2006 NRA Board Candidate Questionnaire

NRA Board of Director elections are upon us again. If you're a voting member and have complete faith in "The Winning Team," there's no need to read further--just mark your ballots with any of up to 26 of the 29 Nominating Committee recommendations.

If you have concerns about the direction current management has taken the organization, if their method of assigning political ratings seems less than straightforward, if you believe we should repeal, rather than enforce existing gun laws, if you are troubled by perceived compromises, and if you share the concerns of many in the gun community over "Project Exile" and its spin-offs, perhaps you'll want to see how candidates would answer the following questions before giving them your support.

Ballots are due back no later than April 30, so there's not a lot of time to elicit responses, nor can I find a centralized resource to communicate with these candidates so we can learn more about them than the brief bios printed in the magazine.

It probably doesn't matter--I do this as an exercise to demonstrate what I think an involved and activist membership should be demanding--I don't really expect this to be more than a curiosity among a handful of ornery dissenters like me.

And the world keeps on spinnin'.

Let me know if you can get any to respond.

1. Do you believe that the Constitution is the "supreme law of the land" and that the Bill of Rights acknowledges the birthrights of all Americans?

2. If so, should these rights be proactively protected from infringement by all levels of government, including city, county and state?

3. Please give some examples of gun laws you consider constitutional.

4. Please give some examples of gun laws you consider unconstitutional.

5. Does the right to bear arms include the right for any peaceable citizen to carry them concealed without a permit, as in Vermont?

6. Do you believe that Americans have a right to own, use and carry weapons of military pattern?

7. Do you support or oppose Project Exile, and do you agree with current NRA management’s call to “enforce existing gun laws”?

8. Do you support or oppose licensing requirements to own or carry firearms? Why?

9. What specific gun laws will you work to get repealed?

10. If elected to the NRA Board, will you back your words of support for firearms rights up with consistent actions? How?

11. Do you agree with the way NRA assigns political ratings? If not, what would you change and why? Who would you have given a different rating to, what would it been and why?

12. Do you disagree with any policies being promulgated by NRA management? What is you biggest area of dissent? Have you offered superior alternatives and worked with others to implement them?

13. Have you ever publicly spoken out against an NRA position because you thought it was wrong? When, where, and what were the results?

14. What reforms do you think are needed at NRA and why?

15. If elected, how will you inform members of your performance and voting record? Will you let us know when you dissent and why?