Why join the NRA, anyway? - Democratic Underground

Frodo_Baggins

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Fri Mar-19-04 02:35 PM
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Why join the NRA, anyway?

Why join the NRA, anyway?

Today, it is almost ubiquitous for gun rights supporters to ask people to join the NRA – in the end of practically every sermon they deliver to their pistol-packing choir. Well, this is my official responds to these pastor: the NRA will get membership money from me when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers. See, the NRA leadership is the sort of people that no thinking Second Amendment supporter would support – ever.
You’re probably shifting colors into the infra-red spectrum in your comfy seat out there in Virginia, but there’s a whole bunch of totally logical reason for a true supporter of freedom not to join the NRA. Let’s look at it rationally.
According to the NRA, they are a “civil rights group”. In fact, they are obviously not a civil rights group – certainly not one defending the Second Amendment. Type www.nra-ila.org into your Web browser. Right at the top of the screen, you will see the words of the Second Amendment: “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed” On the same website the NRA officials claim to support “existing gun control laws”.
Now, what sort of civil rights group would support laws that violate the Bill of Right? Can you imagine the ACLU saying “we support enforcement of existing decency protection bills” and refuse to defend Larry Flint? Can you imagine Amnesty saying “we support enforcement of existing apartheid laws”? Try searching LaPierre’s or Heston’s speeches for the word “repeal”. It’s not there. It’s not in the NRA dictionary.
Speaking of apartheid, the NRA often mention the fact (and it IS a fact) that many of today’s gun laws were targeted at putting African-Americans at a disadvantage. Yet at least one member of the NRA Board of Directors os visibly racist. Here’s a remark by Ted Nugent: "Apartheid isn't that cut and dry. All men are not created equal.” Now, I like The Nuge. Fact is, I’m listening to his songs as I write this. But he’s a racist – which is in itself not a crime – but when racists start leading “civil rights” groups, something is deeply wrong.
The NRA is the world’s largest “gun lobby”. It has four and a half million members. Yet it spends half as much money on D.C. lobbying as the GOA with it’s 450,000 members. When a group ten times smaller than the NRA spends twice as much money, something is deeply wrong.
The NRA also claims to have been supporting gun rights for the last 133 years. Let’s see, The NRA-ILA has been active since 1975, protecting civil rights(at least sometimes). Before that, the NRA has been active in relation to Federal legislation in 1932 (when they helped several states to create the Uniform Machinegun Act – which set the framework towards the NFA).
In 1934, the then-president of the NRA spoke before Congress to say that the Second Amendment “didn’t matter” as concerning the NFA. Ask yourself – why no NRA help in US vs. Miller? Because this 133-year old organization thinks the Second Amendment doesn’t matter. Mind you, the main reason Miller’s attorney didn’t show up at the trial was because he an Miller couldn’t afford to print the brief – or travel to D.C. If somebody has given them the money, perhaps today we wouldn’t be spending millions to stop people from being put in prison over a flash suppressor.
In 1968, the NRA has advocated a seven-day waiting period on handguns. Note: this is more than what Feinstein wants today – Feinstein wants five days. Can’t you just see the ACLU pushing for adding limitations on campaign financing to the CFR bill? Yeah, right.
Not that the NRA doesn’t have successes, mind you. One of the big NRA successes is Project Exile – zero-tolerance enforcement of federal gun laws. The NRA is dead set on putting anybody who has a felony conviction but has a gun in prison. (By the way, they lie when they say Project Exile only includes violent felon). For those unfamiliar with how Project Exile works, here’s a quote from David Holthouse’s analysis of Project Exile in Colorado: “The majority of the defendants -- 154 out of 191 -- have no violent felonies on their records; two were illegal aliens with no criminal record at all. Among the 37 who do have a history of violence, seventeen did not use a gun in their previous crime. This means that just slightly more than one in ten of the prohibited persons prosecuted under Project Exile -- twenty out of 191 -- has a proven history of gun violence.” Violent gun felons, right? That’s very truthful of you, Mr.LaPierre. This is not an assault.
So, given that the NRA is today’s equivalent of Microsoft in the gun liberty market – I think the time has come to go Unix.