Magpul Exec. Duane Liptak open letter about the NRA

[chkrdflg]

This is a pretty good read. Reminds me of the quote by the founding father (I forget which one) about sticking together or hanging alone.

I had already renewed my wife's and my memberships for another 3 years this morning before finding this letter.

https://www.ammoland.com/2019/01/pro...#axzz5cPDspQQk

[unclejumbo]

I've said for a long time that no organization plays the political game better than the NRA. This confirms what I already knew and reveals some of the inner workings. Some folks are incapable of grasping nuance and understanding how things actually get done. That's unfortunate because it allows operatives to drive a wedge between the NRA and those that should be actively supporting their efforts. Certainly, it's partly the NRA's fault in their messaging on bump stocks. But, if the author is to be believed (and I have no reason not to) then the NRA was making moves to head off legislation.

I'm an endowment member and I was never going to be one of those that threw that membership away. It would be meaningless, waste my money and ensure I'd have no voice in correcting what I found unacceptable. I also haven't given them any money for awhile. That's going to change because the NRA I know is continuing as always. Navigating the swamp and staving off the worst, sometimes appearing to "compromise" when it meant getting the best that was available to us.

"No compromise" is a great slogan, it's also a great way to be excluded from the conversation. The NRA knew that and got a ten year limit on the AWB. We would still have one were it not for NRA working through terrible legislation and getting what they could. Let's face it, every single gun owner compromises. If you didn't, you would have taken up arms in 1986 or 1994 and started shedding blood. You didn't, I didn't so it's time to understand that what we want and what is possible politically are vastly different things. We're the fringe, the outliers and we won't ever be ordering SAWs on the internet. I'll be glad to not give up ground and get a SCOTUS ruling that semi-auto rifles are fully protected by the 2A.

[BobFromBucks]

Great post, Jumbo.

Ears to Hear. Seven times in the Greek Scriptures, and only from the lips of the Lord Jesus, there occurs the expression "If any man have ears to hear, let him hear!" ... The rest hear the words, but do not grasp the meaning; the multitude have no ears to hear, all will be wasted upon them.

[father-of-five]

The article was a good read. It is frustrating in some ways, but makes contextual sense as well.

[eagleclaw]

A way to look at the NRA situation is this country suffered three mass shooting in a six month period. The first was the Los Vegas shooting which caused approx 60 deaths and 400 wounded. The second was the church shooting where the shooter was stopped by a neighbor armed with an AR15 and the third was the Parkland HS shooting that did the most damage to second amendment. In addition it gave anti second amendment kids a chance to "Hog " the spotlight. If it wasn't for the NRA I suspect we would have a feinstein ban in place already. The NRA may have mishandled the bump stock issued and HR2060 but they can't work miracles either.

To summarize I hope the NRA president can keep the NRA from going south.

[fallenleader]

far as i see it, if there are only 5% actual pro-gun members in congress, we've only got to protect 26 people when shtf. conversely there are very few to worry about losing if they glassed DC.
we've been slowly losing rights since the late 1800's. we've made enough gains to keep the pot from boiling over.
it might be my children, probably my children's children or even theirs, if not totally mindfucked to accept big brother's controlling hand by then, that are out there regaining what people had to fight for two centuries ago.

pull back and look at the national picture and what we gain one day, we lose the next, gain a little back only to lose some.
what was intended as a free nation is slowly becoming a totalitarian turn-key waiting for the next dictator and it all started shortly after signing those founding documents. how long before our great defense, the military, is turned into a mishmash of "communism will win" gender dysmorphic participation medal welfare recipients? they'll all be sitting home hitting buttons on drones. they would certainly fire on us when dear leader commands it. we die and our mush minded grandchildren hand in our relics for some social score benefits.
god, i hope the generation following mine is indeed as conservative as they say.

wonder what the general population would have said if they were told the british would be enacting 18th century varients of civil asset forfeiture, emminent domain, taxation on income, housing and the purchase of goods. even taxation on already taxed money. red flag laws or any number of things we tolerate today.
what would they think if you told them the british would be monitoring them but only logging their time, location and general activity?
how about if they were told they could only purchase certain types of horses, certain size carriages or regulations on any number of products in their daily lives.

excellent news is that we've almost got universal permission slips to carry specifically permitted firearms from one state to another in a specific manner without fear of prosecution... we've almost reached a state where we are allowed to pay and ask for permission to do something we supposedly used to be able to freely.

it might not make much sense but it's my rant and i'm sticking to it and don't expect anyone to read it.
i do understand what he wrote and what the nra is supposedly doing but i'm not confident in the long game results of it.

Edit:i am always open to being corrected when and if i am wrong. [more often than not i am]

[PickingPA]

Great read, thanks for posting!

[Bang]

Liptak said God forbid we have another shooting. That's exactly how tenuous the present-day atmosphere is. Just as media uses every opportunity to blame trump, it applies the same formula to paint the NRA as responsible. In diabolical reporting, the stronger the NRA, the more to blame it is. It is a weird paradigm of a strengthening becoming its own destruction.

Liptak's saying no organization but the NRA is part of the conversation is very disheartening. He is saying, in effect, money going to GOA and the like is not resulting in what the NRA accomplishes, yet encourages sending those organizations money. That's a bit difficult to reconcile.

I believe he is quite correct that the elected officials only want what helps gain re-election, and issues they can convert to leverage for accomplishing other wins. As such, the NRA needs to educate the public to see "our side". The public, being the electors, is the loudest conversant.

Educating the public translates to conversion of entrenched anti-gunners. A tall order indeed. The NRA vs Fake News. 300 Spartans comes to mind.

[GunLawyer001]

I'm seeing a wave of childish anti-NRA, anti-Trump tantrums all over the Web, and I don't know how many of them are bots or paid trolls.

But I agree with UJ above.

Imagine you have 2 kids, and one makes demands and if he doesn't get exactly what he wants he kicks and screams and knocks things over. The other is willing to negotiate over curfews and chores. Which kid is probably more mature, and will get more of what he wants in the long term?

Sure, in a perfect world we'd all have inalienable rights that are never infringed. Except we don't live in that world. We live in the one with a revolving door justice system, where the mentally ill are "mainstreamed" and live next door to you, where half the country has found loopholes and doesn't work, where our borders are porous and only the law-abiding taxpayers have to obey our laws.

The NRA and Trump have to deal with that world. Not the one we SHOULD have, but the one that exists. Just like I have to drive on the roads that are there, not the "PROPOSED FOR 2001" routes that are still cornfields.

The NRA is the 800 pound gorilla in the gun control debate, and it's on our side, and it's been more effective than not on most issues. Compare the carry permit "shall issue states" maps from 1970 and 2018, for example.

Anyone seeking to destroy or weaken the NRA right now is either insane, or working for the gun control freaks. Neither option looks good.

[Gunsnwater]

I gave up defending the nra against the butt hurt. If they want to mail in their property, let them. If you cut off any friends that disappoint you, you will be alone in the end. That will come quicker than you expected. There isn’t one gun owned by anyone here that doesn’t owe that circumstance to the nra. Not one. The bill of rights is only scribbles if not for a constant fight to have them respected. I’m not putting down any other organizations. They just weren’t there. 1871