A lot of gun owners are conservatives, and a lot of conservatives are gun owners — but the interests of the two don’t always line up perfectly. On Friday, the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action endorsed Republican senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Senate candidate John Boozman of Arkansas, gubernatorial candidates Bill Brady of Illinois and Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania, and Rep. John Kline of Minnesota. They also endorsed an endangered Democratic House member in Ohio, Zack Space, and a somewhat less endangered Democrat, Tim Walz of Minnesota.
I talked to Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, Friday about the group’s approach to endorsements and how the organization ended up backing some figures who are not so popular with grassroots conservatives; you can find that article on the home page.
With several Supreme Courts seats at risk in the near future, and endorsement of a Democratic candidate to the US Senate is an anti Second Amendment act. Single issue does not mean single factor. The NRA has been shooting itself in the foot (sorry) more and more frequently lately. I know there are some conservative gun rights groups out there. I'm sure their membership numbers will benefit from explanations like Mr. Cox's.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe refusal of the NRA to endorse Sharron Angle in her battle to overthrow King Harry Reid in Nevada is unconscionable and takes myopia well into the realm of psychoses. What difference if Reid scores a paltry "B" (versus Angle's "A") for direct voting record on 2nd Amendment issues when he is positioned to appoint maniacally anti-gun-ownership people such as Eric Holder to enormously powerful offices, as only one example? Previous commenter Metzger is right on the money. Organizations such as Gun Owners of America who seem more capable of seeing the Big Picture than the NRA are already seeing their ranks swell while sensible pro-Constitutionalists (there's more in there than the 2nd Amendment, NRA) abandon what was once a stalwart organization, apparently now evolved into little more than another votes-for-sale outfit like AARP, et al. The only reason I'll be retaining my membership with the NRA is for the pleasure of voting out compromisers such as LaPierre, Cox and whoever else believes the current and abhorrent slate of endorsements represents the sense and temperament of its membership.
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