Can I get a witness? Can I get a Democrat with some guts?
The National Rifle Association sent me a membership card this week (bad data quality management on that mailing list). Just like Wayne LaPierre's lying phone calls, the recruitment letter flings vague and unsupported accusations that hundreds of wild-eyed liberal politicians are coming for my guns.
Reality check: the National Rifle Association is, alas, as powerful as ever. I just learned on NPR's Morning Edition that my dear Congressional Democrats have rewritten a campaign finance bill (the DISCLOSE Act) specifically to exempt the NRA. The Humane Society and AARP also qualify for the exemption, but the AFL-CIO, Chamber of Commerce, and MoveOn.org do not. But the rewrite was intended primarily to keep the NRA from wielding its lobbying clout to block the bill, which responds to this winter's egregious Citizens United Supreme Court ruling by requiring corporations to disclose their funding for political ads.
The DISCLOSE Act isn't even a Second Amendment issue—it's First Amendment!—yet the NRA can wield effective veto power over chicken-hearted Dems, whose Congressional gains have come thanks in large part to recruiting candidates beholden to the gun lobby.
Don't believe the NRA propaganda. Your guns are not in peril. The NRA's DISCLOSE Act exemption shows it can stop legislation at will.
But Cory , The NRA has to keep the fear level up or they risk becoming obsolete or maybe they would have to go back to their roots , You know, marksmanship and hunting, instead of right wing politics. The reality of the situation is that gun laws are looser in the US than at anytime in my lifetime., Unless that is you consider child safety locks and criminal background checks an affront to your rights.
ReplyDeleteDo you own any firearms Corey?
ReplyDeleteTim Higgins
The number of guns in my house doesn't change the reality of politics in Washington. Dems aren't coming for my guns or yours, Tim. And all the guns in our closets won't help us solve our practical problems. Too bad the NRA has to foul up good anti-corporate legislation... and too bad Dems have to kowtow to them.
ReplyDeleteAnd Barry, again, spot on! I suspect the only places where gun laws are looser than America's are nasty, dangerous places. But I welcome counterexamples!
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