Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

i will start by saying i value the freedom to own and shoot guns. i do not consider myself a conservative, i do think our rights under the 2nd ammendment need to be protected. i think the nra is on the frontline of that battle. so in short, i join the nra because i think they do a good job in representing my interest in D.C.

what is your reason?
what is your reason for not joining?

I too value the freedom to legally own and shoot a gun. I live in Brooklyn, NY, and I would like to someday see real 2nd amendment rights afforded to citizens legally eligible to have a gun, especially self defence in the home. Maybe a pipedream though. What's really sad is that many people who if they lived in another state could easily purchase a firearm. Here, the permit process is a farce. We need help here and I believe supporting the NRA is a step in the right direction.

It's a requirement for a club I belong to.

I'm still rather sore at their long history of support for gun control. Vice-President-for-Life Wayne doesn't give me the warm fuzzies either.

I am a life member of the NRA but I sometimes don't understand which battles they chose to support and others they standby on the sidelines. I just don't think they are as aggressive as they used to be.

I'm a life member since they are by far the biggest gun lobby hands down, but I dont agree with everything they do or dont do...the convention in Charlottesville was a major screw up concerning the ability to carry...did anyone ever figure out what the problem was?

Gosh, folks, I don't know when I've ever been in lockstep with any organization to which I belong. That includes my family.

I joined the NRA because they pretty much reflect my views with respect to The Great Second and the higher is the membership count, the greater is their clout.

Make it easy on yourselves. It doesn't have to be difficult in a public squabble to determine who generally reflects your views and who doesn't.

Like most calculating groups the NRA picks it fights, THey are aware that some issues are not going to be worth the expenditure to pursue. They've got the political connection to do a lot of things to benefit us, though I too would like to see a more aggressive stance sometimes.

By picking their battles they have permitted the "other" side to also pick battles and by fiendish and creeping incrementalism we have the wholesale infringement of our rights by government.

The NRA does not represent the IRON WILL of individual sovereignty that they should and will not receive a dime from me unless and until they show me through both word and deed that they will not back down on ANY ISSUES.

No infringement is acceptable and there is a litany of examples of Constitutional violation to that end that the NRA "chooses" to avoid.

The NRA is a hunting a sport-shooting "enthusiast" group. They are barely pro-2nd amendment from my perspective.

zephyp wrote:I'm a life member since they are by far the biggest gun lobby hands down, but I dont agree with everything they do or dont do...the convention in Charlotte was a major screw up concerning the ability to carry...did anyone ever figure out what the problem was?

I was at the convention for 4 days and heard nothing of this issue. It was only 1 hotel of the many that housed guest for the convention that had a issue with our ability to carry. The convention received a lot of local press and the greater major of it presented the NRA and Gun owners in a very positive light. I have not read anything that stated it was a corporate policy, it appears that a manager made a decision so he could get his 15 minutes of fame. I still wish that the NRA leadership were more like the leaders of the VCDL.

zephyp wrote:the convention in Charlottesville was a major screw up concerning the ability to carry...did anyone ever figure out what the problem was?

If you mean the one in Charlotte, the problem was North Carolina's laws. They are not a gun-friendly state.

While I can understand NRA's need to have an adequate facility (which is rare, considering the size of the convention), North Carolina was a poor choice. Atlanta's not that far away, in the same region, and far, far friendlier to guns and carriage of them.

I am and have been a Life Member for over 40 year's. The reason I joined was so that I could shoot in both handgun and rifle competition over the year's. I do not know nor have I ever been able to find out what give's the NRA the power to decide who or who cannot be a weapons instructor and why the goverment and Law Enforcement Agency's go by what the N.R.A. has to say in reguard's to courses of fire and score's that must be shot for qualifying run's.

I don't believe that I ever needed a N.R.A. certification to teach the use of Sub Machine Gun's or Machineguns or the use of Sniper type weapons. I refused to get Creds. for these as I had many year's already of teaching them as well as handgun shooting in the military.

As the Range Master and Armoure for a 450 person Police Department I was the chief instructor in all of the above stated weapons and was also a Small Arms Specialist in the Military along with other weapon related MOS's. So I can't understand how someone with less exp. then I had could make a determination if I was qualifyed to teach shooting of any type.
Bill

I only joined the NRA to meet girls.....

SgtBill wrote:I do not know nor have I ever been able to find out what give's the NRA the power to decide who or who cannot be a weapons instructor and why the government and Law Enforcement Agencies go by what the N.R.A. has to say in regards to courses of fire and scores that must be shot for qualifying run's.

The same argument came up recently between my boss and I on how the VAS (Virginia Association of Surveyors) was able to "mandate" which continuing education would be accepted by the DPOR for credit.

Turns out I was right, they can't.

The thing with the NRA is that they were there when nobody else was. They picked their niche, made their friends and continue to feed them money and privilege by proxy.

The NRA is a glorified hunting club with political lobbying ties.

I personally despise the lobby industry in general. It has borne generations of clout and bias that are impossible if not unlikely to be unraveled even with an incumbency blowout.

wylde007 wrote:It has borne generations of clout and bias that are impossible if not unlikely to be unraveled even with an incumbency blowout.

That is a whole other can of worms...