Tag: Gun Owners of America

You’re More Likely to be Killed by a Gun than a Car

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Graphic from Americans for Responsible Solutions
Graphic from Americans for Responsible Solutions
The good news is cars and driving are getting safer, thanks to better construction, a trend away from younger drivers, and maybe even because of harsher penalties for things like texting while driving or not wearing a seatbelt.

The bad news is you’re more likely to take a bullet, especially if you’re under 25.

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Manchin Not Afraid to Shoot It Out with the NRA

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Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is gunning for the NRA, which recently urged West Virginians to pressure their elected official to get in line. Manchin, who supports extending background checks to buyers at gun shows and online, was previously supported by the NRA because of his voting record on their issues. Now he is on their public enemy list.

Manchin: ‘What other purpose do we have here? Why do we ask to be policy makers when we’re afraid to engage?’

On the Morning Joe show, Manchin debuted his own new ad, and explained he didn’t go to Washington to serve the NRA.

“What other purpose do we have here?” Manchin asked. “Why do we ask to be policy makers and be involved in the public process when we’re afraid to engage? I’m not. I’m not afraid to engage. The worst they can do is defeat me and send me home to my family and the state I love, West Virginia. That’s a pretty good consolation. What are we afraid of?”

Manchin added that the strategy of the NRA and Gun Owners of America is to use lies and innuendo to work up the gullible and keep those donations flowing in.

“The only thing they use against me is: ‘we just don’t trust government,” Manchin said. “Well, I’m sorry if you don’t like it. Get involved and make it better. Don’t just sit and curse the wind. But they don’t want to get involved, they just want to keep this paranoia going on.”

The Less Influence They Have, The More Radical the Pro-Gun Groups Grow

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Reba McIntyre and Michael Gross as the Gummers in the movie, Tremors

There’s an interesting list of numbers on the website, Meet the NRA. Ladd Everitt, communications director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, recently called the National Rifle Association a “paper tiger.” With this record, I can see why.

  • The National Rifle Association of America Political Victory Fund received a 0.83% return on the $11 million they spent during the 2012 election cycle, the worst performance of any Super PAC that spent over $5 million in the election.
  • NRA PACs spent more than $13 million to defeat Pres. Obama alone, all for naught.
  • The NRA spent $100,000 in eight Senate races, and lost seven of them.
  • Of the 30 House incumbents who lost, 17 were endorsed by the NRA.

Maybe the NRA’s political fortunes are in part behind the rise of the even more radical Gun Owners of America (GOA). GOA refused to endorse Sen. John McCain in 2008 because they thought his record on “gun rights” (yes, apparently guns have rights) was weak. They endorsed Rep. Ron Paul in 2012 because they admired his inability to compromise.

And although Everitt continued to reference the more widely recognized NRA when he appeared recently on the Diane Rehm Show and described the unhinged nature of the new Burt Gummers of the world, he was probably also thinking of the GOA:

We often tell people this not your grandfather’s NRA. And, you know, the modern pro-gun movement today is marked by what we would call insurrectionist ideology, which is this belief that the NRA and others have put forward that there is an individual right under the second amendment to essentially shoot and kill government officials when you personally disagree with democratically enacted laws.