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Like most on this forum I'm a member of the NRA. Being a member comes with some real PITA, junk mail every other day, etc.). But this latest stunt by the NRA just pisses me off.

Normally the vast majority of the stuff the wife and I receive from the NRA is nothing more than fund raising. Into the garbage it goes as I walk by the garbage can through my garage on my way back from the mailbox. In other words it doesn't even make it into the house.

The NRA went a step further this time. Received in the mail was a DVD that I nearly tossed as mentioned above. The wife opened it up and surprised me when she said unless this gets sent back we're going to be charged $12.95. Apparently I (or we, since the wife is also a member) have been put into some sort of stupid "DVD of the month" club.

Needless to say it will be sent back to them today. Usually when I get junk mail with a post paid envelope, I'll stuff as much recyclable material (usually other junk mail) I can in the envelope along with a note asking them to recycle the stuff I so thoughtfully sent back to them. However, since this is the NRA I won't do that.



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A word of caution, should you receive this and unless you want to be put into this "club" then you better send it back.

Or am I making more out of this and being more pissed than I should?
 
Unless you affirmatively signed up for their DVD club, I would consider it unsolicited merchandise. As such, you can send it back, or keep it and pay nothing. This is very close to being illegal.
 
Regardless I send it back -- aside from any possible hassle later on the only way they will ever consider reducing the amount of this type of junk is to have them eat the return postage. Now, if only 100% of the membership did this they would change.
 
They tried that with me years ago. (it was a VHS tape---that long ago). They sent letters, and finally
called trying to get money for it. I said "I did not order it--thank you for the gift". End of story.
Not sure it's that way everywhere, but here in Oregon if someone sends you something
unsolicited it's yours to keep.

NRA used to really P$%% me off with all of the garbage. One phone call to member services
put an end to it forever. Haven't got anything from them for over 5 years. Just tell them to remove your
name from all future mailings and solicitations. It took 6 months or so to get me flushed out of
the system. Worked well enough that I went to a life membership a couple of years ago when it was
$300.

FYI--I talked to the Oregon NRA rep (Mike Carey) about the mailing overload. He said
it was not NRA doing it, but third parties that do it with NRA permission and give NRA
a percentage of the take. So it's not your membership money paying for it---but NRA
does make money from it.
 
Last Edited:
I rethink this, I liked reading the magazines. 30 years ago they had some good info in them.
I still have decades of American Rifleman that my father collected when he was a member - from the 1940s into the 1970s.

As you go forward, the mags god thinner and thinner with less info. I have read every one of them several times over, and then some. When I was young I worked in a cannery for some months at the beginning of the production line pushing empty cans onto the line from pallets. It was slow boring work by myself. I spent a lot of time reading the mags over and over.

I have seen some of the latest mags (my kids joined for a while) and they are very skimpy.
 
I have heard of some people putting the prepaid postage label on a brick and sending that back to the people who pull these stunts.

As mentioned, the NRA may not be doing it themselves, but the people who are do it with their permission and I am sure that the NRA is well aware of the underhanded scam this is and what people think of it, yet they continue to do it for years and years.

Does this tell you anything about what they are interested in? $$$$
 
Of course they're interested in money, what organization that is supported by $$ from it's members isn't interested in money? Many, many organizations that do good things for people overwhelm them with emails, junk mail and phone calls. While I agree the unsolicited DVD thing is BS, when I last checked, if they do send you something unsolicited (be sure you didn't somehow sign up for it), you can keep it for free. Like their emails or not, they still do more for our 2nd amendment rights in this country than any other organization. I decided I was willing to put up with occasional spam, etc. if it means they can help turn my little $$ into some big influence in Washington - certainly more than I can do.

I like the idea of sending a brick back to them.
 
Of course they want money, what's the mystery here? How else would they do what they do? Or would you rather them be what the anti gun people call them already 'just a puppet of the gun industry'. I'm proud of my membership, enjoy the magazine and read it cover to cover every month (I think it's on par with guns & ammo or better) and I've never recieved any junk mail from them.

There's no other group doing as much to protect our second amendment rights, the small amount of money for membership per year seems like the least I could do in appreciation.
 
[rant]

I did not know the NRA "farmed" stuff like this out. (Thank you for letting us know, and it's nice to know our dues aren't being used for this crap.) Even though I've never bought anything offered by the NRA (or anyone else) I really don't have a problem with that because it helps to keep our membership rates lower than they'd be if they didn't do outside fund raising. That is except for this DVD fiasco.

It certainly gave me the impression it was on me if I did not send it back, and I shouldn't need a legal degree to figure it out. Maybe I'd be on the hook for it or maybe not. I honestly don't know, but either way I'm sure disappointed in the NRA. If they didn't know of these "tactics" they should have and then shut it down. I mean these are the kind of tactics low budget porno sites use.

I'm not ready to give up my membership but I'm certainly going to call them and express my displeasure. I may even point them to this thread because I can't believe I'm the only one who feels like this.

[/rant]
 
The NRA should allow you to opt out of the crap when you sign up. I want to support the Second Amendment, not the USPS and the direct marketing industry.

Forcing me to phone them after they've already mail bombed a new member is bass ackwards.
 
I have two of those DVD's they called me once and I told them I didn't by law have to pay and I wasn't going to so atop calling. Haven't heard a word from them since.

Edit one more thing, just call the NRA and ask them to spot sending you the mail you don't want...that simple.
 
The NRA should allow you to opt out of the crap when you sign up. I want to support the Second Amendment, not the USPS and the direct marketing industry.

Maybe you can opt out of it. I put my request that everything be sent via email so i get may magazine by email as well as the junk its all sent to a email address i have all my junk sent to . I rarely ever get anything by mail and nothing like that knock on wood
 

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