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.
