I'm a Lifer!

I'm right pissed at the NRA.  They bombard you so much with the junk mail, including phony requests for money disquised as "opinion polls" and early renewals disguised as American Rifleman/Hunter "subscriptions", that I just toss most of it in a box -  I swear I have at least 10 pounds of their crap in there.

When it gets full, I will send it to the lard-asses in charge, via Neal Know along with my letter telling them where they can stuff their friggin' junk mail.

Occasionally, I miss my actual expiration date, which I think is not an accident.  The administration has a vested interest in having non-voting members.

Oh yeah, a few years ago I sent them an e-mail requesting a copy of the bylaws - still havent received a reply.

So this year I joined the GOA as a life member & just finished paying it off.

I seriously doubt if either my son or I will renew our NRA membership again.

I'm with you on this one. I'm an annual member started in 1966. Missed a few years here and there but I like the option of cancelling too. They sure send out a lot of crap in the mail these days and that money could go to saturation ad's like the ab machines and Popeals set it and forget it machines.

Annual Member.

NRA Life Member, Golden Eagle
GOA Life Member too  [:)]

Lifer!

Life Member, I disagree with some of what they do, but have an aversion to shooting myself in the foot. They do a much betterr job than the brady bunch at protecting my rights.
Also a member of JFPO

3 year member...I hate the junk mail I keep getting asking for more $$$!

Sorry to say that after 10 years of being a member I too got sick and tired of being bombarded with so much junk mail and having my name sent to other groups, the before mentioned videos were the last straw. I know they do a lot of good but they also take advantage of you on things. I changed my annual membership to Safari Club International to life and joined  the U.S. Sportsman Alliance (Formerly the Wildlife Legislative Fund of America 'WLFA'). If the NRA can someday see to it that I can be an annual member and leave it at that with out harassing me, i will gladly rejoin. Oh, did i mention that they had a banquet by me , advertised Heston as the guest speaker and then when he could not make it they got some nobody to take his place and would not refund tickets. I get timely updates and great publications from the groups I do belong to and they both fight for my gun rights as well as my hunting rights and conservation.

The U.S. Sportsmens Alliance Foundation protects and defends America's wildlife conservation programs and the pursuits -- hunting, fishing and trapping -- which generate the money to pay for them. The U.S. Sportsmens Alliance Foundation is responsible for public education, legal defense and research. Its mission is accomplished through several distinct programs, coordinated to provide the most complete defense capability possible.  Contributions to the U.S. Sportsmens Alliance Foundation, a 501(C) 3 organization, are tax deductible.

For over 30 years, Safari Club International’s mission has been to protect and expand the rights of hunters worldwide. The fastest-growing, most proactive hunting advocacy organization in the world, its members are active in more than 100 countries. They’re rifle, shotgun, bow, muzzleloader and handgun hunters-all fighting to enhance the hunting heritage enjoyed by more than 15 million Americans and 45 million families worldwide.

http://www.safariclub.org/new.asp

http://www.ussportsmen.org/

Money goes straight into Lapierre's pocket.

Because many of us are NOT NRA members, or are not any longer, and we don't care to be harangued about it.

The whole thread assumes that the NRA is a wonderful thing. At least one writer has described the NRA as the largest and oldest gun control organization in the US, and I tend to agree.

Yes.  JPFO.

I cannot believe that people would complain about the NRA simply because they get loads of mail asking for money to assist in fighting for the most precious right we possess.

Without it, all our remaining rights are there at the government's whim.

And the fact that the NRA is the absolute biggest 'bugaboo' in the lives of Schumer, Feinstein, and Clinton, makes me want to be a member in it all the more! Heh-Heh!

So tell me, do you still shop at grocery stores with all the advertisements that they send you through the mail, or have you crossed them off your list, too?

'Man does not live by bread alone' I heard a wise Man say.

Eric The(NRALifer)Hun[>]:)]

It's called apathy and it is the biggest threat to your gun rights. I deal with this even more with hunters, the liberals and the antis are not the threat, it is the couch potatoes, who of course are the first to scream and cry when they loose a right and just can't seem to understand how it ever happened. Yet they never spent a dime or an hour of there time to protect it.

The above two posts say it very well.

No Eric, but if I don't like the service I'm gettiing I spend my money somewhere else. I think it is important to belong to "A" group vs. no group, and more important to spend time over money for a cause you truely believe in.

Here is an excerpt from a speech that was cited on the Common Cause website:

"The National Rifle Association, which has just over 3 million members, is not the largest membership organization in Washington, D.C.  Far from it.  AARP, for example, has nearly ten times more members than the NRA.   But year after year, the NRA is ranked as one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington, D.C.  [b]This year, the NRA was ranked, by Forbes magazine, as the most powerful lobby in Washington.  More powerful than the AFL-CIO.  More powerful, in fact, than AARP.[/b]

"Why?  [b]Because the NRA has political firepower.[/b]  The NRA is the political equivalent of the .50 caliber sniper rifle.  Its headquarters is in Virginia, but the NRA has a political war chest that allows it to pick off political candidates clear across the country.   It makes large soft money contributions--$1.4 million in the 2000 cycle alone.  Those gifts may not be armor-piercing, but they can sure pierce the walls of Congress.  

"Last week, the NRA killed an amendment in the House of Representatives that was offered by Rep. Jim Moran. It was a simple amendment.  It simply would have allowed the FBI to keep records of all Brady background checks for up to 90 days to monitor the effectiveness of the “instant check” system in stopping criminals from getting guns.  That’s what the FBI has been doing for years.  That’s what common sense dictates.  But the NRA aimed its big guns at Congress and killed the amendment.  The final vote was not even close:  161-268.  [b]How, you ask, could this happen?"[/b]

- End of excerpt -

I have no doubt as to how or why it happened!  

It was the 800 pound gorilla - the NRA!

Eric The(WeDon'tAlwaysWin,ButIt'sStillTheBestGameInTown!)Hun[>]:)]

annual member. at my age, lifetime membership is not cost-effective for me.

3 yr membership due 1/31/03.

Life since 88

Signed up as an annual member in '79.
I've been an Endowment Member for ~3 years now.

I am not now, nor ever been, nor will I ever join an organization that has helped write most of the gun laws, (including the '94 bill), currently on the books....

I just don't understand why they send me all the mail ect.
I already belong!!
I'm already a believer in the 2nd Amendment and all our rights to keep and bear arms.(or to arm and keep bears).
Use the money to educate!
Use the money to inform!
Use the money to buy off the politicians that have taken over.
My vote doesn't seem to get them(the pols. that have taken over)out of office.

Life.

Oh, I get it now!, Kinda like public, (govt.) education, keep throwing money down a rat hole!!

Ya, they were such a bad "bugaboo" in 1994, that they helped write the bill! (1994 "crime bill")

been a member since I was ten, (28 years but whos counting) and my card says Life Member on it so I guess I'm hooked.

It's a Free Country.
It's a Free Forum.

Really?

[i]Somebody[/i] is paying for it.
The old adage "Freedom isn't Free" applies in more ways than one.

I sent in my latest payment today for the NRA Life Membership, along with an invitation to check out our "FREE FORUM", which some people support by becoming members.
There's a price to be paid for these two things, which are representative of the 1st and 2nd Amendments; Free Speech and Freedom to be Armed Citizens.

The point is to support the Fun and Freedom you're having with this place and anyplace you go to shoot or just fondle and admire your firearms.
Of course, that might cost a little money or effort, and be worthy of both.
$95.00 combined for a one year membership to AR15.com and the NRA.

It's a "Choice".
 WOW.  I'm PRO-CHOICE / I CHOOSE TO DEFEND THE 2ND AMENDMENT.

Use that NRA link to express your views directly. [url]www.nra.org/[/url]
Maybe the NRA will lurk and listen.
There's an idea.

Whatever your choice is, so be it.
I made mine.

What the NRA seems to do is give our rights away slower, and they are hailed as saviours? How about not giving our rights away at all? Or is that too damn hard?

I have heard a bunch of you folks whine and moan, "but, but, that's not a politically easy thing to do, sniff, sniff..."  This is about life and death. Life exists freely with our god-given rights, the loss of them means our deaths.

You can choose your side, I've already chosen mine. Keyboard commando, why, yes, I certainly am, and I will also face my maker with a clean conscience and my freedom untarnished, thank you very much.

Power concedes nothing without a demand.  It never did, and it never will.  Find out just what people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they have resisted with either words or blows, or both.  The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they suppress. --Fredrick Douglass

Edited to add this:

In our current scenario, we are the lobster/frog in the slowly boiling pot. Difference between us is that SOME of you choose to say, "well, at least it's not too hot, it COULD be hotter," while I choose to get out of the damned pot.

Edited again to correct my atrocious spelling and grammatical errors.

Life since sometime in the 80s
To vote, you must be a paid life member or a regular member for 5 continuous years. If it lapses for even 1 day, it starts all over. This is what happened to me, voted for a few years then was late paying my dues. I had to wait 5 more years to vote so I signed up for life on the easy pay plan.

Fred