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University of California-Davis professor Jay Mechling, an Eagle Scout (1959) and the author of “On My Honor: The Boy Scouts and the Making of American Youth,” published an op-ed in USA Today on October 11, 2018 in which he called for the Boy Scouts of America to sever their longstanding financial and programming relationship with the National Rifle Association.
As Mechling pointed out, the NRA Foundation contributed $335 million to “educational programs” in 2016, which includes grants to Boy Scouts of America (BSA) councils, districts, troops, and schools. The NRA also provides materials for BSA’s firearm safety training and assistance in building and maintaining the group’s shooting ranges. Finally, BSA gets advertising income from the firearms and ammo industry.
This must change, said Mechling, because it is “clear that the NRA is using firearms safety as an educational cover for its real mission of lobbying for the firearms and ammunition industry.” He added, “There should be no price on the moral integrity and moral leadership of the BSA when it comes to protecting American young people.”
Please contact BSA Chief Scout Excecutive Michael Surbaugh through one of the following channels and give him the following message:
I am horrified that Boy Scouts of America has not severed its financial and programming relationship with the National Rifle Association. There is no way you can provide moral guidance to boys under your care while taking blood money from a lobby that opposes any and all efforts to stop gun violence in our schools and communities. NRA leaders like longtime board member Ted Nugent are violent bigots, misogynists and homophobes who have none of the values that BSA claims to stand for: trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. In recent years, the NRA has prepared its members for violence against journalists and social justice protesters and attacked survivors of the Parkland tragedy and other mass shootings. Additionally, the FBI is currently investigating whether the NRA took Russian money from Maria Butina, Alexander Torshin and other representatives of the Putin government to fund Republican candidates in the 2016 U.S. elections. Can’t you provide better role models for your scouts than extremists and traitors? End your relationship with the NRA immediately and cease taking advertising money from the gun & ammo industry. I will be watching your actions closely and cannot associate with or support BSA again until this action is taken.
Boy Scouts of America Chief Scout Executive Michael Surbaugh
Phone: (972) 580-2000
Email: : MyScouting@scouting.org or https://scoutingwire.org/connect-with-us/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theboyscoutsofamerica/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BSAchief
Once you have contacted Chief Scout Executive Surbaugh, fill out the three fields below and click the orange banner to report taking action!