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There could be Islamic sleeper cells in every major American community.

You know the southern border is a welcome mat for terrorist to enter our towns and neighborhoods at will.

You know about their plots to kill us in our shopping malls, our sports stadiums, and our office buildings.

Pass a national right-to-carry law that guarantees my constitutional right to defend myself, my family and my fellow Americans anywhere inside our borders.

Make sure the enemies of freedom know the power of freedom.

No law-abiding American should be forced to face evil with empty hands.

I’m the National Rifle Association of America – and I’m freedom’s safest place.

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Why It’s Total Bullsh#t You Don’t Join the NRA

USA –-(Ammoland.com)- About 14 years ago, my wife and soulmate said something I disagreed with. So I divorced her. As if that wasn’t enough, about a week later, my kid got a detention at school. So I sold him into a life of slavery with Tusken Raider Sand People. My actions may sound harsh, but I have principles.

There are certain issues where I simply won’t compromise!

What? You think that’s harsh? Or maybe ridiculous? You’d be right. But that’s exactly the argument I hear from people all the time when the proudly tell me they will never join the NRA again. Ever. So there.

By the way, although I did sell my kid to Tusken Sand People, I didn’t really divorce my wife. We just resolved our disagreement like adults and are continuing to live happily ever after.

Back to the NRA issue.

I get that the NRA sometimes does things we don’t agree with. Sometimes, they make mistakes. Other times, they’re playing long term chess, and may make a short-term move because they have no other option or because it’s step one of a longer term strategy. [like supporting Harry Reid to block Chuck Schumer as head of the senate.]

It’s easy for us to sit on the sidelines and throw stones and yell about how they should never compromise, ever. That kind of strategy sounds great on paper but rarely works out in your favor in real life. Think about the years 2008 through 2010. President Stompy Feet had full control of the United States Government. Oval Office, House, and Senate.

Do you really want to pick a no compromise fight when your opponent holds all the high cards?

But I’m not here to defend the NRA – they tick me off too sometimes, and I’m sure I tick them off on occasion. I’m here to discuss how the real world of politics works, whether you like the NRA or not.We’ve got four groups of government gnomes to worry about when it comes to protection of gun rights: The executive branch (President Rhetoric or whoever is in office at the time and all the minions that work for the Prez), The Judicial (Supreme, Federal and local courts), Congress (House and Senate), and of course state and local government. For this discussion, we’ll focus on Congress and state and local representatives as that’s the NRA’s main playground.

Yeah, they get involved in legal actions, but quite frankly, organizations like the Second Amendment Foundation are far more successful (and aggressive) in the court system.

So when it comes to influencing legislation, we have to remember one thing about elected officials. All they care about, without exception, is getting re-elected. They spend their days, night and weekends worrying about how many people love them and how many hate them. There’s always another election around the corner.

When they take a meeting with someone from the NRA or any other organization, you can probably guess the first question that Congress-Critter asks.

That’s right. “How many members do you have now?”

They’re not stupid. If someone from some podunk gun rights organization that has seven members waltzes in, that politician could care less. It doesn’t matter how pure that organizations positions are.

However, if Uncle LaPierre sashays in and says, “Well, we added 2 million new members last quarter,” you can bet your bippy our favorite re-election marathon competitors are going to take notice. Heck, they’ll probably offer to wax Wayne’s Suburban.

Right now, the NRA has about 5 million members give or take. There are somewhere around 90 million gun owners in the U.S. That means just over 5% of gun owners forked over $35 to sign up. I know it’s a fantasy but just imagine for a second what life might be like if every gun owner was a member of the NRA. I can pretty much guarantee that your local politicians would drive your kids to school and deliver supper to your house – daily. On a national level, our Senators and Congressmen would flock to the NRA Annual Meeting in droves to volunteer and hand out donuts. Heck, they’d give Congressional Gold Medals to every employee of the NRA home office.

I know that’s a pipe dream, but 10 million members is not. Heck, if only the people who refuse ever to join the NRA because they have some past gripe with them, grew up, held their nose, and renewed, we’d get to 10 million members in a heartbeat.

To be serious for a moment, I’d stand behind the statement that if the NRA had 10 million members, we’d never hear a credible member of Congress so much as whisper something like “common sense gun legislation.” Yeah, crazy Aunt Dianne out in California would still rant and rave, but she wouldn’t have any votes. We certainly wouldn’t be facing the constant battles that we do now.