This week, we’re turning our attention back to the National Rifle Association. Just as the nation’s largest gun-rights group heads back to a Manhattan courtroom for the final phase of its civil corruption trial, one of the leading reformers on its board has made a last-ditch effort to intervene.
Phil Journey joins the show to explain why he emailed Judge Joel Cohen seeking to join the trial separately from the NRA and the Attorney General’s office.
He argued that neither the NRA’s lawyers nor the AG truly represented him or the NRA’s membership. He said the judge should remove the Brewer firm from representing the group, and he should listen to what NRA members want over what the AG wants. Journey said he had been encouraged when candidates he backed won most of the leadership elections a few months back, but he grew disillusioned with how things have played out since then.
Journey admitted the intervention request is a long shot, but he felt it was still the best way forward. He accused new NRA President Bob Barr of withholding committee appointments to try and control reformers–something Barr and the NRA deny. He argued the best path forward is for him to be able to argue his own point of view in court.
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Plus, Contributing writer Jake Fogleman and I discuss the GOP’s first new platform in 8 years dropping almost all of the party’s gun policy promises and what that means for the future of gun voters. We also discuss newly released NRA documents revealing the true extent of the group’s membership decline and the ongoing arguments surrounding its attempts to avoid punishment and further reform in the wake of the New York corruption verdict. Finally, we wrap up with a quick discussion of a new ruling striking down the gun ban for illegal immigrants, a gun rights challenge to New York’s body armor ban, and the advent of ammunition vending machines in grocery stores.
