An Open Letter to the NRA

[allthumbs]

Title speaks for itself. For those of you, and I was one, who believe that the NRA is the all-seeing, all-knowing, perfect group to represent us gun owners, here is a writer that reflects my sentiments pretty accurately. I have been screaming for the NRA to quit playing the politics game and start filing civil rights lawsuits for a long time to settle this matter once and for all.

 

Just another view:

 

An Open Letter to the N.R.A.

By Lee Robinson

Published 12. 13. 02 at 11:36 Sierra Time

 

As a member of the National Rifle Association, I receive from them on a regular and frequent basis various offers, special reports and questionnaires. The basic message in all of this is to send more money. I am told over and over again about the sleazy politicians who are trying to eliminate my various Human rights, specifically the right to arm and defend myself, and how urgent and expensive is the need to lobby against these treasonous swine. The questionnaires always profess great respect for my opinions and state how important it is for the N.R.A. to form itself in an image most agreeable to its members. Then they ask for more money to continue the political battle. Unfortunately, and probably deliberately, the phrasing and thrust of these questions never seems to allow an answer that would really change what the N.R.A. has become, another cog in the political machine that is running and ruining America. So I would like to take this opportunity to clearly state my advice to the National Rifle Association.

 

GET OUT OF POLITICS!!!

 

To attempt to solve the problems of bad government by immersing oneself in the degenerative process that creates bad government is like trying to save one's marriage by moving into a whorehouse. By this I certainly don't mean that N.R.A. members should not participate in the civic process. The voting power of 4,000,000 citizens has had a noticeable effect in the past, which is how Democracy is supposed to work. But so long as the political machine decides who we can vote for and how they will perform once they are in office, that noticeable effect will not translate into a noticeable change. For Association members to keep funding a pack of lobbyists who spend their time schmoozing with politicians is self defeating. It perpetuates the insidious process of back room deals and quid pro quo bargains in which our rights and freedoms are the currency changing hands.

 

The people who choose to do this kind of work enjoy the prestige of cuddling up to the powerful. The working conditions aren't bad either; restaurants, fancy bars, cozy offices. It's always warm in the winter and cool in the summer and it is always covered by an expense account. If the cause they claim to be fighting for was won, this would all be lost. The incentive is to compromise, to equivocate, to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory so that it can all go pleasantly on forever. The process is corrupt and corrupting and one cannot be a player for any length of time without also becoming another piece in the infernal game.

 

A textbook example of this phenomenon, one very relevant to our subject, is Senator McCain. As a prisoner of war his courage and strength enabled him to resist overwhelming efforts to betray his country. But his years in politics have done what his years in prison could not. Now he is reduced to allying himself with one of the greasiest weasels to inhabit Washington since Roy Cohn was slithering along the corridors of power. Together they would create laws that bring our country closer in essence to the one McCain once fought against. In Viet Nam we often didn't know who the enemy was, but in Washington you don't know who the enemy is or who your friends are either. It is not the place to seek justice or respect for personal Liberty.

 

I am by no means certain that anything will really be allowed to change, but if it can be done at all at this point it must be done through the courts. The N.R.A. should be bringing a massive civil rights lawsuit against all government agencies, individual politicians and any other bureaucratic lackeys who have infringed upon our legal rights, undermined our Constitutional government and violated their oaths of office. Simultaneously, we should be attacking the political machine itself - and what could be more appropriate than using that body of law designed to protect us from Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations? R.I.C.O. lawsuits aimed at the hierarchy of the machine, the Republican and Democratic National Committees, brought by a competent legal force, would do more to cleanse our government than all the lobbyists since the Constitutional Convention. That is a plan of action that I will support financially. I'm not handing over any more money to lobbyists.

 

Of course, it can be argued that the courts are really nothing but another apparatus within the political machine and it would not be wise to put the fate of our freedom in such hands. The Supreme Court has ruled at one time or another in favor of keeping Human Beings as slaves, in favor of putting certain citizens in concentration camps, that the killing of Human embryos is not only legally acceptable but a right, in favor of forced sterilization and several times in favor of racial segregation. They are essentially a pack of politically connected lawyers who embody all the well known qualities of both politicians and lawyers, otherwise they wouldn't be there.

 

But I say let's get it over with. We are wasting our time with legislators because all of the law we need was written 200 years ago. It is called The Constitution and ultimately it is up to us to enforce it. And if the courts prove to be the final agents of the great double cross? Well, that's why we have a Second Amendment in the first place.

 

Lee Robinson lives on a farm in Tennessee where he raises exotic

poultry. He enjoys target shooting and making life difficult for

tyrants.

© 2002 SierraTimes.com (unless otherwise noted)

(emphasis in article added)

 

I know this will probably tick off some NRA members, sorry Greg, Sisu and others, but realize that I am a Life Member and my repeated inquiries, questions and concerns to the NRA have yielded nothing more than a generic response promising someone would contact me (no one ever does) followed by tens of requests for more money. I stopped sending. In my very honest opinion, they have become part of the very same process that they rage against. It's as if this battle has become their cushy lifestyle and they perpetuate the battle to ensure it never ends. Just like politics.

 

trask

 

[Greg_W]

Well written letter. Thanks for posting it, Trask. Don't apologize for what you believe, dude, or you'll end up sounding like that pathetic noodle Trent Lott on BET. I do agree with large parts of that letter. However, I do feel that Chris Cox (head of ILA) is getting my views in front of those in government. I am encouraged by their lawsuits and the other work they do. I do agree that after a certain amount of time one can become part of the evil machine. As I have always stated, all we have to do is rely on the Constitution.

 

Greg W

[Scott_J]

Trask, I agree with you. Just never thought about it. I always thought the NRA would do well by doing things thru the political arena. But after reading this and thinking about it I guess that the Access Fund and the NRA would do better this way. Both organizations might get more attention. I have been impressed with the AF but like the NRA they too see $$$$$$$$ donated as the answer all. I guess money is the answer all as both employ more and more people all the time.

Off White is this what you mean.hahahahahahaha

[sk]

and so it begins....

[Scott_J]

yeee fuckin' hawwww. Ya just got to love America. We can spray, piss and whine and let all those liberials piss on themselves but its OK 'cause we live in the good old USA.

[allthumbs]

Muffy, at least it's in Spray.

[sk]

I am saying that as you party participants awake from your sheepdom, you will alll find that you have been fucked up the ass by the poloticians(left and right) that are power hungry and money hungry, and the AMERICAN PEOPLE will stand shoulder to shoulder for what is truely right

 

I liked the letter and I am glad you posted it

Edited December 17, 2002 by Muffy_The_Wanker_Sprayer

[Scott_J]

Muffy!!! y, y, you used the F- WORD! I am shocked!

[sk]

LOL you don't know me very well, do you ?

[Greg_W]

Yeah, like Muffy is posting from a Carmelite Nun's Convent. Yeah, right!!

[Dr_Flash_Amazing]

See, Trask? Like DFA was sayin' yesterday, "pull and shoot the NRA." You're on the right track, hoss! Now, what say we get together this weekend and do some recycling, then go let a few hot ones fly at Chuck Heston? Ol' buzzard's time is nigh, the Doc reckons.

[Greg_W]

That's still blasphemy, you limp noodle. Trask isn't saying the NRA should abandon the fight, just focus on a different arena.

[Scott_J]

DFA, reads into what ever he desires. DFA is a butt nugget

[allthumbs]

DFA, you dumb cockbite, Greg and Sisu reflect my sentiments exactly. I still support the NRA. Chuck H. is retiring soon anyway. He has served well and I admire the guy. So eat shit putz.

 

Take one of your fairy Smith friends to lunch.

[Dr_Flash_Amazing]

Served well, huh? As the talking head of an organization whose means you find so backwards that you've chosen to give them no more of your cold, hard cash? A talking head who has been duping who knows how many thousands of people into continuing to support their ineffectual political backscratching game? C'mon, dude; for someone who thinks his pet organization is asleep at the wheel, or at least badly in need of a new road map, you're embarrassingly sentimental about their doddering old figurehead.

[allthumbs]

That's because CH (aka Moses) is close to God, and so am I. I am a Life member of the NRA, meaning I gave large initially so as not to be paying annual dues. As you correctly postulated, I do not agree with everything the NRA does, just as I do not agree with everything Bush does. That doesn't mean I'm not a supporter of either. Now go polish your bobblehead.

[Greg_W]

Served well, huh? As the talking head of an organization whose means you find so backwards that you've chosen to give them no more of your cold, hard cash? A talking head who has been duping who knows how many thousands of people into continuing to support their ineffectual political backscratching game? C'mon, dude; for someone who thinks his pet organization is asleep at the wheel, or at least badly in need of a new road map, you're embarrassingly sentimental about their doddering old figurehead.

 

Actually, you ignorant dipshit, the NRA is still THE MOST EFFECTIVE LOBBY in Washington, D.C. So, don't way we're "ineffectual"; we are a powerful lobby that DOES have an affect. No organization is perfect, granted, but your statements are incorrect (obviously based on your lack of knowledge). You don't know what you are talking about and you are putting words into Trask's post that were not there by your extremely negative spin.

 

For Christmas I'm buying you an extra large glass of SHUT-THE-FUCK-UP!! Merry Christmas.

 

Greg W

Edited December 17, 2002 by Greg_W

[allthumbs]

Ten Stars for Greg!

[Dr_Flash_Amazing]

So, just so we're all on the same page, here; Trask posts an open letter from an NRA member flaming the NRA for it's wayward slide into the political lobbying morass. This is praised by both you and your trusty sidekick and echo machine Sisu (or is it vice versa? Which of you three is the head of the right-wing Hydra here?) as a sound indictment of the organizations methods. Are we still on the same page? DFA jokingly asserts that if the NRA is slipping, we should shoot Moses (close to God? God can sort that one out.), and re-states the letter author's general thesis, i.e. that the NRA is squandering its resources and hosing its members by being embroiled in the political game. When the Doctor repeats what the author of the letter had to say (which you praised as accurate), DFA is labeled ignorant and has no idea what he's talking about, and is full of shit. Is this what the situation is? That's what it looks like from here. Now, this makes sense how?

[allthumbs]

No numbnuts, what you're doing is gloating in your misguided thinking. All I said was that I am tired of the incessant money lobbying. I know where you're going with this and it's lame. Go moderate Smith.com you fudge packer.

 

[Dru]

I am a Life member of the NRA, meaning I gave large initially so as not to be paying annual dues. As you correctly postulated, I do not agree with everything the NRA does, just as I do not agree with everything Bush does

 

Trask you sound like Michael Moore!

[allthumbs]

Dru, I used to be a Dem., what can I say?

[Dr_Flash_Amazing]

Relax, you old buzzard, Dr. Flash Amazing was just trying to stir up some shit. Seems to have worked, too, by the looks of things.

[Scott_J]

Trask, DFA called you an old buzzard, what the fuck! You maybe older that him, but a buzzard? Hawk...you are a hawk not a god damn buzzard. They have their place, you know like eating carrion(DFA reminds me of carrion)

[Dr_Flash_Amazing]

Huh? Obe Carrion? What?