New York Attorney General Letitia James has made a grave strategic error in attempting to dissolve the National Rifle Association. Should she succeed, it will result in a economic power vacuum of epic proportions.
Something — someone — will fill it.
This could simply shift tens of millions of dollars that used to go to the NRA’s coffers to existing groups like Gunowners of America, Firearms Policy Coalition, Second Amendment Foundation, or even the modest Zelman Partisans (hint!). For lobbying; litigation; and policy, analysis, and philosophy, I think that would be a good thing. Former NRA instructors could form a new group to take over the one thing the old organization did well: practical training.
But whether it’s distributed groups handling specialized aspects of defending rights, or a new umbrella group, the victim-disarmers will be in for a shock. What the group or groups won’t be is the cardboard cutout that is the NRA.
No longer will there be a monolithic “pro-2A” organization promoting rights violations just so they can fundraise to “fight” those violations.
The new face of the Second Amendment won’t be the people that supported the National Firearms Act of 1934. It won’t be the people who supported the Gun Control Act of 1968 It won’t be the people who traded new machineguns for a toothless Firearm Owner Protection Act. It won’t be the people who proposed unconstitutional NICS checks. It won’t be the people who actively fought constitutional carry tooth and nail until they saw the bandwagon rolling, jumped on, and declared, “Follow me!” It won’t be the people who supported ex parte “red flag” firearm confiscations.
And it most definitely will not be the people who got bump-fire stocks banned as machineguns, thus endangering all “easily converted to machineguns” semiautomatic firearms.
No more would the disarmament faction have their paper tiger secret ally.
They will face human/civil rights advocates that are the “no-compromise gun lobby”. “No compromise. No Surrender.” Advocates who are “organizing to take back our Constitution and defend the inalienable, fundamental, and individual right to keep and bear arms.” We’ll “reclaim and expand our right to keep and bear arms.”
And actually mean it, unlike the LaPierre lackeys.
At the state level, the “protect our criminals from those mean gun owners” crowd will be facing state groups like Georgia Carry and ProGun New Hampshire who will no longer be hampered by NRA interference. For years, the RKBA movement has been Harrison Bergeron, handicapped by the weights of the NRA’s fund-sucking and deal-making. If James succeeds, she’ll see what we can do when we cast off the burden of NRA “assistance.”
Frankly, I thought this was so obvious that James would settle for minor concessions and leave the NRA intact; possibly fines. Or maybe send LaPierre to prison for misappropriating funds, but leave his compromising cronies in place to carry on the “good” work. I don’t think Bloomberg and Soros are going to be pleased if the NRA is destroyed.
[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited, and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]
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Bravo. I agree 100% and could not say it better. There are too many people on our side willing to accept compromise in the hope of buying off enemies. By now, we should see this belief for what it is beyond mere cowardice, dangerous naivete.
Off topic: I have no idea why I have to keep approving all your comments. If you want, you can get into the dashboard and approve them yourself, without waiting for me.
Another off topic: I can not tell you how many times I’ve thought of Harrison Bergeron as I see all these people walking around masked. I’ve even seen ads in a magazine for two people laying in bed, both masked. Ads for people hiking alone, wearing masks. Afraid like George Bergeron to remove the handicap. We all look the same now. I try to avoid places where it’s required, but there are a lot of those.
Speaking of masks, have you seen this bit of utter stupidity?
https://twitter.com/AstroKatie/status/1292441742952804353
My reply to that got me blocked in less than 2 minutes.
Whether LaPierre is part of the corruption surrounding him is no longer the point. Now the point is, is he oblivious to the necessity (to the cause) of his stepping aside, or is he simply unwilling to bear that cost? Either way, there is no moving forward until he moves out of the way.