...which begins today in Indianapolis.
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The National Rifle Association’s Easy Days Are Over
Often when you attend the convention of a political group or movement, you’ll hear applause lines such as “Our movement is only growing stronger!” or “The future of our cause has never looked brighter!” At this year’s National Rifle Association Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, an honest assessment would require acknowledging that the outlook was a little brighter two years ago.
In the two years that the GOP controlled the House, Senate, and the White House, they never quite got around to passing concealed-carry reciprocity — which would ensure that a gun owner’s concealed-carry permit in his home state was valid in all other states. The legislation has been introduced again, but it will probably not get a vote in the House this cycle. The Democrats now control the House, with pro-gun-control members elected in many suburban swing districts, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be determined to avoid any difficult votes for her members. There was a time when a few House Democrats like Heath Shuler would address the NRA’s annual convention; reliably pro-gun Democrats are few and far between these days.
After the Parkland shooting, Florida’s GOP then-governor, now-senator Rick Scott signed a bill into law raising the age to purchase any firearm from 18 to 21. Vermont and California passed similar bills and Washington State voters passed a similar referendum. There was a time not that long ago when one of the rare exceptions to the progressivism of Vermont Democrats such as Bernie Sanders and Howard Dean was their opposition to new gun-control laws in their own state.
dispute between the NRA and its primary marketing public-relations firm, Ackerman McQueen, which threatens a 38-year relationship over access to the firm’s documents relating to expenditures. A recent article in The New Yorker painted an ugly portrait of wasteful spending and unaccountability, and while Ackerman McQueen denied any wrongdoing through a spokesman and disputed the magazine’s reporting, the concerns about expenditures were serious enough to spur an NRA lawsuit demanding the financial documents.
Earlier this year, two NRA board members complained to the New York Times that the organization had strayed from its core mission of defending gun rights and the Second Amendment, and waded too deeply into general conservative culture-war issues — particularly in the NRATV programming and messaging coming from Ackerman McQueen.
Tax-Exempt Organization Complaint with the IRS, alleging that directors or officers are using income or assets for personal gain and the organization itself is engaged in commercial, for-profit business activity. Even if the IRS doesn’t find the Bloomberg group’s complaint compelling, New York State’s new attorney general, Letitia James, pledged to investigate whether the NRA is complying with the requirements for nonprofit organizations. James, a fierce proponent of gun control, may very well be driven by political ambitions, but she can cost the NRA a lot of time and money through the litigious fight.
On the one hand, this is inside baseball that may not interest the average gun owner. But for NRA board members and leadership, it puts a cloud over the gathering in Indianapolis this week.
This isn’t the worst of times for the Second Amendment. If a case similar to the landmark Second Amendment case District of Columbia vs. Heller came before the Supreme Court, it would probably be a 5-4 pro-gun vote, the same as in 2008. But the security of two years ago is gone, and the stakes in 2020 are as high as ever. Trump losing the presidency to a Democrat could have dire implications for the Second Amendment and America’s gun owners.
California senator Kamala Harris has threatened that “Upon being elected, I will give the United States Congress 100 days to get their act together and have the courage to pass reasonable gun safety laws, and if they fail to do it, then I will take executive action,” which is a creative vision of the authority of the executive branch to rewrite laws on the books. Harris wants to reinstate the Assault Weapons Ban that expired in 2004, ban high-capacity ammunition clips, and perhaps most significantly, make gun manufacturers liable if their weapons are used in criminal activity. As state attorney general, Harris prosecuted several gun shops, citing an obscure provision of state law barring the images of handguns in advertising and contending that pictures of guns in the stores’ windows violated the law. A federal judge ruled in 2018 Harris’s charges represented a “highly paternalistic approach to limiting speech,” and declared it “unconstitutional on its face.”
When the NRA endorsed Donald Trump in 2016, he was an imperfect vessel. In his 2000 book, The America We Deserve, Trump wrote, “I generally oppose gun control, but I support the ban on assault weapons and I also support a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun.” Even while basking in the NRA’s endorsement and applause at the annual meeting in Louisville that election year, Trump hit an awkward note: “My sons are members. They have so many rifles, so many guns, that even I get concerned. I say, ‘That’s a lot!’” The crowd greeted that admission with what can best be described as polite silence.
But in a contest between Trump and Clinton, the choice was obvious, and in a contest between Trump and just about any of the 2020 Democrats, the decision will be similarly easy for most gun owners. Both Trump and Mike Pence will address the convention Friday, as well as Indiana governor Eric Holcomb; Kentucky governor Matt Bevin, who’s up for reelection this year; both of Indiana’s Republican senators, Mike Braun and Todd Young; Texas senator Ted Cruz; Representative Steve Scalise; and Turning Point USA’s Candace Owens.
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Link:
https://www.nationalreview.com/the-...ights-the-stakes-in-2020-are-as-high-as-ever/
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The National Rifle Association’s Easy Days Are Over
Often when you attend the convention of a political group or movement, you’ll hear applause lines such as “Our movement is only growing stronger!” or “The future of our cause has never looked brighter!” At this year’s National Rifle Association Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, an honest assessment would require acknowledging that the outlook was a little brighter two years ago.
In the two years that the GOP controlled the House, Senate, and the White House, they never quite got around to passing concealed-carry reciprocity — which would ensure that a gun owner’s concealed-carry permit in his home state was valid in all other states. The legislation has been introduced again, but it will probably not get a vote in the House this cycle. The Democrats now control the House, with pro-gun-control members elected in many suburban swing districts, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be determined to avoid any difficult votes for her members. There was a time when a few House Democrats like Heath Shuler would address the NRA’s annual convention; reliably pro-gun Democrats are few and far between these days.
After the Parkland shooting, Florida’s GOP then-governor, now-senator Rick Scott signed a bill into law raising the age to purchase any firearm from 18 to 21. Vermont and California passed similar bills and Washington State voters passed a similar referendum. There was a time not that long ago when one of the rare exceptions to the progressivism of Vermont Democrats such as Bernie Sanders and Howard Dean was their opposition to new gun-control laws in their own state.
dispute between the NRA and its primary marketing public-relations firm, Ackerman McQueen, which threatens a 38-year relationship over access to the firm’s documents relating to expenditures. A recent article in The New Yorker painted an ugly portrait of wasteful spending and unaccountability, and while Ackerman McQueen denied any wrongdoing through a spokesman and disputed the magazine’s reporting, the concerns about expenditures were serious enough to spur an NRA lawsuit demanding the financial documents.
Earlier this year, two NRA board members complained to the New York Times that the organization had strayed from its core mission of defending gun rights and the Second Amendment, and waded too deeply into general conservative culture-war issues — particularly in the NRATV programming and messaging coming from Ackerman McQueen.
Tax-Exempt Organization Complaint with the IRS, alleging that directors or officers are using income or assets for personal gain and the organization itself is engaged in commercial, for-profit business activity. Even if the IRS doesn’t find the Bloomberg group’s complaint compelling, New York State’s new attorney general, Letitia James, pledged to investigate whether the NRA is complying with the requirements for nonprofit organizations. James, a fierce proponent of gun control, may very well be driven by political ambitions, but she can cost the NRA a lot of time and money through the litigious fight.
On the one hand, this is inside baseball that may not interest the average gun owner. But for NRA board members and leadership, it puts a cloud over the gathering in Indianapolis this week.
This isn’t the worst of times for the Second Amendment. If a case similar to the landmark Second Amendment case District of Columbia vs. Heller came before the Supreme Court, it would probably be a 5-4 pro-gun vote, the same as in 2008. But the security of two years ago is gone, and the stakes in 2020 are as high as ever. Trump losing the presidency to a Democrat could have dire implications for the Second Amendment and America’s gun owners.
California senator Kamala Harris has threatened that “Upon being elected, I will give the United States Congress 100 days to get their act together and have the courage to pass reasonable gun safety laws, and if they fail to do it, then I will take executive action,” which is a creative vision of the authority of the executive branch to rewrite laws on the books. Harris wants to reinstate the Assault Weapons Ban that expired in 2004, ban high-capacity ammunition clips, and perhaps most significantly, make gun manufacturers liable if their weapons are used in criminal activity. As state attorney general, Harris prosecuted several gun shops, citing an obscure provision of state law barring the images of handguns in advertising and contending that pictures of guns in the stores’ windows violated the law. A federal judge ruled in 2018 Harris’s charges represented a “highly paternalistic approach to limiting speech,” and declared it “unconstitutional on its face.”
When the NRA endorsed Donald Trump in 2016, he was an imperfect vessel. In his 2000 book, The America We Deserve, Trump wrote, “I generally oppose gun control, but I support the ban on assault weapons and I also support a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun.” Even while basking in the NRA’s endorsement and applause at the annual meeting in Louisville that election year, Trump hit an awkward note: “My sons are members. They have so many rifles, so many guns, that even I get concerned. I say, ‘That’s a lot!’” The crowd greeted that admission with what can best be described as polite silence.
But in a contest between Trump and Clinton, the choice was obvious, and in a contest between Trump and just about any of the 2020 Democrats, the decision will be similarly easy for most gun owners. Both Trump and Mike Pence will address the convention Friday, as well as Indiana governor Eric Holcomb; Kentucky governor Matt Bevin, who’s up for reelection this year; both of Indiana’s Republican senators, Mike Braun and Todd Young; Texas senator Ted Cruz; Representative Steve Scalise; and Turning Point USA’s Candace Owens.
---------
Link:
https://www.nationalreview.com/the-...ights-the-stakes-in-2020-are-as-high-as-ever/
