USA –-(Ammoland.com)- “Do you have any ideas about the NRA board vote?” an email I received last night asked.
My correspondent is referring to the upcoming election for National Rifle Association directors. The ballot is included in the February 2012 issue of the NRA magazine of choice for Life members, and for those with five or more consecutive years of membership. Voting will continue through March 25.
In answer to his question, I definitely have some ideas, and I’ve shared them frequently over the years in the form of my NRA BOD Candidate Questionnaire. Simply put, I believe anyone expecting our support must give us unequivocal answers on where they stand on the right to keep and bear arms, and on their ability to hold paid management accountable. And for this year’s crop of director candidates, some additional questions seem appropriate in light of both the Gunwalker scandal and the upcoming November political elections:
- NRA promised to score confirmation votes for Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court in their candidate ratings. Will you publicly insist that any politician running for reelection who did so, such as Jon Tester, be down-graded at least one level in their NRA rating?
- NRA’s Wayne LaPierre warned CPAC 2012 in no uncertain terms:
“If Obama wins re-election, he will likely appoint one — and perhaps three — more Supreme Court Justices. If we get one more like those three, the Second Amendment is finished. It’ll be the end of our freedom forever…If you don’t remember anything else I say today, write this down:
This is the most dangerous election in our lifetime. If Obama wins, we’ll go to our grave mourning the freedom we’ve lost.”
- If that’s truly the case, it would appear to trump all other considerations. Will you therefore publicly insist that any politician, especially so-called “pro-gun Democrats,” who put party over principle and endorse Obama’s reelection, or vote to confirm any anti-gun nominee to the Supreme Court, be given an automatic “F”?
- Will you also publicly insist that NRA use its influence and grading/endorsement system to demand impeachment proceedings against Attorney General Eric Holder for his part in the Fast and Furious gunwalking criminal enterprise, and that NRA also call for a truly independent special counsel, with rating consequences for politicians who don’t support that?
As Jeff Knox of The Firearms Coalition points out in his BOD endorsement statement:
It is an embarrassment that the greatest political action organization in the country generally gets participation from only about 7% of their members eligible to vote, but that’s the case. While that is a sad testimony to how seriously flawed the NRA election process is (and NRA’s unwillingness to address the problems) it also represents an opportunity.
Indeed. But, and let’s be real here, it’s just so much easier to do nothing. It’s what those who are complained about are counting on.
About David Codrea
David Codrea is a long-time gun rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He is a field editor for GUNS Magazine, and a blogger at The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance. Read more at www.DavidCodrea.com.
