"the NRA is the enabler of death -
paranoid, delusional, and as venomous as a scorpion. With the weak-kneed
acquiescence of our politicians, the National Rifle Association has
turned the Second Amendment of the Constitution into a cruel hoax, a
cruel and deadly hoax."
ou
might think Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President of and spokesman
for the mighty American gun lobby, The National Rifle Association, has
an almost cosmic sense of timing. In 2007, at the NRA’s annual
convention in St. Louis, he warned the crowd that, "Today, there is not
one firearm owner whose freedom is secure."
The NRA's Dark Gun Culture
Reader Supported News
21 July 12
ou
might think Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President of and spokesman
for the mighty American gun lobby, The National Rifle Association, has
an almost cosmic sense of timing. In 2007, at the NRA’s annual
convention in St. Louis, he warned the crowd that, "Today, there is not
one firearm owner whose freedom is secure."
Two days later, a young man opened fire on the campus
of Virginia Tech, killing 32 students, staff and teachers. Just last
week LaPierre showed up at the United Nations Conference on the Arms
Trade Treaty here in New York and spoke out against what he called
"Anti-freedom policies that disregard American citizens' right to
self-defense."
Now at least 12 are dead in Aurora, Colorado, gunned
down by a mad man at a showing of the new Batman movie filled with
make-believe violence. One of the guns the shooter used was an
AK-47-type assault weapon that was banned in 1994. The National Rifle
Association saw to it that the ban expired in 2004. The NRA is the best
friend a killer's instinct ever had.
Obviously, LaPierre's timing isn’t cosmic, just
coincidental; as Shakespeare famously wrote, "The fault is not in our
stars, but in ourselves." In other words, people. People with guns.
There are an estimated 300 million guns in the United States, one in
four adult Americans owns at least one and most of them are men. The
British newspaper The Guardian, reminds us that over the last
30 years, "The number of states with a law that automatically approves
licenses to carry concealed weapons provided an applicant clears a
criminal background check has risen from eight to 38."
Every year there are 30,000 gun deaths and 300,000
gun-related assaults in the U.S. Firearm violence may cost our country
as much as $100 billion a year. Toys are regulated with greater care and
safety concerns.
So why do we always act so surprised? Violence is
alter ego, wired into our Stone Age brains, so intrinsic its toxic
eruptions no longer shock, except momentarily when we hear of a mass
shooting like this latest in Colorado. But this, too, will pass and the
nation of the short attention span quickly finds the next thing to
divert us from the hard realities of America in 2012.
We are after all a country which began with the forced
subjugation into slavery of millions of Africans and the reliance on
arms against Native Americans for its Westward expansion. In truth, more
settlers traveling the Oregon Trail died from accidental,
self-inflicted gunshots wounds than Indian attacks - we were not only
bloodthirsty but also inept.
Nonetheless, we have become so gun loving, so blasé
about home-grown violence that in my lifetime alone, far more Americans
have been casualties of domestic gunfire than have died in all our wars
combined. In Arizona last year, just days after the Gabby Giffords
shooting, sales of the weapon used in the slaughter - a 9 millimeter
Glock semi-automatic pistol - doubled.
We are fooling ourselves. That the law could allow
even an inflamed lunatic to easily acquire murderous weapons and not
expect murderous consequences. Fooling ourselves that the second
amendment’s guarantee of a "well-regulated militia" be construed as a
God-given right to purchase and own just about any weapon of destruction
you like. That's a license for murder and mayhem and it's a great fraud
that has entered our history.
There's a video of which I'd like to remind you. You
can see it on YouTube. In it, Adam Gadahn, an American born member of al
Qaeda, the first U.S. citizen charged with treason since 1952, urges
terrorists to carry out attacks on the United States. Right before your
eyes he says: "America is absolutely awash with easily obtainable
firearms. You can go down to a gun show at the local convention center
and come away with a fully automatic assault rifle, without a background
check, and most likely, without having to show an identification card.
So what are you waiting for?"
The killer in Colorado waited only for an opportunity,
and there you have it - the arsenal of democracy transformed into the
arsenal of death and the NRA - the NRA is the enabler of death -
paranoid, delusional, and as venomous as a scorpion. With the weak-kneed
acquiescence of our politicians, the National Rifle Association has
turned the Second Amendment of the Constitution into a cruel hoax, a
cruel and deadly hoax.
Find VIDEO and more on Reader Supported News here
Find VIDEO and more on Reader Supported News here
(Blogger's note from Journey Blog: I'm leaving some select comments from Readers Supported Media (RSN)
the flip side of this is invariably on this thread will come response stating....all guns everywhere must be disallowed...which is unrealistic considering some rural environments and professions(cat tle or sheep ranching for instance)....
So the NRA uses that...to support this....assault weaponry...any abridgement on a right to own a gun leads to outlawing all guns...which is a completely irresponsible position in some circumstances.
so they have support in rural communities....because in a sense the opposition to the NRA is so fervent in their ideology.
I don't like to blame the victim...but that is the situation in this national discussion.
The baby is thrown out with the bathwater..in the interest of urban safety the rural experience is discounted and rendered extreme is the position of gun control..when really it is not....
Even rural peoples singularly considered know...assault rifles with extended capacity clips...have not a place in america. Mix that with no guns at all and you get...support for no restrictions on gun ownership.
The flip side of it all is that the U.S. is producing, as I have said, psychotics, due to all manner of social ills and little parenting. Teachers have seen it coming for decades. How to overcome that?
Availability of guns would not be an issue if there weren't psychotics, angry unhappy individuals, and soon, very desperate people without jobs. Fear and anger are a deadly duo.
I believe you have the relationship reversed. The Republicans are captive to the NRA, who are there for the gun manufacturers who actually fund them.
Absolute nonsense. There is almost no one in the pro gun control community who is for a total ban on weapon ownership. It is almost unknown. I notice that no one in the comments are calling for total gun bans. This is a red herring and detracts from the real argument.
I grew up in the back woods. The rural argument is silly, again only the US has rural communities?
The problem is simply the easy access to guns. PERIOD.
Many gun owners don't.
Personally, I wouldn't trust an elderly person with a gun. I'm 62 and I can't see clearly without my glasses.
It ain't the guns, it those who use 'em!
Answer:
Ask these bloody corporations when is enough enough?
If those who use psychotropic drugs get so loosened emotionally that they see insanity and violence as their deal, then maybe those who use them should be more closely monitored by those who prescribe the drugs...ey?
You propose to take away a privilege/right of tens of millions while the 'drug inhibited' walk the streets?
How about a law that states that if a doctor prescribes a psychotropic, then they MUST meet with the patient once a week and monitor their behavior?
Unless you think England is a magical land of fairy princesses and unicorns where bad guys never tread...
Why are kids being attracted to this? Are the video games and all of the murder they watch on TV programming their brains? Do we glorify war with marching bands, medals, parades and ribbon stickers on our cars? Do we buy our kids toy guns for play? Who is raising out kids, parents or the TV? Is this country in such a state of fear and anxiety because of the clowns in Washington that this toxic atmosphere is affecting our kids? Are the kids witnessing massive amounts of for-profit dysfunction everywhere they look? Isn't their behavior a sign of adult dysfunction? Our kids aren't growing up with peace and love, they are growing up with hostile dysfunction and you wonder why they are going on shooting rampages??? Wake up!
Do that research on the connection between psychotropics and mass murders...it sheds an entirely different perspective on the issue.
The odds of anyone being struck by lightening or hit by a golf ball are about the same as anyone being around a psychotropic drug addled mass murderer.
All this knee-jerk about being safe is just a psycho-trick to keep Americans in fear...it's just not all that relevant in the true scheme of how life unfolds.
Ask my cousin who was a competitive shooter and had won several trophies. Oh that's right. You CAN'T ask him. He accidentally blew his head off in his garage after he tripped. That may sound cold, but it's the honest truth. We were close and I don't think he's offended by me mentioning the truth of what happened to him.
The it ain't the guns "argument" is a good indication of why we have these problems.
The logic error expressed here is better stated, “the inanimate object is not a significant part of the equation.” This is the "Guns don't kill people, people kill people" argument.
This argument is over-simplistic. The "human factor" in this "equation" is a constant, not a variable. If we want to change the outcome of the "equation" we have to change the variables.
Here is a thought experiment. Imagine 2 separate groups of ten men each. These groups both have an equal desire (human factor) to clear a large forest that is situated next to their respective villages. But only one group has access to chainsaws or power saws. The other group only has knives. Which group (of equal motivation) will be more successful at clearing the forest? CHAINSAWS DON'T CLEAR FORESTS, PEOPLE CLEAR FORESTS.
Guns are power tools for killing. They are enablers. The argument is, "How do we severely reduce killings?" One very effective way is to reduce access to these power tools for killing.