I think it’s a great shame that the National Rifle Association (NRA) has made the decision to be a nakedly partisan arm of the Republican Party instead of a non-partisan advocate for gun owners, gun enthusiasts, and gun safety. Look at this (via Steve Benen) performance by NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre:
“[The Obama campaign] will say gun owners — they’ll say they left them alone,” LaPierre told an audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Friday. “In public, he’ll remind us that he’s put off calls from his party to renew the Clinton [assault weapons] ban, he hasn’t pushed for new gun control laws… The president will offer the 2nd Amendment lip service and hit the campaign trail saying he’s actually been good for the 2nd Amendment.”
“But it’s a big fat stinking lie!” the NRA leader exclaimed. “It’s all part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and destroy the 2nd Amendment in our country.”
“Obama himself is no fool. So when he got elected, they concocted a scheme to stay away from the gun issue, lull gun owners to sleep and play us for fools in 2012. Well, gun owners are not fools and we are not fooled,” La Pierre declared.
“… President Obama and his cohorts, yeah, they’re going to deny their conspiracy to fool gun owners. Some in the liberal media, they are already probably blogging about it. But we don’t care because the lying, conniving Obama crowd can kiss our Constitution!”
As Benen notes, the NRA has won the national argument over gun laws. And that creates a fundraising problem because they don’t have anything left to do but teach people how to use their guns safely. But this rhetoric is totally over-the-top.
I’m personally conflicted about federal gun laws. I supported the Assault Weapons Ban, but I’m not comfortable with a one-size-fits-all national policy on hand-guns. So, I probably agree with the NRA on at least a few issues, but they completely alienate anyone who doesn’t hate the president and the Democratic Party.
I knew the NRA preferred the Republican Party, but I thought that was a rational decision based on the fact that most gun control advocates are Democrats. The NRA has endorsed Democrats many times in the past, but I don’t see why they bother. I thought they cared about gun issues, but it appears that they only care about the Republicans winning elections. Obama couldn’t have done less on gun control if he tried. Aside from his failure to reinstate the Assault Weapons Ban, I have no problem with that, although a lot of people I respect do. And the thanks the president gets is to have the head of the NRA tell him to kiss his Constitution?
I think there are a lot of NRA members who will be offended by LaPierre’s crazy talk.
I was an NRA member until LaPierre went bat-shit crazy. A lot of things will have to change before I ever consider renewing my membership. There are a lot more constructive things I can do with my money.
There are a ton of Democrats who are NRA members, and they have nothing to complain about from this administration. Nothing at all. I don’t think they’ll be happy to see LaPierre behaving this way.
I was brow-beaten by NRA members in the early days of this administration about the coming gun owner apocalypse. So many people I know spent money they didn’t have in order to stock up on ridiculous amounts of ammo and to buy guns like crazy. And when there were the predictable shortages of both, they feverishly pointed to that as some kind of “sign of the beast”, foretelling Obama’s unleashing of his brown shirts to sweep the nation of it’s arms. It was like “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” in it’s wholesale irrationality. Normally rational people were foaming at the mouth about this. It would have been comical if it wasn’t so serious to these people. They would fight you if you disagreed with them. It could actually be frightening to talk to them about this.
So it comes as no surprise that LaPierre wants to blow on those embers just one more time to see if he can resuscitate that fire once again.
Disgraceful. There is no parallel on our side at all.
RE: those people who bought up all that ammo.
That’s what I call a tax on stupid right there.
Actually, one person I know who did it calls it “insurance”.
I remember that. I applied for my first Illinois FOID card in the summer of 2008 to take possession of a legacy weapon. When I asked how long it would take, I was told that it was normally two weeks but was now taking four weeks or longer because of the rush of people applying so they could buy a gun before Obama banned them. (HELLO idiots! You just told the state of Illinois that you own a gun. If they were banned, whose house would they go fto first?)
Thank You for reminding me about the FOID card! I need a second photo ID with my name and address to get a library card. The FOID is the second ID! BTW, it’s easier to register to vote here than to get a library card. To register to vote you only need two pieces of ID and only one needs a photo and only one needs your address and they don’t both have to be on any one ID. But then, if you vote, the Seqioia (sic?) machines will record that you voted as the Machine desires, but with a library card you might do something dangerous like read … or even think!
Are you sure that wasn’t lifted from The Onion?
Have you not seen this video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju1hflebAmk
Uhm, the NRA has been a GOP front group for at least two decades. I always find it amusing when otherwise sensible democrats suddenly discover this. Back in 2006, they gave money to the GOP candidate in my district even though the dem candidate scored exactly the same on their scorecard. Back in the 1990’s, they openly opposed democrats, giving only token support to dems in order to appear “nonpartisian” – but their support was always strategically placed, and waned rapidly. They were a major rhetorical part of the culture of violence that swirled in the 1990’s and manifested in the terrorist militia movement. They are and have been for decades a group not representing gun hobbyists, but rather moneyed interests who needed a hook into the “guns” part of the “guns, god and gays” triumvirate of conservative wedge issues. In fact I would submit that their donations were really just a way to distract from their larger rhetorical mission – they were in charge of whipping up the rubes.
I quit in the ’80s when they kept pushing the reelection of RR.
As a hobbyist, all I can say is Amen! Not even Michael Moore could make that turd smell like anything other than a turd.
Bingo!! Which makes the post-partisan stuff look foolish, naive or both.
Only if, three and a half years later, you still think the “post-partisan stuff’ was an actual attempt to work with Republicans, instead of marketing effort for conservadem senators and independent voters.
The real truth of the matter is, there is little Obama could do to appease these people. He could walk up to the podium tomorrow and announce that he is going to send every non felon over the age of eighteen a coupon good for $250 toward the purchase of a handgun and they would scream that he is only doing that so that when people use them he could get a record of everyone who might be interested in owning a gun. There is not enough tin foil in the world for this gang.
Yep. The Dems are coming to take your guns is a never ending winner for republicans in Appalachia/rural murca. The facts have nothing to do with it – this is lizard brain stuff. The fact that the president is black just makes the response that much more over the top.
That is paranoia turned to an art form by the fine folks at the NRA. Really, the insights into the psychology of today’s right-wing (Tea Party, ad nauseum) can be readily gleaned from Richard Hofstadter’s classic essay The Paranoid Style in American Politics. The names change, but the song remains the same, year after year.
That was Wayne LaPierre’s mission.
And the Southern Baptist Convention staff also work for the GOP — and have since 1978.
And the Tea Party was Dick Armey and Art Pope (Kochs’ consigliere) and a bunch of media consultants. Well, that one got a little out of hand.
And one wonders about the US Chamber of Commerce. When did fealty to the GOP trump economic interests.
When did it trump economic interests? It never did it always did. It’s clearly in the economic interest to have a stable and sustainable country so you can ensure a flow of profits for generations, but people are too stupid to see very far ahead and politicians have an incentive to do so even less.
Wayne LaPierre spent 2008 telling his people that if Obama won office, he would take their guns. Sales of firearms and ammunition skyrocketed when Obama won, because people took LaPierre seriously.
And then nothing happened.
You’d have to be an idiot to be suckered again.
So, just to be clear, in 2010 the NRA gave Barack Obama an F for his performance on gun issues…and that performance was a conspiracy to lull gunowners into a false sense of security?
Sooooo…which is it?