Thanks for your email to NRA-PVF.Uh, yeah, I have a few other questions.
We have been receiving a bit of communication from NRA members after the latest publicity campaign from GOA regarding Ron Paul's NRA-rating. GOA does this to encourage folks to join their organization rather than NRA. Think about it: if they said NRA was doing everything right, they wouldn't have any members. Only in trying to stir up disagreement among our members, do they reap the benefits.
NRA has accordingly graded Congressman Ron Paul a "B". We have NOT endorsed against him - as widely MISreported.
Congressman Paul is a staunch libertarian, and as such, would not vote for the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act on countless occasions over the past decade. Although he opposed it on libertarian grounds, he still voted against us on one of our top legislative priorities for over a decade. We cannot make exceptions for the reasons WHY Members of Congress don't vote for a bill because they will all come up with some reason not to be supportive. This bill was critical in protecting our firearms heritage in this country, and NRA very successful shephered its passage through the Congress in 2005.
Feel free to let me know if you have any other questions.
Thank you.
I understand why you gave Ron Paul a "B"--it's your rating system, and if voting for lawsuit protection was a priority, that's your call.
The real question is, why did Shane Sklar get an "A"? Aside from trumpeting his "sporting purposes" affiliation and advocating that we "enforce existing gun laws", his position on specific details has been carefully left obscure. Why should we give Sklar's rating any more credibility than we would give, say, Bill Brown's?
Oh, and one other question--why the slam on GOA, with the accusation that their motive is to compete with NRA for members, rather than having a principled difference of opinion? As the email came from an NRA staffer, I'm assuming that tactic has been authorized by Mr. LaPierre and Mr. Cox?