Including ...Network Enjoys Growth at NRA Annual Meeting • President's Message • Attorney Question • Book Review • Editorial • About this Journal
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Network Enjoys Growth at NRA Annual Meeting
by Marty Hayes, President
Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network, Inc.
Last year at this time, I published an open letter to Wayne LaPierre, the Executive Vice President of the National Rifle Association. You can read it at https://armedcitizensnetwork.org/open-letter-to-nra and I would suggest the reader become familiar with my arguments before continuing.
Now, I return a year later with no less of a commitment to the thoughts and feelings I stated in that letter, and from the perspective of a year of business competition that has taken place. In that year, the Network has seen its greatest growth year ever, adding 3,000 new members while retaining over 80% of our current members. When I published that letter, I was accused by two NRA board members of fearing competition. They missed the point. I didn’t fear the competition, but instead was angry that an organization that I supported publicly, privately and financially would start up a business endeavor that competed against me and others who are NRA members. Now that is all history.
This year, when the Network had an exhibit at the NRA Annual Meeting in Dallas, TX, it was quite a different story. When I entered the convention hall, I was not bombarded with huge banners of Dana Loesch promoting NRA CarryGuard. Instead, the marketing was very subdued, and the only mention of NRA CarryGuard was at the NRA booth, and that contained NO mention of CarryGuard insurance. I can understand that. As most who follow these matters are aware, the NRA CarryGuard program has been under attack by the State of New York. New York has determined that the NRA CarryGuard program was being sold illegally, and fined the insurance broker, Lockton Risk $7,000,000. That is seven million. Lockton has agreed to pay, since as I understand it, that $7,000,000 fine is a negotiated settlement.
President’s Message
by Marty Hayes, J.D.
As my weekdays are spent working on projects with the Network, along with even answering phones when everyone else is busy on other lines, I don’t have as much time to teach classes as I once did. This means that I cultivate, train and hire good instructors who will follow the program of teaching the use of firearms for self protection that I have developed over the past 30 years. But I do occasionally teach a class to keep my hand in it, but it is more likely that I will drop in on classes and talk to the students when I can. I did this last Sunday, and I want to share that experience as this month’s President’s Message.
Attorney Question of the Month
Last month, we took a break from our usual discussion topics and entertained a discussion of a more general question, yet one on which every experienced armed citizen has an opinion. Our affiliated attorneys had some fun with it and many, many responses came in.
Here we wrap up the second half of our affiliate attorneys’ answers to the following question:
The current political unrest regarding gun control is causing many people to purchase their first handgun. If you were to give one piece of advice to the brand new gun owner, what would that piece of advice be?
Book Review
Streetlights and Shadows:
Searching for the Keys to Adaptive Decision Making
by Gary Klein
ISBN: 9780262516723
352 pages, softbound, 9x6
$19.95 https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/streetlights-and-shadows
Reviewed by Gila Hayes
Making decisions without all the facts is an issue for self defense, especially when called on later to justify use of force to people who were not present. Rules about use of force get codified into law and society expects armed citizens to adapt those rules to the situation. I picked up cognitive psychologist Gary Klein’s book, Streetlights and Shadows: Searching for the Keys to Adaptive Decision Making seeking how to overcome the uncertainty of incomplete facts and how to later describe perceptions driving such a decision.
Editor's Notebook
Wasted Energy; Unnecessary Risk
by Gila Hayes
A surprising number of questions, especially from non-members who aren’t sure whether the Network is their best choice, ask if we’ll pay an attorney to get them out of trouble after one hypothetical situation or another.
Our answer is always the same: The Network assists members after self defense through legal means. Since your hypothetical incident hasn’t happened yet, there aren’t enough facts to answer accurately. “Well, isn’t doing XYZ self defense?” their follow up inquires. Without knowing what led up to XYZ, there’s no way to answer that question.
About this Journal
The eJournal of the Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network, Inc. is published monthly on the Network’s website at http://armedcitizensnetwork.org/our-journal. Content is copyrighted by the Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network, Inc.