Buy a gun, get a year membership?

Not a bad idea.

If you buy a gun and carry it concealed or hunt with it, you are an NRA member. If you buy a gun and either hunt with it or open carry it, then you are a Virginian.

I remember the NRA years ago trying a political campaign directed towards Nevada. They had perhaps, 70,000 paid members in the state that they could send postcards to, but a survey found that 700,000 state residents indicated they were members.

I like that 33 million Americans think that they are NRA members. If only Wayne LaPierre could tap into that "membership" for more funds!

To Heck with the funds! Give them a free membership card with every firearms purchase that says "I'm the NRA" and who cares if they get the magazine.

Step 2 is "Complete the form to receive information on important legislation in your community." Send them only the "Call you rep" letters.

Step 3: "Would you like to contribute to the NRA and receive regular mailings?" That's for the Die Hards like us. (That might even be a good NRA bumper sticker, "I'm an NRA DEAD-ENDER!")

This is true. NRA took a similar poll 15 years ago with the SAME result.

If NRA could just motivate those folks to ... .

Maybe they should revise the question to ask if you are a dues-paying member.

What this tells me is that instructors should be recruited by the membership department as membership recruiters. It would be bad to pitch to people in the class too heavily, but if instructors had an incentive to at least send a follow up email or phone call to a student who took the class a few weeks prior, it could probably do wonders.

I'm looking forward to your update on this topic at your earliest convenience.

The constant "gimme-grams" would sure change a lot of minds, FAST.

I'm a lapsed member of all the groups because I hate the constant attempts to scare me into sending them more money to fight against "gun grabbers in the UN" or whatever the hot item is this week.

If the NRA spent half as much effort fighting for things like Heller/Parker instead of having Halbrook spend nearly 2 years trying to kill it with joinder motions, maybe a lot of us rank and file would be more eager soldiers and donors.

Instead of letting your membership lapse, why didn't you just opt out of all the junkmail?

Q: How can I reduce the amount of mail I receive from the NRA?
A: Simply email us at membership@nrahq.org or dial 800-NRA-3888 and request to be placed on the "Do Not Promote" list. This will significantly reduce the amount of mail you receive without affecting important mailings, magazine service, or your membership renewal.

Some even thought just buying a gun makes you [a member]!

Funny comment. Here's one possible response.

Create a poster, showing a person driving a car away from a dealership. The poster reads something like Buying a car doesn't make you a AAA member...Neither does buying a gun make you an NRA member. Ask how to sign up.

Underneath, you can show pictures of a few of the major NRA magazines, and maybe a blurb about the benefits of membership.

Distribute the poster, with a handful of flyers, to firearms stores and gun ranges across the nation.

If I were in charge of getting more pseudo-members to think about signing up, that's what I would do.