Why I'm Letting My NRA Membership Lapse

I've been growing more and more skeptical of the National Rifle Association's commitment to our constitutional right to bear arms ever since Executive V.P. Wayne LaPierre criticized oil conglomerate ConocoPhilips for opposing an Oklahoma statute requiring companies to allow employees to keep guns in their cars when parked on private parking lots.

Here's what I wrote in an article almost two years ago (related piece here):

Reacting to a federal lawsuit filed by ConocoPhillips to block an Oklahoma law preventing companies from firing employees for keeping legally owned firearms in cars parked in company parking lots, LaPierre stated, "[W]e're going to make ConocoPhillips the example of what happens when a corporation takes away your Second Amendment rights."

As a member of the NRA, I support its campaign to encourage corporations to allow employees the benefits of firearm [protection] on company property. But Mr. LaPierre nonetheless should have known better than to suggest that a private corporation has any duty whatsoever to uphold our right to bear arms.

The Bill of Rights is not a contract between two citizens. It's a contract between government and its citizens. It places limits on the government, not the people. The Second Amendment expressly prohibits the federal government from infringing upon the right of the people to bear arms; it does not grant it the right or responsibility to regulate the states or its citizens.

Consequently, the federal government has absolutely no right to demand that states conduct background checks against law-abiding citizens attempting to purchase guns. However, the House has just passed H.R. 2640, which aims to close a "loophole" in the National Instant Check System (NICS) that ostensibly led to the Virginia Tech massacre.

Sadly, the NRA fully supports this legislation, stating, "No piece of legislation will stop a madman bent on committing horrific crimes. However, those who have been found mentally incompetent by a court should to be included in the NICS."

I'll admit that I don't necessarily like the idea of the mentally ill running around with guns. I also don't particularly like the idea of guns in the hands of husbands who catch their wives in bed with other men or fathers who've found out their daughters were raped, either. But this protocol is ripe for abuse, regardless of what politicians and the NRA claim today.

According to Gun Owners of America, H.R. 2640 is nothing more than "a deal with Democrats," not to mention one that "involves legislation introduced by the most anti-gun member of the House, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY)." The GOA proceeds to note that this policy will also unfairly target military veterans who have suffered from conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder. To wit:

The Brady law already contains a procedure for cleaning up records. But it hasn't worked for the 83,000 veterans that are currently prohibited from buying guns. Gun Owners of America is aware of many people who have tried to invoke this procedure in the Brady Law, only to get the run around -- and a form letter -- from the FBI. The simple truth is that the FBI and the BATFE think the 83,000 veterans, and many other law-abiding Americans, should be in the NICS system.

Note to Wayne LaPierre: This is bad legislation. Not only does it further empower the FBI and federal government with greater oversight and control over our gun ownership, but the N in NICS stands for national. For an organization that thrives by claiming to represent our constitutional rights to own firearms, it certainly misses the entire point of the Constitution in the first place.

The NRA has undoubtedly done much good over the years in advocating on behalf of gun rights. However, it appears to have morphed into an organization that is more concerned with serving its own political ends as opposed to the individual rights of its members.

It is for all of these reasons that I will not renew my NRA membership and instead join with the GOA to help protect our guns and our rights from the federal government. Go here to do the same.

Comments

[Tom L]

Trevor,

I told the NRA to go scratch (and with a string of invective a sailor would have been proud of) ages ago. They are nothing more than a mouthpiece for he GOP and an agent of gun control, by defining the parameters of how guns should be controlled.

For a real pro-gun group, try the Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownersship.... www.jpfo.org. Those guys rule.... Mission statement: To end gun control. One need only to support the whole Bill of Rights to join.

Larry Pratt and the GOA lose serious points with me for not endorsing my candidacy for the Florida House in 2002 b/c I only scored 19 of 20 on his candidates test... even though the question I disagreed with blatantly called for federal usurpation of both state and local ordinances. The Federal government is not granted the power to tell the states that they can't have local gun control ordinances, even if Larry freaking Pratt doesn't like it. Jackass!

Another reactionary, money-grubbing blowhard, but better by far, than the NRA, the Neocons for the Registration of Armaments.

Ta,

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