's help? I'd be curious to hear about your experiences.
 
You guys can trash the NRA if you want to, but the Democrats do not. Bill Clinton himself said the NRA was responsible the the Democratic loss of control of the House and Senate in 1994. That's all I need to know.
 
I believe the NRA affiliate in North Carolina helped bigtime to get shall issue permits passed in 1995.
 
The NRA's paid staff can't do it all by themselves, even at the national level. When you add in the number of local and state politicians in this country the total is staggering. John

www.nraila.org/ActionCenter/GrassRootsActivism.aspx?ID=27

"Since 1994, NRA-ILA’s Grassroots Division has recruited and trained more than 330 Election Volunteer Coordinators (EVCs) to cover more than 360 congressional districts.

EVCs act as liaisons between pro-gun candidates’ campaigns and NRA members in their districts. EVCs provide volunteer support for all grassroots campaign activities" "EVCs are in continuous contact with NRA-ILA’s Grassroots staff at NRA Headquarters, constantly exchanging ideas and information. Grassroots staff provide EVCs with practical, hands-on training, both in the field and from Headquarters. EVCs are also included on a secure e-mail server list, where EVC-related ideas and information can be exchanged, and all receive a monthly newsletter published by the NRA-ILA Grassroots Division."

"To identify and contact the NRA-ILA EVC for your congressional district, please visit http://www.nraila.org/ActionCenter/GetInvolvedLocally/Default.aspx#evc and enter your zip code or choose your state. For more information on the EVC program, please contact the NRA-ILA Grassroots Division at (800) 392-VOTE (8683), and ask to speak to your state’s Grassroots Coordinator."
____________

"In NRA Headquarters in Fairfax, Va., and in offices in Washington, D.C., and in Sacramento, Calif., the Institute employs a staff of more than 80, with a team of full-time lobbyists defending Second Amendment issues on Capitol Hill, in state legislatures and in local government bodies.

While NRA is a single-issue organization, the Institute is involved in any issue that directly or indirectly affects firearms ownership and use. These involve such topics as hunting and access to hunting lands, wilderness and wildlife conservation, civilian marksmanship training and ranges for public use, law enforcement-related issues, product liability, trapping, crime victim rights and criminal justice reform."
 
Smurfslayer, you're both an NRA Instructor and, evidently, an opponent of the NRA. So on the one hand you benefit from the NRA, and on the other hand you criticize it for not behaving as you wish.

I do believe that you have the right to an opinion on anything at all, but your behavior seems unethical to me. When someone undertakes to represent an organization, as you have by becoming an NRA Instructor, I believe that he should behave appropriately towards it in public.

The appropriate behavior in this kind of situation is to communicate your criticisms to the organization directly. If you don't get a response that satisfies you, it would be appropriate to resign your NRA Instructor certification and free yourself to criticize it in public all you want.

I would find your opinions more credible if they were untainted by your obvious ethical conflicts. Fastidious people of my generation tend to believe that it's wrong to campaign publicly to harm an organization from which they derive benefits. Biting the hand that feeds you is a most unappetizing thing to do, and extremely distasteful to observe.

Do you have a replacement in mind for the NRA after you have finished weakening it, or is your goal merely the destruction itself?
 
Instructors represent the NRA in firearms safety by teaching the NRA curriculum; nothing to do with NRA-ILA.

Nobody is saying ILA should be the end all-be all of pro rights advocacy and it is true that they "cannot do it all". That doesn't explain, or excuse what's been demonstrated below, and in previous efforts.

So, why the ambivilence to grassroots & other rights organizations?

RH, I'm all broken up about your perception and fastidious nature. I was unclear however that you were appointed to be my moral compass. :rolleyes: I certainly didn't see it in the forum rules, haven't gotten an email on it, or a phone call, letter, or even a smoke signal. Until I receive that communication from a credible source such as a vision from the Almighty, I'll grant your questioning of my ethics the same value I grant to Bill Clinton lecturing about telling the truth.
 
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