The Shit Storm that is the NRA Today & How We Got Here

[Robert Mitchum]

I


WLP living large at the expense of the members.

Agree 100%

[High Cross]

Do you subscribe to our alerts? https://www.nraila.org/grassroots-alerts/ Or follow us on social media? We're pretty hardcore.

Since I've been at ILA (2010) I've drafted or worked on every single constitutional carry bill that has become law (I only caught the tail end of shall issue with Wisconsin and Illinois). We've fought every attempt to regulate hardware more strictly. My former boss made the wrong call on bump stocks and ERPOs, but we course corrected there pretty quickly. We opposed the bump stock rule (I wrote our comments) and we've opposed every single state ERPO law (I personally helped kill an effort by the Uniform Law Commission to create a bad model ERPO law).

We just filed a challenge to the pistol brace rule with the largest brace manufacturer and a coalition of 25 states.

We won Bruen last year, which has opened up the possibility of effective legal challenges to numerous gun control laws.

We have numerous challenges filed to carry, AW, and magazine bans across the country. Not long ago we successfully enjoined CA from enforcing its mag ban for a whole week (freedom week).

We have the only effective pro-gun election operation in the country. It's by far the most expensive part of what we do, but it's also the most important. Litigation and legislative wins are impossible without first electing pro-gun candidates. No other gun group even tries beyond dumping a relatively small amount of money into a few ads. Most other groups also have no real lobbying presence. Most don't even employ a single registered federal lobbyist.

If by "moved to the left" you mean that we've recently cut way back on anything that looks partisan like NRATV, then that's certainly the case. When I started, we endorsed over 60 Ds in the US House. We need to get back to the point where it is ok for some Dems to be openly pro gun (other than Jared Golden). If Bloomberg continues to withdraw from Dem politics, then now might be the time for the return of the pro-gun Dem.

Thank you for sharing this. Often on these forums I cannot comment as a subject matter expert. However for once, this is a subject I finally can. I am a former Republican National Committee Victory Staffer GW Bush administration era, RNC Campaign Field School graduate and have dozens or campaigns under my belt including Bush-Cheney 04 and Trump-Pence 2020. The NRA is the greatest grassroots group in American history. No one is better at turning out the vote. I am constantly bombarded by gun owners who do not understand how GOTV works and tell me all about lawsuits. The lawsuits mean nothing if you do not have the right judges and you need to have the right politicians in to appoint those judges. As mentioned here no pro gun group does more on this than NRA. They bought Italian suits for Wayne so he did not look like a rustic when he was debating Rebecca Peters of the UNs IANSA and when he was appearing on Sunday Morning talk shows. There is more to the story.

[BillSWPA]

Thank you for sharing this. Often on these forums I cannot comment as a subject matter expert. However for once, this is a subject I finally can. I am a former Republican National Committee Victory Staffer GW Bush administration era, RNC Campaign Field School graduate and have dozens or campaigns under my belt including Bush-Cheney 04 and Trump-Pence 2020. The NRA is the greatest grassroots group in American history. No one is better at turning out the vote. I am constantly bombarded by gun owners who do not understand how GOTV works and tell me all about lawsuits. The lawsuits mean nothing if you do not have the right judges and you need to have the right politicians in to appoint those judges. As mentioned here no pro gun group does more on this than NRA. They bought Italian suits for Wayne so he did not look like a rustic when he was debating Rebecca Peters of the UNs IANSA and when he was appearing on Sunday Morning talk shows. There is more to the story.

I agree with the vast majority of your post but do not understand why someone making a 7 figure salary does not pay for his own suits.

Also, if I recall correctly, the amount spent on those suits was well north of $200,000. Exactly how long was that debate that enough suits to cost this much were needed?

[Rex G]

Thank you for sharing this. Often on these forums I cannot comment as a subject matter expert. However for once, this is a subject I finally can. I am a former Republican National Committee Victory Staffer GW Bush administration era, RNC Campaign Field School graduate and have dozens or campaigns under my belt including Bush-Cheney 04 and Trump-Pence 2020. The NRA is the greatest grassroots group in American history. No one is better at turning out the vote. I am constantly bombarded by gun owners who do not understand how GOTV works and tell me all about lawsuits. The lawsuits mean nothing if you do not have the right judges and you need to have the right politicians in to appoint those judges. As mentioned here no pro gun group does more on this than NRA. They bought Italian suits for Wayne so he did not look like a rustic when he was debating Rebecca Peters of the UNs IANSA and when he was appearing on Sunday Morning talk shows. There is more to the story.

I agree with the vast majority of your post but do not understand why someone making a 7 figure salary does not pay for his own suits.

If I did not want to look like a “rustic,” which I reckon means a dumbredneck, in court, I had to buy my own suits, on a police patrolman’s salary. So, yes, w.l.p. should have to buy his own suits.

[walker2713]

Thank you for sharing this. Often on these forums I cannot comment as a subject matter expert. However for once, this is a subject I finally can. I am a former Republican National Committee Victory Staffer GW Bush administration era, RNC Campaign Field School graduate and have dozens or campaigns under my belt including Bush-Cheney 04 and Trump-Pence 2020. The NRA is the greatest grassroots group in American history. No one is better at turning out the vote. I am constantly bombarded by gun owners who do not understand how GOTV works and tell me all about lawsuits. The lawsuits mean nothing if you do not have the right judges and you need to have the right politicians in to appoint those judges. As mentioned here no pro gun group does more on this than NRA. They bought Italian suits for Wayne so he did not look like a rustic when he was debating Rebecca Peters of the UNs IANSA and when he was appearing on Sunday Morning talk shows. There is more to the story.

Total Bullsh*t from top to bottom…..if it takes hundreds of thousand of our dollars in Eye-talian suits to save WLP from looking like a rustic, then we for sure have the wrong guy. This kind of response is what you get from those who’ve drunk the Kool-aid.

[joshs]

If I did not want to look like a “rustic,” which I reckon means a dumbredneck, in court, I had to buy my own suits, on a police patrolman’s salary. So, yes, w.l.p. should have to buy his own suits.

I'm from central PA, so there's no hiding my dumbredneck. But, I have found that Suitsupply's Blue line offers a pretty awesome price to value . . .

[Joe S]

I agree with the vast majority of your post but do not understand why someone making a 7 figure salary does not pay for his own suits.

Also, if I recall correctly, the amount spent on those suits was well north of $200,000. Exactly how long was that debate that enough suits to cost this much were needed?

Aha, something I am a bit of an SME on, having been involved a bit with style and fashion for the last decade and a half.

If you are even a touch clever and up to date, you can get quite nice suits in the tailoring style of your choosing for a few grand. I'm not talking, good enough for funerals and your buddy's semi formal wedding. I'm talking movie star red carpet front page early 2000s GQ good. I think the last suit I bought cost me a total of maybe $600 including tailoring, and multiple people complimented me when I interviewed at a major fashion label. That may be one extreme end, because I am good at that game and have the frame for it, but you can get my point.

Unless he got 50-100 suits, the only reason to spend that much is for the brand recognition/flexing on the poors, IMO.

[camel]

I agree with the vast majority of your post but do not understand why someone making a 7 figure salary does not pay for his own suits.

Also, if I recall correctly, the amount spent on those suits was well north of $200,000. Exactly how long was that debate that enough suits to cost this much were needed?

It’s the suits in charge. The middle persons who do the work get the job done.

[PNWTO]

…There is more to the story.

Bro… calling the NRA “grass roots” in this era is laughable; but I do get that a lot of good, and sincere, momentum occurs outside of legislative chambers and DC bars.

But saying that the HMFIC of the “grass roots” org needed the MTV Cribs treatment to… avoid a grass roots appearance?

[Glenn E. Meyer]

There is really no argument (from my POV). The NRA has made three major mistakes recently:

1. Keeping Wayne. He is simply an ineffective spokesperson. He always was a touch off when speaking but now is unable to go on any major media outlets as his personal tsuris will prevent a reasonable discussion of the 2nd Amendment.

2. The obsequious focus on Trump. The focus is on gun rights, not a cult of personality. The inability to strongly criticize in public the GOP failures on promoting gun rights (outside of court appointments) is a mistake.

3. I understand the financial calculations that led them to focus on a specific demographic. However, not having a major push into the expanding demographics of gun rights believers outside of their golden goose theory is a mistake. Stephanie pointed out a major failure to expand on those dimension.

While JoshS is to be commended for his outfit, changes need to be made. You cannot have a leader that no longer can be a viable spokesperson outside of controlled meetings.