My day with the NRA

It was more like a couple of hours.

Number One Son and I spent some time at a NRA's grassroots workshop that was held in Cedar Rapids on the 6th. Advertised as:

At these FREE Workshops, NRA-ILA Staff will discuss how you can take on an even more active role in your community in our fight to advance and protect our freedoms in this very busy year! We will provide you with the materials and strategies needed to educate, empower, and engage your fellow gun owners as well.

It was a basic course on contacting your representatives in government and then morphed into recruiting volunteers to put on a face for the NRA in the state. There was nothing new for me.

They also spoke about the NRA/IowaCarry bill and some in the audience didn't seem to have a clue that there was any new legislation introduced at the statehouse.

What struck me was Brent Gartner(sp?) from the NRA kept stating that the bill would restore the "right to carry" by requiring a citizen to get a permit to carry. "Right"? I think he's confused.

But featured speaker, Iowa's Senator Chuck Grassley, managed to embarrass himself with a clumsy, rambling speech thanking the NRA for his initial election to the Senate in 1980. I thought it was gracious of him to thank the organization, but I expected more from someone who's been in the senate for almost 30 years and in politics for years more. I thought it sad, really.