For anyone who does not know the NRA was a very responsible gun rights and safety organization for almost a century until something known as the Colorado revolt in the 1970s when extremists took over the organization during a convention. The NRA was founded, in part, to teach newly freed Americans who were enslaved by wicked confederates to defend themselves from awful terrorism. Of course the NRA was founded in New York because that was a main hub of the abolitionist movement. As time went on the NRA defended gun ownership as a state right, not federal and promoted responsible ownership and safety. Then came the radicals. Gun ownership should be unlimited and a federal right. They pushed and pushed and pushed and got so far away from their original founding they became far right. The NRA used to enjoy bipartisan support. They would be i schools, etc. They became so extreme that they opened themselves up to corruption. In walks Wayne LaPierre, a huckster. A man who wants to live a rock and roll lifestyle and promote a right wing agenda - not safety. He got big political and judicial victories- see McDonnel v Chicago and political contributions to right wing candidates. We also got AR 15s and school massacres under his leadership. But it turns out he and his cronies are crooks. From doling out no bid contracts and no show consultants to lavish lifestyles and obscenely generous gifts, to blatant violations of the law. The NRA is just a slush fund now passing through donations to politically connected people of privilege. The whole thing is sordid and disgusting considering where the NRA came from and where it is now. What a fall indeed. Remember, many will say Leticia James is this and that but she caught these guys red handed and it well within her scope of authority and under the rights of the state of New York.
Let state that I was an NRA member when I was young until my early twenties. Nearly all the boys I went to school with had NRA youth memberships. I did not renew my membership in the mid-80s since the organization seemed to have lost its way. When I was young in the 70s the NRA held safety lessons at nearly every elementary school in Long Island (it is now the "Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program" since the late 80s). The NRA also sponsored the rifle team at our high school and provided the coach. It was all about education and safety. Very different than the NRA today.
Was not aware of its origins. They seemed to push pretty hard towards gun control when black panthers started showing up armed at demonstrations so I always saw them as fringe right wing nuts
I lived in Long Island. I went to public schools that did not have a teacher's union. Most school districts in Long Island are "Union Free" school districts. i am not a big supporter of unions for public employees in general; but believe there should be some clear rules about tenure and dismal process for public employees such as teachers and police officers. There has to be some degree of protection written into the law for the rights of these employees -- otherwise whenever a teacher provides an educational lesson on evolution they would lose their job because some parent complained (and yes, we have multiple cases of this in North Carolina over the past decades).
Police unions are the worst. They protect their minority killing thugs and give them paid vacations. It's basically the Vatican with badges
I don't disagree with that at all. I'd also get rid of police unions, but to your point there would have to be clear policy to protect them from getting fired whenever some politician wanted to make a name for themselves.
To be fair to Oliver North, a man I do not like one bit, he was pushed out by LaPierre and his cronies when he tried to right the ship and stop the self dealing and fraud. As of today, the NRA, is operationally bankrupt and accepting Russian money and pushing a Russian agenda to keep its head above water.
All public service jobs and jobs in public goods (water companies, etc) should be unionized for no other reason than to protect the interest of the public from political turnover and turmoil. The guy checking water for lead and inspecting your roads needs to have stability to provide a dependable service. Contractors are fine but there needs to be a stable workforce making sure our public goods, etc are safe and functional. We don’t want to be Russia.