Tag: NRA
NRA Shows Up at the National Press Club for Roll Out of Its ‘Guns in Schools’ Proposal with 20 Armed Goons
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The gun-lobby goons were at it again.
The National Rifle Association’s security guards gained notoriety earlier this year when, escorting NRA officials to a hearing, they were upbraided by Capitol authorities for pushing cameramen. The thugs were back Tuesday when the NRA rolled out its “National School Shield” — the gun lobbyists’ plan to get armed guards in public schools — and this time they were packing heat.
The Less Influence They Have, The More Radical the Pro-Gun Groups Grow
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.
Your Student ID Won’t Let You Vote But Have You Got a Gun License?
Sarah Silverman explains the problem with the new ALEC-written voter ID laws in a way that you’ve probably not heard up to now.
Fortune Magazine Shows What You Suspected: Weak, NRA-Written Gun Laws Are to Blame for Fast and Furious
Fortune magazine proves what everyone who doesn’t watch FOX News suspected: The congressional investigation into the Fast and Furious program is a partisan witch hunt, and much of the responsibility for the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry has to go to the gun lobby, which blocks maintaining a database of firearms.
A six-month Fortune investigation reveals that the public case alleging gun walking is replete with distortions, errors, partial truths, and even some outright lies
Quite simply, there’s a fundamental misconception at the heart of the Fast and Furious scandal. Nobody disputes that suspected straw purchasers under surveillance by the ATF repeatedly bought guns that eventually fell into criminal hands. Issa and others charge that the ATF intentionally allowed guns to walk as an operational tactic. But five law-enforcement agents directly involved in Fast and Furious tell Fortune that the ATF had no such tactic. They insist they never purposefully allowed guns to be illegally trafficked. Just the opposite: They say they seized weapons whenever they could but were hamstrung by prosecutors and weak laws, which stymied them at every turn.
Indeed, a six-month Fortune investigation reveals that the public case alleging that [ATF Supervisor Dave] Voth and his colleagues walked guns is replete with distortions, errors, partial truths, and even some outright lies. Fortune reviewed more than 2,000 pages of confidential ATF documents and interviewed 39 people, including seven law-enforcement agents with direct knowledge of the case…How Fast and Furious reached the headlines is a strange and unsettling saga, one that reveals a lot about politics and media today…
“Republican senators are whipping up the country into a psychotic frenzy with these reports that are patently false,” says Linda Wallace, a special agent with the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigation unit who was assigned to the Fast and Furious team (and recently retired from the IRS). A self-described gun-rights supporter, Wallace has not been criticized by Issa’s committee.
…Irony abounds when it comes to the Fast and Furious scandal. But the ultimate irony is this: Republicans who support the National Rifle Association and its attempts to weaken gun laws are lambasting ATF agents for not seizing enough weapons—ones that, in this case, prosecutors deemed to be legal.
Take a few minutes and read the whole piece.
Has Florida Become the Homer Simpson of America?
The Florida brand is being portrayed in a negative light each and every day on all of the major networks.
State Sen. Chris Smith (D – Ft. Lauderdale), (who might have missed the Bush v. Gore case) announcing his own task force to look into Florida’s NRA-penned “Stand Your Ground” law which is being used to justify killing Trayvon Martin. Gov. Rick Scott says he will also have a task force to examine the law, but only after special prosecutor Angela Corey concludes her investigation of the death. We presume that if that inquiry goes well for the shooter, the governor will see no further need to consider the law.
Why Are Gun Rights Groups Putting Guns Ahead of Children?
With the shooting attacks on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona, as well as on law enforcement officers in Indiana, Florida, and Michigan, it’s hard to argue that one of America’s most pressing problems is not enough access to guns. Yet a proposed law in Florida would do just that, with a cruel bonus: it puts children at special risk of taking a bullet.
State Rep. Jason Brodeur (R-Sanford) is behind a bill that would make it a felony for a pediatrician to ask parents if there are guns in the house, and if so, how they are secured. If the doctor is found guilty of asking these questions, the penalty would be a $5 million fine and up to five years in prison.
Surely we have lost our minds.
A proposed Florida law would make it a felony punishable by a five-year prison sentence and a $5 million fine for pediatricians to ask parents if they lock up their guns
In a one-week period in my part of the state, close enough geographically for both stories to be reported by the same local news outlets, two children found guns that the adults who were responsible for them failed to secure. The first incident resulted in a 6-year-old girl shot in the chest.
According to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, when officers first questioned Donnell Burney in the emergency room, he told them he was in front of the house when he heard the gunshot and saw his daughter outside the house holding her side.
According to the arrest report, Burney later told homicide investigators he was cleaning his handgun in the kitchen and left it on the counter when he went to another room.
