A better NRA (and I don't mean a "kinder, gentler" one)

As an NRA member, currently paying on a life membership, I am grateful for what the NRA has done for gun rights in this country, but that certainly does not mean that I agree with every move the NRA makes. Their tepid (at best) support for Ron Paul in last November's election, and their enthusiastic support of an expansion of the NICS system are a couple examples of moves on their part that I find utterly incomprehensible.

Basically, as glad as I am for the NRA, I think the organization could better serve the gun community in the U.S. (and thus better serve America in general) if they did some things differently. Lacking the eloquence of L. Neil Smith, rather than try to outline what I think the NRA should do to improve its representation of gun owners, and its defense of the Second Amendment, I will instead ask that anyone who reads this to also read his excellent "Am I the NRA?" essay.

Mr. Smith's NRA would be a lean, mean, Constitution defending machine, with a stripped down bureaucracy and a take no prisoners, no compromise attitude. His NRA would not be beholden to any particular political party--actually, he says this so well, I have to quote it:

ELEVENTH, I'd want the NRA to make endorsements based on the candidate's respect for the Second Amendment, regardless of his affiliation or its estimate of his chances. It's suicidal—if only because it denies us leverage we'd otherwise possess over the Republicans—to say a third party candidate can't win, and on that self-fulfilling basis, withhold endorsement that could give him, and us, a victory. If "NRA" stands for "National Republican Association" let it be said plainly and stop what amounts to a consumer fraud. If not, then if a candidate's unwilling to be photographed for public consumption firing a machine gun, a semiautomatic rifle with a long, curved magazine, or a pistol with a fat, two-column grip, he can't be trusted whatever his affiliation, and shouldn't be endorsed.

I am the NRA (and GOA, and SAF, and CCRKBA), but I would feel better about myself if I were Mr. Smith's NRA.