How the NRA Enables Massacres

[G_j]

U.S. NEWS 05.24.14
How the NRA Enables Massacres

As a shooting spree leaves seven dead in California, the gun lobby is trying to thwart attempts to study gun deaths and officials who see gun violence as a public health crisis.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/24/the-nra-s-all-out-assault-on-accurate-information-about-gun-deaths.html

<snip>

After attending the NRA's Convention in Indianapolis, I wrote recently in these pages about all the NRA does to encourage paranoia and hatred while selling the weaponry not of self protection or hunting, but war, to anyone with a stack of bills and a glint in their eye.

But this past week we've seen the other side of the coin. How the NRA works to suppress information that would lead to treating a public health catastrophe that claims over 30,000 lives per year and injures over 100,000 as that very thing, while fighting to ensure we have as little access to information as possible that might help save lives.

The simple fact is, much like with their friends on the right from the tobacco industry to the oil industry to the megachurch, science and information are the enemies of the NRA. They have proven they will do whatever it takes to make sure we have less of it, and more Santa Barbaras.

The clearest example, of course, is the NRA's labeling a bill sponsored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) to allow the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to once again use its considerable expertise to research gun violence prevention, “unethical.” Yes, they actually said that.

Because anyone who does statistically significant research on a public health problem from the angle of helping people and not profiting from misery, and again and again finds obvious truths such as owning guns makes you more likely to get shot, is not someone the NRA and its allies will countenance without smearing. I debated one of these types from the Second Amendment Foundation on NPR recently regarding the CDC. It is amazing how tongue-tied they get when you present them with irrefutable information.

<snip>

[951-Riverside]

1. Nuh uh! Its the MRA!

...This message has been bought and paid for by the NRA.

Here at the NRA we don't allow visitors enter our headquarters with guns while lobbying for open carry at your kid's schools.

[mountain grammy]

2. Bought and paid for, locked and loaded. The 1% dream come true,

getting average Americans to kill each other. Ignorance is bliss.

[valerief]

3. Guns are bad? FALSE!!! Guns are good. Jesus and Moses used guns to conquer the Romans.

Guns don't kill people. Dangerous minorities do.

(I love Family Guy!)

[calimary]

4. What I posted elsewhere:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4997562

Don't WE have rights, too???? The right NOT to be harassed by the gunners and their apparent obsession with pushing guns on every household, every neighborhood, every commercial district, every street, every store, every church, everywhere!

I think WE have rights, TOO: to be FREE of this, to be liberated from this constant harassment and threat to our safety!!! The right to know and discuss and study what we're up against - FREELY. Okay? This starts impinging on the FIRST Amendment right to free speech and free assembly. And seems to me the FIRST Amendment comes FIRST - for a REASON.

Besides, does the Second Amendment not clearly stipulate a "WELL-REGULATED militia"? REGULATIONS on the gunners - they can't just have whatever-the-fuck they want. Otherwise the rest of us are held hostage by a bunch of paranoiacs among our own citizenry. It's domestic terrorism, plain and simple. And I, for one, am sick and tired of that!!!

[smallcat88]

5. What you said!

Unfortunately, SCOTUS rewrote the 2nd amendment a few years ago.

http://tdistler.com/2008/06/26/scotus-rules-that-the-2nd-amendment-applies-to-individuals

[SoapBox]

7. Exactly!

What the fuck happened to MY RIGHT not to be terrorist or killed by gun nuts?!?

[shenmue]

8. Indeed

[Slip_n_Slide]

11. No guarantees this side of the grave...

Fortunately or not depending on your point of view....

[AlinPA]

20. Yes. The 2nd Amendment trumps our other rights.

(I also posted this elsewhere):
I believe my right to be safe from guns is just as important as someone else's 2nd amendment rights. But the 2nd amendment seems to trump others’ rights, liberties and their right to live. (last phrase re: Richard Martinez quote).

[calimary]

29. I think this is a legitimate attack line that we should adopt, and push forward.

These hyenas are yowling about their "rights." Well, WE NEED TO START HOWLING ABOUT OURS!!!!!

And we need to remind everyone that the FIRST Amendment came first and IS first for a reason! And the 2nd Amendment'ers can just stand in line - in SECOND place. Because their so-called "rights" DO NOT include bullying the rest of us into silence with their guns.

[derby378]

33. It's a convenient fiction...

...but I daresay you would consider the right to privacy, the right to trial by jury, and prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment to be just as important as freedom of speech. I tend to treat the Bill of Rights as a package deal.

[treestar]

23. Exactly, their solution is that we should go out and buy a gun!

I don't want a gun. I don't want to have to need one. As it is, I don't think the odds of it saving my life are that great. If no one had guns, that would be even better.

[DinahMoeHum]

6. NRA: Accessory To Murder

Suggestion for a poster/button.

[napkinz]

9. ...

[napkinz]

10. he was a "good guy" until ...

[spanone]

13. he was probably still a good guy at 9:28 to the nra....

he was just exercising his 2nd amendment rights

[napkinz]

21. ...

[napkinz]

12. kick

nt

[GoneFishin]

14. Kick. BENGHAZI!

[billh58]

15. K&R

Marketing fear = profits. Fear also enables whacko survivalists, KKK-affiliated militias, and the stockpiling of lethal weapons by hate groups across this nation.

[alfredo]

16. Has there been a spike in gun sales from this latest murder? The NRA gets a small percentage

of each sale.


Since 2005, the gun industry and its corporate allies have given between $20 million and $52.6 million to it through the NRA Ring of Freedom sponsor program. Donors include firearm companies like Midway USA, Springfield Armory Inc, Pierce Bullet Seal Target Systems, and Beretta USA Corporation. Other supporters from the gun industry include Cabala's, Sturm Rugar & Co, and Smith & Wesson.

The NRA also made $20.9 million — about 10 percent of its revenue — from selling advertising to industry companies marketing products in its many publications in 2010, according to the IRS Form 990.

Additionally, some companies donate portions of sales directly to the NRA. Crimson Trace, which makes laser sights, donates 10 percent of each sale to the NRA. Taurus buys an NRA membership for everyone who buys one of their guns. Sturm Rugar gives $1 to the NRA for each gun sold, which amounts to millions. The NRA's revenues are intrinsically linked to the success of the gun business.

The NRA Foundation also collects hundreds of thousands of dollars from the industry, which it then gives to local-level organizations for training and equipment purchases.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/gun-industry-funds-nra-2013-1#ixzz32pqHs4gf

[treestar]

24. Ever the same

They think the sorority girls should have been armed. The roommates and friend should have been armed. That's their solution. For Sandy Hook, they had the gall to suggest teachers should have been armed!

[alfredo]

25. One trick pony

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

26. In other words, the solution to gun violence is more guns

Even a gun nut should be able to see the illogic.

[napkinz]

17. kick

nt

[MisterP]

18. you know it, I know it, 90% of the country (and gun owners) knows it

but as long as all that doesn't matter, it doesn't matter

everyone knew by 1982 that the Contra war wasn't to interdict any arms to El Salvador, and in 2002 we knew Powell shaking a vial containing his flash-frozen, crustified soul plus a few CGI animations didn't prove a thing (we even made the biggest protests the world had ever seen)

didn't matter

[blkmusclmachine]

19. Never

Really

Accountable

[napkinz]

22. their "pledge"

[SwankyXomb]

27. If you endorse the NRA

you endorse mass murder.

[calimary]

31. Truly. We have to mount a relentless campaign to cover all things NRA with shit.

We have to start equating them and their name and their organization with hoodlums, outlaws, murderers, anarchists, anti-social miscreants. We have to start painting them with shit - just the same way as every CON out there for the last 30 - 40 years has relentlessly painted the whole concept of "liberal" and "liberalism" and "Democrats" with shit. So that it then becomes shit in the public mind. It sinks in as shit in the public mindset, thought-process, reality-lens. It sets and cements THE PERCEPTION.

We have to manage the perception better here. We have to TOTALLY manage the perception here. Back during the 70s and 80s, the jingoistic gun-loving government-hating prejudiced, sexist, willfully (even proudly) uninformed, out-to-lunch Frank Burns characters a la "M*A*S*H" and other presentations on TV, in film, and the popular media, were laughed at. Viewed as comic foils. Ridiculous and well worthy of ridicule. Pathetic figures of derision - that were there to laugh at and NOT emulate or admire in any way. The jester character, who was never meant to be taken one bit seriously - only fodder for laughing and smirking and comedy and farce. Unfortunately, that has all since been turned completely upside down. Frank Burns today would be urged to run for high office. Frank Burns already fully represents the state of Texas. And North Carolina. And Kansas. And too many other places to want to count anymore. Frank Burns has become a fucking hero.

[Dopers_Greed]

28. The NRA loves violence

Every time there is a mass shooting, gun sales go through the roof.

I bet they corked a champagne bottle after hearing about Newtown.

[AlinPA]

38. Of course, it helped to raise gun sales.

[alcibiades_mystery]

30. Think on this point whenever some gun nut shithead tells you to be less "emotional," more "rational"

And to "argue with evidence."

Because it's very clear how these fucknuts proceed. They lobby to hell and back to prevent evidence from being collected. You cannot fund damn near anything that even suggests the Holy Gun Industry and their idiot supporters are a public health menace, which they clearly are. But they desperately and at great cost prevent anybody from gathering such evidence. this is the so-called "reasonable" and "constructive" argumentative style of gun nut shitheads: block all collection of evidence that would demonstrate their danger, then accuse their interlocutors of lacking evidence. That it is behavior of bad faith and utterly dishonest assholes is clear enough to anyone. It is also remarkably parallel to their other shenanigans: making the ATF rudderless and toothless by refusing to allow leadership to be appointed or the requisite hiring to be done, then screaming that the current laws are not being enforced! They are fucking ASSHOLES, to a person, and lying, dishonest snakes, to boot.

[Paladin]

35. +1. Well said.

I've always gotten a kick out of the Gun Enthusiasts squealing that control advocates are over-emotional. If ever there was a political movement based on wild-eyed, paranoia-driven, hysterical emotion, it's the pro-gun movement.

[beevul]

32. "As a shooting spree leaves seven dead in California..."

"As a shooting spree leaves seven dead in California, the gun lobby is trying to thwart attempts to study gun deaths and officials who see gun violence as a public health crisis."

No, not really.

The shooting spree left 3 dead.

And theres no way any gun rights organization is responsible for this incident in any way, since it happened in CA which has:

Assault weapon ban

Universal background checks

Magazine capacity limits

registration

waiting periods


The shooter was not part of the "gun culture", and his parents are anti-gun.

[derby378]

34. +100 (n/t)

[napkinz]

36. the enablers

[napkinz]

37. what the NRA once espoused (a long time ago)