NRAs New President Encourages Fight Against Tyranny, Could Cause Splinter

The NRA has officially entered a new era. Gone are the days where the organization works with the White House to bring about common sense legislation that protects the rights of guns owners as well as the lives of innocent people.? The days of agreeing to work with gun manufacturers to provide safety locks – gone. The days of agreeing that semiautomatics weapons are simply not weapons that the average citizen needs to protect themselves – gone. And the days where a background check is a not a dirty word – gone. This move away from rationality and towards absolutism officially took place on Monday with the swearing in of Jim Porter, the NRAs new president.

James Porter

While those less familiar with the NRA may think Porter is a new face, in truth, he’s been with the organization for decades. His first brush with the NRA began when he interned for an attorney who did work for the NRA. That was about ten years after his father, Irvine Porter, had served as president of the organization from 1959-1961. He’s been on the board for twenty years, and prior to being voted in as president, he served the obligatory terms as second vice president and vice president. In that time he saw his father help to usher in the organization (1977) from moderate to the the extreme agenda we see today. But it’s his legal abilities that have gotten him the coveted spot. Porter served on the NRAs legal affairs committee, which has overseen many of the changes we see today.

Porter’s extreme agenda extends beyond his unrelenting drive to overturn every gun control law in the country. In the past, he’s been unafraid to show his Southern pride. At a meeting in the state of New York, Porter talks about the beginnings of the organization in 1871. He jokes that the ‘Yankees’ of the north were jealous of their southern neighbors’ ability to shoot. There’s light laughter about the poke, but goes in for the kill with his true feeling about his northern neighbors. He explains that as a Southerner, he refers to the Civil War to the War of Northern Aggression.

This is not Porter’s only jab at those who disagree with him or are born north of the Mason Dixon line. He’s called the president a ‘fake’ president, and labeled Attorney General Eric Holder as rabidly anti-American. He didn’t hold back at the NRAs recent annual convention. When he took his turn to speak to the huge crowd, he put a voice to all those who unquestionably believe that the current president is the head of a tyrannical government. Porter echoed the Stand and Fight theme to a smaller group of about 300 people. He said that the fight is not over gun rights, but instead it’s a culture war.

Porter doesn’t plan on being as vocal as he has been lately. He’s going to be working behind the scenes. He’ll surely be pushing more of his “cultural” agenda in the future. If his past is any cue on what he plans to do, the NRA is surely one organization that will split its membership into two camps – Southern pride supporters and survivalists versus responsible and reasonable gun owners. While Porter may think he’s doing this country a favor, there will surely be many lifelong members who decide enough is enough. If his current push isn’t enough, perhaps his desire to get Korean era weapons of war imported for citizen use will do the trick. That sort of move will make the organization crack under its own hypocrisy.

Edited by AEK

Published by CB