NRA- Extreme or sensible?

 

 

By spearheading the gun industry’s extremist agenda, which is not even supported by its own members, the leadership of the National Rifle Association (NRA) is proving itself to be uniquely despicable. And with all the  hate groups out there -- groups we’re all too familiar with here at Scripture Institute -- that’s saying something.

Gun violence is a continuing national tragedy. But since the Sandy Hook shooting, NRA leaders have been aggressively, and dangerously, stoking irrational paranoia about attacks on Americans’ freedoms, erroneously conflating common sense policies that could help reduce gun violence with infringements on constitutional rights. In an ad released yesterday -- which they pulled down later the same day -- the NRA accused President Obama of being an “elitist hypocrite” for having secret service protection for his children.

 

The NRA is a massive organization, with immense wealth and powerful lobbyists. But the American people and even, according to polls, vast majorities of gun owners and the NRA’s own rank and file membership support many of the common sense reforms opposed by the NRA. However, because of the political clout the NRA leadership and the gun industry have with many politicians, particularly in the GOP, it’s going to take a groundswell of Americans demanding action if change is going to happen.

NRA spokespersons have served up a heap of rhetoric aimed at manipulating ordinary people into zealous support of the gun industry’s ability to make as much profit as possible with as little restriction as possible, the safety and welfare of the public be damned. And an unholy alliance of far-right organizations, activists and politicians, including much of the Religious Right, has fallen in behind the NRA in staunch opposition to any common sense reforms that could help stem gun violence.

President Obama proposed some strong commonsense reforms yesterday and Congress must seriously consider them instead of drowning in the flood of distractions and deflections being thrown at them and the public by NRA officials.

With every press release, speech, TV ad and interview, NRA spokespeople and supporters are relentlessly attempting to shift the debate about gun policy reforms like background checks, a ban on assault weapons and restrictions on the size of ammunition clips to some phony disagreement about armed guards in schools.

The national conversation currently looks a little something like this:

Leader in favor of a commonsense approach: “We should consider sensible reforms that will protect 2nd Amendment rights while improving public safety, and devote resources to researching the causes of gun violence in an attempt to prevent more of it.”

NRA: “Why don’t you support security guards in schools to protect our kids? Do you hate America’s children?”

It’s time to stop this madness and harness the rightful outrage that the NRA’s efforts and tactics deserve. We need to be at least as vocal as the gun enthusiasts, Tea Partiers and gun industry lobbyists.

Thank you for standing up for common sense in government and our fundament right to keep our children, and all of us,