Georgia Carries Carry, despite the NRA

[unixronin]

The Georgia legislature just passed (modulo some outstanding paperwork cleanup) a bill to expand concealed carry in Georgia.  The bill eliminates "guaranteed defenseless zones" within 1000 feet of schools and colleges, and allows permit holders to carry concealed in bars where the owner allows it, in non-secure areas of airports, and in parking lots of colleges, courthouses and jails, but was amended at the last minute to remove a provision that would have gone one step further to actually legitimize carry on college campuses.

The NRA spent all evening trying to defeat the bill.  This might seem bizarre to anyone who isn't familiar with the NRA's er, the LaPierre/Metaksa clique's record of hypocrisy on gun laws, but far too many current and former NRA members won't be surprised.

The NRA was actively sabotaging SB 308 all night tonight.  I witnessed this firsthand.  They tried to amend it with something that they believed would draw a Governor's veto.  When that failed, they began telling lies about the bill to politicians and the press.  I could not believe what I was seeing.  I was spending hours running around correcting NRA lies about the bill.

Then Senator Steve Thompson took the well and said what everybody knew, that the Senators had "cover" to vote against the bill, in spite of GCO's letter letting them know we are tracking their vote, because "The NRA opposes this bill."

One of our more technical types should get that video on You Tube, so people can see what the NRA was doing tonight in Georgia.

Opposing repeal of a 140 year old Jim Crow law infringing on the right to bear arms.

The NRA tried to present their opposition as a push for language amending the bill to expressly permit carry in airports.  But that language is already contained in an earlier bill, SB 291, that has already passed the Georgia legislature and awaits only the Governor's signature.  Now that SB 308 has passed (and with a veto-proof majority), NRA-ILA is denying ever having opposed it.  Unfortunately for the NRA, their opposition is on public record and documented on video.

Comments

[wyrdling.livejournal.com]

....so what, exactly, is the nra working for, nowadays?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Themselves. Or more specifically, Wayne LaPierre, Tanya Metaksa, and their little inside-the-Beltway clique.

[mrmeval.livejournal.com]

http://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/iron.html

Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people. First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers are scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors in the former Soviet Union collective farming administration.

Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself. Examples are many of the administrators in the education system, many professors of education, many teachers union officials, much of the NASA headquarters staff, etc.

The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization.

Every 5 years the bottom should assassinate the top but the bottom gets to pick which year is '5'. --mrmevals solution for the entrenched oligarchies.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Well, you see, if the bad gun laws in America got overturned, there wouldn't be any need for people to give lots of money to the NRA any more...

[wyrdling.livejournal.com]

haha right. now that makes sense.
shortsighted idiocy. wouldn't be surprising though....

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I really think this is the problem with the current NRA leadership. They're really far more concerned about maintaining their flow of money and their political influence (meaning more money) than they are about actually prserving firearms rights or overturning bad laws. Lately the MO of the NRA has been:
1. Try to derail any attempt to actually win anything significant;
2. Constantly scream to the membership about the latest anti-gun plot, and use it to beg for more money;
3. Ignore actual ongoing abuses wherever possible;
4. Continue to endorse F-rated conservatives over A-rated liberals and independents;
5. When any other pro-gun organization actually achieves a victory, try to claim credit for it.

[xander-opal.livejournal.com]

This is why I did not renew my NRA membership. We should be using similar tactics to what the opposition do-- claw our way inch by inch, wherever opportunity presents.

IMO, that is.

[mrmeval.livejournal.com]

With very small organizations you can get the 'cult of personality' effect where a charismatic leader can wholly control the organization. Such organizations effectiveness depend on the person in control and the resources they can wield.

Mid sized organizations can mitigate some or all of the problems with a COP. Garner more resources and keep rules and bureaucracy small. They can however fall under the sway of a "clique of personality". Effectiveness of the organization then depends on the clique...

Large national organizations shift over to running under some, any or all of the above and a large oily dose of Pournelle's Law. They can be a psychotic mix of all of those with one group in Indiana being good and one group in Georgia being bad.

There are well run examples of small, mid and large sized groups that manage to mitigate or prevent such human folly but I've seen a lot of groups that do not. They can be effective but they can also be strange and erratic.

[lizzibabe.livejournal.com]

This makes me glad I never joined. I considered it, but really didn't want to publicly associate myself with them. They've always seemed skeevy. adn now I know why.