The NRA has a lot of problems on its hands these days. There are the investigations of its leadership, including Wayne LaPierre, the bankruptcy filing, and personnel purges and pay cuts for remaining staff. Now comes a New Jersey newspaper reporting on how current NRA Board Member Anthony Colandro is working to promote an Everytown for Gun Safety anti-gun “safety” program.
Everytown, as you know, is funded by gun-grabber extraordinaire Michael Bloomberg. Unlike the National Rifle Association’s own extensive, well-known gun safety program, Everytown has no certified instructors or proven curricula that have helped bring America’s accident gun death rates to historic lows. And the gun control org’s idea of “gun safety” involves locking up your guns before you eventually surrender them to police.
Last year, anti-gun financier Bloomberg thought so much of the gun control issue that he made it his primary platform in his run for the Democrat nomination for president. Former Mayor Mike spent about $1.2B on his short, spectacular failure of a campaign. All that cash and his famously charming charisma bought him a total of 40 delegates (of 3979 total).
Clearly gun control isn’t a winning issue with America’s voters.
So when NRA Board Member Anthony Colandro (above center), who was elected to the NRA board last year, was pictured in a New Jersey dead tree publication showing off educational materials provided by Blooomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety, it raised questions.
Colandro was displaying Everytown’s “gun safety” brochures that his shop planned to distribute to every individual who files for a gun permit.
From Tap Into Passaic County:
The Woodland Park Police Department, in partnership with the Woodland Park Stigma Free Task Force and Passaic County Moms Demand Action, announced a new initiative in which they will provide a Be SMART Gun Safety brochure to each individual who files for a gun permit in town. Woodland Park is the first municipality in Passaic County to take this step.
In addition, Gun for Hire owner Anthony Colandro, who is a Stigma Free Task Force member, also supports the Be SMART gun safety initiative, and will provide this vital information to range patrons.
The Be SMART campaign to raise awareness that secure gun storage — storing guns locked, unloaded and separate from ammunition — can save children’s lives. Be SMART emphasizes that it’s an adult responsibility to keep kids from accessing guns, and that every adult can play a role in keeping kids and communities safer.
We reached out to Mr. Colandro to ask if he also offers NRA materials to his customers in addition to the Everytown-produced “Be SMART” materials.
As Mr. Colandr wrote . . .
As a gun range owner we have NSSF suicide prevention literature at the range in addition to free gun locks from NSSF project child safe. We also have NRA memberships and I am an NRA recruiter as well as other employees. We also give every student a copy of the ANJRPC.org newsletter which is the State NRA affiliate and every student gets a NRA membership brochure.
I was approached by two members the Woodland Park Stigma Free Task force of which I am a member of and asked if I would display the Be Smart post card as well as the brochure. I inspected the literature and observed that its main focus was on storage and securing firearms so I agreed to place them with the other literature I discussed above. Full disclosure, I did not read the fine print that they were supplied by Everytown.
To his credit, Mr. Colandro said he would take another look at the “Be SMART” materials and re-evaluate whether he’ll continue to offer them.
He also kindly invited us for a cigar in his FU Mike Bloomberg lounge.
In a 2016 feature story at the NRA’s blog, Colandro was described this way:
Anthony wanted to learn everything he could about firearms and how he could help others who shared a similar passion. “I was informally teaching people for years at the ranges I went to and I finally decided to go legit,” he laughs. He became an NRA Certified Instructor, Regional Training Counselor, and NRA Master Training Counselor – enabling him to teach every NRA course including Refuse To Be A Victim.
In the end, we have an NRA Master Training Counselor and Board Member featured in a local newspaper handing out not only apolitical NRA gun safety materials, of which there are plenty, but also Everytown-produced propaganda.
We recently ran a piece about how gun shops must implement “gun owner to gun voter” programs to help educate the millions of new gun owners across America.
The gun industry needs to acknowledge and act on a simple fact of life: if you are involved with guns, you are unavoidably involved in politics…whether you like it or not.
Turning new gun owners into new gun voters starts with educating and engaging them regularly. Range owners and FFLs need to open up a new front on the war to preserve the Second Amendment or look for other lines of work…
How can the NSSF and NRA work together most effectively? One way is to expand an underutilized NRA program: Second Amendment Activist Centers. If you haven’t heard of SAACs, you’re not alone and you’ve proven my point that the program needs promotion.
A Shift at the NSSF
SAACs require a cooperative industry and dedicated 2A activists to be effective. You can’t just become a SAAC and then say “we’re done” without doing the activist work on the ground they require tobe effective.
To that end, the NSSF should task its range team to get FFLs and commercial ranges on board while NRA grassroots field coordinators supply the educational materials, enlist volunteers and engage customers. This approach will make SAACs a prime distribution channel for educational materials on gun control to new and existing gun owners.
The NSSF should also include “Gun Owner to Gun Voter” programs in its range rating criteria and mandate participation in a SAAC for any range to get a 4 or 5 star rating. NSSF must urge FFLs and ranges to educate their customers on gun control and the gun policies espoused by their elected representatives.
Many if not most of these first-time gun buyers are from non-traditional backgrounds when it comes to owning firearms. And frankly, most of them likely never really considered the downside to voting for candidates who advocate for gun control and civilian disarmament measures.
With that in mind, if America’s gun shops hand out “gun safety” materials generated by gun control organizations like Everytown, they aren’t doing The People of The Gun any favors. In fact, one might even say they are helping to craft the noose with which to hang us all.
Who and what is the NRA?
Never heard of it.
Nearly Ruined Association.
It stands for “Negotiating Rights Away”. They have a long and sordid history of capitulation and “compromise” (i.e. give ground, but get nothing in return).
+
Not Really Advocates
If only there was a mechanism in place to remove traitorous NRA board members.
*sigh*…
Among others…….
There is. They get selected and promoted.
This is either naïveté, ignorance, or deliberate misrepresentation of the truth. Look into the matter of NRA elections, the board of directors and WLP and you quickly realize that there is about as much chance of unseating corrupt board members and WLP as a snowball’s chance of not melting on hot asphalt.
There was an attempt at reform and replacing some of the board a few years ago, and it got nowhere. Which is precisely why WLP and his cronies have it set up the way they do.
How is this inconsistent with what I said? Do you believe WLP and his cronies corruption is not treacherous to the cause the organization is supposed to champion?
Communism at work. They masquerade as ordinary and infiltrate legitimate organizations. This is no accident and he isn’t the only one.
“They masquerade as ordinary and infiltrate legitimate organizations.”
That’s *why* we had better get our asses in gear and return the favor, especially in the public school system.
We have billionaires. We need to leverage them to help finance home loans for conservatives that want to be public school teachers…
True.
I’d be more inclined to support busting the unions, dropping “education certifications” and offering lucrative merit pay in return for a signed contract barring union participation and requiring a minimum of a Master’s degree.
Retake K-12 while retaking higher education, destroy SoE’s and stop the cycle of ever advancing retardation by picking the vast majority of our teachers from the bottom 10% of the previous High School generation. The latter having led to a nearly exponential growth curve in idiocy, I’d also like to see some public crucifixions along roadways over that.
Federal money has corrupted the Academy. Conservatives were called names for wanting to stop federal funding of education. But it was President Eisenhower who said this in his final address to the nation. Sadly the only thing people want to talk about is “the military industrial complex”. Now the Left is happy to be in charge of that Complex.
It would be much better if we go back to the 50 different ways of education for the nation. Instead of the centralization we are moving to now.
Not certain about that Master’s degree stuff. Country came a long way while having High School grads teaching grade school, BS grads teaching HS, etc.
This guy does a lot for 2A advocacy group n NJ. You should give him the benefit of the doubt.
You’re delusional. He’s all about himself.
“Give him the benefit of the doubt”………….My ass!
Disappointed, but not surprised….
These people insert themselves into everything.
I’m all “live and let live” and they’re all “how can I fuck up this dudes shit?”
I’m always amazed on how stupid some business owners can be and still make money.
Guess that goes to show the intelligence of the consumer
I keep getting emails from a guy named Wayne LaPierre … and those e-mails go right into the trash.
How many lap tops do you go through in a year. Be cheaper to do snail mail.
What a maroon. Ignoramus. Buffoon. Cretin. Charlatan. What does one expect from Joizee?!?
Was he the guy that gave up all his campaign promises in exchange for a board appointment?
I know colandro’s nonsense bullshit. He’s liar and in only concerned about making money. He put those bloomberg brochures out because it was politically expedient and now he got caught. Now, he’s saying he is an NRA recruiter and puts out their material which is a lie since I go to his range and never saw any of it. If he in fact gives it to his students as he claims, why does he not give it to all his customers? This guy is full of himself and full of bullshit.
Lol…
Didn’t even read the fine print!
I would read EVERY word before putting it out.
This is not convincing me to join.
Everyone should always be on the alert for enemy spies in any organization. Anyone who seeks high office should be very carefully vetted deep into their background.
A liberal arts degree from a known leftist university raises a large red flag.
A former democrat (communist party USA) raises a large red flag.
Yes, it is possible to come to their senses but a lot of them will prove to be “Manchurian Candidates”.
Be Prepared !!!
“You’ve got to be taught
To hate
And fear
You’ve got to be taught
From year
To year
Its got to
Be drummed in your dear little ear
You’ve got to
Be carefully
Taught
You’ve got to be taught
To be
Afraid
Of people
Who’s eyes are oddly made
And people who’s skin is a different shade
You’ve got to
Be carefuly
Taught
You’ve got to be taught
Before it’s too late
Before you are six
Or seven
Or eight
To hate all the people
Your relatives hate
You’ve got to
Be carefully taught
You’ve got to
Be carefully taught“
Wow Miner49er, didn’t know you had that in you. Pretty neat, kinda started rolling like Dr. Seuss, that’s how I read it anyway.
It’s plagiarized. One giant step up from copying-and-pasting.
Rogers and Hammerstein, ‘South Pacific,’ 1949: Song title: “You’ve got to be taught.”
Oh shucks, gees, just when I was going to cut the guy some slack, he fcks it up again.
That’s why I used quotation marks, so folks would know it was a quote.
That’s what I learned in my reading, writing and arithmetic classes here in America.
Must be different in a foreign country…
But you didn’t give any credit to the author? Is that how they taught you to cite work at your school?
All I did in school was drop the pencil to look up Sally’s skirt. Never knew I’d have to read or do figures.
Dafook do possums care about Sally’s panties?
So seeing as this implies you’re against indoctrination against people based on race surely you’re absolutely livid about all these public primary and secondary schools teaching CRT. The whole idea that there’s some sort of “white original sin” from which none can escape and all are racist despite any and all efforts must chafe you right?
Gordon in MO, you said, “A former democrat (communist party USA) raises a large red flag.”
You know who else were former Democrats?
Donald Trump, and Ronald Reagan!
Does that make Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan communists?
And do you know who was a former Republican?
Mike Bloomberg!
Does that make Mike Bloomberg a conservative? Ha!
Current party affiliation is more important than what people believed when they were younger.
I think lil’ Mikey was a Democrat before he was a Republican before he was a Democrat. Which I really don’t condemn, the parties seem to change constantly, seems like we should be deciding once or twice every decade. My first exposure to a Republican was Eisenhower, no resemblance to any Republican in the past 30 years. JFK was my first intro to Dems, I would trade absolutely *ANY* dem in the past 30 years to get JFK back. And a lot of Republicans. JFK ran on and did cut taxes from 90+% to somewhere in the 70% range, a solidly GOP play for 40 years now.
This is an example of why we need bullet voting when it regards the NRA board members running for re-election. We need to get rid of the back-stabbing assholes who are making things worse for us; not better.
Former resident of the peoples republic of New Jersikstan. I know Ant from before he opened the Woodlawn range. Dude does quite a bit to support the 2a in NJ, something the NRA doesn’t do. He has a podcast that promotes the same and has Evan Nappan and many others on the show. Supports the local community generously as well as many NJ as well as national gun rights organizations like the saf and goa. No matter whats going on he still has time to talk to customers and answer questions. As for the pamphlets tbh I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt based on what I have seen and heard with my own eyes and ears. I will reach out and ask instead of jumping to a conclusion based on an article that doesn’t seem to (or is leaving out) simple facts.
Remove this POS and put him at the end of one of those things used to pull down a NASCAR garage door.
This guy does a lot for the 2A in NJ when no one else will. He’s at every rally and shows up at the capitol to fight against every gun law passed here in NJ. This is unfortunate but does not represent his 2A advocacy in the truthful light. Give him the benefit of the doubt.
Really? Than have him call that newspaper and publicly issue a statement to the press and the Stigma group that he will not be giving out those brochures and condemns both Everytown and Moms demand action.
He’s a big, dumb loudmouth and you can bet Everytown will make hay of his STUPIDITY to our collective disadvantage. I don’t support stupid loudmouths to be NRA board members. Neither should you.
He does Jack shit for NRA. Read the article regtenced on converting new gun owners to gun rights voters. I recognized his “6 Star Range immediately as the one that is too afraid to offend his democrat customers to take a public stand. As the article points out, podcasts and gun forum chest pounding is jack shit compared to what he should be doing along with Rtsp and Reloaderz. But he has no guts and thinks he will lose customers if he takes a real public stand. Some profile in courage.
When a sinister person means to be your enemy, they always start by trying to become your friend.
— William Blake
Great quote.
NRA = Negotiating Rights Away, since 1934.
The first thing I do when someone hands me a brochure is flip it over and look at the back to find out who supplied it and look them up online if I don’t know who they are. Does that make me cynical?
We’re not lefties or woke jerks. If the brochure had legitimate gun safety advice, I’m going to judge the guy by the life he’s led in total, not a single mistake. Remember that Bloomberg’s previous scheme, “Mayors Against Illegal Guns”, used the same dirty tricks.
We shouldn’t go around cancelling people who have seriously fought for gun rights just because a bunch of dirty, mercenary tricksters managed to scam them once. That’s what these tricksters earn the big bucks to do, and they could probably do it to you too. The disgusting people who scammed this guy probably make more in a quarter than he makes in a year.
The enemy is behind the wire.
Stop trying to make nice with anti civil rights people. I don’t care how pretty they are.
The current, bankrupt NRA must be completely torn apart and stomped into the ground.
Completely rebuilt it with strict rules and regulations for the leadership. Full transparency. Total and unlimited support for the constitution as written.
The new NRA should’t be allowed to lay back before we have constitutional carry for your belt-fed full-auto grenade launchers.
Did not I read awhile back the NSSF said the BATFE was the good guys, pretty sure I did.
Follow the money, I bet Bloomberg paid this guy off.
Cancel culture much? If the content of the pamphlets was strictly about voluntary safe gun storage I don’t have a problem with it. Safe gun storage IS taught in NRA basic gun safety classes and it is something we all should take very seriously, especially if you have unauthorized persons living with you. I’m not blind to Everytown’s agenda but I’m willing to give Colandro the benefit of the doubt here. We don’t have very many advocates in New Jersey and we don’t need to be applying purity tests to every Second Amendment voice. Otherwise we are going to be in a very lonely place reaching no one.
The NRA has a gun safety program for kids, I believe it’s called Eddie Eagle. The smart thing to have done in his case would have been to have clarified that there was nothing objectionable about the pamphlets and then disavowed the group as soon as he learned of any connection to Karens Demand Gun Confiscation in America. Put some of the Eddie eagle and NRA stuff about gun storage out there and move on.
However you and a few other posters have said things like “we don’t do cancel culture/we’re not the left”. While I congratulate you on your pyrrhic moral victories and loss of the culture war, you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t intend to stand with you.
The left has no intention of abandoning cancel culture, the right can either start using it as well or we can perish. The days of mealy-mouthed Republocrats holding hands with Democrats and singing “why can’t we be friends” are long over.
I guess you’ve never actually taken a NRA Basic Pistol Course or you would know that more than the Eddie the Eagle program teaches gun safety and safe storage.
I’m not looking for any moral victories here. Just trying to be welcoming to the millions of new gun owners that are just starting the journey and becoming aware of their rights and responsibilities. You are welcome to sit in your lonely echo chamber and sulk.
I cant edit my previous comment but in fairness, in the article it states that Anthony Colandro was not aware that the material was funded and provided by Everytown for gun safety. Giving him the benefit of the doubt in this, the original article could be another tactic to create infighting in the gun owners community and drive more hatred towards the NRA (Not that we they need any help with that). Its important to read the “fine print” when we are under attack from the left.
Reading the entire thing seems that Mr. Colandro was duped but is going to un-dupe himself and his shop.
As for the NRA, please donate to all other Second Amendment defending outfits, but not one penny more to the NRA while Wayne La PayMe! and his cronies are still in charge.
A lot of buttbuddies of the progtard left STILL carrying the water for the MSM in their project to teardown the NRA. It’s not about you and you feelings or LaPierre. Get over yourself.
10x GOAs wouldn’t have the clout in the legislatures of the NRA. Your whining butthurt drivel is just aiding the antigunners.
Anthony Colandro has worked with, supported and lead 2A advocacy in New Jersey since the 1990s. I’ve worked with Anthony Colandro in 2A activism since 2012, testifying in thr New Jersey legislature, making speeches at rallies and growing the firearms community. I got my NRA Firearm Instructor and RSO certifications through Gun For Hire range. He encouraged me to host my event “the 2nd is For Everyone: Diversity Shoot” in his range in 2015 which has run until Covid restrictions in 2020.
Anthony Colandro is a friend and one of the few actual 2A advocates on the NRA Board of Directors. Anthony has been on the NRA Board serving a one year term to try and right their ship. He’s the Executive Vice President of the ANJRPC, a 2A advocacy group that’s sued New Jersey multiple times including a lawsuit this week(along with the Second Amendment Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition, CNJFO and NJ2AS). He’s offered free classrooms and range time to every 2A advocacy group in the state. He’s donated money, time and advice to these groups for over 30 years and much more including testifying in front of the US Senate.
Commentors that have never heard of the man until this article immediately dismiss over 30 years of work because of a flyer? He’s not been accused of writing checks to Mom’s Demand, posting Bloomberg for President signs or embezzling NRA membership money. Maybe you can give him the benefit of the doubt.
Write him and ask him that’s going on. He has an IG page, FB page and you can email his weekly podcast to asking for an explanation.
To the “member” of Gun For Hire that has never seen NRA brochures. There’s hundreds of ANJRPC (New Jersey’s NRA state chapter) monthly newsletter on every flat surface throughout the range.
Colandro has worked constantly for decades in New Jersey fighting the anti-gun governors and politicians.
Loudmouth haters in the comments are just that loud mouths. They are believing the worst of someone they don’t know and have never heard of until this article and then trashing them. I wouldn’t doubt some comments are Mom’s Demand members themselves pushing to discredit one of their biggest uh to their anti-gun agenda in the state of New Jersey.
Anthony is one of the good guys and a 2A heavy lifter.
Then he should publicly state he’s not supporting this brochure being given out by either the police chief or the Stigma group. The brochures tell people to ask about gun ownership before letting your kids come over to play . NRA is against doctors asking that very same question which can only be used against you in made up red flag proceedings, social shunning and more . There is nothing but risk to aswering that question , esp here in NJ.
But colandro won’t disavow this group’s materials publicly because he’s too DAMNED AFRAID of losing business or offending someone who could impact his cash flow.
BTW, that police chief who is pushing these brochures is one of colandro’s instructors. So colandro won’t disavow them publicly or risk offending the chief. It’s another example of why he’s just a pussy and a big mouth who won’t take a real 2A stand if he think it could reduce his profits.
I don’t know the guy or his dealings, but I do recognize a circular firing squad whenever I see one. How about we leave that woke cancel stuff to the left?
“Woodland Park Stigma Free Task Force” is a total fraud. Woodland Park used to be called West Paterson but the resident there made the change years ago to avoid the stigma of the Paterson name, since Paterson is about half ghetto with a ton of crime and drugs.
Making it easier and easier to walk away from the NRA…..
I’ve been to Anthony’s range more then a few times. You don’t get a stronger advocate for the 2nd amendment. A group pulled a fast one and didn’t disclose who paid for something and people want to string him up. Ask yourselves what have you done! He could be like the other 99% of the range owners and not want to jump into the fight, but he does… constantly.
Next time you go to your ffl and buy a box of ammo ask them when was the last time they testified in Trenton. Or ask them when they let organizations have events to promote activism.
I know I have personally stood next to Anthony on more then one occasion while he fought for our rights.
Another reason I’ll never send them one red cent again.
Yes, 1 year has passed since I eventually quit my last job and that choice was a life changer for me… I started functioning over the internet, for this particular company I stumbled upon over the internet, For a few hours daily, and I make substantially more than that I did in my last occupation…My past month check was for 13 thousand dollars… The awesome thing relating to this gig is that now I’ve more time for my children. Here is what I do………https://rotf.lol/Right75
I used to live just a few miles from his range, but still preferred to drive to RTSP or even to Easton PA ranges (more than an hour each way) mainly because of this Colandro dude. He is a Grade A hypocrite and a total POS. I don’t even want to go into the details – when I once called him out on one of his many BS acts on Facebook, he quickly called in a whole gang of paid supporters to dilute and “disprove” my point.
As I always kept saying, the biggest enemy of 2A in NJ is someone who pretends to be its biggest supporter.
Misleading headlines like this should only come from networks like CNN and MSNBC.
Anthony Colandro is a REAL 2A supporter and fighter. He is busy running a gun range, radio show, and being an NRA board member. If the pamphlet that he was handing out had good information in it and he overlooked where it came from than no big deal, im sure he will make it right. Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water over an honest mistake!
The 2nd amendment community needs to stop the in-fighting before it’s the end of us. We have alot of enemies and Anthony is far from one…
If Tony the Tool colandro is so great, have him issue a press release that he denounces the be smart program while offering NRA alternatives , opposes his police department and stigma free giving it out.
But that would offend the chief who is one of his instructors and he would loose good guy status with the local anti gunners. Colandro has long been one to try to have got both ways. Acting like 2A hero, but coddling and appeasing his democrat customers and politicicians all to make more money. You and the other colandro mouthpieces need to wake up about what the “capitalist marksman” is really about.