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Inside the Power of the N.R.A.
The New York Times Magazine ^ | December 12, 2013 | Robert Draper

Posted on 12/12/2013 1:32:15 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

To get to Joe Manchin’s private office in the Hart Senate Office Building, you first pass through a lobby where you encounter a small bronze statue of an Old West lawman holding a firearm — an award given to Manchin several years ago by a chapter of the National Rifle Association for his unswerving defense of gun rights. Then you turn down a hallway, past several framed photographs of children who were victims of the massacre a year ago at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. The combination of the bronze rifleman in the lobby and the young faces on the wall suggests a particular viewpoint — I stand with gun lovers; I stand with victims of gun violence — that qualifies, in Washington anyway, as being nuanced, which is to say politically ill advised if not suicidal.

Even sitting behind his stately wooden desk in a suit and tie, Manchin, who is 66, possesses the craggy appearance of a small-town sheriff. As he proclaimed to me one morning in September, “I enjoy my guns, and my family enjoys their guns.” And indeed, Manchin, a conservative Democrat from West Virginia, won election to the U.S. Senate in 2010 partly on the strength of a memorable TV ad depicting him firing a bullet through President Obama’s cap-and-trade bill that had been anathema to coal miners in his state. But Manchin’s outlook changed the day he came back from a hunting trip last December, having learned of the 20 children and six adults slaughtered at Sandy Hook. That unique horror motivated him in a way that other recent mass shootings in Tucson and Aurora, Colo., had not....

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government; Political Humor/Cartoons
KEYWORDS: banglist; congress; guncontrol; sandyhook
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To: Sherman Logan

There are some anti-gun people who claim that armed staff members will kill children rather than stopping an attacker. There are others, pro-gun people, who claim that an armed staff will guarantee the children’s safety.

I don’t subscribe to either of those extremes. While an armed staff member *may* be able to stop an attacker, an unarmed one certainly can’t.


21 posted on 12/12/2013 2:16:55 PM PST by Bob
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To: Bob

Agree. While armed attackers have been stopped by people who are unarmed, it’s certainly not the way to bet.


22 posted on 12/12/2013 2:20:06 PM PST by Sherman Logan
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To: DTogo
"Yeah, if there had been an armed teacher or two at Sandy Hook..."

The problem with this solution to school shootings is that both modern "teachers" and spree shooters are universally Leftist and functionally borderline mentally retarded.

Ponder this: Over the last forty years, since the Bolsheviks have pushed the concept that every pupil "needs" college, it has been the habit of academia to shovel the bottom of the barrel students into eduction and journalism.

These are now the sources of the daily news items of Zero Tolerance stupidity, and you want to promote morons with guns?

23 posted on 12/12/2013 2:38:43 PM PST by jonascord (Hurrah for the Bonny Blue Flag that bears a Single Star!)
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To: driftdiver

Luftwaffe uniforms were a dark blue.


24 posted on 12/12/2013 3:02:22 PM PST by jmacusa (I don't think so, but I doubt it.)
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To: Bob
I don’t subscribe to either of those extremes. While an armed staff member *may* be able to stop an attacker, an unarmed one certainly can’t.

A good example of this is the Portland, OR mall shooting that happened just before Sandy Hook. The CCW holder *may* have prevented further carnage, in this case simply by being in the right place at the right time - without even firing his handgun.

I actually heard the police radio feed from that incident, over a scanner app on my smartphone. I knew there was someone on the scene with a carry permit, but the media took a few days to comment on that point.

25 posted on 12/12/2013 3:05:44 PM PST by Charles Martel (Endeavor to persevere...)
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To: Red in Blue PA

The power of the NYT comes from its high profile and its ability to feign objectivity.


26 posted on 12/12/2013 3:13:59 PM PST by Mmmike
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To: jmacusa

There are gray versions


27 posted on 12/12/2013 3:20:25 PM PST by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: Sherman Logan

“There is unfortunately no assurance that the good guys will always win a gunfight”

Not being armed is a guaranteed loss. Did that thought never cross your mind?


28 posted on 12/12/2013 3:29:14 PM PST by CodeToad (When ignorance rules a person's decision they are resorting to superstition.)
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To: Oberon

That is what makes the NRA rather unique in the lobbying field.

The reason why they say that the gun industry must be fully funding the NRA, is because just about every other large lobbying group is funded by large corporate or non profit groups.

There aren’t any lobbyists that come from groups like the NRA. In Washington they are unique.


29 posted on 12/12/2013 5:51:55 PM PST by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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To: jonascord

Some of the teachers here in Newtown are Veterans, and some are regular shooters with pistol permits. Not all teachers should be armed for the sake of doing so - not all citizens aren’t capable of that responsibility. But those who are able and willing to be trained? Why not!


30 posted on 12/12/2013 7:13:31 PM PST by DTogo (High time to bring back The Sons of Liberty !!)
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To: driftdiver

“There all gray versions.’’ None that I’ve ever seen. The Luftwaffe uniforms where dark blue-gray, similar to the RAF but not entirely gray and tan for North Africa. The Luftwaffe eagle with the swastika in the middle was different than from the other branches in that it was configured like an eagle in flight.


31 posted on 12/12/2013 7:43:27 PM PST by jmacusa (I don't think so, but I doubt it.)
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To: jmacusa

Well a simple google shows me some but then I’m jot an expert. Nor do I prefer to argue about pointless things while missing the issue


32 posted on 12/12/2013 8:02:04 PM PST by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

What exactly does the NRA have to do with the murderer of 26 children and teachers at Sandy Hook? There is no connection.


33 posted on 12/13/2013 7:03:48 AM PST by Jabba the Nutt (You can have a free country or government schools. Choose one.)
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