AHSA Pats Its Back

It seems that the American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA) lives to poke a finger in the eye of NRA. Most of his email missives are attacks on the group that has done more to protect the rights of America's gun owners than any other group.

Today, AHSA President Ray Schoenke sent out an email informing recipients that the group has hired new staff and moved into new headquarters. He also said he will soon give details on how to get your very own "Pro-gun and Pro-Obama" bumperstickers. I'm not joking. Maybe someone should ask Schoenke why his guy wants to ban some of the most commonly used sporting firearms of American Shooters (see change.gov).

Schoenke went on to share his newest blog post, one in which he berates the NRA and says what a failure the NRA election efforts were. Hey Ray, maybe you should check out Howard Nemerov's piece on the success rate of NRA's candidate's this year.

According to Nemerov:

NRA A-graded Republicans had a 73.8% win rate in the 2008 Congressional elections (155 of 210). Among the NRA endorsed, A-graded Republicans, there was an 85.0% success rate (153 or 180). NRA A-graded, non-endorsed R candidates had a 6.7% win rate (2 of 30), but 11 of these lost to A-graded Democrats.

Of the 24 NRA-endorsed Republican losses, 13 were incumbents. Two lost to AQ-graded Democrats, so the best-case scenario here is that 11 seats were lost to anti-rights candidates. (There was one “B-“ and one “C” Democrat, but it must be assumed that these freshman Democrats will follow anti-rights leadership.) For the 11 endorsed non-incumbent Republicans, 8 lost to incumbent Democrats graded “D” or “F,” so those seats were already anti-rights. One lost to an F-graded Democrat candidate in an open seat, and the other two seats were won by AQ-graded Democrats.

A-graded Democrat candidates had an 86.2% win rate (56 of 65). Of NRA endorsed, A-graded Democrats, 52 of 55 won election (94.5%), including all 5 A+ rated. Of the three losses, one lost to a grade-A Republican. The other two lost to Republicans graded “AQ.”

Four of the 10 non-NRA endorsed, A-graded Democrat candidates won (40%). The 6 non-endorsed A-grade Democrats all lost to A-graded Republicans, five of which were NRA endorsed.

Overall, NRA endorsed A-graded candidates had an 88.3% win rate (204 of 231). Of all NRA-endorsed candidates, 87.2% won (218 of 250). The NRA endorsement remains a powerful influence in campaign outcomes.

The long and short of it is, when you combine endorsed Democrats with endorsed Republicans, sure some of the NRA's supported candidates lost but in some cases, they lost to candidates that received an "A" rating based on the answers to the NRA candidate questionnaire. If these new representatives live up to the answers they provided on the questionnaire these guys will be NRA supported candidates next election. Which means that 88.3% success rate will clime to an even higher rate of success.

Schoenke is nothing but a shill for the liberal anti-gun Democrats and the gun control crowd which he has funded through contributions for years. Unlike Schoenke, NRA contributes to pro-gun candidates in both parties. For most of the last twelve years a large portion of that has gone to Republicans because there were more of them on the pro-rights side. But if the new crop of Democrats do as they indicated on their candidate questionnaire, there will be a more balanced list of NRA endorsed candidates in the future.