I renewed my NRA membership because attacks on 2nd Amendment rights never stop there
Already there are attempts to shut down NRA-TV’s ability to stream content, showing that our free speech is at risk also.
One of the most astounding aspects of the politics after the Parkland school shooting is how quickly a small group of student leaders and a large number of leftist groups backing them focused on the NRA. The CNN three-ring circus event in which thousands of people jeered and shouted at Dana Loesch was one of the low points in an already low political theater.
Meanwhile, the facts have come out proving that this shooting could have been and should have been prevented without a single change in the gun laws.
The perpetrator was reported to police and the FBI dozens of times, including specific warnings that he wanted to kill people and shoot up a school – yet law enforcement did nothing. At least one, and possibly up to four, Broward County Deputy Sheriff, meanwhile, waited outside the school building as the killing was in progress rather than enter and confront the shooter. The Sheriff himself, who must have known much or all of this information during the CNN circus, nonetheless pretended like he and his office did everything they could as he mocked and berated Dana in front of the jeering crowd.
In an instance when law enforcement proved incapable of protecting us because of its sheer incompetence, we are asked to disarm and rely on law enforcement for our personal defense. No thank you.
Yet the NRA is the media and social activist focus for reasons having nothing to do with student safety.
There is an ongoing campaign touted on social media by the small group of students but organizes by groups like Think Progress. Sleeping Giants and Moms Demand Action, who are targeting corporations that do business with the NRA, mostly though discounts offered to NRA members. Using a playbook refined against Glenn Beck, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and others, companies are being bombarded on social media with demands they sever ties.
It’s not surprising that they are having immediate success. Corporations are cowards when faced with such leftist campaigns. Hertz, Delta, United and many others have severed ties.
This graphic posted by Think Progress may not be complete, but it will give you an idea:
This is not going to be a fatal blow, or likely much of a blow, to the NRA. Unlike targeting advertisers of conservative radio and TV shows, these partnering deals are not central to the NRA’s finances.
But it’s going further. People like Joe Scarborough have joined a campaign to deplatform NRA-TV. That is, to force companies like Apple, Amazon and YouTube to shut down NRA-TV’s ability to stream content.
.@JoeNBC sounds like all the petty dictators on campuses, seeking to deprive ppl he disagrees with of access to readers/views/listeners by claiming words are violence https://t.co/bgUYbqtlSH
— Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) February 24, 2018
It should surprise no one that what starts with an attack on 2nd Amendment rights quickly moved to an attack on free speech via the handful of internet oligopolies. Leftists have identified a weak point — private entities are not constrained by the 1st Amendment the way the government is, but they perform on the internet quasi-governmental functions over internet infrastructure and access.
I wrote about this in our 9th Anniversary post:
If the assault on the Electoral College was the game changer for me, a runner up was waking up to implications of the concentration of power in a small number of social media and internet companies who have been weaponized to shut down speech and expression. Google, Facebook, Twitter and two handfuls of other companies now completely control our ability to communicate with each other, while internet backbone companies are poised to block internet access altogether.
Imagine living in a repressive country in which the government blocked access to and suppressed internet content. You don’t need to move. It’s coming here but from private industry. This is, in many ways, more dangerous than government suppression of free speech because at least in the U.S. the government is subject to the First Amendment, and can be voted out of office.
I don’t know if there are any uncorrupted institutions left that matter.
If you think the attacks on the NRA are only about the 2nd Amendment, then you haven’t been paying attention. These people are totalitarian in nature, and that nature is on full display.
So I’ve renewed my lapsed NRA membership, which had lapsed.
I don’t really recall when I joined the NRA, it probably was around the time my wife and I took an NRA handgun safety course several years ago.
Why did I renew the membership?
First and foremost, because the corporate cowardice and campaigns to deplatform the NRA are a threat not just to our 2nd Amendment rights, but to our liberty generally. Attacks on our 2nd Amendment rights are the gateway drug to tyranny.
I set forth my thoughts on Twitter today:
♦ Renewed lapsed @NRA membership for 5 years b/c of corporate cowardice in face of social media tactics that regularly get used against conservatives on a range of issues, not just #2A #TweetYourNRAMembership Anyone who thinks they will not also go after #1A isn’t paying attn
♦ In fact, already going trying to silence @NRATV by cutting off ability to stream content
♦ Cutting back or eliminating your #2A rights is just that start, not the end
♦ Just visit almost any campus, where non-leftist words and thoughts they don’t like are equated to violence that needs to be repressed and driven off campus, it’s what’s going on now in corporate America too, and @Hertz @Delta and others are just more evidence
♦. @afbranco got it right: “The #2ndAmendment is also a symbol of our freedom and independence as a people – and that is why the left hate it so and are playing the long game to take it”
♦ Proving my point that they will not stop w #2A @JoeNBC joins chorus to cut off @NRATV from streaming services
(click on images if you want to Retweet)
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Comments
I have a lifetime NRA membership but I am planning on making a donation to the NRA legal fund.
About ten years ago I had the NRA send my Rifleman magazine to me here in Sweden. There was no additional cost or hassle. Wish I could find my membership card but I do have my lifetime member patch still.
Patting myself on my back: I rejoined the NRA this morning for the same reasons.
Me too, a 3-year extension.
In nearly 70 years, I’ve never owned a gun, never fired a weapon other than a crossbow at a target.
I’m about to become a member of the NRA.
Officially a member now.
Like with so many other things, this is yet another issue that liberals have lied about for DECADES. The only difference is that now liberals are in such a cloistered bubble that they’ve convinced themselves they don’t need to lie about it anymore and have pulled the mask off.
YES, they want ALL THE GUNS. And they are not going to be satisfied until the 2nd Amendment is gone.
As usual, they have badly misjudged Americans.
what’s really interesting is that even though the smarter ones knew they shouldn’t go there, they’ve just made the 2018 mid terms all about gun rights. We couldn’t have done it without their help.
Been a life member since the early 80’s, when it was kind of hard to justify putting up the dollars. Never regretted it.
In any case, from Twitchy –
United is notifying the NRA that we will no longer offer a discounted rate to their annual meeting and we are asking that the NRA remove our information from their website.
— United Airlines (@united) February 24, 2018
Delta is reaching out to the NRA to let them know we will be ending their contract for discounted rates through our group travel program. We will be requesting that the NRA remove our information from their website.
— Delta (@Delta) February 24, 2018
Bazina!!!!!!!!!!!
Did you end your discount for Planned Parenthood?
— Stuart Henning (@badgerfan82) February 24, 2018
So I clicked on this guys twitter, and can you believe he got an answer? With a busted link from delta as well as a big piece of bullshi* about not using twitter to discuss the issue, which of course they did to the NRA.
https://twitter.com/badgerfan82/status/967394931055779842?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Delta
Verified account @Delta
13h13 hours ago
Replying to @badgerfan82
Hey Stuart. We don’t handle this over Twitter however I will send you the link below where you could find further information. http://bit.ly/2CRW68T Have a fabulous day. *TLJ
Will renew my lapsed membership tomorrow- too tired tonight. I am a CCH holder.
The Left must have packaged attack plans (similar to packaged and updated obituaries for celebrities that the media has) for various organizations like the NRA. Those of us who care about this country and our Constitution need to be equally prepared for the attacks- they ARE predictable.
This was obviously a very well planned campaign with a need for these businesses to virtue signal. This is so quick that one has to wonder if senators and congressman were part of the primary instigators. I would guess with “D’s” after their name and some with “d” for a complexion more adapted than mine for sunnier latitudes.
For years Alaska Airlines had a little Psalms verse on their food trays but that got axed and later a big splash for LGBQTMICKEYMOUSE.
This is full Alinsky. It will be tough sledding with a large part of the GOPe either spineless or quietly in concert with the LEFT to gain those votes the Democrats keep promising them will come there way if they follow the Dems lead in a “bipartisan” manner. Playing for the Washington Generals means you still get paid and don’t have to worry about winning.
I was a member as a kid, and later on Life as I saw the lies and manipulation of laws especially in California. As I wrote years ago….”liberty, like good health, once lost is hard to regain.”
Thanks for posting that list of businesses that no longer want my dollars. I will be most happy to oblige them by spending my money elsewhere.
Bookworm of the Bookworm Room blog put together an app that lists
companies and the causes they support.
Check it out: http://www.bookwormroom.com/2018/02/23/check-what-business-thinks/
“Leftists have identified a weak point — private entities are not constrained by the 1st Amendment the way the government is, but they perform on the internet quasi-governmental functions over internet infrastructure and access.”
Well, maybe all that overreach on the Interstate Commerce Clause can be used to correct this problem. And to lefties I say, live by the sword, die by Wickard v. Filburn.
It’d be interesting for you to explain that a bit more.
This should have been here:
Well, there’s a funny thing there: whenever people attacked by terrorists who were inspired by the jihadi content the streaming services, twitter, and Facebook can’t seem to take down, they always take refuge in Section 230 of the CDA which exempts them from liability as “common carriers”, like the phone company.
However, the legal definition of a “common carrier” is that they don’t alter or block the content they transmit. Every conservative they censor shows that they don’t deserve that protection.
Definitely renewing my membership – may go lifetime, for both my husband and me….if we can afford it.
#2A and #1A are the anchors of our individual freedom and our Constitution.
Stand firm. Stay strong.
Renewed NRA, GOA, GOAL, and SAF this week. I’d like to claim it’s a response to the silliness but it’s really just coincidence, as I always renew all of them in Feb. All except NRA seem to be essentially unknown to the public, although SAF in particular has been very active in recent 2nd Amendment court cases.
It looks like JPFO has reconstituted a bit, so I may have to add that back onto the list.
GOA I feel is a stronger advocate for our rights than the NRA, I’m a member of both – but we need the strongest voices out there defending gun ownership and I’d put in a good word for the people of the GOA.
I’ll second that … as long as there is a single state that requires a permit to exercise a constitutional right, I’ll not be giving a red cent to the NRA.
I just tell people who want to know why I own guns that I have a really teensy tiny johnson. It’s what they think anyway. Then I offer to show them.
If they want to know why I hunt, I demand they touch it.
Well, ok, not that far. But just in their over psychoanalyzed terms what amounts to admitting it really shuts them up.
Using this.
But never let them actually touch. You truly do not want to know where their hands have been. They mostly are degenerate leftists and all that goes with that
The real Metoo movement…
Then they came for our media.
Then they came for educational systems.
Then they came for our speech.
Now they’re coming for the rest of our freedoms – and our only way of ensuring it.
Wow.
I had let my NRA membership lapse because the constant pitches for renewals was so annoying.
I was unaware of the intensity of the attacks on the NRA. Thank you for the heads up – I will renew tomorrow. We need the 2nd Amendment to protect the 1st.
I’ve owned weapons for a long time, but haven’t ever got around to joining. Time to correct the oversight.
Is it time to have the social media companies declared “neutral” public utilities so we can assure “fair” access to all?
See my comment elsewhere on this article about Section 230 of the CDA.
The attack plan was obviously already in place and simply awaiting a triggering event.
That being said, I just renewed my NRA membership after a long hiatus and my daughter joined as well.
^^Absolutely this. Totally off-the-shelf, freeze-dried campaign-in-waiting. Magnified by many knowing, willing collaborators and ‘useful idiots’, with numerous weak-kneed corporate PR departments among the latter.
I reckon at the rate folks are newly joining the NRA or renewing, Wayne LaPierre should send nice fruit baskets to gun control groups along with the note, “Thanks for contributing to our most successful membership drive ever!”
Shucks, I wouldn’t be surprised if NRA numbers increase by at least 50% this year.
My NRA membership has lapsed and after multiple shooting events where the NRA is the one blamed for pulling the trigger, I have renewed it. Must have been twice it’s lapsed and twice I’ve renewed. I’ll do so again. The thing I hate about the NRA though is all the junk mail. I feel like every week I get stuff in the mail asking for more money or telling me about some politician. I just want my magazine. If they quit mailing out so much junk mail, they’d have a lot more funds to use for the big issues.
To all those joining or renewing their NRA membership — a couple of comments.
1) If you’re annoyed with NRA advertising campaigns, give them a call and ask to be removed from their advertising list. It works!
2) Be aware that NONE of the funds they receive from NRA general memberships goes toward political issues or lobbing. In order to support the NRA’s political/lobbing efforts join (and donate to) the NRA-ILA (Institute for Legislative Action – nraila.org). Those donations go directly to their political efforts.
Larry Fink, lifelong Democrat, owns and manages BlackRock. BlackRock is one of the world’s largest investment firms. It manages about $6 trillion in assets for pensions funds, endowments, foundations and others. Just an incomprehensively enormous sum.
He’s trying to pressure gun makers. He also published a piece BEFORE the shooting that he wants companies to take a different approach to corporate governance and that BlackRock is effectively taking a Social Justice Warrior approach to investing.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-guns-blackrock/blackrock-puts-gunmakers-on-notice-after-florida-school-shooting-idUSKCN1G62PC
https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/en-no/investor-relations/larry-fink-ceo-letter
There are many more like him in leadership positions in our institutions. They are using their clout to change American civil society and culture.
I don’t think this assault on the NRA is going to blow over.
The Leftist ethos has been infecting corporate management and Boardrooms for some time, now. In the financial sphere, Blackrock isn’t alone — State Street, the manager of the popular “SPDR” family of ETF’s (Exchange-Traded Funds), has been virtue-signaling and assuming Leftist postures on all manner of issues. This isn’t going away. The major banks (e.g., Bank of America, Merrill Lynch’s parent, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan, et al.) are all marching to the same drum.
So, while corporations have always been highly sensitive to image perception and to public opinion, we’re increasingly seeing corporate management engage in expressions of virtue-signaling solidarity with Leftists, not merely to kowtow to, and attempt to placate, the Leftist mob, but because management actually sympathizes with these zealots and fanatics.
Our founders were brilliant. Without the 2nd we will not have the 1st.
I don’t own any firearms, but, I aspire to, eventually, and to take some classes for both pistols and rifles. I’ve always been a staunch Second Amendment supporter.
The Left’s and the media’s histrionics and irrational reactions to these shootings, as well as the craven kowtowing by several corporations to the Leftist mob’s antics (including, disappointingly, MetLife and Delta Airlines, the latter my domestic airline of choice) have made me finally cough up the dough and join both the NRA, and, Gun Owners of America. Because of principle.
This is less about the Second Amendment and more about the Left’s consistent and perpetual capriciousness with respect to the rule of law, its constant vilification of Americans who reject Leftist orthodoxies and who oppose the Left’s statist agenda, and, its thuggish attempts to intimidate and to cow American conservatives from all walks of life.
sidenote: I suspect like Trump’s election, there is a quiet majority out there who speak through actions, not the MSM.
I coach a youth shooting sports team and by coincidence we have a booth for our local Home and Garden Show this week. Far from parents freaking out that we had young people talking about firearms, we were swamped with new sign ups. Parent’s are signing their kids up to have their kids learn to become competent, knowledgeable and safe users of all types of firearms….. it was much more enthusiastic than what I had expected at a family oriented event.
Well, there’s a funny thing there: whenever people attacked by terrorists who were inspired by the jihadi content the streaming services, twitter, and Facebook can’t seem to take down, they always take refuge in Section 230 of the CDA which exempts them from liability as “common carriers”, like the phone company.
However, the legal definition of a “common carrier” is that they don’t alter or block the content they transmit. Every conservative they censor shows that they don’t deserve that protection.
One thing to remember about the businesses mentioned here. Some of them are run by Leftists. Others simply remember the Left’s long history about sending their supporters (Unions, Klan, Greenpeace, ALF, black bloc, Black Lives Matter, and more) around to destroy businesses and their employees. And since they have top cover from Democrat politicians (Broward County Sheriff, Charlottesville mayor, Gov McAuliffe), the law is not real helpful.
Until we have a “Sons of Liberty” counter to Leftists, the businesses will have to factor that in.
As I see it, the problem is two-fold, involving internal and external realities. On the internal side, most major, publicly-traded corporations are now staffed and dominated by Left-leaning employees, managers and directors. Although this phenomenon might be somewhat less prominent with respect to certain industries (e.g., defense; pharmaceuticals; finance; energy), we also know that certain industries/sectors have gone irreparably, full-blown Leftist; specifically, technology, diversified media and entertainment and consumer discretionary; to name but a few.
On the external side, it’s a basic fact that Leftist organizations, professional “activist”-agitators and their ilk are very skilled and effective at making their political opinions heard and noticed, via all manner of vociferous histrionics, obnoxiousness, thuggish antics and boycott threats. This is a phenomenon that can roughly be dated back to Saul Alinsky and his “Rules for Radicals.” Some could argue that it goes back even further, to the antics of Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky. At any rate, this is behavior that conservatives will never imitate, and, frankly, don’t aspire to imtitate, because most conservatives reject these kinds of infantile antics in order to convey support for a cause. We are much more restrained and less vocal in articulating our political views. Leftists have no such restraints and are unabashed about ignoring notions of civility, comity, tact and reasoned debate.
The attack on the NRA is designed to do two very important things. The first is to deflect blame for the Parkland shooting from the elected leadership of Broward County Florida, who are all DEMOCRATS. It has to be somebody’s fault and so it is the weapon used and the NRA for supporting the private ownership of such weapons. The Democrat Propaganda wing jumped on this with its whole-hearted support of course. The second reason for the attack on the NRA is to allow the liberal Progressive to continue their efforts to disarm the public. The fact that the deplorables in this country could block the election of the Anointed One [HRC] was terrifying enough, to the Progs. The thought of these people being ARMED, with deadly weapons, causes them to foul their drawers.
The NRA has never been a radical 2nd Amendment organization. It has adopted the position that exceptions to the 2nd Amendment exist, even though they do not appear anywhere in the document. It routinely sacrifices the rights of certain member groups to advance others. But, overall, it is the premier bastion against legislative infringement on the right to keep and bear arms.
How about the NRA adding classes to their training to help gun stores and private ffl’s spot domestic terrorists? As gun owners and potential sellers, we have an more obligation to not transfer/sell guns to those whom we think are mentally unstable. Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying we should feel legally responsible if s bad guy buys a gun from us, but we should hold the awesome responsibility of guarding the 2nd amendment and shielding our loved ones from bad guys, especially in light of the federal, state, and local officials inexplicable failure to stop Nicholas Cruz.
Training them how to react to suspicions (who to call, what to look for) is a great idea.
” As gun owners and potential sellers, we have an more obligation to not transfer/sell guns to those whom we think are mentally unstable.”
Would you consider having car salesmen be responsible rejecting sales because they know you drink alcohol or if your credit card purchases show you buy alcohol? Cars are more lethal than guns.
I’m not positive, but I’m pretty sure the National Shooting Sports Foundation (being an actual, you know … industry group) takes the lead on that.
many reputable gun merchants already refuse to sell firearms to people who are obviously mentally impaired. Most states have a waiting period for handgun sales. But, none of this has any effect on the person who is not demonstrably crazy or who suffers some type of mental breakdown AFTER he acquires firearms.
Just as the best way to stop a person from entering a school and shooting the place up is to engage him, with force, when he shows up there, so is the use of a personal firearm against a threat which is encountered on the street. Carry a personal weapon and know how and when to use it. Then you don’t have to worry about some bureaucrat protecting you.
Some large conservative organization or individual with the clout should start their own bank and credit card system, slightly lower fees undercut the American organizations that have gone leftist.
Just sign-up for a 5 years membership!
Remember to support the NRA.
Professor. If I live down nothing more
Ymar Sakar Says:
February 25th, 2018 at 8:37 am
huxley Says:
February 25th, 2018 at 12:11 am
I’d like to think the Parkland football coach, Aaron Feis, who died shielding students with his body, might have made even more of a difference if he had been carrying a gun that day.
If he had received my level of training, even unarmed he would have had at least 50/50 chances of terminating the threat before the police even got the ballz to take one step into the den of the “sheep”.
But we got to lay down on the ground and Obey the Police, whenever they tell us to jump, because else they’ll shoot us in the head. Rule of Law and all that.
I have nothin
The Second Amendment is the Right that safeguards every other Right. Almost every nation in the world has a long list of human rights codified into their constitutions. But without a manner for the people to exercise and insist upon these rights, those words are just so much toilet paper.
Without the Second Amendment, there are no other Rights.
I would have to say the First Amendment is right that protects all others. You have to be able to say what your rights are in order to protect them.
And, oh yeah, the second comes into being.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=316&v=aMcjxSThD54
“Jordan Peterson debate on the gender pay gap, campus protests and postmodernism”
This vid went viral. I think it serves up why never give up the language.
Simple as this. I didn’t want to live in a country where only Obama had the guns and I don’t want to live in a country where only Trump has the guns.
I’m learning to like Trump. But still, it’s not a good place where only a President has guns.
Cuz then he stops being President.
Mahmoud Abbas.
I joined the NRA just yesterday to support their work of protecting the 2nd amendment from the feelings are everything crowd.
I have never been a member but I just signed up for a 2 year membership, after which I will get a lifetime membership (for 1/2 price, at 65+). The NRA deserves our support for supporting our 2A Rights.
I think of the NRA as the ACLU of the 2nd amendment, just like the ACLU supports the 1st amendment (but not the 2nd). I became a Life Member of the NRA at my police Captain’s recommendation when I became a Police Firearms Instructor. The NRA supports many police functions and educational programs, which none the anti-gun organizations support. The anti-gun people try to make it look like cops are anti-NRA, but the majority of cops I know are NRA members.
When the anti-gun groups started exploiting Parkland for political gain, I upgraded my Benefactor Life Membership to Patron Life Member.
Whenever someone speaks of a “gun safety” organization, you should ask “How many gun safety classes do they teach per year?” If the answer is zero (like for Brady), then they are not actually “gun safety” organizations, but “gun prohibition” organizations. The NRA conducts hundreds of gun safety classes per year, and is by far the largest contributor to gun safety in the USA.
Eh, seems as good a reason as any other.