What is it with the NRA?

[InigoMontoya]

Ah. OK... I had a vision it was like Aviation Week (for which I am subscribed). Their electronic version is accompanied by a weekly email (in case I forgot I subscribe, I guess). Not a big deal in either case. I guess I've just had it up to >here< with junk mail (both hard and electronic) and don't want these organizations buggin' me.

 

[Mr Lucky]

I see in the thread that what I really should have been donating to is the NRA-ILA.... Fair enough. Is there any way to do that without the "other" NRA ever hearing my name again? Call me crazy, but I think THAT level of junk mail should be "opt in," not "opt out."

The NRA-ILA is a separate membership with a different membership card. Yes, you can contribute to NRA-ILA and receive their informative Internet news letters. No, you do not have to be an NRA member to be an NRA-ILA member or activist. I have attached a link for a member contribution and a current NRA-ILA alert that you can sign up for.

https://secure.nraila.org/Contribute.aspx

http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Federal/Read.aspx?id=6084

 

[Mr Lucky]

Ah. OK... I had a vision it was like Aviation Week (for which I am subscribed). Their electronic version is accompanied by a weekly email (in case I forgot I subscribe, I guess). Not a big deal in either case. I guess I've just had it up to >here< with junk mail (both hard and electronic) and don't want these organizations buggin' me.

Easy to fix. Just set up a folder and a rule to dump anything from NRA into that folder. If and when you want to read the emails, you can read them from that folder instead of having them mixed with other email.

 

[ADB]

Maybe if they cut back on their bulk mail bill they'd have plenty of money to fight the good fight?

This makes me think of Capital One, the credit card people. I applied once a couple years ago, and they turned me down. Now barely a week goes by without them sending me some kind of junk mail asking for me to sign up. I just keep tossing it in the recycle bin.

 

[Mike Irwin]

Operating capital is the lifeblood of any organization. Organizations that are as active as NRA require a steady infusion of that lifeblood, or they won't be able to undertake the lobbying efforts that they do.

Please tell me you're not just going to join the organization, get your magazines, and call it even?


"Maybe if they cut back on their bulk mail bill they'd have plenty of money to fight the good fight?"

To the uninitiated, it might seem as if all of those mailings are a huge waste of NRA money.

Puzzle yourself this for a moment...

Do you actually think that NRA, or any other organization, would actually go to the expense of producing mailings and sending them out if they weren't effective at bringing in FAR more money than they cost?

Do you think NRA or any other organization is going to gladly **** away its money like that?

I worked in direct mail for a number of years, and I worked on a number of direct mailings for NRA when I was employed there.

It's amazing:

1. Just how cheap direct mail solicitations are.

2. Just how few people have to respond in order for the mailing to pay for itself (note that concept, direct mail is designed so that a solicitation pays for itself).

3. How damned successful direct mail can be and how much money it can bring it.


The simple fact is, if NRA cut back on its direct mail solicitations, it would also be cutting back on its income from people who care about their gun rights.

 

[alloy]

The NRA seems to get a bad rap around here occasionally, but sometimes I wonder if there would even be an around here without the NRA.

 

[dgludwig]

Of this I'm certain: if there was no National Rifle Association, America would be like every other country in the world concerning its citizens' right to keep and bear arms, the Second Amendment not withstanding. After a couple of decades maintaining my yearly membership dues, sometime in the early seventies I saw my way clear to become a life member (albeit, requiring four quarterly $25.00 payments toward the $100.00 fee). Over the many years, I've had my disagreements with the NRA from time to time and, furthermore, nobody I know has ever claimed the organization is any more perfect than other ones of its type. When it comes to our gun rights, the NRA out of political necessity often finds itself walking the delicate line between being too radical in some members' minds and not being extreme enough in other members' opinions.

Personally, I get a little weary of helping to carry the water with other concerned gun owners, putting out fires set by anti-gun politicians, while a contingent of non-NRA gun owners prefer sitting on the sidelines, airing their many grievances and voicing their imagined slights as supposedly inflicted by the NRA. Do you get too much "junk" mail from the NRA? Throw it in the trash can like you do all the other junk mail you get-but, strangely, doesn't appear to cause nearly as much angst to some as the NRA mailings do. And as you're pitching the solicitations for funds necessary to pay for the costs of the never-ending battle to fight more encroachments against your gun ownership rights in the trash, keep in mind that every organization waging a war for a cause, be it a good cause or a bad one (where do you think PETA, ACORN or, for that matter, AARP get their monies?) depend on their membership for financial resources.

You don't like the direction the NRA is taking? Get involved and express your opinion. Like most other organizations, the NRA is an evolving entity and you won't have a hand in the changes if you aren't at the table.

You're not getting your magazine or have some other problem with your membership? Do like you would with any other organization that you belong to that is failing to deliver promised services and contact them. JohnKSa provided a link earlier in this thread that addresses member services.

I would implore all gun owners to join the NRA. Think what kind of political clout we as Second Amendment adherents could have if every right to keep and bear arms believer enlisted! And for those who, for their own reasons, choose not to engage in the cause, at least have the common courtesy to refrain from taking potshots at those of us who are committed to furthering the cause of liberty as evidenced by our NRA memberships. We're doing the best we can.

 

[sixgun67]

I too am a life member, and enjoy the magazine. Yes, I'm flooded with mailings and emails from the NRA, but I don't mind. I donate any time that I can afford it, and other times, I simply deep six the mail. No big deal for me, but boy, do I get irritated by some ideas that the NRA 'isn't doing enough' or 'all they want is money'. Of course they want money. Nothing gets done without dollars. Their organization is constantly poised to strike on whatever issues involving 2nd Amendment violations happen to come down the pike. I've learned one thing in my life and that is----I may not always agree with the turnout, but I'm sure that it is for the greater good that I may not be aware of at the moment. And, I will always stand to be counted, which only then, will I have the right to gripe.
sixgun

 

[natman]

Ugh.

Just a rant, but I suspect I wont' be renewing. With that said, does anybody have a similarly minded but less annoying organization that could use my money without pestering me 3X a week?

From the NRA Member Services FAQ:

Q: How can I reduce the amount of mail I receive from the NRA?
A: Simply email us at membership@nrahq.org or dial 800-NRA-3888 and request to be placed on the "Do Not Promote" list. This will significantly reduce the amount of mail you receive without affecting important mailings, magazine service, or your membership renewal.

Now that's not so hard, is it?

 

[Mike Irwin]

"Of course they want money. Nothing gets done without dollars."

Yep, and people seem to resent the fact that in order to get those dollars, NRA has to resort to annoying them with direct mail solicitations for money and cobranding on a variety of products and services.

To me that's incredibly short sighted, not to mention petty and trivial.

To the people whining about "how much NRA is waiting in mailings..."

What's NRA supposed to do for the money that goes to protect your rights? Print it in the basement? Start robbing gas stations?

These same complaints have been coming up as long as I've been on this board (April 2000), and before that they were coming up on the old Compuserve Firearms Forum.

It frustrates and infuriates me the number of people who think that NRA is somehow throwing away thousands or millions of dollars by running these direct mail campaigns.

It frustrates me even more that the people who are complaining about that supposed waste assume that every other NRA member in the country who gets one of those solicitations ****cans it.

What's REALLY happening is that a relatively small number of very dedicated NRA members are carrying all of these short sighted individuals on the backs of their donations.

Yet who screams the absolute loudest when NRA fails to live up to some expected goal?

In my experience, it's generally the people who either give the least, or don't give a damned thing at all.

I've REALLY got to ask everyone who cries about the number of solicitations that NRA sends them...

Are they so numerous that they've crushed your mail box?

Are they so heavy that you got a hernia carrying them into the house?

Are they so large that you're incapable of simply chucking them into the garbage if you can't be bothered to give some money to protect your rights?

Is it REALLY a case that you're mad about how many solicitations you're getting from NRA?

Or is it a case that you feel guilty about letting others carry your load for you, and that deep down you recognize just how much you owe these individuals?

 

[TMackey]

Thank you natman.

Spam is spam no matter who it comes from.

 

[Archie]

To echo some of the others...

Yeah, the mailings are a bother. I opted out.

I send money from time to time and support the NRA ILA.

However, I also belong to the CCRKBA, the Second Amendment Foundation, Gun Owners of America and one or two others. I send them all money as I feel the need.

By the way, I'm also a Republican and get solicitations for money from them all the time. Life is like that. Until the Leftists, Socialists and Total Statists get tired and go away - fat chance! - it will continue to be part of life in this Greatest Nation on God's Green Earth.

Which is not to say I like it all the time.

 

[DT Guy]

If you don't want the NRA constantly asking for money, then give it to them without making them ask.

Problem solved-assuming you realize, as many do, that without the NRA we'd all be shooting airsoft.

But it's amazing how many people quit in righteous indignation rather than do that. It's like my grandpa said, 'be suspicious when a man's moral stance make things easier or cheaper for him.'


Larry

 

[rock185]

Well my friends, I get frustrated with the NRA myself. Just got another mailing yesterday. I don't always agree with every position they take or like everyone on the board. But I believe you can tell who has been most effective in preserving gun rights by looking at who the Liberals/Progressives/Socialists/Communists/Liberal Media attack constantly. I've been a member for many, many years and finally decided to get a life membership a couple years ago. Should have done it earlier.

I also belive, that if it were not for our NRA, no matter how imperfect, we would likely be discussing the guns we used to own before the Federal gun ban, turn in, etc. Or, perhaps waxing ecstatic over the ONE single shot .22 pistol with the "short" 14" barrel some Forum member is allowed to posesses after going through 11 months of permit process or some such.

I was in LE for most of my adult life since 1973, retiring in July of this year. Around 1975, fellow officers began an employee organization/union. They worked hard, trying to improve officer's pay,benefits,training,working conditions, etc. Some officers didn't like some person involved in the organization, or the position the union took on a particular issue, so they never joined, or resigned, saving having to pay dues. Of course those that resigned, or never joined, did so on high principle, to hear them tell it, not due to having to pay a relatively few bucks in dues. And, of course, they GLADLY accepted all the pay raises, benefits, improved working conditions, etc. negotiated by our organization. There may be some parallels here...

 

[InigoMontoya]

If it was about the money, folks, I wouldn't have joined in the first place. Nobody made me join. Nobody even asked me to join. I just did it. If I had any objection to the small fee, why would I have joined in the first place? The answer is simple: I wouldn't have.

I don't object to the dollars, but I object to constant spam in any form. Now, folks here have pointed out that it can be stopped with a call to them. Cool. Not optimal (I believe in "opt in" not "opt out"), but reasonable and I will take them up on it.

Oddly enough, it dawns on me that the past several years I've given to the USO. Oddly enough, they don't spam me incessantly. Oddly enough, I don't have a single bad word to say about that organization. Oddly enough, I happily give despite the fact that I will personally never see any benefit from that money.

 

[Mike Irwin]

Damn, dude!

You consider the mechanism necessary for the funding the fight for YOUR rights to be SPAM?

What the hell is up with that?

You think the mystical funding fairy flies through the NRA headquarters dropping bushel baskets of money to fund the organization's political activities?

You think any of us would have any Second Amendment rights whatsoever if NRA waited around for people with that attitude to throw a few bucks NRA's way if it isn't too much hassle?

I'm going to make a very pointed observation - with an attitude like that, GOA may be the group for you.

Their entire business model seems to be one of soliciting money from members and bitching about NRA. You'll still have to deal with the soliciting part, but you have the second half down pretty damned good.

Fortunately, there are enough individuals who are concerned enough about everyone's Second Amendment rights that they don't get lost in the trivial details and petty complaints.

 

[Hog Red]

if you are not an NRA member, thank the one's you know, it's probably the only reason you are still allowed to own a firearm. i'm a proud supporter and yes i dont understand why my membership needs renewing 6 months before the expiration date but so what. I just ignore them until it's due.

 

[Tom Servo]

You think any of us would have any Second Amendment rights whatsoever if NRA waited around for people with that attitude to throw a few bucks NRA's way if it isn't too much hassle?

Sadly, a great many people think just that.

What's interesting is how many people I've heard griping about the NRA have never contributed one iota of money, energy, or time to it or any other 2nd Amendment work.

After the confusion over the DISCLOSE act, one guy held forth vehemently to me about how he was never going to give another dime to the Hillary/Schumer/ZOG supporting NRA. It was this guy's mission in life (at least for that afternoon) to make sure nobody else did, either.

I had to ask him three times before I got an answer, but it turns out that he'd been a member for only two years (this guy is in his late 30's), and that he was coasting on a free promotional membership for both those years. Frankly, all we lose by his leaving is a great deal of noisy baggage.

 

[Shane Tuttle]

OK, I think the major points have been covered. I'm going to wrap this one up while we can.

Closed.