Opinion by Henry Bowman
USA – -(Ammoland.com)- NRA members, Defenders of the 2nd Amendment it is time we replace high leadership within the NRA.
In the light of recent months, it has become clear that existing NRA leadership, namely that of Wayne Lapierre and Chris Cox has become a threat to rather than an asset to the protection of the 2nd Amendment.
After Sandy Hook we faced a massive push by the gun grabbers not seen in a while, in the face of the leftist, lying media (need I repeat myself three times), a Democratic Majority in Congress and a Gun Grabber In the White House, Wayne and Chris held the line on everything. They knew then that if you give these people a foot they take a mile, so we will indeed cannot give them an inch.
And such tactic of non-appeasement, of not compromising on the 2nd, 4th, 8th, Amendments worked not just in that aftermath of that act of evil, but countless more that have been allowed to happen thanks to the evil idea of “Gun Free Zones.”
Fast forward to Oct 1st, 2017…In the aftermath, Wayne and Chris decided to throw out basic logic, reason, experience and throw away a winning tactic for NOTHING.
Where I sit it seems they decided to “get in front” of this event and declared they support “Additional regulations on bump stocks.”
This has since snowballed in recent weeks with many state legislators GOP representative (WA state, FL, soon NJ etc.) voting in favor to ban the device and many other gun grabbers using the recent shooting in FL as an excuse to push for many more bans at the state/federal levels.
Now the NRA has gotten behind the push for “Extreme Risk Protection Order’ claiming;
“We need to stop dangerous people before they act, so Congress should provide funding for states to adopt risk protection orders. This can help prevent violent behavior before it turns into a tragedy. These laws allow a court to intervene and temporarily remove firearms when a person threatens violence to themselves or others”…
So we are trying to do the impossible, protecting nothing, and giving away due process and a presumption of innocent…Why again? For what gain? So people who do not want us to have any rights will back off for a while before whoring out some tragedy that their leftist policy created or exacerbated to take away what is left?
Since when has “Compromise” on our rights ever worked?
Why should we “Compromise” on our unalienable rights? Since when is self-imposed capitulation ever benefited our rights?
We have seen the results of this over the last 120 plus years, those who cannot see it or ignore the results are unfit for leadership.
The Leadership of Wayne and Chris has needlessly exacerbating internal division in the gun rights community/gun-culture. Alienating pro-gun voters, inspiring the more cowardly elements of the GOP to needlessly surrender away the rights of Americans, giving the gun grabbers propaganda and legislative victories. We now have to waste money in court fighting what could have been prevented, money that could be used in other lawsuits or for other candidates in the upcoming primaries/elections.
- Has the NRA led on so-called “Pro-Gun Democrats” to tame the rabid anti-American elements in their party or to help get the 60 votes in the Senate to pass pro-gun bills?
- Has the NRA led voter registration drives among existing or new members?
- Has the NRA dropped the rating of the traitors in FL from A to F?
- Has the NRA called so-called “Republicans” in the IL state Legislator, or told Gov Rauner that his future depends on him vetoing the moronic bills passed by the legislator?
Ask yourself, is there any reason they haven’t done those things small things? Three of them could be done for free and just take at most a few hours of time…
What has happened, if there is anything positive, is 500,000 new NRA members. This is promising for the NRA and gun ownership as a whole, but you could have 10,000,000 new members, a billion dollar slush fund, and an army of lawyers and all of those tools would be useless if you have leadership that does not know how/when/where to use them or squanders them.
Wayne and Chris have been great leaders in the past….but past accomplishments does not excuse current failures, incompetency, losses.
To the NRA members who are voting in the current election for board members elect these excellent candidates to the board Adam Kraut, Tim Knight, Duane Liptak, Jr. Support them and advocate on every firearm forum you are on, if not on a forum, join on, its free, a great place to find deals, meet members, get active.
The current tactics of only “holding the line” does not work to repeal infringements and restore our freedoms. You do not win wars (cultural, Info, legal, real) by being defensive. You win with daring, offensive actions and such actions can only happen with competent leadership.
Leadership that does not punish incompetence, betrayal, inaction. Leadership that does not take action in the face of a relentless enemy, that squanders an opportunity, that whores out the cause it claims to champion to line their own pockets while throwing pennies at patriots and candidates is not leadership. A hostile group within our ranks that must be shamed, reformed if possible and replaced if need be.
Wayne, Chris…your window of ability to repair your mistakes is closing. If you come out and just admit, your surrenders were mistakes, and work to repair that damage done I am sure we could find a way to forgive you. Like all leaders you are men, and men are imperfect, flawed, and fallible.
But if you two keep down this path of self-induced capitulation out of some wrapped sense of trying to control the concession of our rights rather than fighting existing and preventing future infringements, you will find yourself replaced by better leadership. Leaders have no right to harm the causes and people they champion nor or followers/members obligated to stand aside and let preventable harm to be committed to themselves and their goals.
Spread the word to follow NRA members voting to cast their ballots for Adam Kraut, Tim Knight, Duane Liptak, Jr.
“The worst thing that can happen to a good cause is not to be skillfully attacked, but to be ineptly defended.” – Frederic Bastiat
Am I wrong? I am looking forward to readers feedback in the comment section.
About Henry Bowman
Henry Bowman is an Entrepreneur, Nevadan, Life Long Defender of Freedom.
@Big D: Had that one all ready and primed didn’t ya? Well, it’s just too long to begin to take apart seriatim but a quick one: inalienable Rights do not include murder so we can toss your whole thought process out on that. Inalienable Rights are NEVER subject to revision or subjugation by man or government. We are endowed with them by our creator. As for the rest of your diatribe, phew, I just don’t care. 84 years of ever increasing gun control, mark that law abiding citizen control, is enough. If you don’t understand that you are part of… Read more »
@Big D: Nope, I don’t give you one ounce of credibility or credence. There is no more compromise, not one more inch. The only discussion worth having is how many gun control laws should we repeal every year. If we repealed one a DAY it would take 60 years to get rid of what has taken Liberals more than 80 years to saddle us with. I say repeal every damn one of them and give us back our freedoms. How’s that for reasonable discussions?
THE SCARLET L. Rhetorically satisfying for you. Meaningless and distracting for everyone else. Since most of the founding fathers considered themselves to be liberal thinkers (meaning they valued liberty and equality) with robust liberal educations (sometimes in addition to legal or other professional training), perhaps I should consider that a compliment. Actually, the Scarlet L is not meaningless. It’s scary. If the 2dAm is going to survive its going to need me and a bunch more 30 and 40 somethings like me, along with our time, pens, educations, law degrees, and law licenses. We shouldn’t need “conservative” bona fides if… Read more »
I haven’t heard a peep out of the NRA concerning the ERCO that Trump is pushing. That is a dangerous and unconstitutional bill that no state should have to deal with. Good old Wayne is just counting his one hundred dollar bills and chuckling to himself. Once we lose a law or amendment it will be twice as hard to get back. NRA is just a big money collecting machine.
@Mike Wilbert: AND, all gun laws in existence simply duplicate existing laws against assault, rape, robbery & murder with any weapon. They are unnecessary and only impact the law abiding. Repeal ALL gun laws.
@Big D: So you believe there should be “reasonable” restrictions and you fought this fight in 2007? Well, one more “I believe in the 2A BUT” Liberal has joined the foray. The 2A guarantees us nothing, it reaffirms our inalienable Rights as human beings. Those Rights cannot be taken away or diminished by individuals or governments, although they certainly try. Once again the old canard if yelling “fire” is brought forward to attempt to bolster your position. It does not. That originated from the opinion of Justice Holmes in Schenck v United States and, in later life, Justice Holmes stated… Read more »
I don’t know if you guys read these posts, but I have to inject a little reality: The 2dAmis an individual right, protected by the constitution. It was, for decades, ignored and maligned by lawyers, legislatures and judges. The single biggest threat in early 2007 was the possibility of a Supreme Court decision supporting the “Standard Rights” interpretation of the 2dAm. Those of us involved in that fight may recall arguing that part of the problem was decades of legal & judicial malfeasance/negligence. By failing to acknowledge the individual nature of the right, and developing a body of case law… Read more »
I think Tim/M.A.C. has the correct take on it and end goal of returning the NRA to No Compromise Ever.
State of the 2nd: NRA
Well now, Lew Tripp, IF you were there you also know that the Board was ready to call for Wayne’s resignation and offer Wayne a deal to just LEAVE and he turned around and stabbed Neal in the back after giving Neal his word that he would take the deal. I’ll call this exactly as it is and was, you’re a liar and have misrepresented to all here what happened behind the scenes. Go away and collect your check from Ak-Mc.
You can almost hear them in the smoke filled back room at DNC HQ. “Hey we got bump stocks for only 17 kids, how many do we need to get ARs banned? Where do we need another school slaughter this time? We can use the same “crisis actors as the last 5 “events”.”