This article was printed from KeepAndBearArms.com.
For more gun- and freedom-related information, visit
http://www.KeepAndBearArms.com.
----------------------------------------------------------------
|
NRA vs. Land Rights: You
Decide Who's Right from KeepAndBearArms.com's
Melissa Seaman (Newslinks Director) August 25, 2001 KeepAndBearArms.com
-- James Jay Baker, Executive Director of the National Rifle Association's
Institute for Legislative Action, has taken a strong and decisive stand in
support of a piece of federal legislation opposed by over 600 Land Rights
Organizations. In a message to NRA members dated August 22nd, Mr. Baker
said, "All national conservation and hunting
organizations are on record in support of CARA." G. Ray Arnett, former Executive Vice President
of the NRA, could not disagree more. Arnett, also President of the National
Wildlife Federation and a NWF board member for 18 years, wrote this to the House
Resources Committee considering CARA: "Like pouring gasoline into an inferno,
CARA will pour a guaranteed annual fire hose of cash into a broken system.
CARA is bad legislation with serious flaws that can not be made acceptable
with minor amendments here and there. At best, this rearranging of the
Titanic's deck chairs, so to speak, may result in outwardly making a rotten
apple appear to be palatable, but the apple is still rotten." Are we to think that the National Wildlife
Federation is not a national conservation organization? Is their claim
to be "the nation's largest member-supported conservation group" but a
ruse? And if CARA (H.R.701) is fully supported by
"all national conservation and hunting organizations" as Mr. Baker has
said, then why is a former NRA Executive VP currently serving on the Board of a
national conservation organization saying
it is an anti-hunting bill? Mr. Baker's explanation of the NRA's opposition
to hundreds of land rights organizations also tells us: "Rest assured that NRA would not attach
its name and support to a bill if its effect was to infringe upon any of our
members' Constitutional rights." But the NRA has supported and in some cases
actively promoted all of the following and more: 1) background checks (NRA's NICS
system, which the NRA is all too aware has been used to abuse citizens'
rights) et cetera. It is because of the above inaccurate
statements in Mr. Baker's editorial that we encourage NRA Members to
be fully informed on this issue before making a decision as to whether or not
NRA's support of CARA is justifiable. To that end, several links for your
edification. And since Mr. Baker urged
the NRA membership to email (and telephone!) the individual who rightly
questions NRA's support of anti-land-rights legislation -- without publishing
email addresses for people to contact the multi-million dollar NRA who has paid
staff that can surely handle such things -- we have included several NRA
officials' email addresses below -- including HQ staff. Should you
contact these people, please be polite, clear and respectful and stick to the
facts. Hopefully, Mr. Baker will stop and realize that he needs to back the NRA
OUT of a federal landgrabber's jamboree. CARA Land Grab: Anti-Hunting House Leaders Oppose CARA Land Grab NRA: Learn How To Shoot Yourself - In The
Foot National Taxpayers Union Letter of
Opposition to CARA 600 Land Rights Groups Oppose CARA CARA: CONDEMNATION AND RELOCATION ACT Like The Klamath?? You'll Love CARA!! NRA Supports CARA! -by J. Zane Walley Hate CARA. Fear CARA. (H.R.701) -- Report by
John Lankford Powerful Lawmakers Try to Silence Property
Owners -by Wes Vernon GOP Lawmakers Join Democrats in Aiding
Enviro Left -by Wes Vernon For NRA's statements of support for CARA,
see: NRA Testifies on S.2609 Pittman-Robertson
Reform (the "old" CARA bill) NRA (James Baker) Responds to Criticism Over
CARA (H.R.701) Rep. Don Young's Speech to Outdoor Writers
Association of America Progress of CARA in the House: http://www.landrights.org/OCS/tab2.congress.htm
Bill Summary & Status and link to Text: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:h.r.00701: MEDIA AND LEGISLATOR CONTACT FAX, CALL, EMAIL YOUR U.S. REPS AND NATIONAL
MEDIA: http://www.capwiz.com/kba CALL THE CAPITOL SWITCHBOARD TOLL-FREE
HOTLINES: 800-648-3516, 877-778-9001, 877-762-8762 -- CARA CONTACTS AT NRA -- Susan Lamson, Director of NRA Wildlife and
Conservation Private Office Number: (703) 267-1541 James J. Baker, Executive Director of NRA-ILA NOTE--Baker bears ultimate responsibility for
NRA's backing of CARA. Chuck Cunningham, head of ILA Federal Affairs The Staff runs the NRA. Chris Manthos, employee: cmanthos@nrahq.org
Chuck Cunningham, head of ILA Federal Affairs: chuckc@visi.net
G. Ray Arnett, former Exec VP: usmcwog@earthlink.net
Stephen P. Halbrook: protell@aol.com
| www.stephenhalbrook.com Suzanne LaPierre: suzanne_lapierre@hotmail.com
Suzie Brewster: suzie.brewster@msn.com
Tanya Metaksa: tm@nra.org
| t.metaksa@worldnet.att.net -- General NRA Email Addresses -- NRA: nra-contact@nra.org
| info@nrahq.org or online: www.nrahq.org/contact.asp
NRA-ILA: ila-contact@nrahq.org
| mynraila@nra.org NRA Grassroots: groots@nra.org
|
||||||||