When you look at the current politics at the Yellowstone Rifle Club, the Revolutionary War battle cry that comes to mind is: "Taxation without representation is tyranny!"

It really does seem like political issues straight out of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights - but in a twisted sort of way.

In this case, the YRC membership will be voting on a bylaw change at its meeting Tuesday night that would divide club members into two classes - National Rifle Association members and non-NRA members.

If you're an NRA member, you'd pay $70 for the annual YRC membership. If you're not a NRA member, you'd pay $100. But beyond that is where it really gets interesting.

YRC members in the NRA would get to vote in club matters. Non-NRA club members would get no vote.

Asked to explain the proposed bylaw changes, YRC president Roman Gillitzer refused to talk about it. "I can't comment on it," he said simply. "It's an internal thing."

If it is an internal thing, it's certainly no secret thing. People have been talking about it around Billings. And if the YRC officially chooses not to explain, well, then all we can tell you is what we know, what we've heard and guess at all the rest. That's the problem with officials not commenting. They muzzle themselves in setting records straight.

According to the bylaws proposal, the club cannot refuse membership on the the basis of race, color, sex, culture, social origin or condition, or political or religious ideas.

However, it also states, "The Office of Consumer Protection, under Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock, informed the YRC that it has the right under Montana law and YRC bylaws to establish different classes of membership and, moreover, essentially invited YRC to do so with respect to NRA affiliation."

So, the club is proposing eight classes of voting members, grandfathering in old life members, and including the members with NRA affiliation. There are five nonvoting classes with the primary reason being they're either juniors or not members of the NRA. In the future, renewing members must show proof of current NRA membership if they want to continue with voting privileges and get the lower membership rates.

No one I've talked to seemed to know exactly what the additional $30 paid by nonmembers is going to be used for. Will it be sent to the NRA? Will it be used to defray the cost the club's recent land purchase? Will it be used to buy ballot boxes or bullet bunkers?

In some ways, the bylaw proposals aren't surprising. The YRC supports gun rights and the Second Amendment. The NRA supports the same things. And, the YRC as a club supports the NRA.

But support for the NRA really isn't the issue. It's not that a person would, could or should join the NRA. It's not a question of the NRA doing a good job of supporting gun rights.

The real issue is freedom of choice - a citizen's right to join or not join a group - without having to endure some form of punishment. Do you absolutely need to be an NRA member to support gun rights and the Second Amendment? Will no other pro-gun or pro-hunting group suffice? Are the votes of all non-NRA members so suspect?

If so, realize that there are 112 million non-NRA gun owners in this country. The NRA has just 4 million members. In other words, 96 percent of the gun owners in the U.S. aren't worthy of full membership at the YRC no matter how much they pay. The club feels it can't trust them enough to allow them to vote.

Put another way, what if you had to pay an additional 43 percent for your elk hunting license if you're not a member of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation - and then can only shoot cows and calves? Or, should you pay an additional 43 percent for your duck stamps if you're not a member of Ducks Unlimited - and all you can shoot is coots and mergansers?

In the end, it's not so much an issue of whether the YRC bylaw changes are legal. It's more of a moral matter of trampling on individual rights in one regard in the interest of trying to protect other rights.

And, it's also a matter of being so afraid of who might be enemies in Billings, Mont., that you don't even recognize your friends anymore and are doing a better job of dividing the shooting community than the anti-gun forces ever could.