The N.R.A.

                                          The N.R.A

  Back in the days when I was a police officer working for the city of Ft. Lauderdale we had to qualify with our pistol annually and the N.R.A was the qualifying agent for our department.  The N.R.A. had set the standards for police combat shooting and in fact set the standards for most departments for the State of Florida.  My weapon was a Colt Python 357 magnum revolver, yes I am dating myself as an old-timer using a revolver instead of the semi-automatic pistols that the police carry today. Carrying a revolver back then was a lot more challenging then the firearms the police carry today. First of all, when you carry a revolver you are limited to just 6 shots at a time compared to 17 with a semi-automatic pistol. In our training  we had to use "speed loaders" to reload and most officers carried two speed loaders, that's 18 rounds total. Today's police officer can carry up to 49 rounds, 17 rounds in a loaded firearm and 32 rounds in two magazines.  It required some skills under combat simulations to reload quickly with a revolver.  Part of the combat course was that we had to run (timed) around the shooting course and then take up a position to shoot at a silhouette target. The running was to simulate the stress of a shootout with rapid heart rate and breathing, of course this made it a lot harder to shoot accurately. We would have to shoot right hand barricade, 6 shots, reload, shoot left hand barricade, 6 shots, reload and then shoot 6 more kneeling.  All of this was timed. This was a lot more challenging then the qualifying I had done previously in the U.S. Army as a military policeman and I qualified, "Expert" then. I took my shooting skills very seriously as they were important tools in my line of work and would later save my life and the life of others.  To become a "Master Shooter" you had to qualify on the N.R.A police combat course with a score of 97 out of 100 three times in a row.  I became a "Master Shooter" for the City of Ft. Lauderdale Police Department.

       I joined the N.R.A. and proudly displayed my membership sticker on my vehicle. I always felt that the N.R.A stood by law enforcement and provided firearm safety education for citizen's and young people.  My training came in to play on July 14th, 1985 when I drove up on a situation of a man holding a Ruger 44 magnum pistol pointing it at the head of a women.  The bad guy saw me and took a shot at me and my police training kicked in and I returned fire striking his firearm and knocking it out of his hand. Now I wish I could say that I aimed at his pistol but I actually was aiming at his chest trying to kill him, lucky for him my angle was such that his pistol was in front stopping the bullet from hitting him.

    
    This would be one of several shootouts in my career that I would be involved in and I was always grateful for my training that the N.R.A. was apart of. 

    Then around 1995 Wayne LaPeierre of the N.R.A. made the following statement in a
solicitation letter:

"If you have a badge, you have the government's go-ahead to harass, intimidate, even murder law-abiding citizens." The letter signed by, N.R.A. Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre and went on to state, "Not too long ago, it was unthinkable for federal agents wearing Nazi bucket helments and black storm trooper uniforms to attack law-abiding citizens. Not today."

                                                       N.R.A.'s  Wayne LaPierre

    Wayne Lapierre went on to use the term, "Jack-Booted Government Thugs" in describing federal A.T.F. officers.  Another N.R.A. member who just happened to be the President of the United States at the time, George Bush, resigned his lifetime membership to the N.R.A. stating, "Your broadside against federal agents deeply offends my own sense of
decency and honor, and it offends my concept of service to country,
"Bush wrote to NRA president Thomas Washington in a letter. "It indirectly slurs a wide array of government law-enforcement officials, who are out there, day and night, laying their
lives on the line for all of us."

    I too felt the same way and never renewed my N.R.A. membership.  Since this time I have learned that the N.R.A. is nothing more then an advocate for the firearm industry and this can be proven by the fact that Mr. Wayne LaPierre went on record before a House Committee stating that he and the N.R.A. were in favor of comprehensive background checks for the purchase of firearms only to now be against comprehensive background checks to purchase a firearm.  LaPierre's past thoughts and statements are a threat to all law enforcement officers and provoke this anti American government fever to take arms up against our government. The only "Jack Booted Thug" I see, is Wayne LaPierre...