NRA Petition

[Jim Kidwell]

To all Creedmoor, Mid Range and interested BPCR shooters:

You have received this e-mail to inform you and give you some background, and an
explanation of the petition that is attached to this email

Over the last couple of weeks many of us involved in the above mentioned sports
have been caucusing about our grievances concerning the shortcomings of the
NRA competitions department and the NRA Whittington Center surrounding our
National Matches and BPTR World Championships. We have come to the
collective decision that a petition addressing these grievances be drafted
and forwarded to all of you for your signature and request that you mail it
to each of the addresses in the heading as soon as possible.

There is a previous edition of this petition that is circulating that was written to match
the tone of some of the conversations taking place at the time, but it was felt to be a
little harsh by many of the shooters. So a new version was written with the much
appreciated assistance of Al Sledge, and Michael Rix.

After receiving the petition, should you have any questions or concerns
please feel free to get in touch with any of the following members of this
caucus listed below that had a hand in the creation or writing of this petition.

Lee Shaver
leeshaver74@yahoo.com

Al Sledge
ahsledge3@aol.com

Michael Rix
rmrix@hotmail.com

Steve Rhoades
bpsteve@cox.net

Ray Hanson
rmhanson@arvig.net

Jim Kidwell
jekidwell@bellsouth.net

There are many others who have had a hand in it, but I tried to select active and interested shooters from different geographical areas of the country for this list.

The petition is attached to this email as a word document, and should open
up easily in a printable form.

We believe that we will never be heard if we do not speak.

With that thought, I ask you to have a look at the petition, print, sign, and send it
if you agree with it, and then take a minute to write a personal letter to go along with it.

Thank you, and shoot well,

Lee Shaver

To obtain a copy of the petition, email me at: jekidwell@bellsouth.net

[John Boy]

Jim, was there any consideration starting an online petition?
http://www.petitiononline.com/
Then, post the link to the petition on the several BPCR forums. After the online petition has been populated good ... mail or email the link to the NRA Committee Secretary and to Ronald Schmeits, NRA President and Wayne LaPierre

With the rich history relating to the International Creedmoor Matches and to have the NRA pull the No Go plug in the manner they did for the 2010 Match with the cheap excuse about funding is utterly disgusting and makes us the laughing stock of the International BPCR Community

[Jim Kidwell]

John,

I had no idea there was a site for petitions. It may be an easy way for our BPCR shooters to add their support. Many will not take the time to send snail mail. Thanks for the heads up. The NRA needs to remember it's roots. What ever happens, we still need to support their 2nd amendments fight for us...............................Jim Kidwell

[Jim Kidwell]

Thanks, John Boy...................

This site will make it easier for people too busy to send in their own grievances to the NRA.

Pass this site to your own mailing lists.........................Jim

http://www.petitiononline.com/nra2010/petition.html

[Jim Kidwell]

All,
Some encouragement for your efforts..........

There evidently was some problems from other silhouette venues with the Whittington Center. Your efforts
have paid off. It was enough to expedite immediate changes. The following is an email from Jerry Vanway
on his recent observations at Raton:

“Hey guys here is something I got from Jerry Vanwey this afternoon. As you all know he’s in Raton and runs the monthly silhouette match there.
Looks like the new powers that be at the Center are already at work on some of our gripes.
Al Sledge
Since it is winter and cold I have not been out to Whittington Center much of late. On the Silhouette range, the berms have been graded and they are making new number boards for the whole range. I have encouraged them to only put 12 banks back up and not use banks 1-4 of rams and 13-16 of all the others. This was not met with much enthusiasm since they know what it cost to expand the range to its current 16 banks. If you get the first 2 or 3 banks of rams and have a wind from the west you are screwed. With the current number of shooters and format we don’t need 16 banks any longer. The banks can always be placed back in service if we need them.
We took a 1200-yard laser range finder out to the silhouette range and shot the distance for each of the new shooting positions used last year. The results were better than expected. Only a few of the positions were off more than the allowed 1% and they were only off an extra yard or two. The one important thing we learned was that if you shoot the distance from the firing line to the animal you always pick up the distance to the berm. I suspect it produces the strongest signal and that is what you read. We shot the distances by sitting on the animal rail at the center of each bank and shooting back to the firing position for that animal at a large piece of white Styrofoam. We had radios to communicate with each other.
I have not been out to the 1000-yard range so I cannot comment on conditions there. There has been a lot of painting and maintenance going on at various ranges when the weather allows. The silhouette range looks better than it has in years.
I noticed some of the people complaining about the gravel between the firing line and the covers. There is a French drain system under the gravel to take the water away from the area. The gravel is a pain, but is a lot better than the mud you have without it. As far as handicap access I have suggested (although not in writing) that it might be better to have a number of shooting positions designated and improved for handicap access rather than try to make the entire firing line accessible.”


It doesn’t stop there. We received today an email (see below) from Jon Leighton on recent developments. Letters that have been sent to the NRA principles may not be answered. Their policy is to make copies and send the originals to the appropriate department for action. Jon has received a foot high stack of letters and received notice to make the necessary corrections. Only time will tell.
We need to keep up our efforts and continue the Petition campaign. Don’t give up. We need all your support for our success. Thanks all for your efforts. Keep it up.

Changes for 2010 NRA National BPTR Championships

Keep in mind that there has been NO year in BPTR competition since its inception where we have had the amount of money allocated for this program, BPTR. This year, I want the competitors to feel like they are truly at a National Match. As a promise to the BPTR community, this will be the standard as long as I run this program.

• 2009 Result Bulletins/Awards will be mailed out WELL BEFORE 1 April 2010. We are scheduled to start sending out 2010 BPTR Nationals entry information in conjunction with Silhouette 1 April 2010.
• Brand new target frames and faces as well as pasters, scoring instructions, plugs, spotters, etc.
• Full BPTR Championship staff to include 3 credentialed RSOs and 3 Pit Officers besides match administrative personnel like Match Director, Deputy Match Director, etc.
• I met with NRAWC staff last week and they will step-up their effort to insure that we have everything we need including emptying crappers as much as possible, PA system, and range conditions that needed remedy.
• Result Bulletins will be given to each competitor on a free thumb drive at the Coors Award Ceremony on Thursday night. Competitors will leave the match with the results in hand unlike any previous year in BPTR.
• Awards will be on-site next year, and each award will be presented to ALL competitors that earned one. I feel even the different distances and classification award winners deserve to be recognized among their peers and fellow competitors even if it takes longer.
• The Pedersoli rifle will be awarded randomly to competitors that show up to the BPTR MR Competitor's Meeting. We will see who cares enough about the sport to show up when there is a free rifle up for grabs.
• I am planning on permanently moving the Castle Trophy and the Shaffer Trophy Rifle to the NRAWC's new museum so the competitors who compete for this award every year can actually see it as well as having it on hand for award ceremony photographs.
• Brand-new digital chronograph should reduce the time it takes to get all the shooters through before the practice match. That is, providing some "natural" doesn't shoot it again. It actually happened 3 times, so hopefully those guys worked on their marksmanship over hunting season.
• Committee Chairman and members will be on hand next year to answer questions at both competitor meetings instead of me answering questions that should be fielded by the Committee.
• New Andy Knez shirt design and style for 2010 Nationals.
• More sponsorship and prizes next summer than any previous year in BPTR.
• International & Tollofson category awards for 2010.
• More BPTR representation on next year's BP Committee is in the works as well as planning a 2012 World BPTR Match.
This is all I can think off right now, but if I have anything else, I will be sure to let you know ASAP.

I think that there is plenty of incentive here to attend the 2010 NRA BPTR Nationals as boycotting the match won't fix anything. Boycotting will only make things worse, potentially cancel the program, and certainly will not help this sport move forward. Keep your eyes posted for the Google Group invite coming as soon as IS approves everything as well as a BPTR article in InSights Magazine for juniors coming soon. Also, the 2009 NRA BPTR Nationals article has been published in this month's SSUSA.

See you this summer, hopefully.

Shoot safely,

Jonathan Leighton, Program Coordinator
Silhouette Department, NRA Competition Division
703-267-1465
JLeighton@nrahq.org
For all NRA-sanctioned Tournament Materials please visit: http://inhouse.nraoffice.org/
NRA Rule Books are now available Online in PDF format: (Action Shooting and Police Pistol Combat coming soon!)
http://www.nrahq.org/compete/nra-rule-books.asp
NRA National Records are now available for viewing Online. To view these records go to:
http://www.nrahq.org/compete/natl_records.asp
NRA National Championships Results:
http://www.nrahq.org/compete/nationalchampion.asp
For other 2008 Silhouette information follow this link to:
http://www.nrahq.org/compete/dept-silh.asp
Attention Match Directors/Sponsors: NRA-sanctioned Tournament Applications, National Record Reporting Forms, etc. are now available for download in PDF: http://www.nrahq.org/compete/dept-tourn-ops.asp
"Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenal's of the world, is so formidable as the will, and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have."
-Ronald Reagan

[Jim Kidwell]

From the NRA's Mike Krei:

"We will initiate a new Visa Gift Card program for our 2010 National Silhouette Championships. Starting this year we will provide a $400.00 Visa Gift Card to the Champion of each Silhouette Championship, $200.00 Visa Gift Card for 2nd place and a $100.00 Visa Gift Card for our 3rd place winners. This will mean a $10,000.00 increase in the National Silhouette Championship award schedule. NRA Visa Gift Cards will be added to the current award schedules."

I emailed Jon Leighton to confirm if BPCR Silhouette was included. His response:

"It sure does, so this is proof that we are trying to revitalize these programs. I spent $2600 on BPTR awards for 2010 as well.

Jonathan Leighton, Program Coordinator
Silhouette Department, NRA Competition Division"


So you see your labors do help. Keep it up. We still need more letters and petitions to strengthen our position...........................Jim