NRA Sells Out the First Amendment

As an NRA life member, it is difficult for me to concede that characterizations of the NRA as incompetent and self-serving are charitable and that the reality may be much worse. The NRA operated for many years as a bulwark of American freedom, focusing mainly on protecting the Second Amendment from statist predation. Unfortunately, in addition to the NRA’s documented failures to protect and defend the Second Amendment, the NRA has now been co-opted by the radical left into a plot against the First Amendment.

The dishonestly named “DISCLOSE” act is an attempt by leftist to rebuild many of the same statutes which the United States Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in last years Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision. In addition, the DISCLOSE act will directly prohibit a great deal of political speech that was legal even before the Supreme Court’s decision.

Prior to that decision, corporations and unions were free to speak about politicians, without specifically advocating their election or defeat, except for the thirty days immediately preceding a primary or the sixty days immediately preceding a general election. The DISCLOSE Act, however, defines thousands of both nonprofit and for-profit organizations as “government contractors” and prohibits them from mentioning a politician for a period starting ninety days before the primary and extending through the general election. In states with early primaries, this would put deny the First Amendment rights of many Americans for a full year before an election. In presidential elections, the blackout will start 120 days before the New Hampshire primary and extend through the general election.

This bill would be an incredible gift to incumbent officeholders by almost preventing discussion of their failures or of the merits of unknown candidates. In addition, this bill does not place any limits on the abilities of labor unions to campaign — limits which were in place before the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision. In effect, the Democrats are crafting a law which limits free speech to their own supporters.

While attempting to push this bill through congress, the leftists discovered that they could not pass this bill due to opposition from moderate “Blue Dog” Democrats. The issue turned upon opposition to the bill from the NRA. The NRA supports many moderate Democrats and these congressmen were afraid to lose their NRA backing.

The leftists came up with a truly creative proposal. They changed the wording of the bill to exempt the NRA and other large organizations. In effect, the bill will now remove the freedom of speech only from the small and the weak. The change exempts “organizations which have qualified as having tax exempt status under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code for each of the 10 years prior to making a campaign-related disbursement, that had 500,000 or more dues-paying members in the prior calendar year, that had members in each of the 50 states, that received no more than 15 percent of their total funding from corporations or labor organizations, and that do not use any corporate or union money to pay for their campaign-related expenditures.” As John Stossel quipped “Apparently, only the small and new interest groups are a threat to democracy.”

This change was made specifically to exempt the NRA from the law. As a result, the NRA appears to have dropped it’s opposition to the law. This is unconscionable and I will never give another dollar to the NRA. The Bill of Rights has ten amendments and the First is no less important than the Second.

NRA Board Member Cleta Mitchell strongly criticized the deal in the Washington Post:

…the NRA has, sadly, affirmed the notion held by congressional Democrats (and some Republicans), liberal activists, the media establishment and, at least for now, a minority on the Supreme Court that First Amendment protections are subject to negotiation. The Second Amendment surely cannot be far behind.

After the Citizens United ruling, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre wrote “This is a defeat for arrogant elitists who wanted to carve out free speech as a privilege for themselves and deny it to the rest of us.” Apparently Wayne doesn’t worry about our free speech being protected — as long as his is. Gun Owners of America criticized this brazen self-serving cowardice, writing “Apparently it’s ok to ‘carve out’ a little free speech if you’re in the role of the ‘elitists.’ But the misguided NRA exemption will leave millions and millions of gun owners and sportsmen belonging to dozens of different organizations out in the cold.”