Gun owners, does the NRA speak for you?

By and large yes. But not too well.

The fight that the media likes to put on the shoulders of the NRA, their favorite target, is really between a handful of media and political opportunists and the Bill of Rights. But public support would be even less for the Obama/Feinstein agenda if it were reported that way. The NRA makes a good focus for a bad cause.

Gun sales have naught to do with it, don't swallow all the propaganda. Don't swallow the "data" either, look at actual sources. FBI stats. are out for 2011, FDA stats., WHO, CDC etc. pay close attention to what is reported by some and not at all by others. For an example not involving the Bill of Rights, the FDA say that at a minimum, 100,000 deaths each year are caused by improper medication. The BMA says the leading cause of wrongful death in GB and in the US is doctors, accidental, suicide and murder. Doctors are the number one cause of wrongful death by at least four orders of magnitude. According to the CDC, none of that exists.

The CDC also neglects to point out that many automobile fatalities are not accidents. In my small county we have had 5 assaults by automobile (that the sheriff will admit) in the last six months. 3 of them resulted in fatalities. CDC classes them all as "unintentional".

I'm a gun owning democrat who thinks that the NRA are tools of the republican party and the gun industry. You can see what their response/solution to Sandy Hook was--sell guns to the government and make no restrictions on the public. Their "ratings" are often crap as well--if they don't give someone an "A" or an "F" (and sometimes even when they do) then you don't really know which candidate is more pro-gun freedom than the other.

While a lot of these special interest groups like the NRA and ACLU go too far for their cause and feel that their version of "freedom" is more important than anything else in the country, I still have to appreciate their existence and effort. It is good to have watchdogs out there to protect American freedom, even if they are sometimes blind to everything other than their favorite constitutional amendment. Groups like that ensure that things like the right to free speech and the right to bear arms are not ignored. It's too bad that they ended up so partisan--I would have more respect for the ACLU if they fought for conservatives' rights to free speech more often. And I would have a lot more respect for the NRA if they would have added to the dialogue about gun control before they let Feinstein, etc. have the podium for days--just so that they could collect more soundbytes of liberal politicians to help sell more guns. I imagine Obama would have gotten fewer letters from five year olds asking him to ban machine guns. They could have added to the discussion--even if it was simply by giving uninformed loudmouths some facts about the weapons they are going on about.

I've got to disagree with Pennybags a bit here too (that was someone else's TD though). Some people join the NRA for reasons that have nothing to do with their political action. A lot of people join AAA to get towing service, not because they think that red light cameras keep us all safe. A lot of people join NRA to get use of a range or firearms training, despite and not because of their donations to republicans.

The NRA and the anti-gun coalitions are both lobbyists with their own particular set goals; what I find illuminating is how here one is deemed "evil" and the other "altruistic" when all both do is seek to fulfill them. Whose money flows into the accounts of the anti-gun lobby and why would that money be anymore less or more "evil" than NRA's "corporate partners"? I cannot not state that the NRA has done a "good job" to represented my interests since there is so much ignorance, at the least, and intentional disinformation, at the extreme, in the MSM regarding weapons (what exactly is an "assault weapon" or a "military-style weapon" anyways but one "looks mean"?). To me the NRA is like the AARP and since I belong to AMAC and not them, so too do I belong to Gun Owners of America.

Me personally no. But that does not mean that I don't agree with a lot of or even most of their positions. They are just a little to wishy washy and too willing to compromise for my taste.

The NRA represents its members. Gun manufactures donate money to the NRA because the interest of the NRA's members happens to be good for their business. But they have their own lobby and the NRA isn't it. Just like every other industry.

You bet your a$$ they do. You are right about only about 4.4% of gun owners are NRA members, and that sucks big time. Me and the other 3,999,999 NRA members are tried of protection these people firearms that does nothing to help and only complain.

To educate you and other liberals, the NRA is not "Corporate Partners" of the firearm industry. The National Rifle Association is America's oldest civil rights and sportsman's group in America, and continues to uphold the Second Amendment and advocates enforcement of existing laws against violent offenders to reduce crime. The NRA remains the nation's leader in firearm education and training for law-abiding gun owners, law enforcement, and the armed services.

Throughout its history, the National Rifle Association has led efforts to promote safety and responsible gun ownership.

Keeping our children and society safe remains the NRA's top priority. The NRA will continue to focus on keeping our children safe and prosecuting violent criminals to the fullest extent of the law.

True the NRA does lobbying Congress and support candidates that believe in our Constitution Democrats and Republicans alike, do you know of a better way to keep our Constitution as our fore father meant it to be?

Of course the NRA has done a good job of representing the American peoples interests, had it not been for the NRA the liberal gun control bigots would have had firearms banned many years ago, and then the US would have been a crime infested country like the UK.

I am the NRA and no I do not own stock in any firearm industry, I am just a patriotic citizens that believe they live in the greatest country in the world and don't want to see it changed.

You think getting 4.4% of any group to fork over $35 a year in membership dues isn't a big deal? Although they picked up another 250K members over the last month with a $25 a year special!

How many so-called environmentalists are dues paying members of the Sierra Club? Probably less than 0.1%. How many feminists are dues paying members of NOW? Probably even less.

And there is no reason that the NRA's advocacy for gun rights doesn't work well for it's members and gun manufacturers.

Does the NRA speak for me? You're damn right it does!

i do no longer understand what Pres Obama reported early interior the interest regardless of the incontrovertible fact that it set NRA off and that they began preaching to the Choir. All gun proprietors suspect that Pres Obama and the United countries are coming for his or her weapons. something approximately Pres Obama giving United countries some authority of weapons in some difficulty interior the international coverage. besides, I continually reassure them they have 3 hundred,000,000 weapons and a million/2 of them are semi computerized. no person needs to clutter with them and that variety of weaponry. Even the million guy china military might have an argument with 3 hundred,000,000 weapons pointing on the them.

The Constitution speaks for me, and Obama is attacking it at a basic level, trying to make an end run around the proper way to change it. That is an impeachable offense. But were he impeached by the house, the Senate would not convict him. They have already said they would not no matter what the evidence presented was. And that is a good reason not to return any incumbents to the Senate in the off-year election.

Not all the time. Gun Owners of America is a better organization but they don't have the same influence as the NRA.

Yes

Making something against the law will not always prevent it's use

Drugs and drunk driving have been against the law for years and that does not help.

Having a gun will not help all the time but being defenseless will never help..

Isn't it better to have a gun and not need it than to need it and not have it!!

A gun is like a parachute. If you need one, and don't have one, you'll probably never need one again."