As some of you have noted before, this site occasionally doesn’t process comments and I have to go into the Trash file and manually fix things. That was the case on a comment submitted on the 19th that just showed up today on the post about a comment Jeff Knox made on X.com about TPUSA and the Virginia governor’s race. Rather than bury it there, it merits a standalone post:
For the record, I have had in-depth discussions with Dennis Fussaro about his plan, and supported it from the beginning. I’ve also discussed it with NRA-ILA Director John Commerford and other staff at NRA, as well as with fellow members of the Grassroots and Legislative Policy committees.
NRA has not been, and is not being, “silent” in this election, but I do think we could have done better at rolling out a more comprehensive plan and activating more people.
I’ve been in the trenches of political campaigns for well over 20 years. I’ve run for state office and helped numerous others in their campaigns, both as a volunteer and as a paid consultant.
Dennis’s plan is solid, well-thought-out, and workable, but it comes with a pretty high price tag.
I think it could have worked and been fully funded, if it had been presented and adopted much earlier, but that didn’t happen. Instead, I think NRA looked at the bank account and built their plan on what they reasonably thought they could afford, rather than putting together a plan like Dennis’s and then working to raise the money and implement as much of it as possible.
Dennis and I will continue pushing for this sort of shift in approach.
I threw out the idea of TPUSA getting more involved because they are currently the most prominent players in the political space, not as a way to shuffle off responsibility. I’ve done some work with TPUSA in the past, and I also understand that a whole lot of their folks are very interested in snagging prominent roles in the 2026 mid-terms. I’ve been talking with them and other “young Republican” groups about getting involved in Virginia and New Jersey as good politics and a way for their folks to bolster their resume’s. I’ve also been hoping to see them join with NRA on our political goals.
Please remember that NRA is under new leadership, with many new folks in staff, and a whole lot of new people on the board. We’re just getting our feet under us after a long and ugly internal conflagration. Many people want to move forward with caution, while Dennis and I would prefer to see bold, aggressive action. The comparison of NRA to an aircraft carrier is pretty spot-on. We’ve pretty much gotten the thing turned around, and now some of us are pushing hard to gain speed. It’s a process. What it definitely is not is “same as it ever was.”
Jeff Knox, NRA Board of Directors since April, 2024.
