Seabear wrote:I guess I am the Lone Ranger here. I have both the NRA and a TSRA sticker on my truck . I don't mind people knowing what I blieve in.
I find it hilarious that a majority of you thought the tagging of vehicles at Skeet Shoots was bogus and know think an NRA sticker makes you a target for being ripped off. I also have a Mercury sticker on my truck, mainly because I am compensated for it by Mercury (outboards) by being on their ProTeam. I doubt anybody that sees that sticker thinks they are gonna be able to break into my truck and find a 225hp Mercury Pro XS.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I think some of you are way over-thinking this. All in all it sure isn't helping promote our gun rights.
...it's a matter of common sense...it's reasonable and normal to expect that someone with an NRA sticker might have a firearm in their vehicle...just like it's reasonable to expect that someone wearing a pro-2A Tshirt would be carrying...and a lot of us don't want to replace a $200+ window because some thug wanted something to pawn...just like we don't want attention given to the fact that we carry CONCEALED...I'd MUCH rather they move on down the row and look in your truck for the Mercury...I just don't want the attention...and that's a matter of choice, not overthinking...NRA stickers don't promote our 2A rights...just like Mercury stickers don't make folks run out and buy 'em...it's a lot different from sporting a Support our Troops or American flag sticker...
I never put political stickers on my vehicles, but I do have an NRA Life Member decal in the back window of my SUV. It adheres to the inside of the glass, and the glass is heavily tinted, so it really doesn't jump out and you have to look up close and intentionally to notice it. I actually meant to remove it before my last trip to California a couple of weeks ago, but I forgot and never got around to it. I meant to remove it because I really didn't want to invite someone in California to vandalize my vehicle. I didn't worry so much about my guns being stolen because they never left my person or presence until we got to our hotel room in Pasadena. There, they were locked in cases which were concealed in opaque plastic shopping bags in the back of our hotel room closet.
As far as Texas goes, I am of mixed mind. For one thing, I deliberately avoid those places where there are a lot of vehicle break-ins. Where I live, that would be the Grapevine Mills Mall and its parking lots. And, since I don't (or very rarely enter places I cannot carry, I don't leave guns in my car. I don't keep a long gun in my car......yet. That is a project I am working on, and on the day that I do start keeping a long gun in my car, I'll have to reconsider things. But for the most part, the way I live my life tends to not make my car a target, even if someone actually saw my NRA sticker—which like I said above, is not actually that easily visible.
But beyond that, I am proud of my NRA membership, I believe in the NRA's mission, and I know them to be the most influential and effective gun rights organization in the country. There isn't a single gun owner in the U.S. who hasn't benefitted from NRA activism, whether or not they like or support the organization. Those benefits of NRA activism that all gun owners enjoy were bought and paid for by guys like me who are unashamed of our membership, promote the organization to others, and donate to the extent that we are able to the organization's support. Am I annoyed by all the NRA phone calls soliciting donations? Yes, it gets annoying........but it doesn't frost my hide too much because I realize that without those calls, they won't raise the money necessary to do the good work that they do. And in addition to legislative and litigational advocacy, there is no other organization in the country that does as much to promote gun safety education and firearms training to the public. There is no other organization in the country that invests so much time, effort, programs, and materials into getting youngsters involved in the shooting sports. Those youngsters are in investment in the future long-term survival of gun rights in this country. Is the NRA perfect? No, it isn't...but then neither is any organization made up of millions of members from a broad array of different social and political strata and across party lines. By comparison, I would say that the NRA has been, and continues to be, much more faithful to the cause of preserving and promoting the 2nd Amendment than say....the Republican party has been to preserving and promoting the cause of conservatism. So even though I know that the NRA ticks some gun people off, I don't feel any need to apologize for my membership, or for the work that the NRA does—and I find the NRA phone calls no more or less annoying than I do the criticisms of the NRA from gun people who benefit from the NRA's activism without donating, while carping about the organization's lack of perfection.
Others may feel differently, and that's fine with me. To each, his own....as they say.
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
I have so many NRA and TSRA stickers, not to mention ISRA and NYSR&PA, that I could skin my car and half of my wife's in them. I usually have my NRA sticker in the corner of the window opposite my Narrow Trail Cowboy Church one, but since I have TSRA license plates, with my ham radio call letters on them, I don't think I would be hiding much by not putting them on.
I put my NRA stickers on mine and the wife's cars, we are both NRA members. I choose not to put commercial stickers on because, as Seabear said, he gets paid and I don't.
I have no problem talking to others about guns, hunting, fishing and CHL, providing they want to talk and listen about these subjects. We were with some friends yesterday afternoon. Her parents were there from New Jersey. I chose not to get into a gun conversation because I did not know that their reaction would be. In other cases, depending on who I am talking to dictates how much or how little information I choose to divulge.
I have to agree with Seabear in thinking there is some overthinking of this matter. We talk about how important the NRA and TSRA are to gun rights in Texas and nationwide, but don't want anyone to know we are members. It's pretty hard to promote membership in these organizations if we don't want to promote them ourselves.
Besides, if a would-be car-jacker, while looking for a victim, sees an NRA sticker in the windshield of my car, he may think "Hey, this old fat guy has an NRA sticker. I wonder if he has a gun?" So, you see, this is part of my situational awareness and deterrent strategy.
I do not put any stickers on my car. My daughter, however, has completely covered my - correction, her - jeep with stickers of all sorts. She procured my NRA sticker and put it next to her collection of bullet hole stickers. I miss my jeep but I will be signing it over to her soon.
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. - John Adams
mikeintexas wrote:... We talk about how important the NRA and TSRA are to gun rights in Texas and nationwide, but don't want anyone to know we are members...
I don't believe it's a matter of not wanting anyone to know you are a member.
If someone asked or the subject otherwise came up I certainly would not deny that I am a member.
I get stickers from lots of businesses and use none of them. I'm not any less proud of doing business with them than I am with the NRA.
I finally joined a year ago and I look at the stickers on my desk every day trying to figure out what to do with them.
I am self employed and do house calls. I am not willing to cause a customer or potential customer to look at me sideways because they don't like what they see.
I won't put an anti-Obama or Republican candidates sticker on my truck either for the same reason (yes, I'm undecided).
I need all the customers I can get!
If I had a service vehicle pull up to my house and it had pro-Obama or especially anti-2A stickers on it, I would tell him to leave and I would find some one else.
I don't know whether the sticker would attract a thief or not, but it is one of my concerns. While I don't ever keep my gun in my truck and I thankfully have a garage I park it in, I do have several thousand dollars in tools in my extended cab.
I figure the less attention the better.
As an aside, I used to know someone who whould leave hi car doors unlocked so that a thief could look around inside and realize there was nothing to steal and move on without breaking a window and causing him a repair bill. One night someone broke the winow anyway assuming the door was locked.
We all know that thieves are one taco short of a combination plate
"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe."
- Noah Webster
"All we ask for is registration, just like we do for cars."
- Charles Schumer
