NRA's Representative: New Hampshire "too stupid to deal with its own legislation"

NRA Institute for Legislative Action has posted the form letter that they’ve been e-mailing to members who express concern over the New Hampshire situation:

Link to NRA Statements

Considering the claims made by NRA Executive Vice-President Wayne LaPierre with respect to the NRA’s role in the Heller and McDonald Supreme Court cases; their inaction when presented with the information about “Project Gunwalker”; their claims about their role in the enactment of Constitutional Carry in Arizona and various other questionable actions, I’m not too inclined to take their version of the story at face value.

At this point I’m guessing the truth is somewhere between the two groups stories, but the most disturbing thing to me is that they killed a Constitutional Carry bill that was supported by pro-gun attorneys who practice in New Hampshire and had passed their House by an overwhelming majority.

From my experience while shooting competitively in NH and listening to the beefs of the shooters there I would say be cautious with what is issued by their "Gun People." Most of the shooters in NH are most unhappy with their gun leaders. In my dealings with Hohenwarter I found him very, smart, very political and very apt at what he does. And although I have had many fights with the NRA over a bunch of different issues I still support them as they are the loudest and strongest voice we have. They cannot please everyone, no way!

This just came to my attention and I have ZERO information about it but I feel compelled to speak anyway.

John Hohenwarter is a fantastic lobbiest for our behalf here in Maine and if it were not for his hard work and dedication it is likely that it would not be the firearm friendly state it is. I have been in negotiations with John in Maine and around the United States and he is 100% focused, 100% of the time. He works his a$$ off for those of us in Maine even though he lives in another State.

In the amount of time (over 2 decades) I have been heavily involved in firearm issues in a legislative level, I can honestly say that John is clearly responsible for many of the hard fought victories we have won.

John is not just an occasional co-worker, he is a Freedom Fighter and a close friend. I can say that with every thread of my existance.

I’ve never met Mr. Hohenwarter, all I know of him is what I’ve read about the situation in New Hampshire, and some criticism from Pennsylvania grass roots groups about lack of cooperation between NRA and local groups. I'll take you gentlemen's supportive opinion of him into consideration as well.

In the time since I made the first two posts some additional interesting information was released, but I didn’t update the thread because it didn’t seem that there was much interest. On May 21st, Representative Elaine Swinford the Chair of the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee posted a reply to the NRA side of the story:

Link to Letter

Then, earlier this week came this:

I’m not anti-NRA. From my perspective, I’m an Endowment Life member who’s dissatisfied with the job that some of our employees are doing. I think that there are people at ILA and headquarters who see the battle for our firearms rights as a business (and their career), and their goals aren’t necessarily the same as mine. My perception is that they’re more interested in the fight than in winning. At times, it seems like they believe that winning too much too quickly is detrimental to their future income stream.

A few weeks ago I was at the Ben Avery Range outside of Phoenix and I spoke to one of the officers of the Arizona Citizens Defense League. They’ve accomplished many of the things in their state that we’ve been unsuccessful with here and in New Hampshire. In many cases it’s these new aggressive state level groups like AZCDL, Virginia CDL, Wyoming Gun Owners etc. that are doing the majority of the heavy lifting in gun rights advocates victories on Constitutional carry and castle doctrine. At the NRA Annual meeting last year, if you wanted to hear Alan Gura speak about the Heller and McDonald cases, you had to go next door to the Grassroots North Carolina event because Gura doesn’t have much good to say about NRA claiming credit for his work in their fundraising letters. Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox refuse to appear on Tom Gresham’s radio or TV programs because he asked them very direct questions about their claims about NRA’s role and their lack of acknowledgement of the majority of the work that was done by Second Amendment Foundation, CATO, etc.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that I support the NRA, but I think that we need to take a close look at how our employees are doing their jobs and make sure that they're serving our interests.

Like you, I can only speak from personal experience. I am also a supporter or NRA as a Benefactor Life member and I support every Second Amendment group. Larry Pratt from Gun Owners of America is a friend of mine. I am surprised to see GO-NH in a poor light here too as they used to be very effective in the grassroots fight. With NRA, it is not unusual to see some of the smaller, less effective groups take pot shots at them, but I have always supported them all. I have never bought into the "gun rights big business" argument because everything I have done has been at a grassroots level and NRA (and GOA) have helped each time we have needed it. Yup, I could nit-pick each individual organization for tiny things "I" think could be done better, but I find it more productive to focus on the big picture. As you can see with this session here in Maine, we made some HUGE advancements and to not properly credit John for his tireless work with us would be dishonest. It is doubtful we could have done it without him.

What I know for FACT is that Maine just passed a few very important bills that will make Maine a better and safer state for gun owners and as I mentioned above, we couldn't have done it without John Hohenwarter's hard work.

Jeffr, you wrote above: I think that there are people at ILA and headquarters who see the battle for our firearms rights as a business (and their career), and their goals aren’t necessarily the same as mine. My perception is that they’re more interested in the fight than in winning. At times, it seems like they believe that winning too much too quickly is detrimental to their future income stream.

I have to say that I know many of the grassroots people as well as those in leadership and I have NEVER found that to be the case. Every fight (and I have been in more than I can count) we have fought has been with fierce direction and because we always have FACTS on our side we have always prevailed. Think about that. With a legislature in the past with people like Gerzofsky, Strimling, Muse, Haskall, etc in the majority (even sitting on the Criminal Justice Committee) we have fought tooth and nail against their half-truths, gun bans, ammo restrictions, hollywood generated theatrics and even total registration, seizure, forfeiture and confiscation over the years and we have WON EVERY BATTLE. That is a hell of a record and every battle was fought with the NRA and most often Hohenwarter by our side when not in the lead for us. I have never entered into a battle I did not know I was right about and fully intend to win, and I have NEVER had any other than FULL support from NRA, GOA, and even SAM in most cases. That "it's all about the money" line may be good for urban legend but on the front line where I live, it doesn't ring true.

Is NRA perfect? Of course not. It is a 4-million member organization and some will always have a different opinion about approach, when and where to get involved, and how to fight. I, like George stated before, have my own reservations about some of the things they do and do not do, but in the big picture, we can't do it on our own and we need every organization to work together.

I will stand back and let NH settle their differences, but I won't sit idle and watch my friend John Hohenwarter be dragged through the mud without giving him the credit due in the fights we have fought together.

It always saddens me to see infighting among our community. We need all the help we can get and can't afford to splinter into a thousand issue specific, tiny and ineffective groups. We all need to hold hands and focus on Amendment II, and each do what we do best.

I hope they can settle their differences in NH. I have many "Brothers in Arms" there and they are as passionate and solid as we are in Maine.