Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Get ready to have your mailbox full of junk... That's a rare occurance? Here's what I do with junk mail- *Throw it away*. I know...I know...totally revolutionary....But, hey, that's just me. It is for me sparky...the only crap I get on a weekly basis is from them. You may like rifling through a ton of crap for the important mail, but I don't. If it was not for the fact that the range I belong to requires that I be a NRA member, I would have cancelled my membership a long time ago..

I just don't get this kind of "junk" from them. Maybe I'm not important enough. Meh. It's not like I want it.

Call them and tell them to stop. I get probably 8 direct mail pieces per year, mostly #10 packages and of those, most are renewal notices since I go year-to-year.

The NRA is the second largest lobby group of any kind.  AARP is the largest.  

With that kind of power and backing, you would think we'd actually be making massive strides to win back our RIGHTS instead of acting high and mighty, and referring to things like the AWB when people question why they should join.  They didn't have to do anything, it expired on its own.  Maybe they prevented new legislation or something, but they didn't kill it.  

The NRA has been around since before ALL of the gun control laws we now suffer under.  They should have prevented those laws from being passed instead of letting them go through and then bragging years later when they get the .gov to throw you the scraps of some of those RIGHTS back.

I pay NRA dues because while they in actuality do very little, it is SOMETHING.  It's $35 worth anyway.

Waah wahhh they will send you junk mail, waaaaah. All it takes is a freaking phone call to square that away.

Imagine if our founding fathers were as apathetic and lazy as most of todays gun owners?

I wonder if the folks in this painting would bitch about mailers and crap as much as todays gun owner.


Getting mailers is certainly preferable to that.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Get ready to have your mailbox full of junk... That's a rare occurance? Here's what I do with junk mail- *Throw it away*. I know...I know...totally revolutionary....But, hey, that's just me. It is for me sparky...the only crap I get on a weekly basis is from them. You may like rifling through a ton of crap for the important mail, but I don't. If it was not for the fact that the range I belong to requires that I be a NRA member, I would have cancelled my membership a long time ago..

Thank God that the founding fathers didn't have to face junk mail.  They just had to deal with insignificant things.  

Quoted: Now I suggest all you name callers retract your comments.

I hereby retract my slinging of "Pussy" in your direction.  

Welcome to the club, friend.  And thank you for joining the fight to save our rights.  You are a mensch!

Quoted: The NRA is the second largest lobby group of any kind.  AARP is the largest.   With that kind of power and backing, you would think we'd actually be making massive strides to win back our RIGHTS instead of acting high and mighty, and referring to things like the AWB when people question why they should join.  They didn't have to do anything, it expired on its own.  Maybe they prevented new legislation or something, but they didn't kill it.   The NRA has been around since before ALL of the gun control laws we now suffer under.  They should have prevented those laws from being passed instead of letting them go through and then bragging years later when they get the .gov to throw you the scraps of some of those RIGHTS back. I pay NRA dues because while they in actuality do very little, it is SOMETHING.  It's $35 worth anyway.

They have had alot to do with CCW in many states. I'm not sure exactly how many have it now, but I know by having mine in Ky I can carry in 28 states legal. Thats worth alot to me.

Quoted: Someone once asked Louis Armstrong, "What is jazz?" He replied, "If you gotta ask, you'll never understand." Same thing about asking to be "convinced" to join the only meaningful RKBA organization. OP - Life and Endowment Member of NRA

Thank you again for being part of the board.

Did you vote for Kerry? because you sure sound like it!!!

I still believe something is wrong when the government cannot preserve the constitution on its own. Our government was not intended to be run by lobbyists and I suspect the men who wrote the constitution would be rather disappointed that it has come to that. I give my moral support to anyone and any organization who strives to preserve the Second Amendment but I do not get up everyday and pledge allegiance to a lobbyist group. I truly hope that my membership to the NRA will make a difference in defending our constitutional rights.

Quoted: Did you vote for Kerry? because you sure sound like it!!!

I certainly did not vote for Kerry if your question was intended for me.

[Bruce Willis - Die Hard]You're either part of the problem or part of the solution. Stop being part of the problem and Join the NRA![/Bruce Willis - Die Hard]

Quoted: Quoted: Did you vote for Kerry? because you sure sound like it!!! I certainly did not vote for Kerry if your question was intended for me.

Yup!!

Quoted: Get ready to have your mailbox full of junk... I'm not a fan of them...but they will do until something better comes along. I throw away a 30 foot tree worth's of junk mail from them every month.

Check my post about 9 or 10 above yours.  I even provided the phone number.  If you keep getting junk mail after that, it's probably coming from somewhere else.

Quoted: I still believe something is wrong when the government cannot preserve the constitution on its own. Our government was not intended to be run by lobbyists and I suspect the men who wrote the constitution would be rather disappointed that it has come to that. I give my moral support to anyone and any organization who strives to preserve the Second Amendment but I do not get up everyday and pledge allegiance to a lobbyist group. I truly hope that my membership to the NRA will make a difference in defending our constitutional rights.

You obviously have no grasp of what the Framer's intent was.

They believed wholeheartedly that government is, was, and always will be a corrupting influence, and that strong chanis must be placed around it. They saw the Constitution as one strong chain, but believed that the active participation of people and interest groups would be an even stronger restraint on government arrogating too much power to itself.

Click here and save $5 on a one year membership. How's that?

Let's see if this one helps:

Troubling stint in jail sets Utahn on crusade BOUNTIFUL - When Gregg Revell packed his bags for a trip to Pennsylvania last April, he had no idea how far he'd be traveling.    Before the week was out, the 57-year-old suburban real estate agent and grandfather would be arrested, thrown into one of the country's most notorious jails, strip searched and inoculated against his will. The soft-spoken Utah native would be on his way to becoming a poster child for the National Rifle Association in a $3 million lawsuit.   During a nearly five-day stay in a Newark, N.J., jail, he would meet a terrifying side of America that most Utahns see only on television and briefly would become a jailhouse mentor to drug dealers and violent criminals.   It started as a trip to pick up a BMW in Allentown, Pa., for a relaxing road trip back to Utah.   "I fix them up and sell them," Revell says. "Sometimes I make a profit. It's something I do for fun."   Revell, who has a Utah concealed weapon permit, usually takes a handgun with him for protection on his car trips.   Transporting a firearm in your luggage across country on an airline is not illegal, but involves some paperwork. Revell who has made a couple dozen such car-buying trips, knows the process. He fills out the Federal Aviation Administration paperwork, packs his .45 caliber pistol in a locked case, his hollow-point ammunition in another locked case and puts both in his checked luggage. He declares the gun to the ticketing agents.    "Sometimes I get a look, but it's never been a problem," he says.   Unfortunately, for Revell, his Allentown trip required a change of planes in Newark, N.J.   His plane was late arriving in Newark Liberty Airport and he missed his connection. Five hours later, he found himself boarding an airline chartered bus for Allentown, 90 miles away.   Revell also discovered his luggage had not made the connection. Northwest Airline agents apologized that his bags had been mismarked to stop in Newark. By the time he tracked the bags down, his bus had left and he was stuck overnight in New Jersey.   When he returned to the airport the next morning, April Fools' Day, and rechecked his bags - again declaring his handgun and ammunition - he was stopped by security officers of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.   "I wasn't the least bit nervous," Revell says. "I was only nervous about missing another flight."   Despite his explanations, Utah concealed weapon permit and his FAA document, Revell missed the flight because he was arrested and handcuffed: "I have never been arrested before. I have never felt anything degrading like that in my life."    "You don't have a permit to carry a gun in New Jersey," a Port Authority officer told him, according to Revell. "And you don't have a permit to carry hollow-point ammunition."   "I asked an officer if this had something to do with April Fool's Day," Revell remembers. "He said it most certainly did not."    In 1986, Congress passed the Firearm Owners Protection Act (FOPA) for citizens who are transporting firearms through various jurisdictions.

Thanks, in large part, to the NRA - even with the machine-gun ban, this was overall a major improvement.  Continuing:

"Law abiding citizens who happened to wander into anti-gun jurisdictions could wind up being harassed and imprisoned," says Scott Bach, a New York-based attorney and member of the NRA board of directors. "FOPA was passed to end abuses."   Under the law, a citizen can transport an unloaded gun between two jurisdictions that don't prohibit it - as long as it is locked in a hard case with the ammunition locked in a separate hard case, "regardless of what local law says," explains Bach.    The law is routinely violated in "anti-gun" jurisdictions, Bach says, notably New York, Los Angeles and New Jersey.    Revell soon found himself in Newark's Essex County Jail.   "It is the lowest, it is the worst and it has the most hardened criminals of any correctional facility in the nation," says Bach. "It is horrific."   Revell, who would spend nearly four days in the jail, agrees.   "The jailers asked me, 'What the heck did you do to be in here?' They felt bad for me. But there was nothing they could do."    A judge set his bail at $15,000 and required the amount be paid in cash, not through the usual bail-bond arrangement. "It's tough to come up with $15,000 on a weekend," Revell says.    While his family back in Utah got the money together, he spent nearly five days in jail, sometimes in holding cells crowded with 28 other prisoners.    "People were passed out on the floor in their own vomit," he says.    Prisoners were strip-searched in an a public room.    "For the only person with a white butt in a jail with 1,000 people, it was not a good situation," he says. "I could have given some people some ideas."    Revell figured that for survival, "I'd better make friends as fast as I could."    He listened to the hard luck stories of his cell mates.    "I would give them encouragement because a lot of them weren't very happy to be there. Because I was older than everybody, I was known as 'Pop.' ''   Everyone knew he was in on a gun charge, and some prisoners assumed it was for a violent crime.   "They all talked jive. It was hard for me to understand," Revell says. Until one of them asked him, "How many people did you waste?"   After a heart-to-heart with the prisoner, the man asked Revell if he would get him guns. "He would give me a great price."   Several prisoners befriended Revell despite the suburbanite's many faux pas, such as asking about their tattoos.    "There are some tattoos you just don't ask about," he says. "But some people would stand up for me if there was a problem."   His jail savvy friends told him they were in a tuberculosis quarantine for a few days, but after testing would join the rest of the jail.    "We can't protect you when we get in with the general population," his friends warned Revell.   "That scared me."    Hours before being transferred into the general prison population, a bail bonds employee finally showed up with the bail money. Ultimately, the bail was lowered, but by the time he had met the bail bond company's requirement that he pay in advance for a bounty hunter to track him back to Utah if necessary, Revell was out $20,000.    He was also 10 pounds lighter and had a blister on his arm from a tuberculosis inoculation. But he was free.    "I took the best shower of my life."   Within two months, prosecutors dismissed the charges against him. New York and New Jersey Port Authority officials did not respond to requests for an interview.    But the Utahn's story had come to the NRA's attention. The NRA is funding the $3 million lawsuit filed in January in federal court in New Jersey against the Port Authority. Revell and the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs are plaintiffs.    Though he had grown up in a hunting family and had a concealed weapon permit, Revell had never been a guns-rights activist or even a member of the NRA.   "I am now," he says. "As is my wife."   The $3 million damage figure was set to make sure the case gets the attention of airports across the country, says Bach, who is president of the New Jersey gun clubs association.    "Unfortunately, that's the way things work," Revell says. "We want to get the laws adhered to or get new laws made if we need to do that. If I should win, a fair amount of the settlement will go to the NRA as a donation."   Revell never got his .45 back; Essex County never responded to his lawyers' requests.   But he did drive the BMW home from Allentown despite his traumatic experience.   "My family offered to fly me home," Revell says. "But I told them I needed a few days to clear my head. It was good to have a little thinking time."

He understands.  Now.

Do you?

Quoted: They're bastards for wanting money to protect something you love.  That should be free.  Imagine if someone wanted money for the military, or to build roads, to keep America safe.  Those bastards.   (All sarcasm aside, why wouldn't you join?  They want money?  What do you think it takes to hire lawyers and lobbyists?  Or do you think that fighting lawsuits and mobilizing voters is all done with pixie dust and lollipops?  If you own a gun and aren't a member of the NRA, you are worse than those trying to take our guns, because you believe in freedom but won't stand up for it).

Where can I get some of this 'pixie dust and lollipops', my mortgage is due

Quoted: For years they've been sending me letters begging me to join. Quite frankly, I'm turned off by the 'pandering politician' tone of the letters and it seems they are trying to solicit my money by playing up fear tactics. Some of what they say is true, but the solicitations and tone of their letters just rubs me the wrong way. I'm always turned off by slick talk no matter what the form or subject matter. Furthermore, I've heard a lot of gun owners complain about the NRA. Is it really worth the yearly membership fee?

Oh, quit your bellyaching and stop being a freeloader. God may have bestowed man with certain inaliable rights but it takes the diligence of man to prevent the government from taking them away. When it comes to gun rights, it's been the NRA that has kept watch over our rights all these years. If you live in the U.S. you owe your gun freedoms to the NRA. Isn't that worth a measely $30 a year?

It just amazes me that people can be so dang tight when it comes to important stuff. Surely you're not one of these types that expects everybody to give you all you desire? That's welfare mentality, man. A real man pitches in and supports the things that are important to him.

You say you don't give to the NRA on some sort of philosophical grounds? Are you sure that's not just a cover for being cheap? Does this attitude extend to other areas of your life as well? Do you give to charity? How about a church? Do you pledge a few bucks each year to your public radio station? Do you toss the Boy Scout down the street a few bucks to help with the troop fundraiser? Did you spare a couple of bucks for the Red Cross after Katrina? Have you sponsored a USO Care Package for the G.I.s? Why the hell not?

I notice you're not a paying member of this board. Isn't all the valuable information here worth a few dollars each month?

Face it dude, the problem isn't the NRA. It's you. You're a damn freeloader! Open your heart AND your wallet guy. It will feel good and make you a better man.


(sorry about the tone. I'm just trying to make a point and maybe shame you into seeing things another way. Please, don't take it personally. The NRA is a worthwhile "cause" and $30 is not so much money that there should be any question about supporting something as important as our liberties).

I have been a member now for about 7 years.  I joined right after Columbine when the NRA was demonized by the liberals.  The NRA is the only reason we have retained our gun rights here unlike Canada, UK, Australia, India, etc.  I also support their Political Victory Fund as much as possible, and find pro-gun Senate and House candidates to support.  Over the years I have probably spent enough to buy 2-3 nice AR15s but someone has to provide the $$$ to play the game.  The libs have no problems funding their kooky anti-gun causes.

GunLvr

Quoted: They have had alot to do with CCW in many states. I'm not sure exactly how many have it now, but I know by having mine in Ky I can carry in 28 states legal. Thats worth alot to me.

Not really. You were born with the RIGHT to concealed carry.  You can carry whatever 'arms' you want, and that cannot be infringed.  The fact that it has been infringed, and nickel and dimed back to us, does not make the NRA heroes.  

They have massive political power and resources, we have a Republican majority and a Republican president, and still arfcom is filled daily with threads bitching about how badly our rights are being infringed.  They have not done nearly enough.

That being said, I pay my dues because $35 is pretty much a negligible amount of cash.

Hell, man.  Just buy a new Taurus and you get a year membership to the NRA for free.


www.taurususa.com/main/documents/nra2005%20offer.pdf


The pdf says that it expired Dec 31st but I just called their customer service and they said the offer is still valid.

Quoted: Quoted: So ShadowCompany, are you going to join??? Here's how I feel about it right now. Personally, I prefer to let my voice be heard at the voting booth. I wish our government was not at a point where we have to rely on huge lobbying groups to accomplish anything. That is weekness. What good is the government then? That being said, out of the goodness of my heart and by my devotion to the RKBA, YES I WILL JOIN!

Good for you.

Try it for a year.  $35 aint THAT much money.

Quoted: Now I suggest all you name callers retract your comments.

Ignore the name callers.

Hey man the NRA is the only big friend we've got.

Why don't you convince us why we shouldn't see you as a lazy leech who enjoys the fact that they can still own firearms without lifting a finger to support the groups responcible for keeping it that way.




ETA: Unless you intend to work petitions, make calls, meet and greet Senators, write letters and briefs when important cases are heard, lobby in multiple states to spread pro-gun state laws and prevent state-level restrictions where you can, then stop whinning about having to join and pay a lobby group to do all that for you.  

People who think you just vote out the bad guys are living in a fantasy land.  It has never been so.

If you have joined I'm glad to hear it and you will have convinced us you are not the above.

Many political pundits have acknowledged that the gun issue cost Al Gore the 2000 presidential election. In his recently released book "My Life," Bill Clinton adds further evidence.

Following are some quotes from the book that illustrate this point:

"Just before the House vote (on the crime bill), Speaker Tom Foley and majority leader Dick Gephardt had made a last-ditch appeal to me to remove the assault weapons ban from the bill. They argued that many Democrats who represented closely divided districts had already...defied the NRA once on the Brady bill vote. They said that if we made them walk the plank again on the assault weapons ban, the overall bill might not pass, and that if it did, many Democrats who voted for it would not survive the election in November. Jack Brooks, the House Judiciary Committee chairman from Texas, told me the same thing...Jack was convinced that if we didn`t drop the ban, the NRA would beat a lot of Democrats by terrifying gun owners....Foley, Gephardt, and Brooks were right and I was wrong. The price...would be heavy casualties among its defenders." (Pages 611-612)

"On November 8, we got the living daylights beat out of us, losing eight Senate races and fifty-four House seats, the largest defeat for our party since 1946....The NRA had a great night. They beat both Speaker Tom Foley and Jack Brooks, two of the ablest members of Congress, who had warned me this would happen. Foley was the first Speaker to be defeated in more than a century. Jack Brooks had supported the NRA for years and had led the fight against the assault weapons ban in the House, but as chairman of the Judiciary Committee he had voted for the overall crime bill even after the ban was put into it. The NRA was an unforgiving master: one strike and you`re out. The gun lobby claimed to have defeated nineteen of the twenty-four members on its hit list. They did at least that much damage...." (Pages 629-630)

"One Saturday morning, I went to a diner in Manchester full of men who were deer hunters and NRA members. In impromptu remarks, I told them that I knew they had defeated their Democratic congressman, Dick Swett, in 1994 because he voted for the Brady bill and the assault weapons ban. Several of them nodded in agreement." (Page 699)

Quoted: I still believe something is wrong when the government cannot preserve the constitution on its own. Our government was not intended to be run by lobbyists and I suspect the men who wrote the constitution would be rather disappointed that it has come to that. I give my moral support to anyone and any organization who strives to preserve the Second Amendment but I do not get up everyday and pledge allegiance to a lobbyist group. I truly hope that my membership to the NRA will make a difference in defending our constitutional rights.

The "Republic" DIED at Gettysburg. Once the north beat the south the Republic that the founders started was killed. I always wonder WTF Lee was thinking.... Wish my ass was born back then. Would have moved from NY to fight with the south. Our government has not been as intended since then. And after 1913 things only got worse.

If you really get into it and want to raise your blood pressure a bit pick up a copy of Hologram of Liberty The true ideals of the Declaration of Independance were castrated BY our constitution. The flaws that allow big government are IN the constitution by design. The Federalsist nearly succedded in a Coup. Alexander Hamilton should have been assasinated.

Anyway wishes won't change things and ultimately Representatives just don't care. Your are a slave, they are the masters. We have to use the tools we have. And though the NRA is NOT perfect they ARE getting better and the shitty 'Fudd hunters are starting to leave which is a good sign. And the NRA IS getting better. Like I said I only recently joined again.

And for the haters who bitch about the Assult Weapons Ban.... Don't for one second think that it wasn't a FIGHT to get this thing to sunset. It did NOT just go out on its own. Do you honestly think that the gun grabbers wanted it to go? There was a LOT of work that went into making sure this thing did NOT get renewed. And as much as I LOVE the GOA and JPFO, they simply don't have the size or clout of the NRA. Mores the pitty, but the NRA has changed a lot since I have been involved in firearms in the late 90's and worth joining now.

Congrats Shadow for joining! Everying else please just think it through. We all have the same goals here. The more ARFCOM type people that join the more the NRA will become like the other gun rights groups. It is NOT a perfect weapon, but our biggest and most powerful one. In the last 2 years look at what they HAVE done. With only 4 million members. How many more politicians could they bully, bribe, or convince if there were 8 millon members (1 out of 10 gun owners) and have twice the budget?!? The more die hard RKBA people that join the NRA means that the more the NRA will change to become more like what we want? Think it through. PLEASE. I would rather not have to leave my familly to fight in the Revolutionary War part 2; because I will NOT live as a slave...

If you don't like the way the NRA is run, how do you expect to change it?  

Change comes from within.

I have been a voting (life) member since 1997 and it's the vote that will kick LaPierre and his cronies out, not a non-member.  

PS congrats for joining.  

Welcome