NRA’s New President: A Rough First Day on the Job

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John Sigler, longtime NRA board member and retired police captain from Delaware replaced Sandra S. Froman as NRA president yesterday. Of course, you’d never know it from their website, where Froman’s President’s Column is still up. Or if you read the news. There were no news stories on Sigler’s first day, nary a press release.

We heard about the changeover via NRA radio (they have a nightly show at 9pm EDT):

As you can imagine this is not the way I wanted my presidency to begin, but it is important for our members to understand that we will do everything we can. If there is any way we can assist with law enforcement or with the families- I have no idea what that would be, it’s probably a hollow offer at best. We hope for an early resolution so the families can put this behind them.

The NRA too would surely like to see this incident behind them. But for now be sure that, yes, they will do everything they can to fight what will surely be a slew of new legislative proposals, on handgun purchases, background checks, concealed weapons, the gamut.

Froman, who was the second female president in the history of the NRA, gave a speech two weeks ago at Harvard Law School where she railed against New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin’s decision to confiscate guns from residents immediately following Hurricane Katrina. She said that the New Orleans government was “profoundly incompetent” and added that a person having a gun could have served as a safety net: “If the government isn’t protecting you, then it’s an insurance policy.”

Vigilante justice anyone?

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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