Even if we concede that the Second Amendment permits individuals, not only militias, to carry guns; even if we concede that it’s quite nice to have an armed person in the room if a “crazy” starts shooting (à la Columbine); even if we concede that members of the National Rifle Association have the same rights as other Americans to speak their piece and lobby as they see fit; the NRA is over the top. So over the top as to be an embarrassment to everyone but its own members.
Last year the NRA refused to discuss gun control with President Obama. NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre said, “Why should I or the NRA go sit down with a group of people that have spent a lifetime trying to destroy the Second Amendment?” Why? For the same reason that all opponents talk to each other, not to mention respect for the office of the presidency. But no. It is beneath the NRA to accept an invitation from the President of the US.
This is, after all, the same organization that said in an advertisement that federal agents, namely those of the ATF, were “jack-booted government thugs,” out to take away individual gun rights. For that, a long time NRA member, then the President of the US, George H. W. Bush, resigned from the NRA; and the NRA later apologized for the language.
But NRA is over the top not only in its style. On substance, the NRA track record is worse. It’s not just “gun ownership” that the NRA defends. It is also the sale of AK-47 semi-automatic rifles, and without any limitations such as background checks or the requirement to show an ID. The NRA opposes the strict enforcement of existing laws that prohibit convicted felons and violent criminals from possessing firearms. The NRA opposes increased sentencing for gun-related crimes.
The NRA, with a straight face, opposes gun control in the US because there was gun control in the Weimar Republic; and that, of course, allowed the Nazis to come to power. As if the US has just suffered a military defeat the likes of Germany’s in WW I; as if the US has just suffered an economic collapse, the likes of Germany’s in the 1920s — as if, for that matter, anyone has come up with a persuasive explanation of how the historically unique Nazi Party took over Germany at all. There is no analogy of the US to Weimar.
Say this for the NRA: It has been named a Four Star Charity by Charity Navigator for many years. That’s quite some feat, given that its CEO, Wayne LaPierre, received a yearly salary of $895,897 in 2004. For the record, the NRA’s income in 2004 was $205,402,491. All legal. All misguided. All due to a tautological love affair with guns: It’s right because it’s right.
Copyright © 2012 by the Intermountian Jewish News
