by Todd Rathner
USA – -(Ammoland.com)- I am writing in response to David Codrea's comments to my article entitled “Vote NO On The Recall of Grover Norquist From NRA Board” published on AmmoLand News February 10th, 2016.
I deeply respect Mr. Codrea and his work in exposing the BATFE’s misdeeds in the Fast and Furious scandal, and his other writings. But I strongly disagree with his suggestion that the NRA should focus on issues other than the Second Amendment.
The NRA is powerful and can defend our gun rights against all comers because it focuses like a laser on strengthening the Second Amendment.
We [NRA] are not the Republican Party. The NRA wants the support of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. We are not the pro-life movement. Or the pro-choice movement. We want Americans of all world views to defend the Second Amendment.
We [NRA] are not a pro-or anti-immigration organization, that is not the NRA’s fight. We want the support of all Americans. We have NRA members who want to legalize marijuana and those who don't, foreign policy hawks and doves, Baptists and bootleggers.
I wrote to urge all NRA members to vote NO on the effort to recall Grover Norquist because it is an attack on the NRA.
As a board member I know that Grover is an effective advocate for the rights of gun owners, concealed carry permit holders, hunters and collectors.
Read his books, his columns, podcasts, and heck, his tweets.
When Grover fights for lower taxes, he does so in his role at Americans for Tax Reform, not the NRA.
I happen to agree with Grover in the struggle for lower taxes but that has nothing to do with the NRA or the Second Amendment.
Grover is a strong leader for the Second Amendment and the NRA because as a board member he has one goal…. To preserve and protect the Second Amendment, and I’ve seen him in action defending our gun rights.
That is why I will vote NO on the outsider inspired recall effort against Grover (and the NRA). I stand with the NRA, the Second Amendment and with Grover.
Todd Rathner
Current NRA Board Member
Todd Rathner is a Second Amendment lobbyist who has worked to repeal restrictions on gun owners in over a dozen states including in his home state of Arizona where he played a central role in passing Permitless/Constitutional Carry, as well as many other pro-2A legislation. He is the lobbyist for Knife Rights and the NFA Freedom Alliance. Rathner has served on the NRA board of directors for the past 15 years.
This needs to be seen. https://youtu.be/XdTGbLs1toU Say what you want about Glenn Beck, the man is standing up for this country and very few times has he been wrong. He is an NRA member and regularly advertises firearms on his Dish channel 212 the Blaze and has several shows involving shooting competitions. I have been watching him for 8 yrs. and have not caught him in a lie yet. You decide.
I’m afraid I’m right there with you. I honestly cannot disagree.
Sorry for the bad spelling, David Codrea’s article…. My sincere apologizes to Mr. Codrea….
[What makes us look bad is “slime balls” on our board and wanna-bes and people hiding there back grounds “and” real motives.]
Sorry again for spelling, my fingers and / or eyes must not have been working well….
A lot of members should think very sincerely about this issue, as future membership and the NRA’s future itself could well hang in the balance…..
Sorry, charlie or tommy and/or all the rest. I am a life member also and although have not been for long, have been a 5 year and yearly member when I could afford it for years… I say VOTE YES …. Norquist can not be in bed with Bloomberg and Muslims and have the interests of the NRA membership in mind…. And all I hear in his defense is he is a good guy… Great !!!!!!! You know how many good guys have stabbed me in the back over the years ???? More than I can COUNT….
The NRA has called themselves a gun lobbying organization for years, for you that have not gotten out of your diapers yet… Because the liberals make something sound bad to you, does not change the facts….
And if you ask me it is time to get rid of all these lobbyists on the board… The board should be hiring lobbyist, not full of them… If you ask me the next recall should be Todd Rathner, cause he is sounding just like a Norquist Wantta-be…. What are your true motives Todd ???? Slither right on into bed with old norquist and then slime your way right up the latter into that greatest of great cesspools, Washington D.C. ??????????
Sounds to me there are a lot of well qualified candidates to take there place, who have been in military and fought for America, and fought for our rights in real battles and Nationally….
See my posts under David Cordea’s article for further explanation, but to say now is not the time for a recall, or it makes us look bad, or look weak or the media will use it against us is pure hog wash…. What makes us look bad is slims balls on our board and wanna-bes and people hiding there back ground abd real motives…. People who are not there that are 100% above board and have the members’ wishes and needs in mind, that is what makes us look weak…………………
I mean nice try Tommie of course
Nice try. Endowment member here. And I’m quite sure I’ve done more for the second amendment than you ever dreamed of doing
Sorry Tommy….you have just experienced an epic fail.
I am a Life Member of the NRA and have been so for many years, albeit, if I had known then what I know now, I would never have joined at all.
Fact is, I will vote to flush the odorferous Norquist-turd, just as he so richly deserves.
To NRA zombies, NRA sycophants and Statist-NRA minion-members (psst, that’s you Tommy), any criticism of the NRA, particularly criticism of the factual core of the Organization’s provable historic and contemporary actions, is akin to someone calling their wife a fat ugly cheating slob.
NRA Zombies and the NRA sycophants regularly ignore, rationalize, justify or make-excuses for unacceptable NRA positions. Of course, many are desperate to remain willfully ignorant and will NEVER verify the truth of such criticism, preferring the warm perceived safety and comfort of classic ‘cognitive dissonance’.
This sets aside, of course, the huge numbers of NRA members who actually believe in government granted ‘gun-privileges’, rather than in the fundamental essential Liberty so clearly and simply enumerated in Amendment II.
It relly is as simple as that, Tommy.
Attn Mr Rathner;
Ignore these NRA Haters for who nothing done by the NRA will be good enough for them. Despite their claims, we know that none of them are dues paying members and with the ability to Vote in NRA board elections.
Thank you for bringing up this issue and your thoughtful responses.
Mr. Rathner said:
“The NRA is powerful and can defend our gun rights against all comers because it focuses like a laser on strengthening the Second Amendment.”
Well, if a bit of light is shined on that declarative statement, then the truth of it can be assessed.
IF one holds to a deliberately perverted, false and twisted view of the ‘Second Amendment’, exactly as the Quisling NRA does, then Mr. Rathners declarative statement can be viewed as truth.
The NRA’s (and the de facto position of Mr. Rathner) undeniable position is that the Second Amendment does not really mean what it so simply and eloquently states, nor is that clear textual meaning directly bolstered by the spirit of the times and by the discussions and arguments during ratification.
Mr. Norquest IS the NRA, indeed.
The NRA does NOT believe in an unalienable Liberty to keep and bear arms. The NRA does NOT believe, work for or ‘defend’ the essential and fundamental individual Liberty to be armed as one chooses where one chooses. The NRA does NOT believe, stand for or ‘defend’ the absolute prohibition on government from infringing upon that essential and fundamental individual Liberty, nor do the support and defend even the concept of ‘Constitutional Militia’ which is supposed to spin off Amendment II’s enumeration of this essential fundamental individual Liberty.
Rather than taking the principles of our founding and demanding govt cease ALL RKBA infringements and then championing sanction or punishment of any actual individual committing an actual ‘bad-act’ (e.g. causing actual harm to the Life, the Liberty or the Property of another individual)…the NRA has knowingly and willingly entered into an unholy marriage with government wherein all manner of textually unconstitutional govt acts are udertaken in the ‘Collectivism Model’ wherein group restrictions, categrizations, regulation, controls and prohibitions are applied in the method of ‘prior restraint’, purportedly to ‘prevent’potential actions by someone, somewhere, somehow.
Yep, there stands the vaunted NRA, embracing predatory unconstitutional govt whilst slow-selling a plethora of gun-control to a trusting but fundamentally ignorant American people…selling prohibitions on some, restrictions on others, controls on the who, the what, the when, the where and the why of what is so clearly prohibited to government in the first place…assisting in gaining citizen acceptance for the required categorization and seperation of various artificially created groups to be further restricted of prohibited their essential fundamental Liberty.
Sick, twisted, disgusting and utterly opposite to the clear text of Amendment II.
The bottom line is that the NRA ‘focuses like a laser’ only in its knowing support, defence and ‘strengthening’ of nothing more than ‘Gun Ownership’, ‘Gun Use’ and ‘Gun Carry’ all as ‘allowed’ by govt via a complex web of ‘law’, regulation, control, prohibition, permitting and variousn other infringements.
Amendment II and its absolute prohibition on govt, e.g. ‘Shall Not Be Infringed’, does not enter into the NRA’s ‘laser focus’, nor into their vast web of chicanery.
The NRA, Govt’s Official Approved Gun-Privileges Organization.
Pfft….
Ratner is treating NRA members like idiots with these dishonest, bogus, hypocritical arguments.
1. Over-immigration is the ultimate long term gun rights issue. It is culturally and politically terraforming the USA, overwhelming the relatively conservative native born citizenry’s voting control. See California. Cali is the USA’s future thanks to Norquisling and his collaborators, which is why Grover’s pal Bloomberg spends tens of millions of dollars for amnesty and over-immigration. Anyone who doesn’t understand that is too dumb to vote in any election and too dumb to own a gun.
2. Rathner knows the NRA is not and never has been a pure single issue group into the sense he claims. E.g., campaign finance. QED. I could give many other examples. Moreover, if there is one overriding issue for the vampires who control the NRA it’s how to abuse NRA’s $400 million budget.
3. Outsiders? This is revealing of the NRA junta’s beltway insider mindset. I don’t care for Glen Beck, but if he’s a member, then he’s not an outsider. What does it take to be an insider? Apparently you have to be a beltway insider who supports Norquisling Uber Alles. That Beck supports this is irrelevant. He happens to be right about Norquist, although not for the most important reason. The most important reason is Norquisling’s collaboration with Bloomberg for his gun confiscation by over-immigration long game. But Beck certainly has a valid issue on the Islamophilia. Opposing the recall on the grounds that Beck supports it is bogus ad hominem argument.
“NRA is powerful and can defend our gun rights against all comers because it focuses like a laser on strengthening the Second Amendment.” Well there is at least one lie in Rathner’s post. NRA contract lobbyist for Illinois Todd Vandermyde put Duty to Inform w/ criminal penalties in Rep. Brandon Phelps “NRA backed” HB183 carry bill in 2013, NOT Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Everyone on the planet can see that NRA is loaded with rats and traitors if they pay this scum a dime. Setting up armed citizens to be disarmed, abducted, raped and executed by police criminals and police impersonators is not “defending our gun rights.”
Vandermyde worked for William Dugan at the Intl. Union of Operating Engineers local 150 in Countryside IL, before Dugan was convicted by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in 2010. If Chris Cox & Chuck Cunningham at NRA-ILA pay money to a lobbyist who worked for a union that was taken down by the FBI and U.S. Attorney, then Vandermyde can’t be the only traitor at NRA HQ.
I was once a supporter of the NRA, but that was before I learned the realities of life. NRA has never, that I am aware of, supported anything BUT more controls on honest citizens! They water down protections and compromise endlessly on restrictions! They are the PERFECT minion to big and bigger government. They can be abused as needed by the gungrabbers yet will still be available to compromise away our INHERENT, GOD-GIVEN, BEDROCK RIGHT TO SELF PROTECTION. No questions asked! Yet they beg and plead for more members and more money to support the lies they feed TO both the trusting membership AND the fudds, who love the lies and the liars! I wish it were otherwise, but no longer being the wet-behind-the-ears rookie I was as a teenager, I know it’s not!
D. C. Wright,
USMC Retired
Vietnam veteran and
ADAMANT firearms owner and supporter of the ENTIRE Constitution/Bill of Rights
Why Does The NRA Still Support NICS?
The NRA recently re-stated its longstanding support for the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), a program that was originally mandated by the Brady Bill in 1993.
In a statement directed at the North Carolina Sherriff Association last week, the NRA said:
“[North Carolina’s] antiquated and inefficient system has been in place for nearly a century and was enacted long before the age of computers and computerized records. Unfortunately, the [North Carolina Sherriff’s Association] has determined it would like to continue to use discretion to deny permits to purchase handguns, rather than simply use the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) utilized by the majority of other states.”
The NRA has publicly supported NICS for years, arguing it should be “improved” and “limited” rather than completely eradicated.
The reasons for this are almost certainly political. As The Truth About Guns pointed out recently, the NRA would take a serious hit with lawmakers and the public if it came out against any and all criminal background checks.
But this “compromise” approach gives the enemy a permanent foundation to expand gun control.
Just yesterday, New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney introduced a bill that would require anyone buying or selling firearms to undergo a NICS background check, and further require that every gun transfer be reported to the United States Attorney General.
Maloney’s bill has no chance of passing, but it won’t be the last. For as long as NICS is around, the anti-gun crowd will keep using it as a foundation for laws that limit our rights.
By continuing to publicly support an unconstitutional system, the NRA is playing with fire.
http://rebelmississippi.blogspot.com/2015/05/why-does-nra-still-support-nics.html
moderation = censorship
The NRA rolled over on Veterans and PTSD – I attended a 2013 patriot meeting where Larry Pratt called them on it..
Norquist is a turd, flush him.
Of course, the NRA itself has largely been a Quisling, Fudd and Gun-Control Org, since its inception. The NRA is the ‘Official Govt Approved Gun Privileges Organization’ and it has been directly complicit in the slow-sell of various schemes, machinations and chicanery in abrogating Amendment II as written.
The NRA has assisted in drafting gun-control, supports unconstitutional federal ‘gun law’ enforcement, consistently ‘A” rates anti-Liberty/anti-Amendment II candidates and has been a driving force in restricting full autos, mail order purchase, non-govt vetted purchase, permitless carry, certain ‘gun free’ zones, ‘assault weapons bans’, govt background checks, veteran disarming via ‘mental health schemes and a host of other anti Amendment II govt acts, laws and edicts.
Norquist is the quintessential poster-boy for what the NRA actually is, rather than what it claims to be and what it has millions upon millions of ‘Joe Snuffy’ Americans fooled into believing.
The NRA’s version of the Second Amendment, which they loudly champion, allows for and actually works in support of a whole host of clear textual infringements upon that which is prohibited to government by Amedment II.
What a sad and pathetic scheme….the NRA working hand in hand with predatory unconstitutional govt “in support of workable gun control”, since their inception….with its status as a trusted ‘American Institution’ they have been willing and knowing participants with govt in the ‘slow-sell’ of gun-control to an indoctrinated and ognorant populous.
I used to be a faithful NRA Zombie myself, becoming a life member…then a went through a process of critical assessment and waking up to actions, rather than claims and I researched historical and contemporary NRA actions.
The result is briefly expressed above.
I vote to flush the Quisling turd, Norquist and I will continue to shed light on the ‘actual’ NRA.
If other board members identify Norquist as an effectve spokesman and activist for the Second Amendment. and he is not engaged in criminal behavior, he should be left alone. We will never agree completely on other political issues, and there are other organizations which provide venues for acting on those issues. NRA should stick to preserving our Second Amendment rights, and not focus on divisive outside issues.
Other board members stand up for him in fear they may be next if their “sins” find them out. If associating with known global terrorist organizations (among other things) is not “criminal behavior” then what is it?
Here is what everyone is missing and what Todd Rathner is try to get at. This is not a yes or no vote for Norquist to be on the board.
This is an recall question that has been forced upon the NRA membership by a few anti NRA people who have found a loop hole in the NRA member bylaws. They are using it to create an issue where none should be and cause fighting among NRA members.
If you don’t like Norquist you can just vote him out when his board term comes up. But if he is voted out through this end run, the antis will have a field day touting how the NRA is corrupt and it will become a tactic for them to target and impugn other NRA board members.
VOTE NO on the Question.
If you hate Norquist vote him out next time he is up for election, not this way. Anyone insisting on this recall vote is clueless or worse, not on the side of gun rights and the 2A.
There are many in the gun rights moment who have the same problem with of the leadership of the NRA as they do with the current leadership of the republican party. That some of these leaders have lost touch with the membership and in many ways to not represent us but rather their own self interest.
I support the NRA not because I love guns but because I love America and understand completely that if our 2nd amendment rights were to be lost our republic would be too.
Norquist is an inside the beltway operator whose primary goal IMHO is self preservation first and not the general welfare of the NRA or the 2nd amendment otherwise he would agree that the best thing for the NRA is that he resign. He is hurting the NRA by staying on the board.
The recall of Grover Norquist will be a watershed movement for the NRA, will the NRA be about saving our republic or more about protecting the inside the beltline operators like Norquist.
It saddens me greatly that no member of the Board of Directors of the NRA has not spoken publicly in favor of recalling Norquist.
Respectfully,
Joe Wilson
Patron level member NRA #4875884
TRUMP 2016 ! Make America Great Again !
Norquist needs to get throwed out of the NRA like trash he is. All the evidence and facts prove his ties and support to muslim brotherhood ! If he ain’t recalled send your NRA card back to them in pieces. That will get Cox attention fast !
@Jace,when Charles used the phrase ‘gun lobby’ I thought exactly what you did. This dude is a plant I think. He even talks like a gungrabber and is a Clinton supporter too. I have NEVER heard the term ‘gun lobby’ used where it compliments lawabidding gun owners, NEVER ! You were spot on with this dude.
Beck has grown moss between his ears.
@Charles your use of the word gun lobby gives you away as a NRA or even anti gun troll. Thankfully haters like you don’t vote in NRA elections. I will stand with Todd and vote to keep Grover on the board, as he is an asset to the NRA. Oh! By the way if Beck quits the NRA over this vote. Good riddens to the whack job, if he can’t see the overall good of the NRA and it’s board,but instead quits over one member he doesn’t like we don’t need his kind. I will vote yes to keep Norquist on the board.
Wow you are an embarrassment to the gun lobby. I’ll bet you are one of those Intellectual failure trump supporting type as well.
If you call Glenn Beck an NRA outsider you are a flat out liar. And I suggest you watch his interview with Norquist which Beck waived his membership requirement to view live that day and is posted still free online. Beck is just not afraid to go after enemies among us and no matter what Norquist says about taxes or gun rights his und eniable and frightening ties to Islamic radicalism makes him ineligible to fight along side true liberty lovers on any issue. He is no ally to freedom or he wouldn’t be best buddies with countless Islamic Sharia loving radicals.
Glenn Beck is a Looney bird. He should stop his radio show because all it is, is an endorsement for Ted Cruz. Far from fair and balanced.
Roger,If Trump gets elected in two years
you will be begging for Obama again.Ted Cruz is a Constitutionalist