USENET Responses to KABA's latest tripe

Haas' Guide to Small Arms Ammunition ^ | 10/16/2003 | Mike Haas

[Shooter 2.5]

Yes, you're completely right. We have a common enemy and the brady bunch is laughing their asses off right now.

[Frohickey]

Well... its always been bad form to air our/your laundry in public. KABA has always maintained that the NRA is not as agile and protective of our Second Amendment protected rights than it could be.

I don't know why KABA (Angel Shamaya, et al) are vociferous in their denouncement of the NRA. It could be out of frustration. It could be out of unwanted meddling in their own efforts. It could be something else, but its clear, at least to me, that more could have been done.

It was said that the California 50 caliber ban was a done deal, that they couldn't do anything about it. It took the 2nd Amendment Sisters, FCSA and other concern citizen groups to go and kill it after all. It wasn't a done deal after all, as Mr. Payne said. :o

Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't want the NRA to up and stop all efforts at this time. They are after all, the 800lb gorilla in the bunch, and the NRA is welcome, and there are a lot of other fights to take before we are back to the time when our 2nd Amendment rights are back to the way the Founding Fathers have meant them to be.

(One thing that the NRA should have stopped is the hiding of CCW records. I think it was Mike Haas that posted on FreeRepublic about how the NRA protected the identities of the CCW applicants and that this is a good thing after all. I wonder what this law's effect is on Jim March's struggle to expose cronyism and corruption in the discretionary issuance of CCW licenses in California! I bet its not good.)

[coloradan]

A simple solution to your last point would be for the NRA to support sealed CCW records in those places with shall-issue, and open records in those places that are "discretionary" (Cronies, celebrities, and the wealthy).

[ibbryn]

I agree, the NRA is needed as a public face to the 2nd Ammened fight.
GOA, RKBA, JPFO and other more "radical" groups make the NRA look extremely reasonable to the general public. Carrot AND stick.

[KeepAndBearArms]

Chuck Michel is clearly incompetent:

CRPA/NRA Lawyer Undermining ALL Our Rights
http://KeepAndBearArms.com/information/Item.asp?ID=3556

Dave Kopel IS clueless:
http://KeepAndBearArms.com/Silveira/Kopel.asp

Stephen Halbrook isn't exactly turning in stellar performances:
http://KeepAndBearArms.com/Silveira/Halbrook.asp

So, naturally, they've been exposed by people who care about freedom.

Such is freedom of speech.

[xring]

NRA-ILA is a piece of crap. Take all that money they sucker from us and give it KABA,GOA,SAF and a few others and we'll see a lot more progress in the 2nd Ammendment fight.

NRA-ILA is staffed by a bunch of good old boy whack jobs.
I live in Fairfax County Virginia and I used to volunteer at NRA Headquarters a lot. I watched them work, excuse me, I mean slack all day playing solitaire on their computers.

Here is an example of their effectiveness. A state 2nd Ammendment rights organization with very good and effective grass roots support busted their butts last legislative session to introduce a concealed carry reform bill. They worked and lobbied and had legislators lined up to pass it. These guys are all volunteers, to be proud of.

The opposition hired a professional lobbiest. An ex NRA-ILA lobbiest. Question - If a former NRA-ILA lobbiest is lobbying for the other side, what kind of job did he do while lobbying for the NRA-ILA?

You all are right, the NRA has clout. The fence sitting legislators who were persuaded into the pro-gun side immediately cited the NRA experience of the other side's lobbiest as reason to switch to the other side. The bill was severely gutted and was now almost an anti-gun bill.

Never one to quit, our guys believed they could get it back at the next committee to debate it. The bill moved to the next committee and our guys were right, they were on the verge of convincing enough committee members to restore most of it.

Then, out of nowhere, came NRA-ILA with an endorsement of the bad version of the bill.

The good guys had no choice now but to kill the bill.

The NRA-ILA has a policy of intentionally not co-operating with local pro-gun organizations. It's their way or the highway. Their policy is, "half a loaf is better that no loaf", even the the half is moldy.

We don't need that kind of help. I support the NRA for it's shooting sports, education and training. ILA gets not one penny from me.

KABA and GOA are right.