RSWC #227 Jonathan Goldstein

Riding Shotgun With Charlie

#227 

Jonathan Goldstein

NRA BOD, NRA 2.0 Candidate

 

This is a small first, but a first nonetheless. Jonathan Goldstein flew up from Philadelphia to Boston just to film a show with me! Yes, I’m beyond honored! He’s also working that hard to get elected for the NRA Board of Directors. And in his home state of Pennsylvania for their gun owners. It’s always fun to meet someone new and widen my circle of friends. I picked up Jonathan at the airport and we drove for a bit to get to know each other. 

We kick things off quickly and jump in deep, talking about Bruen, open carry v concealed, and why some laws aren’t conducive to logic. He’s got a great line, borrowed from Chris Conte from the NRA ILA, about “New Jersey being the North Korea of gun ownership.” I knew things were going to be fun after that. 

 

Jonathan didn’t really grow up as a gun guy. He owned IT businesses and sold them before going to law school. Besides that, he was a newlywed and applied for law school, and was on the ballot for the state legislature. After not liking the big law firm, he got together with some other friends and started outsourcing legal work to India.  But as he says everyone “hates outsourcing, but they hate lawyers more.” 

 

Back in 1994, the gun laws were being redone in the Pa. There were lots of folks against it and he wanted to see what they were against. Each of the towns and cities were supposed to have the same laws. But they decided they were going to have different classes of cities, and thus, Philly was in its own class. Therefore, having its own laws that the rest of the state didn’t have. He started thinking about why the politicians were so set against lawful gun ownership. That piqued his interest and that’s when he became a gun owner. He got a permit, bought a snub revolver, got into shotguns and bird hunting and found a new passion. 

 

Around the time Heller was going on in 2008, he was getting more involved in getting cases and getting noticed by the NRA. This is where he became friends with Chris Conte at NRA ILA. In 2011, he was awarded the Defender of Justice by NRA ILA. He also helped raise money for the NRA. 

 

On the radar of the NRA, he ends up on a couple committees, one for the legal affairs and one for the non-traditional gun owner, those of racial and sexual minorities. With enough trust, he was placed on the nominating committee. That’s when he started seeing that things were not necessarily going so well. That’s when he started seeing that some BOD members weren’t there for wholesome reasons. He saw that they weren’t all rowing in the same direction. Some of the folks haven’t seen that the old tactics aren’t working, haven’t been, and don’t want to change. 

 

We got into it a bit more of course. He’s very passionate about the NRA and what is going on and what needs to be changed. I really enjoyed the conversation with Jonathan and I look forward to seeing him in Atlanta in April. 

 

This wraps up the five interviews I’ve done with the NRA 2.0 Candidates running on the reform ticket. I’ve had another five or so on the show over the years. I’m voting for all 28 of the “Reformers”. I enjoyed the conversations with them all. As with the NRA staff that I’ve had on the show, I can see the passion for the NRA and our rights that they have and they’re fighting for. These 28 candidates know that the NRA didn’t earn the respect of the members, their funds, and their support. I do have faith in them and what they plan on doing to resurrect the NRA from what has been going on. I have confidence in them and I’m looking forward to t