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The NRA Has Lost It
The NRA Has Lost It
As a gun owner, I'm appalled by the gun lobby's ludicrous culture war against progressives.
By Patrick Tomlinson | Contributor
Aug. 1, 2017, at 8:53 a.m.
My name is Patrick Tomlinson, and I am a lifelong firearm enthusiast.
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For eight years, we heard nothing but fearmongering, hate and vitriol about the insidious intentions of our first black president. Unhinged, fact-free screeds about how he was "coming for our guns" became fixtures of the Rifleman, the NRA's official magazine. At every convention, at every public event, the fear was ratcheted up among the faithful that at any second, waves of gay-married illegal alien shock troops would come sweeping through our small towns in heels and miniskirts to confiscate our weapons to be melted down to make Tony Awards. This fear pushed gun sales through the roof, causing a run on ammunition that sent prices of both skyrocketing, and only now returning to normal.
All for a president who, after two full terms, ended with a legislative legacy that only expanded gun rights. No, seriously. Obama only signed two firearm related bills into law. One which allowed concealed carry permit holders to carry on Amtrack trains, and the other which allowed us to carry within the National Park system. Seriously. Look it up.
Which brings us to today. With Trump infesting the White House and no convenient Democratic boogeyman (or woman) to scare the children with, the NRA's rhetoric has moved from merely unhinged to dangerously inflammatory. With the GOP in nominal control of the government, CEO Wayne LaPierre and his cadre of frothing-at-the-mouth lunatics have adjusted their sights away from politicians and turned them onto American citizens en masse.
In a one-minute ad narrated by the NRA's newest spokeswoman, Dana Loesch, a conservative talk show host, the organization accused the media, Hollywood, academics, protesters and its favorite target Obama of assassination and terrorism, imploring listeners to "fight the violence" of lies with the "clenched fist" of truth. LaPierre echoed these sentiments during a speech at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, where he conflated progressive protests against Trump with the Islamic State group's desire for violence to bring about a worldwide caliphate.
As if that wasn't bad enough, NRA TV host Grant Stinchfield accused the Black Lives Matter movement of trying to start a race war, warning that if the group is successful in its goal of containing the epidemic of unarmed black men being shot by police, white families will be tortured and killed just like in South Africa.
These are the words and beliefs of a political movement that has utterly lost its way and wandered off the path into fomenting a new civil war.
more...
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2017-08-01/im-a-gun-lover-and-the-nra-has-lost-its-mind
5 replies
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Bill Maher was right that the republicans have become the democrats' crazy ex girlfriend. And the NRA is proof of this. They wouldn't be in business now if they didn't keep poking the hornets nest with their grandeur delusions of violence. In the last 10 years they've used the boogeyman rhetoric of "the democrats are going to take your guns away" and got away with it. They've all but legalized murder. Guns go flying off the shelves any time there's an attack. And just give them any excuse to use their precious killing machines. Any. 