By Fredy Riehl, Editor AmmoLand News
USA – -(Ammoland.com)- In my position as Editor for AmmoLand Shooting Sports News I get to see a variety of points of view from all sides of the spectrum with regards to the NRA and the NRA board.
If you were to believe all the comments from anti gun, and some so called pro gun, NRA haters, you would have to assume that the NRA Board was a bunch of megalomaniacal monsters looking to co-opt the Second Amendment for some evil right (or left) wing conspiracy.
And anyone who supports the cause of the NRA or the board as “NRA zombies, NRA sycophants and Statist-NRA minion-members”, yeah that is a direct quote. You can’t make this stuff up.
But the reality is none of that is true…especially with regards to the most active and useful NRA Board members.
Yeah, I know… there are 76 NRA board members and some are just dandruff covered figureheads, that do nothing for the cause. But the most active and influential NRA Board members are all approachable and easy to find, speak to or email with. And with some polite conversation, you quickly find out that they are all good, down to earth, people who live and breathe the RKBA.
Pete Brownell
Take for instance NRA First Vice President, Pete Brownell. Pete is just such a guy. I first met Pete a few years back at some gun industry media event. He did not know me, I did not know him. We made small talk about guns, business and family and he was easy to like. As AmmoLand Shooting Sports News grew we ran into Pete more and more, and he is still the same, smiling, easy to talk to guy.
But beyond just conversation, I took notice of the upstanding employees and gunsmiths that work for Pete at Brownells.com (quality people attract and keep quality employees), as well as all the work Pete was putting in on related causes, from conservation, to veterans affairs, to charity. Just search on Ammoland and you can see for yourself the number of causes Pete has helped with.
In the firearms industry Pete chairs the National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers (NASGW), is a past Trustee of the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff Foundation Board, and was appointed by the Governor to the Iowa Economic Development Authority. He is active in the Grand National Quail Club, Pheasants Forever Strategic Leadership Group, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Safari Club International.
(Blah, blah blah..right? All these things sound like fancy titles, but you have to be someone who cares enough to put the time in with these volunteer organizations for them to recognize you in the first place. They don’t just hand you these labels.)
So it was no surprise when he turned up looking to run for NRA Board in 2010. Now six years in and Pete is once again up for re-election to NRA Board.
I will be voting for Pete Brownell on this years 2016 NRA board ballot. I hope you will too, he deserves your vote, he is one of us.
Fredy Riehl
Editor
AmmoLand Shooting Sports News