Where a Hispanic Catholic, and a Computer Geek write about Gun Rights, Self Defense and whatever else we can think about.
God Bless all the veterans and all those who gave their life.
And one of the greatest quotes from the Korean War:
Col. Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller, USMC rallying his First Marine Regiment near Chosin Reservoir, Korea, December 1950
NRA delenda est! The die is cast and I must bow to the wishes of the loudest and cast aspersions against the NRA wishing its demise… OK, fat chance on that!
There is no doubt that the NRA flubbed the PR war with DISCLOSE and that allowed other “Pro 2A” gun groups to attack the organization with full force. Amazingly all that angst about DISCLOSE did not create an organized attack against Democrats in Congress or the bill itself so time is being wasted in crap that has no real use.
I know that idealistic niceties are cute, pink and make bunnies happy, but Political Reality is trench warfare and not quite rose -smelling. Yes all the Constitution is important and yes this bill is bad but this bill has about 90% of passing specially since there has been so little effort by most Americans in defeating it in vitro. The Health Care Bill had the opposition of almost 70% of the country yet it was rammed through and shoved down our throats. Political virgins seem to ignore that but do have the balls to act offended when the NRA, after almost 8 years, millions of dollars spent and almost no help manages to get an exclusion from being shut out of the political discussion. Political Virgins are now offended by this alleged breach of etiquette and idealism against the Constitution but we are talking about the same group that probably believes that good guys only get shoulder wounds that heal in 24 hours, that you can reason with idiots and they will see the light if you show them a copy of the Constitution and bad guys always wear a black hat so you can recognize them.
So what’s next? First, I am sure this major tiff amongst gun owners has not gone unnoticed in the White House and the Anti Gun community and I can bet that plans are already in the making to take advantage of the rift. The chance of bringing down the NRA from inside the gun rights movement is just too good to pass up and they just need a little bit of cash piped to a certain people to make the dream of a Gun Free USA possible.
The Democratic Party. Gun owners were having so much a good time bashing the NRA that they ignored the DISCLOSE bill itself. It is slated for vote on Tuesday and chances are huge it will pass with or without the NRA exemption. Political speech will be once more tamed to give the Obama administration and Dems in Congress a fighting chance come November.
Gun Owners of America. The premier bunch of No Compromise / Nothing Done and alleged supporters of the Second Amendment will gain thousands of new supporters and millions in cash contributions and a lot from unknown sources. GOA will be an important part of the manipulated collapsing of the NRA. They will be singled out as the Better Voice/True Constitutional/We Are The World group, given a couple of victories and then dropped once the NRA’s influence is gone. GOA never had and never will have the lobbying ability the NRA has but they will be a convenient tool for the anti gunners in its disarming.
The NRA. By failing to take care of the public Relations side of DISCLOSE and being too damn nice to GOA and assorted jealous idiots, the NRA shot itself in the foot on this one. Expect them to lose about a million members within a year and a half to two years.
NRA Members. By ignoring the darn little email notifications, paying more attention to the latest reality show and then bitch supreme after they heard about the “carve out” the NRA Members will lose political power in Washington that may take decades to recover. Those leaving and gambling on GOA will probably find themselves rectally invaded later down the pike.
Non-NRA Gun Owners. By the time they wake up, it will be too late to make corrections. Groups without any political or lobbying ability will be representing all of us and fail miserably at it when their magic funding suddenly disappears and are unable to get any more money or support.
If the onslaught against the NRA continues, it will cease to exist as an effective political force by November 2012. GOA will think it will assume the space occupied by the NRA but will be ignored by the DC insiders since it won’t be able to fit its shoes and the downright rabid opposition by NRA members. Anti Gun legislation will start coming out again from Congress and by 2020 we will be back to 1968 levels of gun restrictions. Expect a Federal Anti Reciprocity Bill under the cover of the Commerce Clause plus Federal Fund restrictions to be one of the first measures to curtail gun ownership across the USA.
Gun Rights Examiner informs that DISCLOSE passed in the House. I am reading the text of the bill but cannot find the “carve out” anywhere. I might not be reading it right (I suck at legalese bullshit) and I hope I am not otherwise we are pretty much screwed. It also seems that internet communications (read Bloggers) may have to keep quiet or face penalties. I’ll leave the analysis to better brains.
I was informed by Bitter that the NRA exemption survived the House Vote.
First I want to than Jay and his comments. It made me realize part of the problem we are having with all this Anti-NRA campaigns.
I think the issues is a lot of people have joined the Second Amendment cause and are unaware or do not know what was happening just 30 years ago. Those of us who were alive and/or paying attention have failed to see that the new generation knows little about the near past or the atmosphere we were living in. It is our failure, we have not portrayed efficiently what happened and now the NRA has this image of always being all powerful, all knowing, all fixing. We know that was not the case and must remedy it.
Today three quarters of Americans firmly believe that the Second Amendment is an Individual Right just like the First or the Fifth or any other. Thirty years ago the numbers were reversed and the Second Amendment was seen only as something that had to do with them hunters-Bambi-Killers. The Gun Control act of 1968 was deeply entrenched and the idea of a Citizen being able to carry a pistol for personal protection was akin to having little green men from Mars land in your backyard. Actually there was a better chance of Martians landing than people accepting CCW.
Then crime, that had been on the rise steadily, shot up to the stratosphere with the Drug Wars. Cocaine Cowboys were not an episode of Miami Vice but real individuals machine gunning competitors in the streets of Miami and dealers shooting customers in the great cities of this country. Add to this the assassination of John Lennon, the attempt on Reagan (that produced poster Boy Brady), mass shootings in California and some other incidents, a call came to restrict even more the access to guns. This was not just a simple media call like we are used to it, this was a ferocious crusade from every field of society but gun owners.
The NRA then was forced to switch from a “Field & Stream” type organization which was only worried about hunters losing their rights to hunt to an all out Second Amendment group. It was not a nice transition and it left many people disenchanted or downright pissed off and many quit or were set aside. Some of those are still out there in other groups which you can imagine. This also brought the attention of the Anti Gunners and the Media who promptly made the NRA their favorite punching bag. Every crazy bastard with a gun was an NRA member unless otherwise proven the opposite (but don’t hold your breath waiting for a correction from the press), every NRA member was a possible killer. Legislative influence in Congress? Are you fucking kidding me? What was that?
Being an NRA member was to be a combination nutjob-leper. For many police departments having an NRA sticker in your windshield was probable cause to do a felony stop on your ass. You never commented at work that you were a shooting aficionado and an NRA member because you might get fired (always other causes were mentioned) or you could expect never to get a raise or to advance in the corporate ladder. People went to the extremes of removing anything gun related from their lives in fear that their friends and neighbors would freak out and their children be ostracized. The NRA member was a sick individual that was better off in a prison camp even though we were the most law abiding citizens out there. You were associated with every neo nazi group there was, spit on, screamed on. Wearing an NRA cap meant to people you had your bedsheets and a cross to be burned in the back of your pick up truck. This is a no-shitter people, I am a Hispanic that speaks with an accent and never hid his origins but I was accused of belonging to racist groups that would target me in a millisecond. How is that for stupidity and hysteria?
In my opinion, the turning point came the days after April 19, 1995: The Oklahoma City Bombing. Once it was known that Timothy McVeigh had planted and detonated the explosives, the media went nuts and accused the NRA of being somewhat involved with the event. And then there was this picture:
Many anti conservative cartoons were based on this famous picture but the one that struck home for most of us NRA members was one that said “Thank You NRA.” By stroke of the pen of somebody wanting to cash political points in the midst of such a tragic incident, were officially associated with the nastiest motherfucker of that era (Do you remember after 9-11 some congresscritter trying to associate gun owners with Islamic terrorists? Same deal but it almost worked then). We were mad, but now we went ballistic. The floodgates opened specially after it was found out that firefighter Chris Fields was an NRA member and he was not very fond the image of the kid and of his image being used for cheap political fodder. The Internet that was barely making inroads in the Media was flooded with our kind denouncing such crass tactics. Phones messages and faxes flooded every radio & TV station, every congressman’s office, every body and any body that was in position of some power.
But the Powers That Be at the time did not relent and neither did we. They were expecting us to keep being polite and we weren’t. From the famous “Jackbooted Thugs” comment to the Wayne LaPierre statement: “I’ve come to believe he needs a certain level of violence in this country He’s willing to accept a certain level of killing to further his agenda” it was clear that the gloves were off and the tide had turned. But this was already 1,999 and by 2,000 is when the NRA had developed political power enough to influence presidential elections and put the fear of God in Congress. NRA members were not afraid to sow their colors as we were once, people were carrying weapons for self defense and some “crazy” individuals were talking about Open Carry and even not needing to have a permit to carry a gun!
So Jay, the Sunset Provision in the AWB was a stroke of genius in an otherwise ghastly bill during absolutely anti-Gun anti-NRA times. The NRA had the faith than even though we would have to wait ten years, it would bear fruit and it did. And they hate us for it, we fucked up their master plan with one little expiration date. If the NRA hadn’t “signed in” with the AWB, it would still be the law of the land. That simple.
We live in an instant society and I understand people want all things perfect and now, but the reality is that sometimes you must fight wars by attrition and not by Shock and Awe. Maybe for the new generation we are moving at a snail’s pace, but for us old farts the changes we have seen in the last 5 years alone are nothing short of a frigging miracle.
This is such a poor and short summary and only from my point of view. If you have memories of what was to be an NRA member then, please share them in the comments section.
