I am very much on the same page as the NRA in terms of their values and mission statement. I was a member of the NRA until March. As some of you who read this blog regularly may know, I have not been impressed with the NRA in terms of their NRA-ILA, their hypocrisy, and the way local representative just plain treats members. I am told how few resources they have to even consider doing anything local, and yet locally they use member information to send solicitations for local fun raisers. They also kill many trees to sent professionally printed funding solicitation letters, brochures, and flyers.
I don't have a problem with the position that the NRA takes in that they don't want to get involved in local political races. The problem that I do have is that they claim to want to be a "grass roots" organization and then ignore not only the roots themselves, but opportunities to grow in that concept. They ignored the possibility of local organization with local members, local fundraising, local politicians being friendly with their organization in order to promote shooting sports and gun rights locally. They have spurned people at the local level, even being condescending to them, chastening them.
Last year, I contacted the NRA to see what they do in terms of local elections. I posted that here, I do believe, along with my reactions to the communications received. Particularly disturbing was the way the local rep just ignored most of what I had conveyed and obtusely clung to his narrow reading of what I had written. I had met him before and contacted him after my initial conversation with the NRA-ILA, because after all, he was the LOCAL rep. That conversation via email didn't go very well, in my opinion.
After all of that, I decided to let my membership lapse, let it all go, and join a different organization, which I did. Last Friday I saw the local NRA rep at a gun shop near Goldsboro. I decided not to communicate with him as soon as I saw him, figuring that it would be preferrable to a conversation in which my opinion or commentary was solicited. Unfortunately, he recognized me, came over and greeted me. At that point, I was attempting to be very pleasant and make small talk. He complained about how politicians are contacting him because it is election season and were seeking the same thing I did last year, though I doubt they had the same ideas I had.
He couldn't leave it alone. He had to go dig up the topic I buried. He started asking me about our communications last year, so I let him have it all. Hey asked, so I answered. He kept saying, "It's a free country" in response to my opinions. That was very condescending and dismissive. Even my normally quiet and more tolerant wife thought he was arrogant. Finally the conversation was over and we left.
This guy could not let it drop. He emailed me the next day and chastised me. Normally, I would not say anything about this publicly, but the "arrogant jerk", as my wife put it, had to go and include the NRA Headquarters representative (cc:) in on a private conversation. It would be one thing if he passed the information along after the fact with explanation or even passed along the conversation for follow up. As far as I am concerned, email is not necessarily a private medium and subject to being passed along. However, when you are giving a supposedly private lecture, it is not follow up to something already public knowledge, and the lecture continues in like manner, then it is open for public viewing as far as I am concerned.
Here is the email conversation in order:
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From: Kirk Smith
To: Troy LaPlante
Cc: Kirk D. Smith ; Roulette, Anthony
Sent: Friday, June 02, 2006 1:31 PM
Subject: WT's Gun Store Visit
Dear Troy,
It was good seeing you yesterday at WT's Guns in Goldsboro.
I am sorry you continue to hold a very bitter resentment toward the NRA in their failure to support your bid for local office.
In my former life, I use to advise four star generals (many you see on T.V.) on very unique matters regarding human relations, so this advice comes free of charge. With your aspirations to higher office, you need to understand: 1) you will not always get what you want; 2) rejection happens often and; 3) you may wish to seriously reconsider burning all of your bridges.
As always, remember, Teach Freedom!
Kirk D. Smith
NRA Field Representative
Eastern North Carolina
PO BOX 297
Broadway, NC 27505
919-258-5576
"Freedom is not something to be secured in any one moment of time. We must struggle to preserve it every day. And freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction" ~ RONALD REAGAN ~
Founding Patriot Samuel Adams noted, "It does not take a majority to prevail . . . but rather an irate tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men."
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----- Original Message -----
From: Troy LaPlante
To: Kirk Smith
Cc: ARoulette@nrahq.org
Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2006 12:57 AM
Subject: Re: WT's Gun Store Visit
In response to your three points:
1. DUH.
2. I am used to it, so no surprise there. This was not a matter of rejection, by the way. It was a matter of dismay with self contradiction, inaccurate statements, and hypocrisy. It was the attitude I received, the inability to comprehend the plain English in which I wrote, and the lack of truth as to the "resources" excuse that I heard at the time and again yesterday. I find it amusing that for people who don't have the resources, you sure had the time and money to continuously ask for donations on professionally printed letters, envelopes, brochures, flyers, etc., for postage to mail the solicitations and early renewal notices; and for the resources to compile a local mailing list of NRA members to solicit me on a LOCAL level to donate money to a local organization. The fact that my name was on a list that I did not choose to be on and was locally solicited to help with a fund raiser was fine with the NRA, apparently. But to do far less work when the raw costs and then some would have been covered to help an NRA member in good standing on a local level takes too much for resources? You probably spent far more time thinking about and composing the email you just sent and the others last year than you would have to help build a bridge. THAT was my biggest point, which was repeatedly ignored when you and I conversed via email and was summarily dismissed in yesterday's conversation. It is a paradigm similar to "big government"
Your organization lost more in membership dues, contributions, future political support, and PR than you would have ever invested in your "resources". Not surprisingly, I have since read the same dismay expressed by a lot of other people who have witnessed or experienced similar things and are totally disenchanted with the NRA. I used to wear my NRA cap happily, now, it sits in a closet. I used to proudly put the "Join the NRA" logo on all of my web sites. I was looking at a lifetime membership. I concluded, however, that if this is how the organization treated members and chose to focus its energies, then I had no use for said organization. Notice that I did not say in that conclusion anything about having a set policy regarding areas in which the NRA-ILA would get involved. That was never a problem in my estimation. However, the methodology was.
On a side note, I find it amusing that local elections and government are of no concern to the NRA-ILA, I was told, yet at the exact same time it was national news that the NRA was changing its convention location out of protest of LOCAL ordinances. I laughed quite a bit over that ironic twist.
3. I didn't have a bridge, I was attempting to build one. Y'all decided not to have the bridge. Remember that bridges are a conveyance of traffic in both directions. Your comment was rather assuming in the referencing the consideration of burning "all" bridges. Oft times, burning bridges is necessary. To teach otherwise is to teach a secularist view, to which I am constrained from subscribing. It is assuming in that you presume I have even remotely considered burning all bridges. I certainly have not done so in life, but rather quite to the contrary. You can not burn a bridge that is not built, and you can not keep a bridge that you are bid to burn. It is not theologically accurate to ascribe the anti-pyro policy to my own life. Thankfully, I have never been disappointed when I have been compelled to set a torch to a so called bridge.
Bitter resentment? No. I just have absolutely no use for hypocrisy and bureaucracy to the extent that I witnessed. Like I said in my emails at the time, you probably don't understand what I have conveyed in the least bit if that is all you got out of our conversation yesterday. I tried to avoid the topic of conversation entirely, but you brought it up. Never ask a question to which you really don't want to hear the answer. I planned on having a pleasant conversation about IDPA, the weather, shooting, whatever...or even none at all. I would have been just as happy either way.
By the way, I find it in poor taste and downright rude to send a personal note with cc: to others. But, hey, it's a free country, as you kept saying yesterday. I found that rather condescending, as I did your latest email. Both were unsolicited and unnecessary.
I may not have had the ear of generals, but I have advised many theologians across the globe on issues more important than "human relations", so this one is free. One bit of advice I have given and still do is to shake the dust off your feet and keep on going. I often take my own advice.
Founding Patriot Samuel Adams noted, "It does not take a majority to prevail . . . but rather an irate tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." ------ Very applicable to my point.
Troy
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----- Original Message -----
From: Kirk Smith
To: Troy LaPlante
Cc: Kirk D. Smith ; Roulette, Anthony
Sent: Sunday, June 04, 2006 11:57 AM
Subject: I am Sorry
Dear Troy,
Please understand this, if the NRA was to support every "member in good standing" in their local elections, we would not be able to take on the United Nations, the George Soros's, Rebecca Peters, Sarah Brady, Chuck Shumer, animal rights activists, et al. I am sorry you don't understand this, unfortunately there are more important things, than just "you."
Your attempt to compare the Columbus Ohio ordinance with your personal mailing request is vacuous. They are not the same. . . One involved the total disregard of the Second Amendment rights of an entire community whereas your request was for personal political benefit. Sorry, not the same.
I wish you the best in your campaign. I am sorry that our organization does not live up to your personal expectations. Remember, don't burn those bridges.
As always, Teach Freedom!
Kirk D. Smith
NRA Field Representative
Eastern North Carolina
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----- Original Message -----
From: Troy LaPlante
To: Kirk Smith
Cc: ARoulette@nrahq.org
Sent: Sunday, June 04, 2006 12:43 PM
Subject: Re: I am Sorry
I do not agree with the statement you made at all regarding local elections. It is the local level where people are actually involved. recruit fellow members, pass local ordinances, and have influence on the region. Furthermore, you have totally missed the point of how to work at the local level. YOU, Kirk, do NOT work to battle Soros, the UN, Shumer, etc. You are a regional rep. I am in your region. I fully understand the national influence and politics, having studied them for years. I also know that all politics start locally. Locally is where parties most frequently gather. Locally is where the "grass roots" are. The NRA-ILA web site makes a big deal out of grass roots efforts. If locally was not where political influence happens, your own organization would make no claim to grass roots efforts. You have utterly missed the import of my previous communications and the assertions therein, which is obviously demonstrated in your first paragraph.
Dude, you are clueless if you think what I wrote and compared was "vacuous". What an ignorant statement. I was talking about the same freakin' thing and preventing that from happening in MY community. Having people standing up against such a thing in every community is what prevents the very thing you call vacuous and is the very embodiment of grass roots. To think otherwise is entirely myopic. Again, hypocrisy. You have ignored a pertinent statement in my last email. Had you read and comprehended rather than summarily dismissed it, you would not have written your last email. I will not repeat it, since apparently you really do not care, as you have demonstrated.
The myopia continues in the lack of comprehension as to the ramifications of pissing off the grass roots people. Your organization would have much better influence, reputation, and cash flow by paying attention to the very thing you call vacuous. Instead, you lose membership, regular donations, reputation, the very bridges you continue to edify.
You are also mistaken about the concept of it being about "me". It never was about me. I didn't run for office because of me. The whole concept of having a conservative in office at every level and maintaining the very freedoms that the NRA is supposed to stand for should be the goal of a lobbying group or an organization. I did not run for office for personal political benefit. I could not care less about personal benefit. I cared about the collective good of the community. Considering the fact that there were several socialists running for office at the local level in my town, I decided that I could not let this happen unopposed. This was much to my personal inconvenience and financial comfort. AND, original inquiry to and my subsequent communication with the NRA was not about me in the least. If I was concerned only about myself, I would have refrained from saying anything. Instead, I was concerned about this sort of thing nationwide. If you think that all I have written was about "me", then you are a hell of a lot more condescending that I originally thought. I notice that you still have ignored what I have written and simply restated the same philosophy. Fine. That attitude is why I am no longer an NRA member. It is also the same reason I know a lot of other former members or those who refuse to join in the first place.
Since it is obvious that you have yet to grasp the relevency of my points because of willfully ignoring them, this will be the final time I am going to address the subject. AND, since you have demonstrated little of the human relations skills you claim to be able to advise four star generals with, I shall not continue to read your condescension further. Again, as far as I was concerned, this matter was closed and over with. But NO, you had to go and dig it up again and continue to do so, even continuing to rudely send cc email. That last sentence by itself is sufficient reason to be pissed with the NRA's local dealings.
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That is the end of the conversation, as far as I am concerned. I did not want this conversation. I did not ask for it. I don't go looking for this sort of thing. Unfortunately, this sort of thing finds me fairly easily. There are more specific details that I shall not write about, just because I don't want to contribute to the mild carpal tunnel syndrome that my doctor seems to think I may have developed.
I have never been one to swim with the current. I have always been one to do the Robert Frost thing and take the road less traveled.
It is sad to me, however, that a few bone heads have really tweaked me to the point of never wanting to be a partner with what I beleive is a worth cause. In the course of such communications, the NRA has alienated a potential life long contributor, supporter, private recruiter, and possible political ally. It has already cost them more just in contributions and membership dues than it would have taken them in "resources" to have been friendly rather than adversarial. Not only have they lost my support but that of several people I know as a result. Furthermore, there are others I have read behind on the internet who have similar disdain for what they have witnessed in the NRA over the years and have also dropped membership or will never become a member.
K-Mart never prepared for the advent of Wal-Mart and got slaughtered in the marketplace. Wal-Mart gave better service, prices, and convenience. K-Mart never adapted well and pleased its customers. Will the same happen to the NRA? Time will tell. I will have my little part to do with it, either way.
There are several businesses, even right here locally, that have lost hundreds or thousands of my dollars for the simple reason that they earned my disdain. I don't shop at one local grocery store and I have stopped frequenting one local Mexican restaurant within the past year alone. I have left the Republican Party and I have left the NRA. I have no regrets doing so, except that none of this had to happen. However, since it has, it does not bother me and will not affect my life either way.
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