![]() According to data analyses published by "Sebastian," an independent pro-NRA blogger who has covered its elections for years, the proportion of eligible voters who cast a valid ballot hovers around 6 or 7 percent. While only some NRA dues-paying members are eligible to vote, an even smaller segment of that contingent actually does so. Otherwise, as Jeff Knox puts it on his Firearms Coalition blog: “.since most members get virtually all of their information about candidates only from NRA magazines, and those magazines are controlled by people whose livelihoods depend on keeping the good-old-boy’s-club rolling, the election results are pretty easy to predict.” ![]() (In 2017, 32 of the 35 names on the ballot were Committee picks.) Successful petition candidates, whose ranks include former congressman Allen West, tend to be celebrity types whose name recognition affords them a baseline level of grassroots support. Most of those who make the ballot do so with the Committee’s blessing. In 2018, the magic number of signatures required to become a “petition candidate” is 653. (Again, to some of the people.) To account for growth over time, a recent bylaw amendment abolished that number and now requires candidates to clear a floating threshold equal to 0.5 percent of the number of ballots returned in the previous year. Until recently, a separate procedure allowed candidates to make the ballot without the Committee’s support by securing the signatures of at least 250 voting-eligible NRA members-a reservation of power to the people, of sorts. When you vote in elections for obscure local government positions, you probably check the box next to whoever boasts the most impressive roster of trustworthy-sounding endorsements, right? That is, more or less, the service the Committee provides, too. It acts as a de facto kingmaker, relying on the fact that most voters have neither the time nor the incentive to research the policy positions represented by dozens of unfamiliar names. ![]() The Committee, whose members are designated by the board, is composed of six individuals who are directors and three lifetime NRA members who are not. The NRA further controls access to the ballot via its use of a “Nominating Committee,” which vets board candidates for the electorate’s convenience. ![]() All those in favor of tossing guns? Bam!” He snaps his fingers. You bring three million to the next meeting, and call a vote. “I never understand why you gun-control people don’t all join the NRA,” he muses. During the second season of The West Wing, Republican congressman Matt Skinner concludes a conversation with Josh Lyman by offering a pithy bit of Sorkinian wisdom. We'll take their money." It's not a new idea. "If they want to join the NRA, let them join. ![]() This elicited a bemused rejoinder from then-NRA board member Thomas King. “Crying white mothers are ratings gold to you." Eight days after a man used an assault rifle to kill 17 children in a Florida high school, both speakers earned hearty applause for their performances.īack in 2015, New York state senator Liz Krueger joked at a gun-violence roundtable, suggesting that, if gun-safety advocates wanted to change the NRA, they should take it over from the inside. You guys love it,” she said, pointing emphatically. "Many in legacy media love mass shootings. In his address at the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference, NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre warned attendees of the creeping dangers of a “socialist agenda.” Democrats, he explained, are plotting to use gun control as a springboard for their true mission, which is the eradication of “all individual freedoms." Earlier, NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch had used her allotted time to address the journalists in attendance. ![]()
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