Same Words – Different Meaning
CBS reports that: NRA vows to fight everything on Biden’s gun agenda. No one knows what is on the agenda, but that doesn’t bother the current leadership of the NRA.
Up until the mid-1970s the NRA was a pretty good organization. It promoted weapons safety and conservation, basically an organization for hunters and target shooters. Then the whackoes took over, and it has represented the gun manufacturers ever since.
I heard someone on the radio say that the NRA position was that we didn’t need any new laws, we just needed to enforce the existing laws. I’ve said the same thing myself, but there is a major difference – I haven’t been spending millions of dollars to prevent that from happening, and the NRA has.
There hasn’t been a permanent director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms in six years. Every nominee has been blocked. As a result, when budget cuts took place there was no one to fight for the Bureau. They didn’t have adequate staff 6 years ago, and the problems have just escalated.
I assume that at least the old Assault Weapons Ban will be pushed through Congress, and possibly some limit on bulk ammunition purchases. Congress has to do something. The NRA should have done more than send a flunky to the meeting with Biden and just issued a blanket “NO!” to changes, if they wanted to represent gun owners. They really work for the weapons industry, so they don’t have to worry about actually representing their membership.
2 comments
“… [NRA] It promoted weapons safety and conservation, basically an organization for hunters and target shooters. Then the whackoes took over, and it has represented the gun manufacturers ever since.”
Oh, the times! Ironically, there are many serious hunters who are members of Sierra Club… put aside your stereotypes; many hunters are also ardent conservationists for what I trust are obvious reasons… and Sierra Club suffers periodic takeover attempts by groups of “members” who join for the purpose of the takeover. So far, SC has fended them off, but if it can happen to the NRA it can happen to any org, similar or not. Beware; even your favorite do-good org is vulnerable.
Real hunters, especially those that need the meat [I know more than a few who do], realize you have to protect and preserve habitat. They don’t want land taken out of the range for development, and they can’t afford to buy land to preserve it, so they support the efforts of environmental groups.
New York State has a problem of a serious decrease in hunters, which has led to a major increase in herd populations. When you eliminate all of the natural predators, you have to fill that role. In some places people are worried about a collapse of the deer population because of starvation, and the deer are already moving into suburban neighborhoods in search of food.
Currently the NRA membership of around 4 million is less than 3% of gun owners, but the media presents them as the most important voice on the subject.