that focused on hunting and gun safety - this would have been in the '60s. I recall ads they had for gun safety courses. I don't know if they even do those courses any more.

Gun safety doesn't seem to be a major concern of theirs these days.

Institute for Legislative Action, I think is what the abbreviation stands for.

I had to take a safety course from an NRA-certified instructor before I could get my CCW permit; thanks to post-Sandy Hook laws in Connecticut I needed a permit even to buy ammo, so I went and paid the money and put in the time to get a concealed-carry permit. I didn't necessarily want one, but if I was going to be forced to get a piece of paper from the government to buy ammo I was going to get the really nice piece of paper that lets me do everything else.

Anyway, the safety course was pretty nice; the guy was knowledgeable and the book was well written. Color, laminated, spiral bound, lots of pictures and stuff. The last page or two was about protecting your rights and please join the NRA, but that was it.

I have to wonder, though, since Hartford began forcing people to get more permits, how many more NRA members did they create in this state? There are a lot of street signs out for CCW permits; I think a lot of people are getting them because Hartford clamped down so much that people just do what I did, and for the same reasons.

And is now weeping for what the organization he was once part of has now become.

Gun Safety? Responsible Gun Ownership? Firearms as tools that need to be carefully handled?
Those concepts are no more important to the NRA than the candy or periodical rack at the check-out counter is to the Grocery Store. Some little bit of effort - a "see, we care" toss-away to pretend they even think about the effect firearms can have on the general population anymore while they're busy selling advertising to War Toy manufacturers and those that profit off the militia movements.

Haele

And of course NRA membership was required.

I would receive tons of mail from them; nothing about gun safety or tips on improving your scores, mental aspects of competition...

It was an endless succession of lists of people to vote for. They were even beginning their scare campaigns though they were child's play compared to the conspiracy theory, paranoid, racist screed they publish now.

It turned me off to NRA and I quit shooting and left the NRA, much to my father's disappointment.

Shortly before he died even he started to become alarmed at what they were saying...

The NRA's leadership and many of their members are nothing but a terrorist organization.

The NRA once believed in gun control and had a leader who pushed for it

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/10/05/the-forgotten-nra-leader-who-despised-the-promiscuous-toting-of-guns/?nid&utm_term=.65cc112255ad

a lifelong member but in the early 80's sent back his membership and told them what he thought of what they were doing. He never spoke positively about them again.

It was some of the most important and useful training I've ever received...literally saved lives.

The NRA doesn't care now about such things now, just that people buy as many weapons as possible and maintaining terror and hatred in their ranks....

I didn't ask why but I remember being in his office when he tore up a solicitation letter, tossed it into the trash and said he was not going to be a part of it any more.

In a perfect world, you'd think the NRA would be out front trying to prevent mass shootings since it makes all the rest of them look bad, but no...

They started getting marked as spam and I got a private message calling me a "liberal pussy"


Love pushing gun bumpers over the edge

Advocates of collective rights models argued that the Second Amendment was written to prevent the federal government from disarming state militias, rather than to secure an individual right to possess firearms.

Prior to 2001, every circuit court decision that interpreted the Second Amendment endorsed the "collective right" model.

And in 2001, that first change was in the Fifth Circuit. With judges that had been appointed by Reagan and Bush Sr.

Cases v. United States, 131 F.2d 916 (1st Cir. 1942); United States v. Toner, 728 F.2d 115 (2nd Cir. 1984); United States v. Rybar, 103 F.3d 273 (3rd Cir. 1997); Love v. Peppersack, 47 F.3d 120 (4th Cir. 1995); United States v. Johnson, 441 F.2d 1134 (5th Cir. 1971); United States v. Warin, 530 F.2d 103 (6th Cir. 1976); Quilici v. Village of Morton Grove, 695 F.2d 261 (7th Cir. 1983); United States v. Hale, 978 F.2d 1016 (8th Cir. 1993); Hickman v. Block, 81 F.3d 98 (9th Cir. 1996); United States v. Oakes, 564 F.2d 384 (10th Cir. 1978); and United States v. Wright, 117 F.3d 1265 (11th Cir. 1997)

...and initiated a hostile takeover. The NRA was a prominent neutral and respected organization....that took a long time to achieve. Once the "financial interests" took over, not only do they donate to insane pro gun politicians....they also spend a lot of money suppressing rival groups from getting on the national stage.