Earlier this year, on behalf of the American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA), I endorsed Barack Obama for President. My message was simple: He gets it. And, the NRA doesn't.
See, contrary to the punditry’s view of guns, the NRA doesn’t speak for all gunowners. In fact, the NRA leaders consistently ignore the concerns of our nation’s hunters and sportsmen and women.
They’re at it again. Officials at the NRA recently announced plans to spend millions and millions of its member’s money against Barack Obama. But a funny thing is happening. NRA’s members aren’t buying it according to a report in CQ Politics:
In early June, the National Rifle Association alerted its supporters to the Illinois senator’s record on gun issues, such as his support for state and local laws banning handgun ownership, and contended that as president he would be "a serious threat to Second Amendment liberties."
A week later, in a follow-up to its backers, the organization said it had been surprised by some responses. "Amazingly, some people still don’t believe Obama is radically anti-gun," the e-mail stated, "and some have gone so far as to claim that NRA was actually misrepresenting Obama’s anti-gun positions."
In the Heller case (the D.C. gun ban), the Supreme Court ruled that government can’t confiscate our guns. That debate is finally over. But, the NRA leadership wants to keep fighting the gun rights battle that we’ve already won. They’re going backwards. As a gun rights organization, AHSA strongly supports the decision in the Heller case – and we think it’s time for new leadership on gun issues. We’re ready to move on to address the issues that continue to affect gun owners including conservation, global warming and community safety.
A lot of the huffing and puffing from the NRA should have dissipated after Justice Scalia found that gun ownership is an individual right. Barack Obama, a former constitutional law professor, supports that view. It’s hard to stir up gun owners when they know their rights are constitutionally protected and Obama is on the right side. So, the hysteria promoted by the NRA’s leaders is starting to fall on deaf ears. And, there’s another reason: My organization, AHSA, has challenged the NRA’s monolithic voice and started speaking about the real issues facing America’s guns owners, which include global warming, public lands, resource conservation and community safety.
Even the NRA’s top politico had to admit that AHSA is a challenge to his group:
The NRA’s chief lobbyist, Chris W. Cox, says it isn’t so much NRA members straying that concerns him. "Everyone I talk to says they are disgusted and borderline disenchanted by the fact Obama would belittle our way of life," he said. Rather he’s concerned about a pro-Obama campaign launched by one of the NRA’s newest rivals, the American Hunters and Shooters Association. Started by former Washington Redskins lineman Ray Schoenke and former NRA lawyer Bob Ricker in 2005 in an effort to forge a middle ground on gun issues, the group endorsed Obama in April — saying that he, more than Republican John McCain , is likely to preserve the pristine wilderness areas where hunters like to go.
We’re not going to sit back and let the NRA’s leadership define the gun issue anymore. They’ve had their chance and for the past several decades have chose partisan politics over sound policy. Our Executive Director, Bob Ricker, summed up the situation to CQ Politics:
"Obama has said very clearly that the Second Amendment is an individual right, and Obama is far and away above John McCain on conservation issues that hunters and shooters are very much interested in," said Ricker. "Those issues have the NRA worried."
Those issues do have the NRA leaders worried, but not in the right way. But, the NRA is worried about its political position, not worried about the issues of importance to most gun. the NRA’s leaders have long ignored conservation, public access, global warming and community safety. In fact, the group actively fights the issues that concern America’s hunters. For example, while 670 hunting and fishing groups organized to fight climate change, NRA Board Member Grover Norquist was using his organization’s resources to fund a conference for global warming "skeptics."
The NRA leadership should be concerned as Bill Schneider at New West explains the new dynamics of the gun issue:
Two weeks ago, I posted an article about the American Hunters and Shooters Association, the bane of the NRA because it’s not just pro-gun but unlike the NRA, also pro-hunter, when the two-year-old group broke away from the radical gun rights pack and endorsed Obama. The reason? Obama’s strong support for issues vital to the future of hunting and because he poses no threat to the individual’s right to bear arms.
So, if you’re a single-issue voter, only caring about your guns and convinced government agents will arrive soon to register or confiscate them, vote for your lesser of two evils. But if you care about issues like protecting wildlife habitat so we can have something to hunt, improving hunting access, promoting alternatives to fossil fuels, keeping roadless lands roadless, reforming the 136-year-old mining law, preventing the republicans from selling off public lands, and many other conservation issues threatening the future of hunting, you might want to, as Barack Obama has already told us thousands of times, vote for change.
Obama supports the North American Wildlife Conservation Model, the backbone of wildlife management in United States, because it proclaims that wildlife is in the public trust, not owned by private landowners. That right there should be enough for hunters support Obama, but there is a lot more.
There is a lot more and that is why the NRA leaders are worried. They’re out of touch – and represent the past. Also, they’ve finally met their match. AHSA speaks for gun owners who care about gun rights but understand that it’s not worth having a gun if there’s no place to shoot or no game to hunt. Barack Obama understands that. The NRA doesn’t. The gun issue is much broader than the NRA’s very narrow and very self-interested definition. Sure, the NRA will keep trying to scare its members into giving more money so they can play the same political games. But, most gun owners know that it’s time for a change.