By Dan Shea
There are a lot of publications that cover general firearms interests and there are many organizations that cover them as well. We have our niche, and for almost 15 years we have stayed true to it. I’ve always known that Small Arms Review had influence nationally and internationally, far beyond our NFA community, because so many of the top echelon of the firearms community are in our community as well as their regular groups. The end users and industry people, as well as the collector and shooter community, avidly read this magazine.
We’ve recently seen that the NFATCA has a similar effect. The NFATCA presence in the firearms community is one of solid, successful, influential activism. We discovered that self-knowledge as part of our work with the larger organizations that have been “guarding the gates” far longer than the NFATCA. We are on equal footing “downtown” with many of them, and the regulatory agencies we deal with know that and treat us as such.
Both of the above are signs of successful planning, hard work, integrity, and general stick-to-it attitudes. In the words of “Captain Jack Sparrow,” we also know the difference between the two things a man must know- what you can do, and what you can not. This comes from decades of shared experience. It’s not that we don’t work towards the big, popular goals; we just understand groundwork and timing. If we pick battles we can win and put our energy into them, and work in the long term towards the bigger picture, we have success for all and make the NFA community a better place one victory at a time. Then, when the opportunity is there, we can move to make paradigm shifts back to the Constitutional intent regarding firearms ownership.
As in the above, we know who we are, and who we are not. We’re not a community with enough draw to have 4 million members in our main organization. Yes, I’m speaking of the NRA. For over 150 years, they’ve been at the front. You can’t say “NRA” in the NFA community without a number of people bringing up the 1986 law that sacrificed machine gun manufacture for private ownership on the altar of other, larger concerns. Well, that’s what we have to deal with, it’s in the past haunting our future. Many of us are either still Life Members or have gone back to being Life Members in the NRA, and right about now, we’re going to be getting our ballots for the NRA Board of Directors.
The ballots will be sent to the NRA voting members in the March issues of the NRA's magazines (American Rifleman, America's 1st Freedom and The American Hunter). Ballots must be received by the NRA not later than 10 April 2011.
Essentially, if you have chosen to stay a voting member of the NRA, here’s your chance to make sure that the interests of the NFA community are represented on the NRA Board of Directors. I was unable to get a list of the Members of the Board that are up for re-election before press-time on this issue, but there is at least one person I know of who is up for re-election that we know is a friend to the NFA community, Mr. Allan D. Cors. I’ve known Allan for what seems like forever; he’s a regular Knob Creeker and SAR West attendee, and he and Tom Nelson, Bob Faris and that crowd of Emma Gees have been “tight” since the 1950s. I know he’s been on the NRA Board since around 1972, and he’s a still, quiet voice of guidance for many of us. His Curriculum Vitae regarding the NRA follows, but you’ll often find him, hands dirty, working on some rare machine gun or tank - enough said. Apply a similar view of other Board Members, and our community will be well represented -Dan
Mr. Allan D. Cors, McLean, Virginia:
- Current NRA Board member.
- Nominated by Nominating Committee.
- Public affairs consultant/lobbyist in Washington, DC.
- Trustee of the NRA Foundation serving seven years as president.
- Active competitive shooter, hunter and avid gun collector who wants to preserve Second Amendment rights for future generations of Americans.
- Principal advocate on NRA Board, along with Congressman John Dingell, for the establishment of NRA’s Political Action Committee.
- Since 1968, active in lobbying the U.S. House and Senate on firearms related issues.
- Member of NRA’s Gun Collectors, Legislative Policy, High Power Rifle and Audit committees.
- Board member of the Civilian Marksmanship Program.
- Selected as a firing member of Virginia State’s 6-man high power rifle team at Camp Perry National Matches, 1966-2004.
- Distinguished Rifleman with President’s 100 awards.
- Founder and Chairman of the National Museum of Americans in Wartime.
- President of the American Society of Arms Collectors.
- Endorsed by the NY State R&P Association.
This article first appeared in Small Arms Review V14N7 (April 2011) |
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