When did GOA become a group & did they come along to compete with the NRA? What is your opinion of them? I've read some posts of people complaining about the NRA, I don't see anything wrong with them as a group personally. I wouldn't label them as slow, confused, etc.
I joined the NRA last fall, and plan on becoming a life-member when I finish school & get a job.
I don't know when they came into existance. I met Larry Pratt about 1993 so they may have been around about that time. He seemed like a decent sort.
I think the problem started when they started that "no compromise" nonsense. If they were a "no compromise" group, the slows must have thought that someone did compromise. As long as GOA members continue to do Sarah Brady's work in driving people from the NRA, they won't see a penny of my support. The final straw for that was ridiculous websites complaining about what happened over thirty years ago.
The "problem" of the NRA is they have a long history started as a rifle organization. Not as a Washington lobbying group. They went through three changes that I know of to become what they are today. The biggest change was creating the NRA-Institute for Legislative Action. I think that was Wayne LaPierre's achievement. When I vote for the Board of Director's there are still candidate's who want your vote because they were a shooting champion or are listed in the Boone and Crockett listing for hunting. They don't get my vote. Only people who started grassroots pro-gun organizations do.
If half the gunowners which is about 40 million people joined a gun group like the NRA or the Second Amendment Foundation, we wouldn't have gun control. You could buy your machine gun at the local hardware store.