Just tell them to stop calling you.

You can adjust your contact options somewhere and that should take care of the calls. When I get to a computer I'll see if I can't find where it is for you. I haven't gotten call one in the last two years however I do get emails and the occasional letter mail.

Gosh, why did I think of that?

Of course I told them. It didn't stop. At one point, I got a call every single day (except Sunday) for 2 weeks straight. 6:00am on a Saturday even! I told them repeatedly, if they didn't stop calling I would cancel my membership. You know what they did....they called the next day, and the next. I never cancelled, I just didn't renew until today because I want to support the cause (obviously).

Just tell them to stop calling you.

I had let my membership lapse because I was tired of the non-stop calls asking for more money. I understand why they do it, but I got too many early morning calls waking me up and I got pissed.

However, I renewed my membership today. I hope they pay attention to the time difference from now on.

I'm not a member because the NRA can't just keep it about firearms.

Crap like the latest "godless left" rant from Dana Loesch is why I stay away. I'm an atheist and rational person and very much in favour of gun rights, but evidentially I am not welcome in the NRA since I am "godless" and part of the war on Christmas because I support the Constitution.

Consequently I don't agree the NRA is one of the best advocates - because their unnecessary pandering to a stereotypical GOP/Christian Conservative base drives many people like me away.

Lack of growth will kill gun rights more than anything - and younger people are overwhelmingly secular. Alienating them is counterproductive.

$0.02

The problem is you still have not answered the question even though you state you did. You say you don't agree with something about them but can't remember what it is. What kind of an answer is that? This is a rhetorical question. The answer is that it is NOT an answer to say I don't remember what I disagree with them about but I disagreed with something.    Tell us the REAL reason. A true explanation would include the real reason you disagree with them. Otherwise all you are doing is posting to see yourself post. So far all you have said in a nutshell is you are not a member. You have not told us WHY which has to include the reason WHY. Not you forgot the reason. I don't care what the reason is, I just want to know WHY. Which have yet to state because you can't remember.

And who would it be more meaningful to? Do you really think anyone here or NRA/HRA really cares where the money comes from? (as long as it is not obtained illegally) It is meaningless who writes the check. 

So I offer you a free membership in the NRA and the HRA. That way you can take the next year to figure out what it is you disagree with them about and can decide if you want to renew your memberships. Merry Christmas! 

I did mention that I am generally pretty frugal (humorous examples available if needed)

But let me explain the one you seem to be focusing on. Take someone that you met a few times and ended up not liking because of your interaction. Now lets say 15 years pass and someone asks you about that individual. You might not be able to recall exactly what the person said that made you not like them but you remember that you did not like them. That is where I am. One instance that is a little more specific is that my father, who is a firearms enthusiast and a former police officer was not happy with one or more of the things the NRA was pushing some time ago. I do not recall the exact details of what made him irritated at the NRA but it left an impression on me.

Does that make more sense?

And to oldfart., yes I shoot all of my firearms, even the black powered pistol, though only twice with that one since its not the most user friendly piece.

I did mention that I am generally pretty frugal (humorous examples available if needed)

But let me explain the one you seem to be focusing on. Take someone that you met a few times and ended up not liking because of your interaction. Now lets say 15 years pass and someone asks you about that individual. You might not be able to recall exactly what the person said that made you not like them but you remember that you did not like them. That is where I am. One instance that is a little more specific is that my father, who is a firearms enthusiast and a former police officer was not happy with one or more of the things the NRA was pushing some time ago. I do not recall the exact details of what made him irritated at the NRA but it left an impression on me.

Does that make more sense?

And to oldfart., yes I shoot all of my firearms, even the black powered pistol, though only twice with that one since its not the most user friendly piece.

At the beginning of Dana's "The Godless Left" video, it has this:



Also, the "The Godless Left" video has only been up for three days.  I find it difficult to see how this video influenced your decision.

I've not seen any other God-oriented videos on the NRA the last couple of years.  Maybe I missed them, but I usually try to keep up.

Did you watch the video and pay attention to the words?  It's more about the Left attacking the First Amendment's protections to  practice one's religion.  They attacked Twitter users for calling for prayer following the San Bernardino attack.

Nobody is trying to be unwelcoming of you and your beliefs.  Atheism is a belief system as well, you just believe there is no God. 

If your negative emotional reaction to some of the commentaries are keeping you from joining, I guess there aren't any logical arguments that will help change your  opinion.

I cannot speak for my fellow 2A members. I can only speak for myself. I am an Atheist. I do not believe in God. But I am also a realist. Being a realist for me means I live in in America and I am an American. Being American to me is multifaceted in that I have to balance my belief system with the culture of this country. This country was founded and based on religious beliefs.

Our laws and justice system are all based on religious beliefs.

I cannot change that nor will I try. I accept it. It is far from perfect but it is the best system in the world IMHO. While I do not celebrate Christian nor Jewish holidays I do what I believe an American should do and I get into the spirit of the holidays. Not because I am expected to or because of any religious reason. Because Christmas is an American holiday. And I identify myself as American. We get a day off (I get paid, too) from work. We decorate everything with tinsel and balls and lights in red and white. We created a fictitious non religious character called Santa Claus as part of the holiday celebration. It is a great time of the year to be happy and cheerful and visit and celebrate with family and friends. To me, that is what Americans do whether they are Christian, Catholic, LDS, Jewish, Agnostic or Atheist. Maybe my priorities are screwed up? Maybe I don't want to allow myself to be insulted by those who try and alienate me by associating me with the godless left? I don't like allowing others to upset me or get under my skin or insult me. Maybe I am burying my head in the sand? Maybe I am a bad Atheist? Who knows? All I know is I am a happy, well adjusted American with lots of friends and family and I don't believe in god. And I accept and love my family and friends who are religious even though they are misguided. JK

So here is how I look at those who put me into the same box as the godless left. I look at them as being ignorant. Not stupid or dumb, just uninformed. I am only alienated from people and their remarks if I allow myself to be alienated. I choose not to allow myself to be alienated from those who are ignorant about such things because I believe the NRA does a greater good. I do believe the NRA is powerful because the godless left is terrified of the NRA and is constantly trying to attack them.

The point to all of this is that you have a choice to allow yourself to be alienated or not. Or to be insulted or not. It all depends on how you want to take and look at this world and the people in it. Maybe the religious people are wrong? And us Atheists are right. It accomplishes nothing to argue about it nor does it accomplish anything to not support those groups that fight for your 2A rights. It is easier to do nothing than to write a check. JMHO 

No it was just an example - I was pretty surprised by this video - my point was mostly about the NRA getting involved in things that are just stupid and have nothing to do with guns.

I don't really buy the disclaimer. That's lawyerball bullshit. It says NRA News. They have an editorial process to review this. That means someone at the NRA said "yeah let's push this out with our name".

And it's par for the course. There have been all sorts of bigoted comments by board members in the past like Nugent (basically anything he says) and Cotton when he said something to the effect of too bad we lost the civil war. I don't recall seeing the NRA come out to denounce them. I do understand the difference between an official organisational announcement and the ones by its prominent members - but in the real world they will be seen as the same. If you're a public figure and a board member or representing them in media that's just how it works.

 

Except they weren't attacking their right to free speech - they were mocking people who said that praying would accomplish anything. I happen to think praying is pointless except making the person doing it feel better - but I also think the NY Daily News is trash - but ask yourself - does this response (rant) from Loesch advance gun rights? I don't think so. It just registers as another "looney gun nut" in the 20second sound bite media environment. And that's harmful.

I wouldn't go that far. It's not like I expect an organisation to be perfect and never do anything that will piss me off - I just am not a fan of how the NRA manages its media narrative and I believe it is overall counterproductive.

I mean Ted Nugent? Really?

I believe it's been in slow decline since the 80s when they became more aligned with conservative movement and moved away from a predominantly sporting organisation (not that I believe sporting is the only reason for firearms).

Nope. It wasn't founded on religious beliefs - that's why there's no mention of it in the constitution (apart from religious freedom). This "Christian nation" myth is a huge retcon from the late 19th century and red scare of the 50s when the motto was changed to "in God we trust". Nothing to do with founders who were very skeptical of organised religion.

I understand what you mean though - which is to say this is a country full of folks with a strong Christian tradition. But as I was saying,  this is changing (look at how many milennials are religious). I really believe that the biggest threat to gun rights are people who don't recognise the value in guns. People don't freak out over auto deaths because they see value in driving. Anything that pushes away people is negative.
Certainly Christianity has played a strong role in the foundation of English Common Law (which came over with the Normans if I recall). However I would point to the fact that we have never had ecclesiastical courts in any widespread way to mostly disagree with this. Even in England they had separate courts. So while there are some roots I don't find this a strong argument.

Oh I don't care about most of that crap. I have a Christmas tree at my desk. I was playing Christmas songs today. I'm not hypersensitive to most things - I simply recognise the power of strategic communication and think the NRA is playing a losing short game vice a winning long one. They need to embrace young people who are increasingly secular. Every time some clown like Loesch or Nugent opens their mouth about shit that has nothing to do with promoting the how and why of responsible ownership - that's one fewer gun owner. One fewer person who thinks guns are useful. One more person who will automatically see a scary black rifle and say - yeah let's ban those - I can't see why we'd need them?

I don't think we are in much disagreement. I just have a different perspective (probably because of my career field). I personally don't care what (insert NRA rep) says - I care that there is an end state they are working towards and that they are pursuing it competently - I see the opposite.

Well, the frugal part has been nullified as I am willing to pay for your membership in both groups.

And it really does not make any sense to me. I am with MD on this one. If you spent a couple of minutes researching the NRA on the Internet to try and remember what it is that is soooooooo bad that you cannot bring yourself to allow me to pay for your membership instead of the time you have taken to respond to and think about your answers here you would have more credibility here. But the fact is you still refuse to answer the question and you are refusing to spend even a few minutes to go out to the NRA website to refresh your memory. And by the way, you have not made a statement as to why you refuse to join the HRA. Oh, wait, let me guess. You can't remember why.

I call BS. I think you are lying here. You are just making this stuff up as you go along. Unlike you, I am a stand up sort of person. My offer still stands. And if your next post in this thread accepts my offer I will pay for your membership to the HDF as well. Merry Christmas from an Atheist.

Your little anecdotal analogy tells me one thing:  you can't remember the "why" because it wasn't worth remembering.  I bet you were mistaken in your opinion and conclusion, but since you can't remember the details, you are now acting on the age-old fallback reasoning of, "Because that's the way it's always been."

If you put as much effort into learning about the NRA (I mean actually learning and not taking what someone tells you at face value) as you do explaining that you can't remember why you didn't join, you'd have figured out your original impression was bogus, join the organization, and just admit you were mistaken.

But I guess arguing is more fun ....

Why would I lie?

Only you can answer this question truthfully. Why ask me?

If I was hiding something then why would I even respond?

Because you are either a very misguided person trying to enlighten 2A people who are much more enlightened than you, or you are a TROLL!!!

What question am I refusing to answer?

Why do you refuse to stay on point here? I have only asked one question and that is WHY ARE YOU NOT GOING TO JOIN THE NRA? And your NON ANSWER has always been "I forgot" "I don't remember" "It was something I felt my dad say" Whatever you are saying here it is rubbish and a NON ANSWER.

 I explained why I haven't joined yet.

Why do you lie like this? Your answer is I forgot. That is not an answer.

You not liking my answer is not refusing to answer.

It is not a matter of whether I like your answer or not. I really don't care what your answer is. I just want an answer. A REAL answer. You have not answered me yet. I forgot is not an answer.

Furthermore you claim I haven't even taken time to go to the website to research the NRA yet I clearly mentioned the free bag one gets by joining, so either you didn't read my post, or you failed to put 2 and 2 together.

So you admit you went to the website and are still refusing to let us all know why you disagree with the NRA? This is the most moronic statement I have seen you say here.

As for the HRA, I don't know the differences between the HRA and the HDF. I don't know if one is more applicable, if they are redundant, and thus whether to join one or both.

Well then JOIN!!!! I will pay for it right now!!! DO IT!!! You have no answer to my question about the HRA. Then you have no reason NOT to join.

You admit you have been to the NRA site since this started and still refuse to answer my question with anything other than a non answer. It is obvious to me you are lying and/or hiding something here. Why do you refuse to just tell everyone what the specific reason is that you don't want to join the NRA? Is it that your girlfriend won't let you? Is it that you really not a 2A person at all and here to TROLL us? Tell us what the real reason is and remove all doubt. I don't see what is so hard about such a small little thing? What are you hiding from us?

It is obvious to me and to others here you are doing nothing more than bobbing and weaving, backpedaling, not being honest and truthful and making excuses. Are you that oblivious to how this all looks to everyone on the Internet? Or maybe you are just a TROLL? Until you answer my one and only question, I vote for TROLL. But I have to admit you are the best TROLL I have seen on a forum!