Yellowstone Rifle Club Antics

Questions: (0.00 / 0)

I thought the NRA didn't reveal their membership list?  So is this an honor-system thingy?  Or is NRA cooperating?

Second: Is any of this facility on leased land - or more specifically, land they don't OWN?  Lease?  Easement?  Permit?  'Cause that's where pressure should go - and if it's city or county or state or federal lands, this type of crap is probably a violation of whatever type of agreement they have.  Public facilities are just that - public facilities - and they should be operated as such

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by: jhwygirl @ Thu May 21, 2009 at 12:40:32 PM UTC

Nice thought ... (0.00 / 0)

however YRC owns all the land they use for the gun club.

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by: gerik @ Thu May 21, 2009 at 21:51:43 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Ousting Fudds (0.00 / 0)

...ain't nothin' wrong with that!

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by: Rusty Shackleford @ Fri May 22, 2009 at 14:15:50 PM UTC

Fudds? (0.00 / 0)

Rusty, that is a pretty offensive term.  I don't understand why you want to alienate rather than educate.  Why immediately alienate potential allies rather than showing some tolerance in the hopes of eventually winning them to your way of thinking?  Doesn't make sense to me.  You see, all your name calling does is make you appear to be a small calibre individual.  Are you a .22 man attempting to look like a .45?  This is a counter productive strategy that you're using.  You see, Rusty, as  with all issues, most people are somewhere along the evolutionary trajectory to full understanding.  I take plenty of heat from the gun-hating, sandal-wearing, latte-sipping lefties for my gun views, but I don't call them names.  They are simply  ignorant of the TRVTH about gun laws.  That's all.  

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by: Larry Kralj, Environmental Rangers! @ Sat May 23, 2009 at 13:42:59 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

You do understand (0.00 / 0)

the meaning of "Fudd", right?

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by: Rusty Shackleford @ Sat May 23, 2009 at 16:38:16 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

The Yellowstone Rifle Club discussion continues (0.00 / 0)

over at The Gazette.

I love to push back on NRA types so please allow me to repost my comments here.

Dear Teabag416 - You present the choice between NRA membership and non membership as innocuous and that gun owners should be completely in line with NRA's work. We are not, not by a long shot.

You imply that the three percent of gun owners who are NRA members are carrying 2nd Amendment Rights in the public sphere on behalf of the other ninety seven percent as though we wanted your help. We don't. We are not afraid of the words "well regulated" mixing it up amongst the words "militia" and "right to bare arms."

We bare arms freely and with passion, and somehow we manage not to be afraid of regulation. Perhaps you should ask yourself why. Why is that so many people own guns without paying NRA dues?

Because the NRA pushes a hateful and myopic rhetoric that foments fear amongst its members. You live in fear that regulation such as the Brady Bill will erode your right to own, shoot, enjoy, and evangelize the glory of guns. It doesn't, not now and not ever. Guns are a right, yes. But with that right comes a responsibility. You don't possess an inalienable right to own automatic weapons. You don't possess an inalienable right to walk out of the store with a handgun on the same day you walk in to that store. You do not possess an inalienable right to 30 round clips.

You think you do.

And that is the fatal flaw with YRC's decision force NRA membership on active gun enthusiasts who shoot up Molt Road. NRA does not represent our values, not in the slightest. Because not one of these vitally threatening "erosions of the second amendment" actually threaten our right to keep and bare arms. No one is going to take away your guns, ever.

I recognize that our opinions are different on this issue. You fear regulation of gun ownership, I do not. I live with confidence that my father's sidearms will pass to me someday as I hope to pass them on to my own children a generation from now. At no point in American history or, I predict, in our future will our fundamental right to keep and bare arms be threatened by the institutions of government.

To ask that gun owners be party to the radical right wing fearmongering of the NRA is foolish and shortsighted. Just like Dan Cooper, we support progressive Democrats who represent our true values.

As Americans we have an inalienable right to freedom of speech, to vote, and to peaceably assemble for the purposes of both. We call it organizing. I will continue to organize in support of candidates who fail to win NRA endorsements, largely because NRA endorsements imply a candidate who possess a whole host of revolting social policies. Let me speak for millions of gun owners for whom other issues are more important and say that the NRA is deeply misguided in its near unanimous support of right wing Republicans.

YRC has done itself a disservice by buying into NRA's fear based political rhetoric. It's a shame that avid gun owners will need to go elsewhere to avoid the stigma and shame you have hoist upon yourselves.

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by: gerik @ Fri May 22, 2009 at 19:02:17 PM UTC