Posted on 06/16/2010 5:40:45 PM PDT by Texas Fossil
The National Rifle Association is suffering a sudden onset of amnesia this week, as the gun lobby cuts a deal to exempt itself from the latest Congressional attempt to repeal the First Amendment. NRA members may soon regret the organization's bid to ingratiate itself with Democrats at the expense of its longtime free-speech allies.
The campaign finance bill, sponsored by Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Chris Van Hollen, is the Democratic response to the Supreme Court's January decision in Citizens United v. FEC, which restored the First Amendment right of corporations, unions and nonprofits to make independent campaign expenditures.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I am puzzled in the NRA's action. They have been staunch allies, is there something I am missing.
The NRA care about three things: owners of firearms, firearms ownership, and themselves. (not necessarily in that order)
I’m disappointed in them with this, but it’s hardly surprising.
STATEMENT FROM THE NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION ON H.R. 5175, THE DISCLOSE ACT
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
The National Rifle Association believes that any restrictions on the political speech of Americans are unconstitutional.
In the past, through the courts and in Congress, the NRA has opposed any effort to restrict the rights of its four million members to speak and have their voices heard on behalf of gun owners nationwide.
The NRA’s opposition to restrictions on political speech includes its May 26, 2010 letter to Members of Congress expressing strong concerns about H.R. 5175, the DISCLOSE Act. As it stood at the time of that letter, the measure would have undermined or obliterated virtually all of the NRA’s right to free political speech and, therefore, jeopardized the Second Amendment rights of every law-abiding American.
The most potent defense of the Second Amendment requires the most adamant exercise of the First Amendment. The NRA stands absolutely obligated to its members to ensure maximum access to the First Amendment, in order to protect and preserve the freedom of the Second Amendment.
The NRA must preserve its ability to speak. It cannot risk a strategy that would deny its rights, for the Second Amendment cannot be defended without them.
Thus, the NRA’s first obligation must be to its members and to its most ardent defense of firearms freedom for America’s lawful gun owners.
On June 14, 2010, Democratic leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives pledged that H.R. 5175 would be amended to exempt groups like the NRA, that meet certain criteria, from its onerous restrictions on political speech. As a result, and as long as that remains the case, the NRA will not be involved in final consideration of the House bill.
The NRA cannot defend the Second Amendment from the attacks we face in the local, state, federal, international and judicial arenas without the ability to speak. We will not allow ourselves to be silenced while the national news media, politicians and others are allowed to attack us freely.
The NRA will continue to fight for its right to speak out in defense of the Second Amendment. Any efforts to silence the political speech of NRA members will, as has been the case in the past, be met with strong opposition.
-—nra-—
The NRA has lost all support from me. After endorcing our awful dem Govenor Strickland I think they have lost most support in Ohio.
Message: For years I refused to join the NRA because of your sellout attitude on anti-gun legislation, including the '34 NFA, the '68 GCA, the Brady Bill, etc, etc, etc.
I did finally join after the '08 elections because I thought and hoped that maybe with the election of the rooster-sucking communist, you'd finally get the message that FREEDOM comes first.
Obviously, you didn't.
The support of the NRA for politicians like Harry Reed and John McCain plus your last sellout of FREEDOM and the 1st Amendment, broke the camel's back.
Cancel my membership and lose my address.
With deep disgust,
Neil E. Wright
★ FREEDOM! ★
I agree. The NRA has lost my support. The leadership has gone wobbly.
NRA? NRA? We don’t need no steenking NRA! Lock and load.
TNX
This is another reason why I will never re-join the NRA.
I get weekly renewal notices from NRA and don’t even read them any longer. Straight into the trash.
If you want staunch allies in the RKBA fight, look to Gun Owners of America. The NRA has been a compromising sell-out organization for a long time.
While I’m not leaving the NRA anytime soon, they need to understand how infringements on other rights effect all our rights. But they (and we) have had disappointments from republicans too.
The NRA recently endorsed McCainiac over Hayworth recently.
Rooster-sucking communist...LMAO!!!
We are on the same page, brother.
I won’t pay someone to be my voice while I still have my own.
NRA can get bent.
pu$$ys.
Write them a note on there literature and mail it to them on their own prepaid postage envelope!
Looks like I’m getting educated.
Glenn Beck got played
Glenn Beck Tells NRA Members: Fight the ‘Marxists’ at the Polls
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Glenn Beck shed his jacket, rolled up his shirt sleeves, mopped his face with a towel and got down to business. “Why won’t somebody tell us the truth?” he asked the crowd of 10,000 gathered for the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting on Saturday night. “We’re American,” he said. “We can handle the truth. We demand the truth and we can understand the truth.”
And then – aided by his chalkboard and a dark sense of humor – the conservative Fox News Channel host gave his “touch of the truth.” It wasn’t pretty.
“This country will never fail by an outside force,” he said. “This country will only be destroyed if we destroy ourselves.” According to Beck, we’re on that path. Yet with every prediction came a Beck-style solution. His cheering fans at the Time Warner Cable Arena took hope from that.
For a preview of America’s future, look to Europe’s current financial and social problems, he said. “Any of your friends that say it can’t happen here, they’re wrong.”
“The Titanic is going down,” Beck said. But as long as we save the passengers, the ship can sink. “You telling me we can’t build a better ship?” he said. “We have a great plan; it’s called the Constitution.”
Churches are emptying out because they “don’t stand for anything anymore,” he said. “God understands individual rights; he’s the creator of them.”
Beck defended one particular right to the receptive audience. “Let’s talk about a well-regulated militia and why you might need one because the government’s not doing its job,” he said.
Though he said his warnings are not about parties but the size of government, Beck — like other speakers at the night’s “Celebration of American Values Freedom Experience” — placed blame for his dystopian American vision on the Obama administration and urged the audience to take the fight to the polls (and attend Beck’s Aug. 28 “Restoring Honor” rally at the Lincoln Memorial).
“These are not Democrats” he said. “They are revolutionary Marxists.”
“I think he’s great,” said Sharon Browder of Port Orchard, Wash. “He’s inspiring, he’s focused. We love him. We’re proud of him. We need him.”
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who preceded Beck onstage, dismissed Elena Kagan, President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, as not worthy for consideration because of Harvard Law School’s policy barring military recruiters while she was dean. “You don’t need hearings,” he said.
In defense of gun ownership, he said, “Government has no business trying to stop you as long as you are a legal and law-abiding citizen,” earning a standing ovations and shouts of “Newt” in the style of rock stars who have filled this arena on other nights. (NRA members who stayed long enough did get to hear the Charlie Daniels Band.)
On Saturday night, Gingrich previewed themes in his new book “To Save America: Stopping Obama’s Secular-Socialist Machine.” Though its official release date is Monday, signings were scheduled during the meeting here that winds to a close on Sunday with a prayer breakfast and an appearance by rocker and gun enthusiast Ted Nugent.
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They are to RKBA as Charlie Crist is to the Republican party!
Sell-outs, Crony activist group. Doesn’t the NRA realize that they will circle back and get them on the second pass?
United we stand, divided we fall.
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