Snowflakes in Hell

I’m going to start an open thread here on the topic of how to improve the National Rifle Association. People from NRA read this blog, so there’s a good chance your suggestions will be seen by people who can influence the direction of the organization. It’s your chance to give feedback. If I think your suggestion is particularly good, I’ll post it front and center as an update.

I’m going to ask that people offer serious suggestions, and not just engage in NRA bashing. Feel free to comment on other people’s suggestions, but let’s try to limit the topic to improving NRA.

Go!

Highlighted suggestions are below the cut.

Read more »

I’m disappointed to see Kim isn’t renewing his NRA membership over the whole Joaquin Jackson fiasco. Not nearly as disappointed as I am over what Joacquin Jackson said in that interview, and I will keep that in mind when his seat on the board comes up for a vote again. Kim says:

Looks like it’s going to be another year (or more) before the NRA sees any of my money, or my support. You NRA members may want to contact them with your thoughts on the subject. (I think that one of those NRA begging letters returned in the postage-paid envelope with a message scrawled in red ink saying: “Not Another Penny Till You Change Your Position On Assault Rifles!” would be a decent touch.)

Except NRA never changed their position on the assault weapons ban or magazine restrictions, and pretty much distanced themselves from that idea when they put out Jackson’s admittedly deficient statement on the whole matter.

Jackson is only one of 76 board members at NRA, it seems hardly fair to punish the entire organization over the action of one of them. It doesn’t make much sense to me either, because by allowing our memberships to lapse in NRA, or refusing to join the first place, we lose the one thing that would allow us to actually fix this situation; our right to vote for NRA board members. If you are unhappy with Jackson because of what he said, don’t vote for him next time. Quitting NRA because one of their board members said something stupid is like tearing up your voter registration card because your Congressman did something to piss you off.

Stay in the fight, and vote the bastards out!

JPFO has picked up on the Joaquin Jackson thing. I have a long standing policy of not supporting groups that attack other pro-gun groups, so I was disappointed to see this:

It’s time to “Humiliate and Repudiate” Joaquin Jackson and the NRA. Go to http://www.jpfo.org/handbill-joaquin.jpg to see our latest handbill. Print it out and distribute it to those who still believe the NRA is working in the interest of gun owners. They are not.

Seriously, that’s not going to help anything. Going after Joaquin Jackson for what he said was fine, but undermining other pro-gun groups and promoting the fragmentation of the movement help no one. JPFO has done good work, especially with exposing abuses by the ATF, but I won’t donate or join groups that are actively trying to divide the movement. There’s no surer way to lose, and you can bet the Brady’s love this kind of stuff.

UPDATE: I should clarify here. I’m not suggesting that any group that’s not NRA is part of the problem. Nor am I suggesting that having groups aside from the NRA isn’t important. But NRA is hugely important, despite its flaws. Other groups need to figure out where they can make the biggest contribution to the fight. JPFO had the right idea with The Gang, because NRA has too high a profile in Washington to publicly make war on a federal agency, and last time they tried, it backfired in a big big way. That’s exactly the kind of contribution smaller groups can make. But what smaller groups should not do is try to compete with NRA, or try to undermine it by encouraging people to get angry with them and support their groups instead. That doesn’t mean NRA is above criticism, or reproach, but when we undermine it, it undermine our gun rights as a whole.

UPDATE: Ahab has more.

As in, “this offseason has not been fun for the league.”

In one of the more macabre offseasons in recent memory, we’ve seen one player suspended for an entire season, one suspended for half a season, and another kicked out of football indefinitely. Despite the frequency and/or severity of the players arrests and crimes committed, Pac-Man Jones, Chris Henry, and Michael Vick have their defenders. These people state “Innocent until proven guilty” as if those involved are appearing before a judge and jury and not the NFL commissioner’s office. The Atlanta NAACP came out in defense of Michael Vick, saying first (paraphrased) “Innocent until proven guilty,” and then “Let him have his job back when he gets out of prison.” J A Adande, a columnist whom I admire and respect, writes “I would wait for guilty verdicts before I suspended NFL players. When you set the standard at merely ‘bad decisions’ for a league filled with young, rich men, you might reach the point that it’s hard to field teams for a game on Sunday.”

On the other side of the issue, the “Mad Dog” half of WFAN’s “Mike and the Mad Dog Show” Chris Russo delivered a classic rant after Pac Man Jones was arrested in Las Vegas. Yelling and screaming aside, Russo makes a good point - if he was arrested in a situation like that or as often as Mr Jones has, WFAN would put him on unpaid leave or fire him. Mr Russo is a public representative of WFAN and, if he had a penchant for getting arrested, having him on the air not only damages WFAN’s reputation but hurts them financially.

Fair or not, NFL players are public representatives of their respective teams and of the league as a whole, and all sports must maintain an image that is friendly to the people consuming the product- the viewing public. The NFL is smart to take its image and, therefore, the behavior of its participants seriously, lest it slip to the second-rate status that the NBA finds itself.

To go further with a comparison to the NBA, that league is currently suffering a gambling scandal involving one of its referees. Already amidst an image problem due to shoddy and uninspiring play as well as boorish behavior by its players, they find the integrity of their league questioned. We’ve been bombarded with stories of the horror of dog fighting and accounts of Michael Vick and his associates killing dogs, but the gambling aspect of this has been under-reported. It’s the fact that he was running a gambling ring that not only brings further damage to the NFL’s reputation, but impugns the integrity of the game.

Vick’s defenders are wrong to insist that he get his job back when his prison sentence is over.

From the Brady Campaign, they’ve passed Microstamping in California. If you live in California, it is very important to:

CALL GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER AND URGE HIM TO VETO THIS BILL!

I will have more to say on micro stamping soon. This is one issue I urge manufacturers to follow the lead of Ronnie Barrett and refuse to sell your product in California, including to law enforcement. It’s the only way we’re going to stop crap like this from spreading.

UPDATE:  The Flashing Light has an interesting bit of commentary:

Someone suggests that gun manufacturers not sell in California in the future. That’s an ideal thought, maybe, but thinking it through I don’t see how they could afford to do that. Doing so would set in motion a whole lot of market and government actions of which some are predictable, but many are unforeseen. And I doubt most gun and ammo manufacturers are willing to play with fire when it comes to the bottom line.

This is a serious issue, no doubt.  California is the nation’s most populous state, and whether or not firearms and ammunition manufacturers can afford to pull out of the state entirely is a reasonable question.  But can they afford to keep complying with the costs of complying with the state’s ridiculous and ignorant policy in regards to firearms?  That’s a good question too.

You have to love cooking a steak with a computer controlled laser.   Especially when you can spell this out:

See the entire project here.

Courtesy of Greg and Beth.