Posted on 05/28/2015 7:01:06 PM PDT by OK Sun
As your new president, I am grateful to serve with you to preserve America’s unique freedoms.
I first encountered the National Rifle Association as an 11-year-old growing up in Ohio. Mentored by the NRA in the 1950s by men who had a passion for owning firearms and shooting, I learned the true meaning of our Second Amendment.
Recently, an old friend and I were remembering those remarkably free times: when “gun control” was not even in the lexicon; when a kid could take a shotgun or rifle to school and stow it in the cloakroom for after-school target practice or hunting.
My friend asked rhetorically, “What would life be like without the NRA?”My friend asked rhetorically, “What would life be like without the NRA?”
I know the answer to that question because I lived it.
I was blessed to have been present—working as a staff attorney in Congress—at the beginning of all of the legislative battles that have been thrust upon us.
In that fight—which brought us the 1968 Gun Control Act—there was no NRA as we know it today. We had no means to assemble our collective power as individuals to influence government. “Lobbying” was just not proper.
(Excerpt) Read more at americas1stfreedom.org ...
DISCLAIMER: I'm a long-time member of the NRA.
Parts of the current NRA endorsement policy helped keep Thad Cochran and Harry Reid.
The NRA back then was mostly a sportsman’s organization composed of gun enthusiasts, hunters, and competitors. The NRA was such jerks that you had to get your local sheriff to approve your being a member.
They did not want sporting arms banned but really didn’t care otherwise. Self defense and those who thought citizens should be armed to prevent an all powerful central government were not their cup of tea.
The 68 gun control act was a very harsh law. We suffer from it today tho some parts have been softened. Many of the manufacturers secretly supported it because it banned importation of military surplus which the dealers saw as competition.
The Cincinnati reforms were a major step in changing the NRAs focus and they have been much better since but they still are not hard core enough.
What if there wasn’t? People might actually have to exercise their rights themselves, rather than coming to a cooperative agreement to abridge the rights of others as happens time and time again with NRA approved legislation.
While the NRA does some great things, those great things do not depend upon the NRA existing. In the end, it is ultimately up to the citizen to stop the government from infringing in God given rights.
I dunno. Maybe a more effective gun rights organization would have taken their place.
The National Rifle Association was originally founded by former Union soldiers and officers to give newly freed black slaves firearms to protect themselves from the Democrat created Ku Klux Klan. Gun Control laws were first enacted so blacks couldn’t own firearms. The first president of the NRA was former Union General Ambrose Burnside.
Actually it was just about the opposite situation.
The NRA was formed by a veterans group in NY state to improve the quality of marksmanship in the population.
The KKK was formed to fight the truly brutal treatment of the defenseless South. Whites in the South could not vote and were not allowed to own arms.
Black Union soldiers began to rape, murder, and kill complete families then burning their homes afterward. I have seen the accounts of these actions myself when researching my ancestors from Georgia.
It struck me that is was very much like the movie “Birth of a Nation” which is now considered racist. The White Southerners went to the Union General in charge and begged him to remove the Black troops. Finally after too many atrocities had been committed, the general finally did remove them and replaced them with regular soldiers.
The NRA helped, if not led, on two MAJOR efforts, both of which were TOTALLY SUCCESSFUL:
1) The attempted gun grab after Columbine
2) The attempted gun grab after Sandy Hook
While I don’t appreciate some of their IDIOT political stances (like endorsing Harry Reid), I do really appreciate the above - things would be a LOT WORSE without their help.
“Birth of A Nation’’ Uh, yeah. I see where you get your history from.
No other organization has done more to compromise your Second Amendment rights than the NRA.
Until they come out as purist on the Second Amendment as it was written and intended they will receive no support from this family.
NRA is to gun owners as Al Sharpton is to “blacks”.
Then we would have to rely on some other organization to send us stuff we didn’t request, e.g. DVDs, then pester us to pay.
***What If There Were No NRA?***
Handguns would have been regulated like machine guns in 1932.
Rifles and shotguns would have been excessively regulated in 1968.
Private ownership banned or heavily regulated by 1972.
Only registered low powered single shot rifles and shotguns would have been allowed to the peasants. The elite would still have full ownership of anything they wanted.
Which organization do the Gun Grabbers attack
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