Three good friends: Wayne LaPierre, Marion Hammer and Jeb Bush

[seafan]

Connecticut School Officials Blast NRA’s Reaction To Newtown, December 22, 2012


Wayne LaPierre, NRA executive vice president. The face of soulless evil.



His ties to Florida are blood-spattered, with the unfettered complicity of right wing zealots controlling our state government.




After Stand Your Ground passed in Florida, NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre said the pro-gun organization would use the victory to promote the law nationwide. (Photo by Gage Skidmore.)



And that is exactly what the NRA, guided by ALEC, did.




NRA’s Behind-the-Scenes Campaign Encouraged ‘Stand Your Ground’ Adoption, March 23, 2012

It’s no coincidence that after Florida passed its Stand Your Ground law in 2005, many other states followed suit.

The law — which greatly expanded the right to use deadly force — had been vigorously pushed by the National Rifle Association before being passed overwhelming by a deferential legislature and signed by then-Gov. Jeb Bush, who called it a “commonsense” approach to making the citizenry safer.

.....

As soon as the bill was signed into law in Florida, the NRA’s executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, said the pro-gun organization would use the victory to promote the law everywhere.

Within weeks, a proposed statute with almost the exact wording of the Florida law was adopted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). That’s a conservative organization that pushes for laws favorable to its patrons, mainly scores of U.S. corporations. One of those backers is the NRA.

ALEC’s method is to hand cookie-cutter “model” bills to sympathetic state lawmakers — mostly conservative Republicans — who then sponsor them in their statehouses. They’ve been very effective. According to Mother Jones magazine, 23 states have followed Florida’s lead in passing these laws.

The NRA has long been a high-caliber force in Florida’s legislature. Between 2003 and 2010, the gun lobby gave $2.7 million to state lawmakers, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics. They contributed the legal limit, $500, to Jeb Bush’s 2002 gubernatorial re-election campaign, an additional $60,000 to the state’s majority Republican Party — though none to Democrats.

In the vote for bill, all 22 legislators who received NRA money said “yea,” writes Think Progress.

.....

Bush has been silent on Trayvon Martin’s killing and the eruption of outrage and protest that have followed.

.....

Marion Hammer: The NRA Lobbyist Behind Florida's Stand Your Ground Legislation , March 22, 2012



How The NRA Fueled Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ Law, March 22, 2012


Pistol-Packing Grandma Helps NRA Push State Pro-Gun Laws, May 11, 2012


Rep. Dennis Baxley, from left, Marion Hammer, Governor Jeb Bush and Senator Durell Peaden, pose for a photo at the signing of the Stand Your Ground bill into law in Tallahassee, Florida, on April 26, 2005. (Office of the Governor via Bloomberg)



Marion Hammer, left, shakes hands with Florida Governor Charlie Crist after he signed a law that lets workers store firearms in their cars while at work, in Tallahassee, Florida, on April 15, 2008. (Office of the Governor via Bloomberg)
(Crist has since renounced this decision, and changed his position on gun regulation. The NRA's venomous retribution against Crist has been swift.)



Marion Hammer and Florida Governor Rick Scott pose for a photo after the signing of a bill bill that prohibits doctors from asking patients about gun ownership, in Tallahassee, Florida, on June 2, 2011.
(Office of the Governor via Bloomberg)



Jeb: 'Let's talk about my Mitt endorsement instead of "Stand Your Ground" I signed for the NRA.', March 22, 2012



No, Jeb. We want to talk about your deep ties of loyalty to the NRA and the monster we heard from yesterday, who represents it.

We stand united in revulsion.





NYT: The N.R.A. Crawls From Its Hidey Hole, December 21, 2012





Nice friends you have there, Jeb Bush.


Marco Rubio fancies them too. Time for Rubio's careful tap dance with his NRA backers.




Have we finally had enough of the NRA's murderous zealotry and all of its acolytes?


God, I hope so.

[Enthusiast]

1. The NRA doesn't need to take such an extreme position.

However, they accomplish several key objectives when they do.

When they tell their members that Obama and the United Nations have a secret plan to confiscate their guns, donations to the NRA soar. And their members, believing the NRA would never make shit up, go out and buy millions of dollars worth of guns and ammo for the day when Obama comes to take the guns from their cold dead hands. And it serves the Republican (extremist) Party by generating enthusiasm at the polls and donations from angry gun owners.

The NRA doesn't really believe limiting gun magazine capacity and an assault weapons ban would actually threaten gun ownership in America. It's all an act.

I don't know what Stand Your Ground is other an an act of deep stupid. I guess the law serves to demonstrate to an uneducated red neck membership how valuable their guns are in a practical sense. "Now you can shoot that suspicious black man you wanted to shoot all along." :eyes:

[No Elephants]

2. Crist sure changes easily, doesn't he?

[formercia]

3. People who own High Capacity Magazines

Tend to shoot a lot of ammunition during practice. It's the nature of the Beast. They also buy a lot of ammunition, something the ammunition manufacturers like to see. It's all about Profit and the NRA is their mouthpiece to promote their wares.
You can bet they will fight to prevent any restrictions on High Capacity Magazines and high rate of fire weapons.

To them, the Bottom Line trumps safety.