Jeff Knox

Knox Endorses Maria Heil in NRA Elections

Monday, January 30th, 2012 at 11:16 AM

FirearmsCoalition.org

Manassas, VA --(Ammoland.com)- As magazines containing ballots for the 2012 NRA Board of Directors Election have been arriving in people’s mail boxes over the past week (if you got a ballot, you’re eligible to vote if you didn’t you aren’t).

I have been receiving requests for guidance as to which candidates I feel are worth supporting.

This year I am only endorsing one candidate, Maria Heil, and asking voting members of NRA to cast ballots with only Mrs. Heil’s name marked. While I do not know Mrs. Heil personally, she comes highly recommended by friends whose opinions I deeply respect. I think Mrs. Heil would be a diligent worker for our rights as gun owners and as NRA members within the Board of Directors. I believe she would bring some much-needed new energy to the board.

While there are several incumbent directors up this cycle who I think have done a good job of serving the members, I am disinclined to offer endorsements. I believe all of those good directors will easily win reelection without my help, or yours, and every vote cast for someone else dilutes any vote cast for Maria Heil. This technique is called “Bullet Voting” – voting for only one or a few candidates rather than an entire slate.

The 25 candidates with the highest number of votes win seats. Since there are only 31 candidates running, attempting to vote for a full slate invariably boosts the chances of another candidate bumping your favorite out of a seat. Just one vote difference can cost a seat.

There are 76 seats on the NRA Board of Directors. Each year 25 seats are up for election to a 3-year term and one seat is filled for a 1-year term by a vote of members present at the Annual Meeting. There also might be one or two “out of cycle” seats that need to be filled due to a resignation or death, but there are none of those this year so there are only 25 seats up for election. As usual, most of those seats will be filled by reelected incumbents, but this year there are a handful of Directors who either decided not to run again or who have fallen out of favor with Wayne and company and were snubbed by the Nominating Committee.

Either way, this creates an opportunity for a petition only candidate like Maria Heil to actually win a seat. The odds are still long, but not as bad as usual when 24 of the 25 seats are almost certain to go to incumbents.

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.

In years past, my father and other dedicated NRA members have been able to shift the makeup of the NRA Board by running a short slate of alternate candidates and getting some of the 83% who normally don’t vote at all to Bullet Vote for that slate. Control over the NRA publications by Wayne and company, and their willingness to play dirty pool, made winning those seats almost impossible, but things are changing. The power of the internet could overcome the iron grip of the NRA-created millionaires who control the organization, but it would require cooperation and coordination among committed rights activists. Most importantly, a group of qualified, willing, reform candidates must be found and promoted. Those interested in putting together such an effort for 2013 and beyond are invited to contact me about it.

Until such a broad-based effort can be mounted, the best we can hope for is to try and keep good directors serving and get an occasional independent voice like Maria Heil inserted into the mix.

Jeff Knox Director, The Firearms Coalition Founder, GunVoter.org NRA Endowment Member.

About:
The Firearms Coalition is a loose-knit coalition of individual Second Amendment activists, clubs and civil rights organizations. Founded by Neal Knox in 1984, the organization provides support to grassroots activists in the form of education, analysis of current issues, and with a historical perspective of the gun rights movement. The Firearms Coalition is a project of Neal Knox Associates, Manassas, VA. Visit: www.FirearmsCoalition.org

Tags: Chris knox, Endorsements, Jeff Knox, NRA, NRA Board Elections

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Tripping over NYC’s Stupid Gun Laws

Thursday, January 19th, 2012 at 11:44 AM

By Jeff Knox

Tripping over NYC’s Stupid Gun Laws

FirearmsCoalition.org

Manassas, VA --(Ammoland.com)- The closing days of 2011 brought a rash of collisions between otherwise upstanding citizens and New York City’s infamous gun laws.

On December 16 Mark Meckler, a prominent California Tea Party leader, was arrested at LaGuardia Airport as he attempted to check luggage containing his unloaded, cased, handgun in accordance with TSA, FAA, and Delta Airline rules.

Then on December 22, fourth-year medical student Meredith Graves was arrested at the 9/11 memorial when she asked a security guard where she could check her pistol in an attempt to comply with a “No Guns” sign. That case echoed a September case in which Indiana jeweler, Ryan Jerome, also tried to comply with a “No Guns” sign at the Empire State Building by asking a guard to hold his gun.

These are just the latest examples in a long stream of incidents that serve to demonstrate how gun laws snare the law abiding. Each case is unique, but virtually every case of an otherwise law-abiding citizens running afoul of draconian gun laws – in New York or elsewhere – falls into one of the following broad categories:

Ignorance:

Both Meredith Graves and Ryan Jerome thought they were complying with the law when they attempted to surrender their sidearms for safekeeping. They saw the signs and tried to obey. Unfortunately they didn’t see any “No Guns” signs when they crossed into New York. They should have known better.

Ignorance is a dangerous thing. There are several web sites which feature interactive gun law maps. For more detailed information, I recommend GunLaws.com, where my friend Alan Korwin offers the most comprehensive collection of books about owning, carrying, and using guns at home or away, anywhere in the country.

Forgetfulness:

For many of us, a gun is a normal part of our kit, but we can’t aford to forget it’s there. When you cross a state line that “just in case” gun can be a serious problem if it comes to the attention of the local police. The cases of Stephen Grant and Jonathan Ryan fall into this category. Mr. Grant remembered his gun too late and locked it in his NYC hotel safe – then forgot to take it with him when he went home. In the end he took the more prudent way out by pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge and paying a fine. It cost him much more than the fine, but it didn’t cost him years in prison and permanent loss of his gun rights as it could have. Mr. Ryan, a Florida landscaper, had his gun discovered in his glovebox after a routine traffic stop. He gambled and stared down the potential felony conviction with its mandatory minimum sentence of 3.5 years. The jury which decided his fate apparently knew its rights and responsibilities, and voted to acquit. The Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA.org) has publicized the Ryan case because it is a textbook example of what juries should do with bad laws.

Odds-Playing:

There are times when it might seem prudent to adhere to the old adage that it’s better to be tried by 12 than carried by 6. When my father was directly threatened by a member of the Manson family, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, in the 1970s, he weighed the odds and started carrying illegally. Arizona had no provision for concealed carry then, but Dad figured that the threat posed by a proven killer and her cohorts outweighed that of a misdemeanor charge in a comparatively gun-friendly state. The full story appears in Neal Knox – The Gun Rights War, which is available at NealKnox.com.

In other places, such as NYC, carrying illegally is a felony with a mandatory 3.5 year sentence. That shifts the odds significantly. A NYC jury concluded that Bernhard Goetz’ use of deadly force was justified, but convicted him for having the gun. Goetz was later sued by one of his “victims” (as the NYC press called them) and ordered to pay $43 million dollars.

Passing Through:

Under the McClure-Volkmer Firearms Owners Protection Act (FOPA) a gun owner can legally travel through a jurisdiction where the gun might be illegal, if the gun is unloaded in a locked case and lawfully possessed in the origin and in the destination. For Mark Meckler the crux was where he was coming from and where he stopped on his way. An overnight stop, or even a breif detour on the way to the airport, can negate the FOPA protections. Meckler cut a deal, pleading guilty to disorderly conduct, paid a fine and lost his Glock, rather than place his future in the hands of a NYC jury.

A decision to carry a gun includes a load of responsibilities. It must be understood that even a clearly justified defensive use of a firearm – which saves your life – can easily cost your home and life savings through legal fees and civil penalties. Deadly force is serious business. No one should take the decision lightly, and threat recognition needs to include recognizing the threat posed by state power – particularly in states like New York.