I learned about NAGR and its deplorable tactics in the course of my advocacy for the Convention of States Project (another target of concentrated NAGR attacks). As it turns out, NAGR is just one of a pack of ankle-biter groups, all of which trace back to Mike Rothfeld. Among this web of Rothfeld groups are Campaign for Liberty, Foundation for Applied Conservative Leadership, and Council for Freedom and Enterprise.Nice names. What they all share is the Rothfeld secret sauce — best described by the wizard himself:
“I am a professional junk mailer. I am a professional telemarketer. I’m a professional spammer — like, a hundred million pieces of emails a month. And I’m a professional negative campaigner. And I’m damn proud of all four.”
While most of us abhor negative campaigning, we can at least understand it as an effort to induce people to choose Option A over Option B. But that isn’t the game Rothfeld and Dudley Brown are playing.
Source: How This ‘Gun Rights Group’ Is Profoundly Damaging Your Second Amendment Rights – TheBlaze
People normally would call them mercenaries, but that would be an insult to the memories of warriors like Michael Hoare. These people are here just to make a buck knowing that we are hard-core participants and quick to respond to an alert. This is where they abuse the system and make pledges for money. And I think lately they have upped the ante by playing “poison pill” in legislatures and screwing with pro-gun bills in order to be recognized as players and collect monies for their efforts.
You may have been approached already and probably are annoyed at their shit either under NAGR or one of their “state affiliates” which are as hollow as their hearts. This is a list from their own website:
Stay frosty and stick with the ones at state level that have actually done stuff and long time recognized entities at national level.
NAGR absolutely ruined the Tennessee Firearms Association once they became involved.
I moved to TN over a year ago and I was thinking of supporting TFA until I saw your post. I just looked on their site and I can’t find any NAGR affiliation. Do you have any links that I can read up on and who in TN do you think should get my money? Thanks!
I’ve never heard one good thing about NAGR. I’ve never heard of them helping with pro-gun legislation, I’ve never heard of them helping to defeat anti-gun legislation. I’ve never heard of them lobbying. I’ve never heard of them being involved in grassroots activism. I’ve never seen any representative of theirs interviewed on television. I’ve only ever heard about their predatory fundraising. I saw a pickup truck in the village I live in a few months back with an NAGR sticker on the window. I winced. It seems like they are trying to run with the GOA line that they are the most uncompromising gun group in America. Only problem is GOA actually does stuff to help, NAGR does not.
For Virginia residents, I recommend the VSSA, (the NRA affiliate), and the VCDL (Virginia Citizens Defense League). The VCDL monitors the goings-on in Richmond and alerts us with quick newsletters and links to citizen’s comment sites, in addition to an annual lobby day and local council meetings as needed. A lot of good folks and I’m proud to be a member. So, if you live in Virginia, look no further and ignore the slick AstroTurf con men.
Amen on VCDL, they are the best and I gladly throw in with them. I constantly wonder why NAGR thinks I need to renew my never extant membership. Good relationships do not start upon lies.
Back in August, there was self-congratulations on the left over how they killed off the Tea Party. It eventually leaked onto some non-Control-Left sites, and I did an article on it. Basically, how the Tea Party was killed off was by professional junk mailers, emailers and other grifters sucking away money that would have flowed to genuine Tea Party groups.
It sounds like exactly what NAGR’s game is. I sent them money once, and decided they were just a perpetual fund raising organization after a billion and six emails and some determined reading. Now, I wouldn’t give them a dime.
On a similar note, while I have nothing against any of the other gun groups, I can’t help but think if those folks put their bucks into the NRA it would become a more powerful lobby than it is now. And, yeah, I understand the problems some folks have with the NRA. I have my problems with them, too. But there’s something to be said for one “800 pound gorilla” in the room.
My argument to the NRA haters has always been, “you stand a 0% chance of changing the things you dislike about the NRA if you’re not a member”. I’d tell them to write to the NRA voicing their displeasure, but as non-members, I’d expect the NRA to ignore them. I would. I’d tell them to go to a “friends of the NRA” event and get involved on the grassroots level, but they aren’t members, so they can’t. I’d tell them to vote for good candidates for the NRA board, but they can’t. I’ve brought this up and I’ve been mocked as a sucker for supporting the NRA, but other than complain and disparage, a vast majority of NRA haters I encounter do absolutely nothing.
That’s always been my position, too. The NRA can be changed. It will happen slowly, but more importantly, it will happen from the inside, not from the outside.
The NRA is member-driven. It will only change when enough members decide it needs to change. Therefore, you need to do one of two things (or do both; even better): you need to convince more existing members to vote for your change; or you need to get an influx of new members, starting with yourself, that will vote for your change in sufficient numbers to override the existing stick-in-the-mud ones.
Either way, the only way the NRA changes direction is from the inside.