Seriously, what’s the point of being certified for anything by the NRA? Does GOA have an equivalent? Does anyone care anymore? Some ranges used to require a NRA membership. Does anyone know of any ranges that still have this requirement?

I don't see your point other than you don't like the NRA.

My range requires an NRA membership to join and renew your membership!

NRA is one of the state sanctioned "blanket" training certifications permitting you to give training for CWL purposes. It is specifically mentioned in the Dep. of Ag. Rules for certified trainers. Others are the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission (FDLE), the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and other state sponsored training courses.

That means that the NRA is the only private certification for giving CWL training. All others are connected to the State of Florida.

In addition, when I was a member up at Eustis, NRA membership (not training certification) was required for membership.

I don't think the NRA is dead, but I don't see them as being as active as they were in the past. This may be a matter of new management finding its feet, or it may be that the Wayne Exit coupled with a bunch of high profile suits against the NRA itself (New York, for example) caused a significant drop in membership and corporate sponsorship and the $ aren't what they once were.

I'm a NRA Endowment life member and continue to be disappointed. The NRA continues to be poorly run with ~41% of their budget going towards their supposed core missions and objectives. The big 3 in this area are:

~11% goes toward Firearm Education and Training. Instructor certs (i.e. the OP's query) is under this umbrella.

~8% goes towards grants (shooting clubs, youth programs, etc)

~6% goes to NRA-ILA. They have abdicated gun rights to numerous other groups (GOA, FPC, SAF, and state organizations such as TSRA), and is now more of an 8-lb newborn gorilla instead of the 800-lb gorilla it used to be.

The above pales in comparison their non-core business budget with the big 3 being:

~21% being legal expenses

~18% being administrative

~16% being member communications

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Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.

quote:

Does GOA have an equivalent?

The NRA is “dead” in what way?

To answer the specific question, it’s important to my agency that I am an NRA-certified law enforcement handgun and patrol rifle instructor, and that I keep my certifications current. The law enforcement instructor development program is complicated (to say the least), and the fact that we can’t readily say, “Yes, organization XYZ has a similar program,” is an answer to that question in itself.

Anyone who has paid the slightest attention knows that the NRA has had some significant problems in recent years, but it’s also obvious that they are trying to make a comeback. Unlike the organizations whose only purpose is to work to retain our gun rights, the NRA does a lot of other things as well.

I don’t see them ever being the 600 pound gorilla again. Greed screwed that up. Wayne and Benedict Arnold aren’t much different in regard to what they did for Americans. The difference being that Benedict was a tactical genius. Wayne is just a garden variety shitbag, and his board was complicit. Adios.

The NRA died to me during Trumps first term. They could have got so much done but were completely absent advocating for our rights. As soon as Biden became president, they got their fires lit and were asking for donations to preserve our rights knowing little to nothing would be done.

Meanwhile, GOA was getting stuff done.

They offered scam insurance like Carry Guard concealed carry insurance which was a total grift.

I’d like to see a legit organization replace safety training and such instead of feeding the grifters. I’d really have a problem if I had to hold an NRA membership to be part of a gun range.

PS. Benedict also invested his personal wealth trying to create this great country. Congress failed to reimburse him. Wayne stuck it in the ass of every American citizen.

I’ll leave this by pointing out that decades ago long before anyone heard of LaPierre it was common for the Goldilocks crowd among gun owners to find things they didn’t like about the NRA as a way to justify not being members themselves. They benefited from what the NRA had done but without any expense to themselves.

If it hadn’t been for the (American) NRA, we would have the same firearms ownership “rights” they enjoy in the UK, Canada, and Australia, to name a few, and if even those. Is it legitimate to ask, “Okay, that was then, this is now, what have you done for me recently?” Yes, but if the answer isn’t totally to your satisfaction, the end of the NRA will benefit American gun owners in absolutely no way. The Gun Owners of America, the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, the Colorado Shooting Sports Association, or any other organization I can imagine will not take its place.

I would disagree that the NRA is anywhere near "dead." Yes, the LaPierre scandal made many of our long-standing members disgusted, but the organization still has great credibility with the average uninformed citizen who may not be as engaged in 2A issues as we are. I see this when I volunteer at the NRA table at gun shows. We are often set up right beside the VCDL table. Almost every attendee knows who the NRA is and what they stand for, I cannot say the same about VCDL.

For perspective, I volunteered at the VCDL table for over 20 years, and the initial approach to an interested party could not have been more different.

I would ask politicians which 2A rights organization give them the most concern. The NRA probably has a greater power to direct votes than any other national organization.

As far as training goes, many jurisdictions consider NRA training to be the gold standard. For example, being an NRA certified instructor is considered sufficient to absolve a State-provided training course as a requirement for obtaining a MD QHIC (Qualified Handgun Instructor Certificate). I am sure that there are other States that regard NRA training equivalently.

Finally, the NRA supports many fine programs in the training arena such as the Women on Target, and Refuse to be a Victim programs. I have worked both of these events, and have observed that they engender a level of engagement among a cohort that has not traditionally been interested in firearms, and self-protection.

They may not be perfect, but they do pull quite a bit of weight in more than a few areas. I think that a better mindset for NRA members (and members of other organizations) would be to adopt the "we are the NRA" perspective and lobby for desired changes within the organization rather than using their objections as an excuse to avoid dues and contributions.

The NRA's training division is still active and useful for providing a national baseline standard for firearms training. They also provide liability insurance to gun ranges, which is one of the main reasons that many private clubs require NRA membership as a prerequisite to club membership. The organization still fills some important roles, even if their political arm and management have become a sham.

My club also requires NRA membership to join or renew.

I’m NRA Lifer, but requiring NRA membership to join a range? Nope. Screw them.

NRA Range Safety Officer (RSO). It's a cred I use for teaching hunter ed and an annual event where this year we introduced 2,250 women to shooting a handgun over 2 days. I will renew it again this year. Also NRA Benefactor Life member.

In many circumstances ( certain clubs, sanctioned competitions and in some jurisdictions recognized as one of credentials required to host various training leading to CCW licensing) NRA certification still is considered an important credential

I fully agree the LaPierre debacle really hurt an organization that was at the forefront for over a century of the second amendment advocacy movement.more recent upstarts have seemingly Carried the torch more effectively in recent years.
Between gun related organizations both from a political 2A advocacy standpoint plus the various competitive organizations ( USPSA ICORE etc) state associations and for me the various national and state level professional organizations these myriad memberships are all competing for my hard earned dollars for dues. I got fed up with all of it and dialed back significantly

I asked this question because I can't keep up with all gun issues in the hopes that someone here that does keep up can educate me.

I'm open to changing my opinion if others in the know can fill me in on things I don't know about.

So perhaps a revised question would be: Is the NRA trying or succeeding to redeem itself as a legit organization post WLP?

Tony.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
I’m NRA Lifer, but requiring NRA membership to join a range? Nope. Screw them.

To each their own, but my club provides me with a range that I can use almost 24/7, I typically can get a bay to myself, can move and shoot, draw from the holster, shoot as fast as I want, collect my own brass (and any other I can find), and generally do what I want without an R/O Nazi breathing down my neck. There are a basic set of rules that are reasonable and we're just expected to adhere to them like adults. If paying $125 to the NRA every 5 years helps them get reasonably-priced insurance so they can maintain that environment, I'll happily pay it.

GOA and FPC get my support and have for some time now. I don’t see enough coming out of the NRA to give them my money.

NRA,

as in Negotiating Rights Away has slipped, as mentioned, significantly in regards to actually lobbing for gun rights etc,


here in VA they dropped the ball, more than once, statewide,



I am also a Life Member, up until a few years ago, my club required you to be an NRA member (that stopped when Pierre got caught0



as far as a plus, they (NRA) do a good job managing the sports side of hte house, as in scores, and individual classifications for various disciplines,

the magazine, (I get American Rifleman) is basically a big waste of time,
I generally just take if from teh mailbox, flip thru to see if there is anything of interest, and then toss in the recycling,

GOA, VCDL and a few other groups have done more in the past 5 yrs than the NRA has done, rights wise, in probably 15,