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I don’t know how many times we’ve said it but it bears repeating: the NRA has to reach out beyond it’s OFWG base to survive. Actually, never mind them. Our Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms depends (in part) on the NRA reaching out to minority gun owners. And . . . wait for it . . . Democrats! Or, at the least, undecideds. By literally aligning himself with Fox News commentator and Blaze bombast Glenn Beck, NRA jefe Wayne LaPierre is sending a clear message that gun rights do NOT transcend party politics. Which they don’t, really. But perception is reality. The more the NRA can do to appear inclusively mainstream [sic] the more popular its message of firearms freedom. Unfortunately, so much of the NRA’s money/power comes from liberal pushback they don’t have the desire or knowledge how to get off the X. Speaking of which . . .

Today, we officially launched our new campaign called NRAWatch.org to (1) expose the NRA, (2) hold it accountable for misleading the public, (3) urge people and organizations to withdraw their support from it, and (4) support legislation, executive actions and grassroots initiatives to further common sense regulation of guns, especially assault weapons, high capacity magazines and universal background checks. Initially, we are asking whistleblowers, insiders, and hackers to release information regarding NRA activities that demonstrate ethical breaches, corruption, or criminality. If that information is provided to us, we will publicize it and provide it to the FBI. If the information results in an arrest and conviction, we will pay up to $100,000 to the person who provides that information. We are accepting information at [email protected].

Lee Stranahan has the 411 on Brett Kimberlin’s campaign against the NRA. Which doesn’t include the payouts it proclaims.

Mr. Kimberlin’s the brains behind velvetrevolution.us, the organization behind nrawatch.org. Just like Mayor Bloomberg’s the guy behind mayorsagainstillegalguns.org‘s that spawned demandaplan.org. Except Bloomberg was coining cash for Salomon Brothers in 1978 when Kimberlin was busy being the “Speedway Bomber.”

Anyway, this is exactly the kind of far-left attack the NRA loves. Unfortunately, it’s exactly the kind of attack which the NRA uses to raise money that keeps the gun rights group positioned to the far right, which is not where it needs to be. IMHO. YMMV. Speaking of mileage . . .

Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy has sent a letter to Brian France urging the NASCAR CEO to drop NRA race sponsorship of an April race at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

By giving the NRA sponsorship of a major NASCAR race, NASCAR has crossed a line – you have decided to put yourself in the middle of a political debate, and you have taken a side that stands in opposition to the wishes of so many Newtown families who support common sense gun reform . . .

Whether or not this was your intention, your fans will infer from this sponsorship that NASCAR and the NRA are allies in the current legislative debate over gun violence. By announcing this new partnership at the very height of Congress’s deliberations over gun reform, NASCAR has inserted itself into a political debate that has nothing to with the business of NASCAR.

Oh but it has everything to do with NASCAR. Well, NASCAR’s core audience, who support the NRA like Kelly Brook fans support the bounteous Brit. Still, point taken. The NRA should sponsor the New Haven Open tennis tournament at Yale University. See what they could do there?

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129 COMMENTS

  1. And the nra is wirried about being taken seriously? Glenn Beck is not a gun guy, he is either a moron or a brilliant comedian laughing his way to the bank.

    • I was thinking the same thing. Actually, I think I threw up a little in my mouth when I first saw that poster.

        • if there’s one thing that I’m fed up with about the political climate of this country, it’s this whacked-out notion that if one extreme is wrong, the opposite extreme MUST be the truth. Both Feinstein and Beck feed off of this mentality, and we’re worse off for it.

      • Yeah, great idea, genius. Instead, let’s deliberately alienate a significant pro-2A audience, just because you don’t like his show.

        Go “throw-up” in your stupid mouth somewhere else.

        • Alienate? They were on the 2A side anyway. Why try to capture a demographic you already solidly have? That’s stupid (mouth).

        • And people distrust Alex Jones (I distrust you, FYI)… GLENN BECK IS A SNAKE-IN-THE-EFFING-GRASS.
          He doesn’t have, and has never had, a sincere bone in his body. Grinning idiot SOB.

          Maybe he’ll shed some of those famous crocodile tears at the “event”.

  2. Beck has been on the “don’t trust the government to protect you” bandwagon for years. He moved to Texas so he could carry a gun (among other reasons). As far as being all about politics, Beck is a libertarian leaning conservative. This is a rally, not an outreach program. He will attract people of like mind, the kind who are more likely to support the 2A cause. He’s a devisive figure, but most those that hate him the most also hate you and me for what we believe.

      • Have you seen the huge presentation for his America 2.0? How the irony of him pushing a socialist Utopia escapes him is beyond my ability to comprehend. He’s an idiot or a comedic genius – I haven’t figured out which.

        I am starting to think he is the Andy Kaufman of punditry.

      • Glenn Beck will do any-damn-thing to keep his pudgy ass in front of the camera.

        Years ago his M.O. was to slam on tinfoil-hatters like Alex Jones and then suddenly, about a year or two ago, he changes the tone of his show and starts stealing his bits directly from Alex Jones’ Infowars. Research it yourself, you’ll see.

        While I’m not a supporter of Alex Jones, cuz he’s batshit crazy at times, he at least has the conviction of his ideals. Glenn Beck just looks to see who getting some page views and copies them.

        This little twit is as much a supporter of the 2nd Amendment as a rapist is of women’s rights. Give his butt enough money or viewers and he’ll happily liplock DiFi for an afternoon.

        • If keeping his “pudgy ass” in front of the camera was his objective, why would he leave Fox News to go run his internet TV thing?

        • Why? Because Fox fired him. His ratings had plummeted and his positions were incompatible with thos of Mr. Murdoch. He was a liability and not an asset.

        • If Fox fired him, why did they give him 6 months notice before hand, and why is he still a regular guest on O’Reily’s show?

    • Glenn Beck jumped on the “Don’t trust the Gub’ment” bandwagon after he saw how many hits Alex Jones got and changed his media approach to poach the same “news” reports that Infowars.com was airing.

      I’m not a supporter of either but Glenn Beck spent a lot of time poking fun at Alex Jones to then suddenly switch to snaking stories straight from Infowars makes him ….a little bit, yeah he’s a complete fucktard.

      Glenn Beck is as much a supporter of the 2nd Amendment as a horny gynecologist is of rape insurance. This twit will act a supporter of anything as long as it means he gets to keep his bloated ass on camera.

      • Willaim, or should I say little Billy? If there was an award for Douchebag Whiner of the Year, TTAG Edition, you’d win by a landslide. Go vent your head exploding asshatery with some barnyard animals. Then find a fire and die in it, SLOWLY.

  3. I joined the NRA last week, after waffling on it for a while. The first e-mail I get from these clowns is this one, inviting me to join Glenn Beck in Houston. I’ve been a member for less than a week, and they’ve already got me questioning whether I’ll renew next year. Great job, guys!

    In case it’s not clear: I think Glenn Beck is a complete jackass, and allying with fruitcakes like him does our cause absolutely no good.

  4. WOW. Let’s throw Rush, Palin and Hannity in the lineup too. The grabbers would never use that as fodder for their right-wing blowhard narrative they try to paint us with. SMDH

  5. sigh. but as long as the libs keep sending gun ban bills to state capitals, why evolve. personally i think they have been slowing down SCOTUS rulings because they realize the fight will be nearly over and they will have to transform, although maybe not conciously. JMO. i hear they might be jumping on the liability insurance bandwagon… that would make them into a huge unstoppable force like the AARP, but also will mean a very different face. Evolution cannot come quick enough for me.

  6. Does anyone know how much the head of the NRA makes? If it is over $100,000, the NRA is a joke. Don’t insult, think about it. Where is all the millions of your hard earned dollars going that the NRA has been receiving in the past month or two. I do not see anything happening except that they gave a crap load of money (which is also from CTDs inflated prices) to NASCAR.

    • Last time I checked, WLP’s cash comp (not including benefits like rides on corporate jets, etc.) was around $975K/year.

    • Are you serious? Anything under $100,000 for a position as important as head of the NRA would be a joke.

      WLP makes close to $1 million per year and I do not consider that overpaid at all. I’ve made pretty close to that before, and have professional colleagues who made a lot more, for doing much less important things than lobbying to protect our Second Amendment rights.

        • It is not common sense. If US did make almost $1,000,000 a year then he has no clue. He is part of the elite…dare I say 1%. Again, it is all about the money and not about our 2nd Amendment Right. Look how everyone is getting ripped off now. It is a scam and a shame. The NRA is doing nothing about the online stores and LGS jacking up the price up to and over 200%. No word on that. It is all bull crap.

      • It shows that one is for the money. Just like the woman who was head of the Red Cross was making $450,000 a year and got kicked out because of that. The money should go to the fight and not someone’s wallet.

      • I would agree with you, if WLP was anything other than a back-stabbing JOKE.

        One by one, folks, step on up, with your story of how WLP has betrayed America’s gun owners.

        Miserable effing COLLABORATOR.

  7. The NRA saps my will to live. Their choice of Glenn Beck as the headliner absolutely does undermine the work I’ve done to get liberal/libertarian/centrist (i.e. NOT “conservative”) folks into the shooting sports.

    {sigh}

    • Ha ha ha ha ha! Me too.

      And this is the kind of shit that – if we’re not careful – is going to splinter us and allow them to defeat us. Both sides are going to make a lot of tactical mistakes before this is over, and whoever makes the fewest is going to win.

    • If someone doesn’t want to do shooting sports because of a guy on TV/Radio/Internet/Whatever that has little to no connection with shooting sports, it means they didn’t want to get into shooting sports beforehand.

  8. The NRA needs to reach out to Democrats? Really? Then I guess that the JPFO should reach out to neo-nazis. It makes perfect sense — both groups are in favor of guns. Right?

    Beck brings in people — lots of people. Meanwhile, gun rights in America are as dead as Kelsey’s nuts as long as we insist on devouring our own. Meanwhile, the left accepts any help it can get. We prattle on and the left is laughing at us.

    “Pogo” was right.

    • i know a lot of gun toting democrats (probably former dems at this point, anyway). shooting your food is hip in the age of pink slime. all natural no hormones browser fed no antibiotic free range and organic deer the way nature intended. cities are dying, crushed under unemployment and budget cuts. some day, people will get tired of leaders telling them they have to be victims. lots of dems in those cities.

      evolve or die.

    • No, the NRA needs to reach out to people who sometimes vote for Democrats. I think you’re confusing voters with politicians, Ralph.

      Over 30% of US gun owners vote for Democratic Party candidates all or most of the time. Pretty sure we don’t have so many people on our side in the battle for gun rights that we can afford to leave 30% of gun owners (again, not politicians, actual people with brains) out in the cold.

    • Not all Democrats are liberals or “progressives”. There are still a lot of old school, JFK/Reagan Dems, who do not support the direction the party is going in.

    • Ralph, it’s not just Democrats that Glenn Beck is offensive too… it’s moderates and independents as well. The guy has zero appeal to anybody but his hardc0re, cult-like following.

      For example, you think a guy who blames ATHEISTS for America’s problems is even credible?

      http://current.com/community/91077053_cluster-fox-glenn-beck-blames-atheists-for-americas-problems-video.htm

      NRA might as well just hang up signs that say, “If you ain’t old, conservative, white, or Christian… FACK YOU.”

      • I wasn’t going to bring up his rabid anti-atheism screeching, but yeah. That.

        Freedom of religion includes freedom FROM religion.

        • Most of the FFs were atheists. ‘God’ was just a term to put a handle on the ‘not scientifically explained yet’ or the origin of an ‘inherent human right’.

  9. This is exactly the point I’ve been trying to make for years – as a Democrat leftie gunner. The end game has to come from the Democrats. Nixon had to go to China. Fact is that a whole lot of Dems are gun owners and anti-gun control and another swath of the party would support our side if they understood the facts. I’ve never figured out whether Wayne is just a hard-core Republican, or if he’s been brutalized by the looney-tunes wing of the Democratic bunch pushing him over to that side.

    Outreach is the long game, winning the brushfires and assaults is a holding action. And the NRA is our only viable representative in those fights. I’d never say it in a mixed forum but the Beck/Nugent et al. stuff just drives me nuts – not that I’m unwilling to put up with it, it’s just counterproductive because it alienates that demographic between us gunners and having a solid majority of the American public on our side.

  10. I think Robert’s analysis that spot on. Beck is useless because he does nothing for our image. Even if there’s nothing wrong with OFWGs (there isn’t), and even if most of the base is OFWGs (it is, with exceptions of course), and even if gun politics can’t be predicted fairly reliably by party line (they can), it’s useful to play the image game as well as the antis. We win on substance, but most voters are morons and that can’t be enough.

  11. Stop picking on Beck hes is good. NRA is getting minority speakers like Collin from Utube on. Quit reading this antigun fascist propaganda RF!!!

    • Glenn Beck is a blowhard moron circus barker. He fried too many brain cells with booze and blow. If you think he is the standard bearer for reasonable gun owners, you sir are as big a blowhard moron. Wake up and take off the goober hat.

      This is why I refuse to give the NRA any of my money.

      • You, good sir, insult blowhard moron circus barkers.

        My dog craps stuff that is smarter than Glen Beck. Even the guys I know who would love to expel everyone from the US darker than Nicole Kidman with a tan, classify GB as bat-shiite crazy.

        While we need raw numbers, we need people who have raw IQ numbers over retarded. The smart (oh, they are) folks who run government have no problems managing the kids from the short bus. All it takes is printed money and shiny objects.

  12. Gun Rights are a Civil Rights Issue. They need to be portrayed as such. Getting the message into the inner cities via billboards, bus advertisements, etc. is key. The people that live in those communities need to get pissed and demand that their Civil Rights no longer be trampled on.

    • Harold,
      Spot on!
      Our battle will be won by education and outreach to those not in our club.
      It’s about the hearts and minds. We need to develop effective marketing promoting our cause.
      When I hear a black person promoting 2A rights I’m THRILLED. I have no problem if it’s done in a vernacular that is somewhat foreign to me (being an old white guy). It resonates with the people he’s trying to reach.

      Beck has his place but NOT in this fight. If you are trying to reach the average voter on 2A issues you can’t put forward someone who is as a highly controversial as Beck. We need spokespersons and ‘icons’ that people can relate to … and TRUST.

      That’s why the left is in bed with Hollywood… get it?

      I love this site, don’t get me wrong. It’s the first thing I go to in morning. My wife is jealous of how much time I spend here.
      But … While I read a lot of great articles on 2A rights what they mean to our society and how we are losing them, I don’t read so many that offers solutions to the gun crime people fear.
      I also read, just a few minutes ago on another post, dribble from some that maintain that armed conflict with the govt. is “inevitable and we’d better get ready.”
      Really? If I wanted to support civilian disarmament I would use those very posts to support my case. It’s stuff like that creates fear and convices the undecided that “yep, those guys are dangerous nuts”.
      I don’t know where most of you live but the probability of a home invasion or street crime in your neighborhood is probably pretty small. Not so if you live in poorer areas.
      The gun grabbers use fear of guns and crime (and “right wing wackos”) to promote their cause. We need to put our heads together on offering solutions to gun crime.
      What solutions would you put on your list?

  13. To use Becks favorite phrase “it makes blood shoot from my eyes ! ” Keynote speaker Beckster for the 3rd time is nuts.

    How about :
    Allan West
    Susana Martinez
    Bobby Jindal
    Michelle Malkin
    Michael Bane
    Ted Nugent (yeah I said the Nuge)
    Doug Giles
    Joe Pags
    Ben Shapiro
    etc. etc. etc.

    • Malkin is another no-go.

      Anyone who advocates that it’s legitimate to put American CITIZENS in prison camps just because of their ethnic heritage is an idiot at best, a self-hating pro-tyranny agitator at worst.

      Regardless of the fact that she happens to be a Filipino-American married to a Jewish dude, she’s already been labeled a sell-out nutjob by both the conservative and liberal Asian American community.

      • Your may think Malkin is a nutjob but the Asians I know love her. As for her stand on wwii internment me thinks there is a bit of payback in it for the savage monstrous inhuman demonic behavior of the Japs in the philipines. I will let her slide if she goes little overboard.

        • LOL, you must know a different group of Asians than me… because while yes, the Japanese Empire’s crimes against humanity in the Philippines are inexcusable, so is locking up innocent Americans of Japanese descent for merely being ethnically Japanese. Malkin needs to retract the repugnant ideas she put out in that shoddy mess she labes a “book.”

          The diehard Nisei of the 442nd, whose loyalty to the US endured even with their families unjustly locked up in prison camps, served with honor. Many of them are still conservative-leaning veterans today, and are disgusted by Malkin’s “defense” of the internment. There was no mass incarceration of German Americans or Italian Americans during WW2 beyond a few foreign nationals the US government deemed troublemakers. The internment of the Japanese American community was pure, malicious racism. Studies have been done to show that it actually hurt the US war effort since Japanese American farmers on the West Coast were a significant contributors to the economy and food supply. Their removal was a serious disruption.

          Being an American of Chinese descent myself, with family who had to live through an impoverished China devastated by Japanese Imperial aggression, I blame the Japanese Empire as much as anybody for its atrocities like Nanking. But I’m rational enough to understand that Japanese AMERICANS in the US had nothing to do with that and punishing them makes as much sense as punishing legit gun owners for Sandy Hook. The United States of America and its ideals are better than that.

        • It was punishing the US Japanese? No ovens, piano wire or shootings (unlike the Japanese we were fighting). It was actually rather civil. Too many Europeans to round up. But still swept North and South America for Germans 10-12K. Same in Hawaii with Japanese (almost no internment). West coast was more “manageable”. The isolation of Japanese culture worked against itself. It was about protecting our nation at the time. So for me, its good on FDR. But this is an old issue not relevant to today in my eyes. Now we don’t hurt anyone’s feelings. Hey we go out of our way to honor the same values that kill our troops. That’s progress ! I’ll leave this discussion at that.

    • Susana Martinez made a decision, in January 2010, to divert natural gas from NM to the Texas Panhandle. It resulted, for me personally, in 96 hours without heat, in the worst cold snap of the winter. For some others in northern NM, as much as 11 days.

      She would have been fine with me if she’d stayed in Texas where she belongs, but she couldn’t get elected governor of Texas, so she came to NM.

      I can’t see, read, or speak her name without spitting. She showed her loyalty was to freezing Texans, rather than to the state she was currently governor of. Peas on Susana Martinez!!

  14. The constant NRA bashing is ridiculous.

    Why do you think the leftists hate them so much? Because they’re so ineffective?

    Constantly crapping on the NRA right now is like detail stripping your gun in the middle of a firefight. It is not helping.

  15. Where’s Colion?
    Where’s Colion?
    Where’s Colion?
    Where’s Colion?
    Where’s Colion?
    Where’s Colion?
    Where’s Colion?
    Where’s Colion?
    Where’s Colion?
    Where’s Colion?

    • Who really is ‘Colion’?
      Who really is ‘Colion’?
      Who really is ‘Colion’?
      Who really is ‘Colion’?
      Who really is ‘Colion’?
      Who really is ‘Colion’?
      Who really is ‘Colion’?
      Who really is ‘Colion’?
      Who really is ‘Colion’?

      As soon as somebody really answers that question, maybe I buy in. Until then a nom de plume means precisely jack squat. Especially with no facts backing it.

  16. Yeah, lets make fun of the biggest gun rights lobby in the USA, that’ll help us keep our gun rights. Is The Truth About Guns going to join as a sponsor of NRAwatch.org? Seems like this sight does more complaining about the NRA than helping

  17. I’m a middle-age, lower middle-class, white-guy from an extremely rural area. I’m an NRA member, as is my wife. I’ve been around guns my whole life. Everyone around these parts is a gun owner. I think I am your typical NRA member/”gun guy”. Therein lies a problem. Like it or not we are a dying breed. Everytime the family saves enough money to make a road trip to Jay’s Sporting Goods or Bass Pro Shops I see people just like me. While “gun guys” are almost always friendly and a pleasure to talk to I think we need to expand the brand a little. We need independents and centrists on our side. I believe this is the category the majority of Americans fall into. They are neither liberal or conservative but somewhere in between. While I personally don’t mind Beck, I think the NRA is wrong here. The amount of people turned off by Beck and by association the NRA will far outnumber the people Beck will bring in. Just my opinion.

  18. Like them or not, the NRA is the gorillia in the room. They weild the most power for our cause, so they must be supported. Not saying don’t support other more progressive gun ownership orgainzations…just keep the big one well fed.

    Divide and conquer is the liberal tactic: if they start fragmenting the gun community and bleed the money out of the NRA it only furthers their cause.

    Liberals hate what they fear: guns…and the NRA.

    • ^This.
      I don’t always agree with the NRA, but they have the most power & influence to oppose the control-freaks. I also donate to SAF, NAGR, RMGO, FPC, and others as I can. For those who so righteously refuse to support the NRA, then do tell us who you are $upporting and show us how they pack more punch.

  19. So Beck is bad. Who else should they get that is well-known, and a dynamic speaker? Kudos to Tommy K for actually suggesting others, but, really, most of them are as divisive.

    Frankly, I cannot think of a well-known liberal who truly stands for the second amendment. Certainly no democratic national politicians exist. You want Manchin? How about Booker? Maybe a commentator? Name one liberal commentator who isn’t anti-gun.

    The sad fact is, the democratic establishment is anti. Beck will upset democrats. Yes. Maybe he isn’t the best choice, but the choice many are asking for doesn’t exist.

    Liberals have two courses.

    Give up your guns or give up the democratic party.

    Change the democratic party so it supports guns.

    Good luck.

  20. The NRA is not “right wing” or “left wing.” The NRA defends the Second Amendment, one of the very bedrock principles in the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.

    Robert, seriously, you need to rethink the idea of left wing or right wing politics. Some issues should transcend politics. The First and Second Amendment are two of those issues.

    For everyone who still identifies Right or Left, Democrat or Republican, that means you still think along party lines rather than what is best for the nation. At this point in history, we can ill afford such divisions.

    Government is out of control and both parties are complicit in creating the federal leviathan. At least the Democrats are honest in their goals, unlike the GOP, who tend to say one thing, then do another.

    While it’s nice to think politicians on one side or another have the best interests of the public at heart, in the end, their own position and power is what matters most, the public be damned.

  21. It is difficult to make inroads into the African American communities because frankly almost all of their “community leaders”, the people who get press and are listened to are a bunch of race baiting anti gun hustler preachers like JJJ and Al Sharpton.
    You have several high profile African American leaders out there who are pro gun but not enough.

    I think the real inroads by the NRA can be made with Hispanics and Women.
    Recent immigrants, especially from Mexico HAVE GOT to appreciate what it is to be disarmed. We just need more charismatic, “right” leaning politicians like Marco Rubio out there showing these people they have an alternative to the radical La-Raza types.

    Women though have got to be the easiest group of people to make inroads with. Frame the issue in an emotional manner “When the rapist is 10 seconds away, and the police are 10 minutes away will you reach for your phone, or your gun”. You don’t need a spokeswoman as much as you need a good marketing campaign.

    All that said…whats wrong with Glenn Beck? A non-religious libertarian leaning chunk of the Republican party now exists. It is only growing and frankly it is more attractive to young people than the old “fire and brimstone” conservative types. Glenn has his place too, they ALL have their place.

  22. If libertarians or pro-gun Dems turn away from supporting
    the 2A and/or NRA simply because of Glenn Beck; I doubt
    they’re people really worth compromising for. Realistically
    these individuals would have to become single issue voters.
    Otherwise, even if they are pro-gun, they will still vote
    for progressives simply because they agree in more economic
    and social areas.

    As for Beck speaking it brings to mind P.T. Barnum’s saying
    “there is no such thing as bad publicity”. Beck tends to drive
    liberals into insane rages. Is catching politicians and media
    elites on camera frothing at the mouth because Beck is
    speaking again really a bad thing?

    • A true Libertarian will never turn away from the 2nd or any other part of the Constitution. Do not lump personal freedom supporters with socialists or communists.

    • That’s not the entire issue. There are many Democrats that have contacted their legislature to ensure that their rights are being well defended and that those officials will vote according to the “will of the people” when these issues hit the floor. As far as them “not worth compromising for” I think that’s flat wrong. There are fence sitters who are watching what the NRA is doing for the people during this fight. Bringing in Colion was a great move and showed initiative in the right direction, but Glen Beck is a total sh*t move and will push those on the fringe away. We need everyone that respects the Second Amendment involved in this, and people who can’t get passed party affiliations are only hurting us. This needs to move away from the strict conservative platform stance and the NRA needs to open itself up to a new crowd so that every picture of an NRA convention doesn’t look like a night at Denny’s playing bridge.

      • There are multiple ways that are being used to
        encroach on the 2A. One area that’s skating under
        the radar is the inheritance tax. Your entire estate
        is assess and taxed. When the tax man cometh
        what will win out: the house and land or easily
        sold assets such as firearms?

        Another way is the use of Eco-police. How many
        places have tried (with some success) to ban
        lead to protect the environment? When was the
        last time you could find shells with lead shot?
        Little thing to be sure, but it adds up monetarily.

        How many pro-gun dems have voted lockstep
        to raise the estate tax or expand EPA regulations?
        They may not be directly going after the 2A
        but we’ll hardly be better off if the economy
        tanks to the point where no one can afford
        anything. To go after the fence straddlers you
        risk alienating part of your base. It’s not that
        they’ll stop supporting the 2A but it will make a
        less cohesive core. Are the undecided worth it?
        Sure, but again unless they become single issue
        voters their voting pattern still isn’t going to
        change.

  23. Perhaps some of you knowitall whiners can recruit John McCain as you leader, Howard Stern as your outreach leftist morons (and buy all your firearms, ammo, and ruffled panties at Abercrombie & Fitch). You’re sure to get Difi, Chuckie etc to see your way of thing on the 2nd. Get Hannity on board also the annoying whiner.

    Beck may get slightly over the top from time to time, but at the big show in St Loius last year his speach on the George Washington, The Constitution and American History was outstanding. Probably online somewhere. Worth watching if you can find it

  24. While it may be true that women, libtrards, and minorities need to be brought into the flock mid and long term, we also need to play a pretty mean game of short term hardball to wipe out these fed and state gun grabbing (liberty killing) laws.
    I will take a huge bite out of the soft and stupid facial cheek of a moronic, treasonous, libtard, if that is what it takes (oh, hell, I’ll just do it anyway). Too many lines have been crossed.

  25. I wont pull my NRA membership over it, but seriously? Glen “nut job” Beck!
    Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid move. Why is NRA membership never at levels that mirror the percentage of Americans that own firearms? Stupid alliances with wing nuts and crackpots, that’s why.

  26. I was once proud to be a NRA member. Glenn Beck is an embarrassment. He is a nutcase at best or a cynical manipulator at worse. Either way he is NOT a rational spokesperson for the 2nd Amendment (or anything else for that matter). I dont know what to do; leave the NRA and be able to look myself in the mirror or continue to send in my dues and hope for the best. NRA… you have really screwed the pooch when you got into bed with the likes of Beck.

  27. Because there are so many other proponents of smaller government and individual freedoms who reach record audiences, right? Because Beck is crazy for warning us against the perils of Progressivism and all of his themes tooootally contradict the beliefs of most of this site’s materials and opinions?

    Beck is anti-Establishment Republican, anti-Progressive and pro-Libertarian. Gosh, what a nut job. No readers (or bloggers) on this site would ever dare think our government would try to take away our freedoms, right?

    I suspect anyone referring to GB as a nutjob hasn’t actually formed that opinion on their own without hearing it from Chris Matthews and Rachel Maddow first, nor have they heard him speak aside from select YT clips.

    Sure there are other charismatic speakers the NRA can use to reach out to minority groups, but Beck has legions of loyal followers and will draw huge crowds. Period. Do you want to turn them away, tell them their dollars and votes don’t help the cause because they happen to agree with a lot of what Beck has to say? Your criticisms of Beck sound an awful lot like the other broken-record elitists in the Northeast.

    I agree that demographics are indeed changing and we need to bring new groups into our ranks, but sentiments like those expressed above only perpetuate the feeling among many white males in this country that our votes don’t matter, our disposable incomes don’t matter, and our political views don’t matter. Advertisers, political campaigners and the evening news have all made it very clear that it’s not trendy to be a conservative white male. Let’s try to keep the gun industry from going that way too. After all, as you mentioned earlier, we ARE the gun industry.

    • Well put once again Shenandoah.

      You take the Fat Rich Old White Guys out of the Gun Equation and you can kiss your guns goodbye. They’ll have you running your “situational awareness” with a bow and arrow – rubber tipped of course. Then again, I guess we can always go to the other 5 million member Pro-Gun organization. I forget the name….

      You think you can defeat the grabbers by sending E-Mails to each other on a (otherwise excellent) web site I got a lovely bridge across the East River to sell you.

  28. Aww, come on, really? We’re getting our knickers in a knot over Glenn Beck speaking at an NRA event? This is like bitching about how someone arranged the deck chairs on the Titanic. If G.B. speaking at an NRA event is seriously going to affect the viability of the 2A in the post-Sandy Hook USofA, then we’re screwed already. Best to get it over with.

    This whole idea of “its the messaging, and not the message” is a load of crap. If someone can’t grock the greatness of liberty and living free, no amount of suave, charming enticement, or careful demographically-sensitive packaging is going to matter.

    What the hell is going on around here?!

  29. Robert Farago thank you for making notable and important points about the how the NRA must reach beyond its core constituancy to educate and influence the thinking of those who are uninformed about the legitimacy of the 2A and the character of mainstream lawful gun owners.

    Conservatives are notoriously deficient about lobbying and persuading the masses almost inversely to the extent that liberals are successful at it.

  30. Emily Miller? Allen West? I’d even take Ted Nugent at this point. I’m a 30-something new gun owner and I cannot stand Beck. I listen to Rush and Levin, but I do not see the benefit of appealing to the OFWG segment. Look, shooting and firearms owners are a changing demographic. Get the new CCW owner on board, the woman who boug her first gun because she works late, the young non-white couple that bought their first pump action… Those people have to be convinced of the NRA’s value. And dragging Beck out for a third time won’t do it.

  31. Glenn Beck is the last person I’d want as a gun rights spokesperson. He’s crazy as a loon! Let’s do better NRA. Get Robert Farago as a speaker. At least nobody thinks he’s nuts (yet) and he appreciates beautiful women.

  32. Dead on man.Well, except for one thing. Gun rights do transcend party politics. I live in a state that is dominated by the far left and has no gun laws. It’s that way because it’s rural but is one of the few rural areas with more liberals.

    The problem is that firearms get removed from daily life in urban and suburban areas and they make less sense to people while at the same time there are more people compressed together so there is more violence. So people come to the erroneous conclusion that getting rid of guns will solve the problem. And here is the worst irony. The NRA was started exactly to reach the urban folks who lost track of the skill. But they ended up turning into the National Redneck Association. Now, nobody but the converted takes them seriously.

    Most of the people here will have a hard time with this and just won’t get it. But it’s true. Guys like Wayne LaPierre and Glenn Beck are the worst threat to gun rights because they appeal only to the narrow base who is already convinced. Outside of that everyone thinks they are lunatics. Unfortunately that narrow base trends old while the everyone else trends young.

  33. Glad I only signed up for that single year NRA membership. Can’t imagine throwing money their way again. Who is the public relations representative for the NRA anyway?

  34. The comments of this thread has solidified my greatest fears. The freedom of this generation are lost. Enemies and allies are obfuscated. Clear and present dangers are thrown aside.

    Our solution to our lost liberties does not lie in political correctness. Political correctness was constructed of same ideology that is destroying our foundations.

    You’ve all seen the movie “I am Legend”. Good flick. Have you read the book? Sadly its the only movie based from a book that is actually better than said book.

    Spoiler alert!

    In the book the protagonist doctor is the bad guy committing crimes against humanity. Humanity changed and left him behind. He wasn’t a hero he didn’t win the day. Maybe he just got in the way of progress.

    For months I have looked to this forum as light in the dark to the insanity that surrounds us. Some sign that at least 2% of the population understand the dark from light.

    Clearly there is a minority of like minded citizens remaining. I am legend.

    Hey RF blue pill or red pill bro? Your FOF tags are all jacked up.

  35. The problem with the right is they let the left define them. Republicans nominated a centrist saint and then let the left paint him up as an evil robber baron in magic underwear. Conservatives think Glenn Beck is a nut case because the left told them so, not because they watched his TV show, listened to his radio show or read his books. IMO he tended to wade too deep into the rhubarb on his TV show, but his radio show is a riot. Most people who read TTAG would agree with him 90%+ of the time if they were paying attention.

  36. It is very easy to spot the commenters on here that have never heard or actually seen anything Glen Beck has done. They are the ones spewing the senseless, uninformed, vitriolic hatred. It is this same brain-dead mentality that is largely responsible for the condition of this country. People too lazy to actually put the time in, listen and form their own opinions are swayed by the politically correct liberal media they claim to abhor, thereby playing directly into the hands of those who would love to do away with America as it was formed. This is a slam dunk win for the progressives. I have come to the conclusion that all who are not willing to put the time in, seeking the truth truly deserve the Amerika we are rapidly becoming. Congrats. At least you can bask in the self righteous, warm fuzzy feeling you get for believing the liberal lies and agreeing with them. Ignorance is winning.

  37. You are wrong in an important point: loving guns does NOT divide along party lines. In other words, no matter what MR Reid says, there are plenty of democrats who like to shoot. I, for example, am one… And it turns me off when I see NRA going so blindly after morons that have as their main title only to be “democrat-bashers”.

    I really think that until the gun movement understands this, it will only get worse…

  38. Glenn Beck is such a troll. He trolls RF so hard in his interview and RF is so oblivious its hilarious.

    Glenn Beck has spoken at NRA convention I believe every time for several years and including multiple keynote speeches. His 2008 one had this fantastic part:

  39. These gun grabbers I really believe are trying to push us to the point that some idiot is going to loose their cool, do something stupid, and give them a “reason” to ban guns. These debates and attacks from the gun grabbers seem never ending. Im glad I reside in the pro2A state of Georgia, but I fear the worst for some. But we remain focused on these small things(which is what they want) and don’t see that we are going the way of Rome, our great nation is at complete divides, while our corrupt leaders fill their pockets before it all crumbles. War is in our near future I fear and it will either reunite this country, or be the final straw….

  40. Ok I tried to look it up on urbandictionary.com what is OFWG?

    What about Collin Noir? Fresh, articulate.

    And NASCAR, did we forget that for the longest time they were sponsored by cigarettes, which kill many many more people than guns ever came close to, and yet didn’t save anyone either. Whats next, ban GoDaddy, because some people find their commercials offensive (for the record I love their commercials) or McDonalds because their food is unhealthy?

  41. The NRA is evolving… But not fast enough, given Beck’s headliner position. There are a lot of pissed off gun owners of all political parties. The NRA has a golden opportunity to unite them into one solid force… But only if they field speakers who appeal to gun owners who are looking for leadership in this troubled time.

  42. This post is only useful for showing who the reds and the blues are on this blog.

    Understand this: The NRA is the only game in town as far as 2A advocacy is concerned. Everyone else is very small potatoes indeed. The Second Amendment would have been eviscerated decades ago if not for the work of the NRA and their members. This is not open to any rational debate.

    Any one who says that people like Glenn Beck, Charleton Heston, Sarah Palin, and Ted Nugent are a bigger threat to the 2A than Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer are liars, trolls and idiots. It doesn’t matter if those spokespeople don’t play well in Chevy Chase or Scarsdale, OK? That’s not what they’re there for.

    Get it through your elitist liberal heads, the NRA is the Second Amendment in this country, and if you can’t understand that then go away and take up croquet instead.

  43. Beck is no friend of the 2A or our rights to keep and bear arms. He is an entertainer out to line his own pockets. NRA fail on this one.

    • Spoken by someone who clearly has no clue who Glenn is. Just because he is not a gun god, doesn’t mean he doesn’t believe in the constitution of the United States. The reason you can shoot your mouth off about others is because of the first amendment… which was secured by the second amendment. If you loose the second.. you loose the rest. So continue being ignorant, but those who do their homework aren’t listening to you. And do you know what it costs to run a news and radio organization? I’m sure he is making a nice living.. I hope he is. It’s called capitalism. In his case.. he actually believes in what he says.

  44. “the NRA has to reach out beyond it’s OFWG base to survive”

    wrote the commander in chief of this particular narrowly defined echo chamber

  45. The NRA could do worse than Beck. And they could do better. In the meantime, I’ll cut them some slack. They’re the only game in town right now, and they’ve made huge progress with one large voting group-women.

    Now if they could just get past the self-appointed, self-anointed fake representatives of minorities, they’d be 99 percent of the way to long term victory.

  46. I think the left has convinced a lot of you guys of their message to hate him. Sure he’s not a “gun guy” in terms of knowing a lot about guns, but he’s on the right side in terms of the issue. Be careful of that OFWG stuff. If you start trying to only allow people like Colion Noir (whom I love, btw) to speak, then it’s a different flavor of racism. The only way to defeat racism is to treat people as individuals, not as collectives. So let’s let all different sorts of individuals speak and advocate for the cause of gun rights, without trying to propel some and hold back others based on skin color or age or sex.

    • Absolutely right. Talk about a case of many here willing to eat someone who is on the same side.

      One thing Beck gets absolutely right, is that the major problem is the “progressive” takeover of the MSM (over decades). The fact that so many here have fallen for the MSM characterization of Beck is very telling.

      Beck has been correct about a great many things. He is absolutely a pioneer in developing new media that is not part of the MSM.

      TTAG is part of the new media.

      The MSM has to die for the Republic to live. The big question, with the MSM losing market share and income, is: will they die fast enough to save the Republic?

  47. How many of you people that are slamming Beck, even bothered to show up at the last NRA convention in St. Louis last year? I am not really a Glenn Beck Fan, I can take him or leave him, however, kudos to him for actually coming out and speaking at the NRA convention. Beck is a shooter and therefore is one of us. So, why not attack the people who are trying to take your rights and guns away and stop with the infighting.

    As a firearms trainer and an activist, I try to reach out to liberal gun owners as well. I will take them shooting if they are not a gun owner and will train the ones that are. But when it comes down to it, while true 2nd amendment supporters will vote for guns every time, these people vote for taxing, spending and social justice and never for guns. The revolver by the bedside table they are cool with. They don’t get our “need” for an AR 15.

    With that said, the left generally HATE us, because we in the gun culture, don’t bow at the alter of big government. We tend to be self reliant and self sufficient. Directly in opposition to their socialist utopia they want. Which includes banning all guns to make us more civilized, in their warped minds. So, I hate them right back for the most part.

  48. I have seen Glenn Beck speak three times.
    I have NEVER seen a more dynamic speaker or one that I feel Gods spirit at more.
    I am not a church goer but this man IS surrounded by God’s spirit and you feel it right away.
    I am a member of the NRA but don’t own a gun.
    You would do well to pay attention to Mr. Beck because he is doing God’s will.

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