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The Spectacle Blog
So the National Rifle Association won’t endorse Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for re-election this fall (they apparently won’t endorse his Republican challenger, Sharron Angle, either). It is notable that Reid’s efforts to confirm Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, rather than his numerous anti-gun votes, are being cited as the reason. When I wrote about this and other controversies within the NRA for the September print issue, Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America — a rival Second Amendment group — told me that even if Reid didn’t get the NRA endorsement, the damage had already been done.
“I don’t know if he needs a piece of paper saying, ‘We hereby officially endorse you,’” Pratt said. “They’ve already said more than enough that Reid could send out in targeted mailings to gun owners if he wanted to.” An example? Wayne LaPierre at the Clark County Shooting Park ribbon cutting: “I also want to thank you, Senator, for your support every day for the Second Amendment and for the rights of American gun owners.”
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More Blog Posts by W. James Antle, III
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/08/30/harry-reid-and-the-nra
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Eric Cartman| 8.30.10 @ 12:27PM
Seems the NRA is becoming Bushified. A latent liberalism is creeping in and they are turning to underhanded tactics and expediency instead of traditional conservative beliefs. Seems I'll have to jettison the NRA soon, too! Bastards.
ggoblue| 8.30.10 @ 9:31PM
i just sent them their business reply envelope....on the renewal form i wrote with a sharpie, "i sent your money to sharron angle"
63 days and 10 hrs to go....
Eric Cartman| 8.31.10 @ 9:13AM
Hee hee! Good one! I think I'll follow your lead :-)
c. j. acworth| 8.30.10 @ 1:46PM
Don't give up yet, Eric. Instead of jettisoning the NRA, take it back. Pay attention to the elections for directors every year and vote for those who understand that a congresscritter's position on the 2nd amendment is not the only issue on which to judge them. From the current issue of The American Rifleman: "Unless we can get our friends, family members and co-workers to the polls Nov. 2 to create a pro-2nd amendment Senate that can block anti-2nd amendment nominees (to the Supreme Court) we will face what Justice Scalia warns is "a system in which unelected and life-tenured judges always get their way". ( p. 12, Wayne LaPierre)
Don't be afraid to let the NRA leadership know when you think they have made a bad choice. I bet they will be as receptive as anyone else if they hear it from enough members.
c. j. acworth NRA Lifer
Eric Cartman| 8.30.10 @ 2:22PM
I hope you're right, c.j. . I'm running out of patience with a whole host of Bush-like conservatives and "conservative" groups. They need to be shunned and shamed. Bastards.
j.h. Kendall, NRA Life Member| 8.31.10 @ 11:45AM
I too sent back the solicitations for PAC $ with a note, "Not until NRA announces they will not endorse Harry Reid". I will bet there are 10's of thousands of us doing that, and that is the real reason for the "non-endorsement." Unfortunately, I too am getting the sinking feeling that NRA has morphed into just another DC game player. That feeling has been growing over the past couple of election cycles.
Hank Archer| 8.30.10 @ 4:15PM
I have to assume that there were some discussions between the NRA and Reid about this issue. It seems to me that the NRA had to have told Reid that they couldn't endorse him if he voted for Kagan. Sotomayor was bad enough, but after her hypocrisy was exposed Reid had no cover for the Kagan vote. I'm reasonably sure that before he cast his Kagan vote, Reid knew that it would cost him the NRA endorsement.
Pete| 8.30.10 @ 6:32PM
The NRA has become a political force to be reckoned with and really is the only thing standing between us and ultimate progressive rule. I don't why they would back a known scumbag like Reid, maybe it is based on a voting record formula or maybe there is some other backroom deal holding that together. What I do know is that we can't afford to lose the NRA's influence on politics. I will monitor them, as we all should, for broader signs of turning on us, but for now, I am 100% behind their efforts.
P.Smith| 8.31.10 @ 8:05AM
I was once a member of the NRA, but I got tired of the constant mailings pleading for money so that they could support creeps like Harry Reid. I decided I would never again send money to an organization that would help any democrat or rino-republican win office even if they are supposedly pro-gun. If a politician is a liberal when comes to the Constitution they certainly cannot be trusted when it pertains to the Second Amendment.
Ryan| 8.31.10 @ 10:25AM
It pretty much is isolated to voting record and a small handful of other criteria, and they always favor incumbents with records over new people, even ones who more or less are left of center.
It's a little mind-blowing for some conservatives, but there ARE lefties out there who are VERY pro-gun. If you ever wander over to Democratic Underground, there's plenty of pro-gun hard lefties on the board.
Ryan| 8.31.10 @ 10:46AM
I think that it's a BAD decision to throw the NRA under the bus.
Without them, I don't know that we have the recent Supreme Court successes (which the NRA backed through the court systems).
Yeah, the possible Reid endorsement was boneheaded - they probably need to go more with the person than what is just on paper in such high-profile cases - but I won't denounce them as some lefty organization for that one gaffe.
NOT after Heller.
prestonsbrooks| 8.31.10 @ 12:50PM
The NRA is OK, but just barely. Gunowners of America is the new, "no compromise" 2nd Amendment group in DC. They are at gunowners.org
Keep buying ammo.
Ryan| 8.31.10 @ 3:30PM
Just read something in the American Rifleman - the NRA is still opposed to the bill - putting the language that protects them in didn't remove their opposition.
SpiralArchitect| 8.31.10 @ 4:32PM
Often I hear people say how much Reid has done for or brought to Nevada - in a favorable way.
What a crock! As a 10 year + Nevada resident I despise Reid and all he stands for - whichever day it may be as he will swish to and fro to keep his 'image' neat.
Amazing how many people blindly follow this clown - asked why how or what he has done for Nevada... well I really have yet to receive any response that is positive.
We blew up 3/4 of the state for decade with nuclear weapons yet HELL NO we wont let the state bring in income with a nuke waste facility ...
Oh? Yucca Mountain? But that was built, no?
YES! Built at a huge expense ( harry reid probably took credit for creating jobs - ha!) too be left for rodents to scurry about.
What better place to keep that dangerous material than a nuclear test (state) area!!!
OK, that's enough for now.
DUMP REID!
youfamissim| 9.1.10 @ 1:41PM
Bastards! I agree. Recently received a $400 dollar check from the NRA - to use as an offset for a Lifetime Membership. Perhaps... the NRA membership is suffering a similar lapse of memory with respect to renewals, as the NRA did when they endorsed the FFC power grab that excluded the NRA but has Conservative Talk Radio squarely in their sights. EFF EM! I ready for the whole damned thing to come tumbling down. Leaving vestiges to Liberal Policy making assures Democrat re-elections. Destroy the edifices and stipends literally. Building branches of government as large as HUD - TWO entire city blocks in DC - takes a long time. In the current political environment, rebuilding tyrannical government agencies all over again seems a remote dream. The EPA for example is a Presidential Executive order agency. It can be eliminated similarly with the right man in office.