EP>        While you're thumping your head on the table, you might
EP>        recall that you originally responded to *someone else's*
EP>        post, NOT MINE. I was responding to your response to *HIM*.
At this point, I find myself confused, and have to stop and ask some
questions.  For I truly thought it was you through and through.
Did you not say a friend of yours was a freeloader for not being in the
NRA anymore or was that someone else?  I had recalled it as being you.
If it wasn't, and if in fact I have mixed up two or more people into
one, namely you, I sincerely apologize.
I have been in the NRA for several years now.  And probably will stay in
the NRA, with reservations.  Although my apparently mixed up
recollection of a person of some power (you) accusing a friend of being
a freeloader for not being in the NRA has come extremely close to having
be quit membership.
I do sincerely think the NRA is wrong with their compromize tactics, and
because of those tactics, is an active threat to the 2nd amendment.  I
think any gun control law is yet another chip knocked out of that right.
Knock enough chips out of it, and it will fall.  I have no doubt about
that.  Nor about the intent of many gun control groups in eliminating
the 2nd amendment.  I do truly believe that they are actively working
towards this end.  And I think any compromize is support of that
chipping away.  The NRA actively compromizes, and is in my opinion just
as culpable as the gun control groups in the chipping away of the 2nd
amendment.
Compromise is a wonderful tool.  When properly used.  I do not think
compromising on gun control is proper use.  Proper use is when both
parties come away less then thrilled, but reasonably satisfied.  Such as
you wanting to go to McDonalds for lunch, my wanting to go Le Fontian
Blue, and us settling Howard Johnsons.  That's compromise, at least as I
see and understand it.  For us to go to McDonalds, and me to just watch
you eat a Big Mac, that's not compromise.  At least as I understand it.
That's caving in.  Worse still if I were to pay for your lunch.  This is
what I see the NRA doing.
The NRA has promoted many gun control laws.  Be it through direct
mailings or their magazines.  Generally along the lines of "Bill 1 is
really bad, bill 2 is less bad, so everyone call your elected official
and tell them to vote for bill 2."  As long as bill 2 curtails the 2nd
amendment, that is active chipping away.  The NRA does this time and
time again.  They don't say things like "bill 1 is really bad, bill 2 is
less bad, so everyone call your elected official and tell then not to
vote for either."  They just 'assume' we have to have yet more gun
control laws.  I disagree.
The NRA has chipped away at the 2nd amendment through silence.  Maryland
has just gotten some really hideous bills made into law here.  One gun
per month, special  background checks, etc.  The NRA has been absolutely
and completely silent on this.  Not one letter, not one article, nothing
on the web.  Nada, zip.  Now some have claimed its because supposedly
the local groups have demanded to take charge instead.  Which of course
they haven't done.  I don't know a single person (other then through the
computer) who has any idea who are local group(s) are.  None of us have
ever heard from them.  Neither have the elected officials.  In fact, the
elected officials are loudly proclaiming it a victory that they backed
the NRA off.  To me, this is passive chipping away at the 2nd amendment
through not only silence from the NRA, but their refusal to keep their
members informed.  It makes me wonder just how many other times have
they kept silent and not told us about things happening that they knew
about.
The NRA has very much misrepresented things about certain pending laws.
Recently in Arkansas the NRA was crowing about the wonders and benefits
of a gun control law.  Getting members to call up their elected
officials and tell them how much they liked it.  Now, where you could
before simply carry a weapon concealed, thanks in large part to the NRA
you have to get a permit first.  And there's no guarantee you'll get
that permit.  When the NRA promotes bills that will curtail gun
ownership that is very active chipping away at the 2nd amendment.
  (As a side note to this I found it very interesting that the NRA
   message poster in the RIME net quit posting immediately after an
   Arkansas citizen pointed out how less then thrilled he was about
   the NRA's actions in his state, and exactly why.)
In Colorado the NRA actually drafted a gun control bill.  They didn't
like what was being tossed around, so they drafted their own.  Posted it
and bragged about it in their magazine.  Among other things, it made it
illegal for many people to even own a gun.  Now that I really have a
hard time with.  It's bad enough passively chipping away at the 2nd
amendment, worse to hold hands with gun control groups and support their
chipping, but to actively chip away themselves, that is reprehensible.
Drafting bills to destroy the second amendment, while attempting to
hoodwink people into believing that a gun control law would help them.
I almost quit then and there.
At one point in time, some years ago, I toed the NRA's line.  In fact, I
toed the line of the "moderate", in believing that "something had to be
done", and that some gun control was reasonable.  Times change, my eyes
opened.  But even then I well understood what criminals were, and that
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