PA Bill Number: HB335

Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.

Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...

Last Action: Removed from table

Last Action Date: May 1, 2024

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Informed choices problematic for 2015 NRA Director election :: 01/27/2015

The ballot for voting members of the National Rifle Association is included in the February issue of the member magazine, along with Nominating Committee recommendations and biographies of all of the candidates. Members (Life or higher, or annual members in good standing for five years) have until March 22 to have their ballots filled out, mailed and received, and can select up to 25 candidates out of 35 presented this cycle (adding write-in candidates if appropriate).

As always happens in these elections, various groups and individuals are making recommendations that may or may not coincide with Nominating Committee selections, and once again, several readers have written and asked who I’m endorsing. Right now, no one, and unless I get some information beyond the sketchy bios provided for each candidate, I’m likely to be part of the vast majority of eligible members who sits things out, not because I don’t care, but because no one will have earned my vote.

And how would they do that?

Years ago, I came up with an NRA Director’s questionnaire, to evaluate candidates by requiring unequivocal answers on where they stand on the Second Amendment and on NRA management policies. I encouraged members to either use it as is, or to template off it, or to create a unique criteria set of their own. The questions I would require unequivocal answers for are pretty much the same ones asked of politicians, with additional specifics added to assess independence from bureaucratic pressure and political compromising.

1. Do you believe that the Constitution is the "supreme Law of the Land" and that the Bill of Rights acknowledges a birthright of all Americans?

2. If so, should these rights be proactively protected from infringement by all levels of government, including city, county and state?

3. Please give some examples of gun laws you consider constitutional.

4. Please give some examples of gun laws you consider unconstitutional.

5. Does the right to bear arms include the right for any peaceable citizen to carry them concealed without a permit?

6. Do you believe that Americans have a right to own, use and carry weapons of militia utility?

7. Do you support or oppose using "Project Exile"-type programs, and do you agree with current NRA management’s call to “enforce existing gun laws”?

8. Do you support or oppose licensing requirements to own or carry firearms? Why?

9. What specific gun laws will you work to get repealed?

10. If elected to the NRA Board, will you back your words of support for firearms rights up with consistent actions? How?

11. Do you agree with the way NRA assigns political ratings? If not, what would you change and why? Who would you have given a different rating to, what would it been and why?

12. Do you disagree with any policies being promulgated by NRA management? What is your biggest area of dissent? Have you offered superior alternatives and worked with others to implement them?

13. Have you ever publicly spoken out against an NRA management position because you thought it was wrong? When, where, and what were the results?

14. What reforms do you think are needed at NRA and why?

15. If elected, how will you inform members of your performance and voting record? Will you let us know when you dissent and why?

16. Will you have an "open door" policy letting NRA members know how to contact you with their concerns?

17. Would you consider engaging in and recommending civil disobedience over a gun law? If "Yes," give some examples of what your line in the sand would be.

To these I would add one more:

18. Noting all credible polls show that a “pathway to citizenship” for illegal aliens will result in millions of Democrat voters who are also anti-gun, legislative and judicial redress for gun owners will become politically unattainable. Should support for “amnesty” therefore be counted as an anti-gun action directly affecting the “single issue” right to keep and bear arms, resulting in a lower grade for politicians and loss of endorsement eligibility from NRA? If “yes,” what will you do to mandate a change in scoring criteria? If “no,” explain why, and on what basis you have determined such support should not be considered “anti-gun.”

Some of the questions may upset Fairfax “loyalists,” but ignoring them will not address deep divisions in gun owner ranks. These at least provide a means to articulate some of the differences and seek to foster a discussion on how the gulf might be bridged -- if it can be.

The problem, of course, is finding all of the directors, and then getting them to answer specific questions. NRA makes it difficult to even identify, let alone interact with its directors online. See for yourself by visiting the NRA website and seeing how long it takes you to locate any useful information about directors and the election, and then ask yourself if that is an oversight or intentional.

Another needed reform would be to post the Association Bylaws online, so that members can hold directors and paid staff accountable for adherence to them, the same way politicians are supposed to be held accountable for fidelity to the Constitution.

Will any of this happen? Of course not, meaning the election will proceed as expected, and the only answer I’ll have for readers asking me who I recommend voting for will be to give them a link to this article, replying “You tell me,” and asking if they have a better way to figure out who deserves our support.