Posted on 08/05/2012 6:11:21 PM PDT by neverdem
TUCSON, Ariz.
It is easy to ignore the issue of gun control, given the perfect leaderlessness it enjoys in Congress. Then again, it becomes harder to ignore when your relatives or friends are murdered in the company of someone you idolize, which describes thousands of us here.
I have owned guns, continuously, since I was 6. I still own my grandfather’s pump-action Winchester, carried for decades in a scabbard behind his saddle as he rode the range where he ranched, in Wikieup, Ariz. All the guns I’ve owned have been what are quaintly called long guns. I began my brief assault on local fauna at age 12 and I had taken four white-tailed deer, a couple of javelina and innumerable quail and dove by the time I got my driver’s license at 16.
There are, today, few who hunt with handguns or assault rifles equipped with 100-clip magazines. There are even fewer reasons to do so. But the National Rifle Association’s principal focus has evolved mostly to those. It is news to no one that the NRA has abandoned the sportsman in every practical sense. If the group were honest, it would change its name.
The NRA not only dependably opposes limits on assault-rifle sales but even opposes reporting bulk sales of assault rifles. Last year, the NRA went to the mat to prevent anyone from cross-checking the names of those on the terrorist watch list against the names of those buying guns.
These two actions clarify beyond argument that the safety and welfare of you and yours have simply dropped from the NRA’s list of priorities. The NRA represents gun manufacturers, period.
Now, handguns excel at certain things. They are unequaled at killing people at close range — quite useful for law enforcement officers and drug dealers. They’re genuine security in a drawer for those who have received unambiguous threats, like my friend Gabby Giffords.
They’re even a useful, if dubious, tool to defend yourself from murderers and rapists breaking in at 2 a.m. That hasn’t happened to me in the past 60 years. But maybe your experience is different. NRA President Wayne LaPierre thinks it might happen to you tonight.
And how else are the gun manufacturers going to “grow the market,” to sell more than the 3 million handguns they already do per year? Fear is a great motivator; mass murder is great for the gun business.
Just weeks ago a dozen citizens were murdered and about five dozen plugged with slugs from a trinity of firearms. Setting aside the shotgun, it bears mentioning that the Glock and assault rifle James Holmes is suspected of firing in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater were being used for the purpose for which they were designed, manufactured and sold.
But the gun makers have no product-liability litigation to worry about because in 2005 Congress approved and President George W. Bush signed into law legislation providing immunity for gun manufacturers from the foreseeable consequence of building instruments of murder.
But blessed be the gun makers, for they are pardoned in advance.
It strikes me that the NRA is pretty comfortable when debates over mass murder devolve into intellectual discussions relating to civility vs. demagoguery, insanity vs. impressionability and freedom vs. the tyranny of gun zealots. The more abstract, the better.
In the end, however, it’s simple: The NRA shills for gun makers who profit from the murder of American citizens. If you think the country’s policies are shaped by Judeo-Christian values, you’re not paying attention.
Michael McNulty, an attorney in Tucson, was chairman of the Giffords for Congress campaign in 2006, 2008 and 2010.
It's a list of names, not people
The widow of the late Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, Catherine "Cat" Stevens gets investigated, every time.
This is the biggest obscene lie this fool "writer" could have manufactured without really looking at the publication numbers of "American Rifleman" and "American Hunter" that serve the interests of those who PAY the NRA about $35 per year to protect their rights to own and use firearms of all kinds, and who are always concerned with firearms safety.
The combined circulation of these two magazines (each NRA member for the annual fee can have one or the other) is over 3 million per month, about that of "Sports Illustrated" or "Cosmopolitan," not far from that of "Time."
These magazines are also made possible by advertising suppliers of shooting sports and personal defense articles, including guns; just as these other magazines have their own advertising clients.
This columnist writes that "In the end, however, it’s simple: The NRA shills for gun makers who profit from the murder of American citizens.
It is not farfetched to say that Michael McNulty is using the Pittsburgh Tribune Review and other carriers of his column so that he can shill for the murderers who unlawfully use firearms on unwillingly disarmed citizens; as well as for those factions who wish to blot out the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which is not one of those "living" segments that can be twisted to say whatever you want it to mean.
Shame on his logic, as well as his prostitution of the art of journalism.
It is telling that the media constantly publishes an unending stream of opinion from those who prove beyond any shadow of doubt they are utterly ignorant of the subject on which they opine.
“100 clip-magazine,” indeed!
As many here have already noted, this guy blows it right out of the starting gate by demonstrating such gross ignorance on such firearms fundamentals. It would almost be funny, if it weren't so aggravating that we have to put up with these brainwashed sheep in the first place. And let's remember, this had to get by editors and such as well, which shows their level of, er, 'knowledge'.
If one has to have adversaries, may they always be as transparent and ineffective as these.
A man with a genuinely good heart knows what the NRA is about. It is about protecting the 2nd Amendment. The fact that some selfish, self-centered jerk shoots up a number of people in a crowd is no reason to ban guns, except to a soft headed clown. There are around 50,000 deaths each year from automobile accidents. How many homicides are there by comparison? Fewer; a lot fewer. Where is the call to ban automobiles?
This "story" has had no comments in the last 36 hours.
They must have a very small number of readers.
See post 29. The “comment” feature appears to be a sham. They do not actually allow comments, they just want people to sign up so that they can have a list to send spam to.
Any article that does not allow comments should be dismissed out of hand.
You would think that wouldn't you? But the only weapons explicitly regulated by our Government are those that we need most. Even those weapons heavily restricted by 1934 National Firearms Act were again restricted by the ironically titled "Firearm Owners Protection Act" in 1986. Both of these acts of outright unconstitutional legislation were supported by the NRA. I think the NRA membership is waking up to the real dangers posed to the 2nd amendment and are finally figuring out what the 2nd amendment actually means. When there seems to be real movement to repeal both of these legislative boondoggles then we will know we are on the right track.
The NRA represents gun manufacturers, period.The NRA represents gun owners, period. If they represented gun manufacturers, they'd not have been so quick to destroy Smith&Wesson, back when they reached an "accommodation" with the Clinton administration.
Just another in a long line of “hunters” who use and own guns but want restrictions placed on those of us who don’t hunt and who own guns for self protection and for collecting purposes. I own guns because I want to own them. I want what the military has because that is what the 2nd Amendment tells my government to keep their hands off of. As a member of the citizen militia I should be able to own any small arm that is used by the military.
Idiots like this “hunter” are a dime a dozen. I’ve ran into them at gun shows and gun stores and they always say to me, you’re gun is designed to kill people. I always answer “no it’s designed to stop tyranny and protect my country from those who would put us into slavery to the government.
I also inform them that their gun will kill people too and that they are fools if they let a politician instruct them on which guns are good and which are bad. With all the anti-hunting bills swirling around in government, both state and federal, then he had better watch out or they will erase the hunting part of our culture and that would mean there is NO reason we should have guns if hunting is all we should own them for.
People like this really are stuck on stupid.
They can't "grow the market" - they're already running three shifts and turning down new orders.
You can’t let a few crazy people be used by our liberal unconstitutional domestic enemies in the media to ruin entire movements and groups that are obviously not inciting, or causing violence. If that’s allowed to happen then the movement is too fragile because any large movement will have bad seeds, and everyone with common sense knows it isn’t what those groups are about.
The thing about the NRA is that they seem to compromise between two unconstitutional proposals in several instances. It’s like they are trying to pick the lesser evil, but we are still losing our rights. There comes a time where you draw a line in the sand and say you will not accept these unconstitutional laws no matter what, and they can change the constitution the way it’s meant to be changed if they want more. Then they can push the states to openly defy illegal federal laws without any negotiation. You don’t do it that way when it comes to the Constitution. If we just continue to accept unconstitutional gun laws then the NRA is pointless. We will be totally disarmed with increases laws until the there is no reason for a group such as the NRA to exist anymore.
I don’t understand why more people aren’t talking about the obvious fact we are working inside such an unconstitutional and corrupt system where we are fighting a losing battle that can’t be won within a government that’s so out of control. We might as well be working within China’s communist Parliament to promote capitalism. Our Constitution doesn’t mean anything by many in our government, and many have basically said this. There are also several ways for patriots to start a revolution to free ourselves of this tyranny that are nonviolent, and have great potential to be successful. State governments, influential and respected organizations, and so on can defy these laws, and promote them to be ignored.
It seems many are willing to fight a futile battle in the same system no matter how bad it gets without ever seriously considering anything more. That’s seems selfish and disrespectful to our founding fathers when we are living under an even greater tyranny than that which they thought was important enough to fight for, and our odds and circumstances are much more likely to end peacefully. They were doing something on scale much larger where the odds said they would lose, and probably be executed. And they didn’t win easy or fast. I think we owe it to them to do what is nothing compared to what they did. Violence would only come if our President orders the murder of innocent Americans, and then those orders being followed without resistance from within.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.