Hey every one. I have been looking around at the 2A groups on the national and state level a realize there are quite a few. I was just curious, and wanted other thoughts, would we as a community be better served with fewer groups, but those groups being bigger.
Example- National Association of Gun Rights, 2nd amendment foundation, and Gun Owners of America merging to form one organization.
Or like in my state, Georgia Carry and Georgia gun owners merging into one organization.
Yes… and no. I think size of the voting block you can muster matters a lot, and the orgs have different focuses on what they attend to… state or federal. Diversity is good if you can get everyone moving on the same issues at the same time.
I think having a uniform position on things like red flag and background checks would be a very helpful thing.
And with all of our efforts centered within a single organization the likelihood of that organization being torn part from from within I think goes up exponentially.
There’s never been a single, more powerful and effective gun rights organization than the NRA and look what the infighting is doing to it.
I think “affiliation” is better than combining into one group. Right now the only Pro-2nd Amendment groups that can get President Trump on the phone is the NRA. There are a lot of smaller groups that are doing good work and likely are going to be the reason the NRA cleans up some of its current mess… they just don’t have the clout that the NRA does.
The only problems the NRA really has are purely internal, they are still getting the job done for us on every front. I gave up on them for a few years back in the 90’s over some incidents of LaPierre running off at the mouth and the endless spamming with junk mail but I realized that warts and all they are still our best hope for the future.
Sometimes bigger isn’t better, especially when combating a opponent who doesn’t act from logic, reason, or rationality. Hit a big opponent in just the right way and you can paralyze them, even if briefly. Cooperation and coordination are key to leveraging the effectiveness of many small opponents against a large one.
I know I’d rather fight one big dog rather than ten little ones.
The NRA needs to get their house in order quick and then move ahead working in common cause with other pro 2A groups.
I agree they have some internal issues to address. I have never gotten to the point that I gave up on them, I would like to see more info on the accounting however. For example the Salvation Army puts 82 cents of every dollar towards programs. The NRA making that kind of info available publicly would go a long ways towards quieting stories of abuse and keep people spending the money honest.
They haven’t let up on any of their main missions, if anything they have cut back on some of the side jobs so to speak like NRA TV which I think was another bad decision on LaPierr’s part.
I will add from a legal perspective when cases go to court and are making their way up through the appellate process, groups, like the NRA and GOA will petition to submit an amicus (friend of the court) brief. Court’s limit the number but having multiple organizations submitting the briefs can be helpful. If everything is rolled in to one group, you lose that.