In District 29B NRA endorses.... John Bohanan?

OEH · Sep 30, 2014

In District 29B NRA endorses.... John Bohanan?
Huh? Are you kidding? :shocking:

I called NRA ILA and asked what that was all about and was told that both candidates have an A rating and NRA ILA has an incumbent friendly policy.
I also got a bunch of bull$hit about how it was probably a hard decision, MD is so far gone that the courts are our only remedy, sometimes politics is putting lipstick on a pig, yada yada, yada. Well, how the hell are we supposed to change the legislature if NRA is going to endorse "paper 2A" incumbents? The impression I got from the phone conversation was that Big Daddy NRA knows best and didn't care what their members or Bohanan's constituents had to say about this decision.
I let him know that I appreciated the efforts of Shannon and the NRA in MD but that I thought that they screwed this one up.

For the record I am still supporting NRA and NRA ILA for "the big picture".

helmetmike · Sep 30, 2014

I likewise called NRA-ILA and asked WTF. Got the same answer and was less than happy with them. I told them they needed to contact Shannon and get the real lowdown on Bohanan. They said they would look into it. Again I felt less than happy with where that would go. One thing is for certain, if the NRA endorses the likes of John Bohanan, they need to revise their rating criteria or forget about me supporting them. True, Shannon's efforts are commendable but this rating of candidates is BS. It's bad enough we have to get screwed by scum politicians but to have our own "Rights" Organization stick it to us is a bitter pill.

Streetgang · Sep 30, 2014

Call them, call them until they get sick of hearing us. They don't know what they're doing here. They need to know the local politics of the issues.

AC MkIII · Oct 1, 2014

What about these guys?
http://www.nationalgunrights.org
I have been getting emails from them but don't know much about them.
Anyone have the low down on them?

Tomcat · Oct 1, 2014

I saw this the other day and looked into it. http://www.mdshooters.com/showthread.php?t=161153

I then went to here: http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmMain.aspx?pid=billpage&stab=02&id=sb0281&tab=subject3&ys=2013rs

Scroll all the way to the bottom for the House voting record on ammendments.

It looks like John Bo played the party thing through out the SB281 hearings. Out of the 36 ammendments he did not vote on 13 of them (mostly the ones that would have done some good) voted the party line on 10 of them and voted with Delegate Mike and others on 13 of them (mostly meaningless punctuation and definations) In the end he was allowed by the Governor to vote against the bill since the Democraps already had enough votes. :mad54:

Kinda hard to tell the NRA he's a bad guy when it looks like he really covered his a$$ well on this. Maybe telling them he's on Steny Hoyer's (F rating) staff might help.

Streetgang · Oct 1, 2014

Call NRA ILA! I called today and got the same answers as OEH. The guy said he was from MD and it's the way they score. He seemed surprised when I told him he was one of Steny Hoohah's minions but wouldn't budge from the party line. He did say he would tell our MD lobbyists.

Johnny bo must GO!

bonehead · Oct 1, 2014

Yep

Johnny Bo needs to get a real job. He and Steny disgust me well any effin career politician disgusts me. But that's just my opinion.

navycraig · Oct 1, 2014

Trouble is, it's already done, NRA will not change their ratings at this point and JB will play it for all it's worth.
This sucks for Deb...and us.

deMontjoie · Oct 1, 2014

hitwtom said:
In the end he was allowed by the Governor to vote against the bill since the Democraps already had enough votes.

Kinda hard to tell the NRA he's a bad guy when it looks like he really covered his a$$ well on this.

Tom is exactly right on this point. When several of us met with John-Boh in his office down in Lex Park shortly after SB281 was proposed, we mentioned this very possibility -- that John might fail to stand against SB281 but would vote against it at the last minute only if the DEMs already had more than enough votes and he got permission from Miller/Busch. We told him that we would no longer be fooled by such games. Let's confirm that fact on November 4th. :thumbsup:

The NRA is a victim of its own rules. They publish rules for endorsements and grading that are designed to influence the behavior of legislators. They cannot ignore their own rules without losing credibility. But no set of rules can be all-encompassing and politicians are often sneaky, slimy bastard-lawyers who can game pretty-much any set of rules. :sad20:

Deb Rey did get an A rating from NRA which is nearly unheard of for a challenger. Normally the best that challengers can get is an AQ. She likely got the upgrade from working with us during our fight against SB281.

hitwtom said:
Maybe telling them he's on Steny Hoyer's (F rating) staff might help.

Yes, YES!, YESSS!!!! So many folks who I talk to are completely clueless about John-Boh being Steny's senior staff advisor. When they hear this fact, many of them are appalled at the obvious conflict of interest for John-Boh. Folks down here in St. Mary's don't like Steny.

OEH · Oct 1, 2014

hitwtom said:
Maybe telling them he's on Steny Hoyer's (F rating) staff might help.

Part of our "conversation" was that John worked in Steny's office on capitol hill for his day job. He didn't seem impressed. What really annoyed me was how he dug in his heels and wouldn't admit that they screwed the pooch on this one. Short term we need to get word out for Deb, long term we need to work through Shannon or someone at ILA to get better endorsements next time.

helmetmike · Oct 2, 2014

navycraig said:
Trouble is, it's already done, NRA will not change their ratings at this point and JB will play it for all it's worth.
This sucks for Deb...and us.

Absolutely. JB's wife made a point of telling me yesterday that "John got endorsed by the NRA." :mad54:

Brian Hastings · Oct 2, 2014

JB was a neighbor of mine and I cannot say that he has ever been firearm friendly. Gotta disagree with the NRA on this one.

Had a nice chat with Mary at the Riverfest Saturday. She's his best asset.

Still gonna vote for Deb.

Gunny1998 · Oct 3, 2014

Some of you - maybe most of you - may not like what you're about to read, and I can respect that. But it's my perspective ....

I'm just about fed up with the NRA/NRA ILA leadership's Pro 2A **** ups and subsequent ******** excuses for them. This "blind" endorsement for Bohanan is just the recent sample - remember in June when Chris Cox condemned the open carry protests in Texas - only to retract it three days later? (I could go on listing them, but that would be redundant).

Then there's their blatant absence in the fight against SB281. Now some may argue that, saying they were there, but their presence was cursory at best. Salt in that wound is now, barely a year later, they endorse Bohanan? WTF-over?

They constantly pump members to contribute to fight one cause or another - but do you really know where your money goes? (first sign of mishandling is the lavish offices they occupy ... seen them?) .. but what have they done for you in the state of Maryland?

The NRA has become the Rev. Al Sharpton of the Pro 2A arena. They pump you for money for every conceivable cause .... but only attach themselves to the ones that get them national attention.

Unlike Al Sharpton, the NRA leadership isn't COMPLETELY useless - yet. But they are certainly headed in that direction.

deMontjoie · Oct 3, 2014

Gunny1998 said:
Unlike Al Sharpton, the NRA leadership isn't COMPLETELY useless - yet. But they are certainly headed in that direction.

I share many of your frustrations with the NRA, although not quite as strongly.

What is the alternative, in your opinion? I value your thoughts and am asking this in all sincerity:

Gun Owners of America?

JPFO?

Firearms Coalition Hard Corps?

IMHO, the root problem is an ignorant, passive, unintelligent electorate. How in the heck do we fix this?

Gunny1998 · Oct 3, 2014

deMontjoie said:
What is the alternative, in your opinion? I value your thoughts and am asking this in all sincerity

I'm sorry to say I really don't have a good answer for you. I don't know enough about the other organizations you mention - and in that would be concerned they don't have the juice to effect change (or won't end up the same as the NRA if they do grow to that magnitude).

I suppose it's a "devil you know" scenario - for now.

But like you allude to with the legislature/electorate, effecting change there will be a long process of efforts to put in place people like Rey, Morgan, Hogan (etc) on a national level to tip the balance. (though w/Hogan, his pro 2A comes with some questionable positions on other current issues)

Similarly I would suggest it's time for a paradigm shift in the NRA, starting with efforts to rid the NRA of some of the current leaders. Replace them with forward thinkers that can live less high on the hog and put that extravagance cost to better use.

Grog23 · Oct 9, 2014

NRA-ILA

I sent the NRA-ILA a note asking them to re-evaluate their stance on JohnBo. Stated my reasons why (already stated in the many threads on this). Waiting to hear back. The NRA needs to be careful not to alienate their membership.

135sohc · Oct 12, 2014

Appalling stupidity like this did not help but the never ending stream of junk mail was too much for me. I cancelled membership with the NRA and put the funds into more suitable organizations.

TopShelf · Oct 12, 2014

One needs to look at the Firearms Safety Act 2013 (Aka FSA and SB281) amendment votes to know that Bohanan is not as 2A-feiendly as his final vote on the bill indicates. I don't believe the NRA-ILA takes that stuff into account, but cant say for sure

See post 2 for summary info. See post 4 Footnotes for links to votes on FSA, etc

http://www.mdshooters.com/showthread.php?t=147366

Minuteman · Oct 12, 2014

Shannon and MSI should have sat down and gone over the data then given their own rating for each candidate.

If its wrong, our only recourse is to call Shannon, or NRA HQ. Shannon worked tirelessly along with Patrick (NRA and MSI respectfully). The Nra can change their opinion if you can persuade them, I've seen it happen.

TopShelf · Oct 12, 2014

Minuteman said:
Shannon and MSI should have sat down and gone over the data then given their own rating for each candidate.

If its wrong, our only recourse is to call Shannon, or NRA HQ. Shannon worked tirelessly along with Patrick (NRA and MSI respectfully). The Nra can change their opinion if you can persuade them, I've seen it happen.

I have seen the ratings changed as well.

As for the suggestion of MSI doing their own ratings, here are my thoughts on that one: That is a time consuming process. There are so many candidates, plus AGC and NRA are already doing ratings. Organizations need to focus their limited resources on the areas they think are best, and I m not sure that one is a good fit for MSI at this time. Of course, you could raise it as a suggestion to them

I would guess the work to do those ratings would add up to a few hundred hours worth of time, depending how one decides to calculate the ratings.

My suggestion for ratings: If anyone has a concern with a given rating, contact NRA or AGC and provide them the documentation on why you think the rating should be changed.

In District 29B NRA endorses.... John Bohanan?

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