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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums23 Reasons Why The NRA Is Racist
Reprinted with permission from MediaMatters.
In the October edition of the National Rifle Associations (NRA) magazine Americas 1st Freedom, NRA executive vice president and CEO Wayne LaPierre takes on what he calls the false notion from the gun-ban media that somehow the NRA is racist.
Outlets covering the NRA and race should consider these examples starting with LaPierre himself in evaluating his claims:
1. After Hurricane Sandy struck New York City and other parts of the East Coast in 2013, LaPierre was criticized for writing an op-ed in which he falsely claimed that looters ran wild in south Brooklyn and fearmongered about Latin American drug gangs. Conservative commentator Joe Scarborough described the claims as so laced with racial overtones. Progressive commentator Touré pointed out that LaPierre spoke of supposedly rampant crime and murder in some place he called South Brooklyn.
Put aside that no reporting bears that out. I live in Brooklyn, I have for a long time, and there is no place referred to as South Brooklyn, but I think its safe to say that when he says that, much of the country envisions a place clogged with black people.
2.During the NRAs 2015 annual meeting, LaPierre referenced the end of the Obama administration and told the crowd, Eight years of one demographically symbolic president is enough. Reacting to the comment, Pulitzer-winning columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. wrote, LaPierre traded his dog whistle for an air horn.
3. During a 2014 speech, LaPierre adopted conservative medias racially charged claims about the (nonexistent) knockout game phenomenon in which black youths supposedly assault unsuspecting, mostly white, victims on the street for fun to hype gun ownership.
4. Activists and some gun owners castigated the NRA for its feckless response to the fatal shooting of Philando Castile, a black, law-abiding gun owner, by a Minnesota police officer in 2016.
http://www.nationalmemo.com/23-reasons-nra-racist/
Should be called the National Racist Association
Kolesar
(31,182 posts)... of what it was when I was young. There were way more thefts. City governments were way more corrupt forty years ago.
They shut up. People get the wrong read on me and start these unwelcome rants. People say I look like a cop. I am a bit puritanical by nature, but ...
Orrex
(63,224 posts)The crime rate has dropped to 1/3 because of the ever-increasing gun ownership. And obviously we need more guns in order to reduce crime even further.
I'm glad that you've had success in this direction, but in my experience it tends to go the other way.
The crime rate dropped because of "demographic changes": the baby boomers aged out. Young men are stupid and full of testosterone. Scant opportunity makes it worse for them.
Further, Ohio has three or seven times more people in prison. Some people have to be kept off the streets.
Orrex
(63,224 posts)They aren't interested in facts and reality when those facts contradict their sacred gun scripture.
I agree with your assessment, and I don't dispute it. But I know from experience that gun zealots will go to any lengths necessary in order to rationalize their imagined need for more guns.
Kolesar
(31,182 posts)Back to my Cheerios.
Orrex
(63,224 posts)I re-read my post, and I definitely didn't make it clear that I was mocking their perspective. Instead, I made it seem like those are my views.
Glad we're on the same side!
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)Initech
(100,102 posts)If we want to make any progress we need to tell the NRA where they can shove it. This line here infuriated me: "President Barack Obama set race relations back 100 years in this country.". No he didn't. The constant ridiculous whining from white nationalist snowflakes set race relations back 100 years. Fuck, I hate conservatives.
Kolesar
(31,182 posts)ProudMNDemocrat
(16,791 posts)When Ray Moore flashed his handgun on Monday night before the Alabama vote took place, he epitomized the Southern redneck version of the 2nd Amendment. That a White man with a gun is a "responsible gun owner" and a Black man who legally owns a gun is a "thug". I have heard people say and read posts on other boards that referrance that sentiment.