If you’ve been on social media much in the past few days, you’ve probably heard that Mr. Colion Noir has joined the NRA as a contributor. For those of you who missed it, the promo video is below. The video is very well done, and does a great job of highlighting exactly why the NRA asked Colion to join their team.

If you follow Monderno, especially on Facebook, you probably know that Colion is a good friend of mine. If I told you that him joining the NRA was a surprise to me, I wouldn’t be telling you the truth. For quite some time now I have been looking forward to this news getting out. To see why, let’s start by examining what this means for the NRA.

What This Means for the NRA

The United States, gun control, and the NRA are all at a criticalÂ impasseÂ right now. Our right to keep and bear arms is under attack in ways that we have never seen before, and at all political levels.

Given the unprecedented political timing, I honestly believe that hiring Colion Noir is best move the NRA has made in a very long time, and perhaps ever. Here’s why.

First, the obvious. If you’ve spent any amount of time watching Colion’s videos, you’ve no doubt picked up on the fact that he’s an intelligent, funny, well-spoken young guy. If you didn’t stereotype the way he dresses (which I give him grief about all the time…ask to see his Louis Vuitton man bag sometime), then his “Urban Gun Enthusiast” moniker should have tipped you off to the fact that he’s also an urbanite.

Young, cool, urban…this ain’t your daddy’s NRA. And you know what? That’s exactly what the NRA needs to reach a younger generation.

Reaching Gun Owners

There are a lot of gun owners in the U.S. – some estimates say around 80 million adults own a firearm. The NRA has around 4.5 million members, and is the longest standing Civil Rights organization in the U.S., but do the math. Roughly 75 million adults own one or more firearms, but do not belong to the NRA.

Clearly the NRA isn’t reaching them, and I believe a big reason why is that there’s a culture shift going on in the firearms community.

Call it Gun Culture 2.0, 3.0, 3.1.7.9182…call it whatever you want, but the next generation of gun owners looks a lot more like the “Urban Gun Enthusiast” than it does Wayne LaPierre. Is that a slight on Mr. LaPierre? Of course not, it’s just the reality of the situation. The younger generation of gun owners does not feel represented by the NRA.

People, generally speaking, relate to people who look, talk and dress like they do. They connect with people who live where they live, who share the same life experiences. And by any estimation, the next generation of gun owners connects with Colion Noir.

Reaching Non-Gun Owners

What about the larger gun control debate, with people who do not own guns? Who do you think is more likely to be able to reach the non-gun owner? The traditional NRA, or Mr. Colion Noir? The answer to me is obvious.

So for the NRA, hiring Mr. Colion Noir is a huge win, both in reaching gun owners, and in engaging non-gun owners in the gun control debate. And this engagement with non-gun owners, I believe, could have a very real impact politically.

Politics

Like it or not, Democrats are the party of gun control. A lot of you Democrats get your feelings hurt about this, but it’s just simple fact. No, I’m not saying thatÂ every singleÂ Democrat is for gun control, nor I am I saying that every single Republican is a shining beacon for Second Amendment preservation, because some aren’t. But there’s no denying that most gun control legislation is introduced and voted for by Democrats.

It’s also a fact that the biggest and most well-funded obstacle that Democrats face in getting the gun control they want is the NRA.

Given this, I think that the NRA hiring Mr. Colion NoirÂ scares the living hell out of the political left. Think not?

It’s All About 2014

Gun control, in its current form in Congress (Feinstein’s so-called Assault Weapons Ban), has virtually no chance of passing. In order for the Democrats to have any chance passing significant gun control under Obama, they must retake the House in 2014.

To retake the House in 2014, the Democrats need to continue to win the Black, Hispanic/Latino, andÂ 18-29 year old demographics in a big way. In 2012, President Obama received 93% of the Black vote, 71% of the Hispanic/Latino vote, 60% of the 18-29 year old vote, and he only won the popular vote by roughly 2.5% (very cool Demographics interactive reporting tool here).

As we’ve already discussed, the traditional NRA had virtually no chance of reaching these demographics, but what about now? What if the NRA can use Colion to reach both gun owners and non-gun owners in these demographics, and turn a significant percentage of them away from their voting trend of voting Democrat?

What impact would that have on the 2014 elections?

Wrapping Up

That’s why I have been looking forward to the news getting out. Hiring Colion Noir is a huge win for the NRA, for gun owners, gun rights, and has the very real potential to have an effect politically.

Unless I’m very much mistaken, we’ve only seen the tip of this iceberg.