Opinion
USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- An Interview with Anthony Garcia, President of Save the Second.
In my personal opinion, vendors to the NRA learned they could bribe NRA executives and board members with their own money. From trips to Africa to mistresses to sweetheart deals, the management of the NRA became seduced by what was laid at their feet. Now a broke NRA/ILA is laying off staff, and the only one getting rich off the lawsuits are the lawyers.
Enter “Save the Second,” a group dedicated to saving the NRA from itself. They are more than that; they are becoming a meaningful voice for gun rights and an influencer in the 2A community.
You can find them here. www.savethe2a.org
I recently had the opportunity to discuss Save the 2nd and their future with Andy Garcia, their President. I think you’ll find his comments interesting.
The initial reforms the NRA all included calls for Wayne Lapierre to retire. How important is his removal to saving the NRA?
In the end, WLP will need to be removed from the NRA. It’s vital to the reformation of the organization.
The real question is, “how precisely will he be removed?” There are a few ways that can come about. Yes, there’s an officer recall method in the bylaws, but it includes a “good cause” clause, which makes it a more difficult prospect that could end up requiring litigation.
What we would prefer to happen is a fundamental change in the way the NRA operates through reforming the board itself. With a board in place that understands the situation, they can take action and remove LaPierre.
How many individuals do you reach each month?
Between emails, the website, social media, and the podcast, our total reach is nearing 100,000. We believe most are NRA members, as they’re the ones with a stake in this whole thing.
Part of the political success of anti-gun politicians in the last election was due to the absence of the NRA in house campaigns, and their absence turned Virginia into California-East as far as guns are concerned. Do you see the NRA becoming active again for 2020, or should we begin to cultivate other resources?
I think the NRA is going to be dead in the water in 2020. It has too much internal strife and monetary drain, coupled with too many non-renewing members to be effective. This next election will be on us, the American gun owner.
You are using the petition process to institute change, can you describe the term limits initiative and what else do you have planned?
The term limits initiative will limit BoD members to 12 years of total service – consecutive or non-consecutive. We believe it’s vital to keep the board up to date with modern gun culture, rather than allowing people to sit on it for literally decades in some cases.
This initiative will remove most of the board members that are causing the issues that we see currently as well. Most of them comprise the nominating and executive committees.
This petition, like the previous one, will be given to the board to vote on. As such, we expect it will probably be ignored like the previous one. However, we might get surprised and see the board vote for it in a rare moment of lucidity.
If it is ignored, however, we will begin a new campaign around February 1st, 2020 to put both the attendance and term limits questions in front of the membership on the 2021 ballot.
If you are totally successful in reforming our NRA, will you put your organization out of business. Since it is made up of NRA members, how do you feel about that?
If we were completely successful at all of our main goals, I would be extremely pleased. However we would still have a place with the NRA, and it’s members – as a watchdog.
We don’t plan on retiring when this is over, however. There are some great grassroots initiatives that need to be tackled to begin to expand our Second Amendment rights, and we think we’re in a position to do that.
Have you explored using your presence to select and promote new board members through the election process? Before this, it was kind of by invite only.
Yes, we have discussed it. It would be extraordinarily easy for us to do so with our reach among NRA voting members; however we haven’t made a decision yet moving into next year. We’ll make an announcement on that if we decide to do so.
What does the future hold for your organization?
With the NRA, that’s simple – make sure this doesn’t happen again by keeping a keen eye on the organization as every member should. Outside of that, we’d like to move into grassroots work and work in different states to set up chapters similar to MDA, to take that fight to the streets, to the town hall, to the council rooms of legislatures – all with regular people. We’re already working on forming this network.
Thank you, Anthony, We all wish you and you’re fine organization all the best.
Author’s Comments:
I have mixed feelings, I know we need the NRA and its organizational abilities, but I fear they’re gone. When making money off of NRA members became more important than defending the Second the NRA left us.
It is my faith in the American gun owners that keeps us going; no anti-gun presidential candidate was ever elected first time to the office. Dem’s having to lie about who they are to get in. Thankfully they’ve been open about their goals of confiscation firearms this time.
About Don McDougall
Don McDougall is an NRA instructor and member of the Los Padres “Friends of the NRA” committee. If he’s not at the range, you will find him setting the record straight with on gun issues and gun safety on AmmoLand Shooting Sports News.