NRAAM 2018 – The NRA and me, a rocky relationship.

This year was my first time attending the NRA’s Annual Meeting. Not knowing what to expect I think I was pretty free of any preconceived notions as to what to expect.  

But first, let me get you some background about my relationship with the NRA.  Way back when I first started becoming aware of our 2^nd amendment right and as a consequence worried about protecting it, I saw the NRA as an easy, maybe “slack-tivist”, way of doing something about it.  So, I joined, just your basic membership. Back then though, I pretty quickly came to the conclusion that for me the NRA wasn’t being proactive enough, not being strong enough, not really fighting hard enough protecting our 2^nd rights.  So, I joined the GOA (Gun Owners of America) and the SAF (Second Amendment Foundation) because I could see those two groups actually doing things and going to court to protect our rights, and I let my NRA membership lapse. I was not happy with giving up an inch while waiting for the next mile to disappear.

Fast forward to the Parkland H. S. shooting and the birth of Herr Hogg and his spoiled child activism. It was pretty plain at this point that the masks were off and the grabbers were finally open that yes, they were coming for our guns. And while my opinion on the NRA hadn’t changed a lot over the years, they were making the right motions to fight back this time. And I decided that I’d better show them that I would back that.  So, I called up the membership people and rejoined at the lifetime level. H’Ray me, right? Well, no. This is really barely one step up from the slacktivism of the hashtag generation out there. But, it is a step. I have started. This first step of standing up and being counted as one of the millions that cares about the preservation of the one right that will ensure that all the other are safe. Because I firmly believe that the 2^nd isn’t about hunting, nor is it about defense of life and limb. It is ultimately about keeping the Hitler’s and Stalin’s and Pol Pot’s from herding us up into the gulags and concentration camps. Look at history and you will see that taking the means of self-defense out of the common people’s hands always, ALWAYS precedes the genocides. And you can sit in your suburban middle-class home and scoff at that but ask a Ukrainian farmer in the 1930’s how impossible it would be to starve to death while producing bumper crops of wheat.

I’m not going to tell you what my plans are beyond being a lifetime NRA member. I mostly don’t know what they are anyway, maybe looking into getting NRA instructor training or range safety officer training.

We all have our own reasons for what we do and believe.  Please go to https://www.nrablog.com/ and make your own decisions on why you should join.