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The Supreme Court’s Gun Ruling Yesterday Shows It Isn’t Pro-Life
AN INTERVIEW WITH ADAM WINKLER
Jacobin, June 22, 2022
The Supreme Court isn't pro-life — yesterday, it struck down a New York State law limiting who can carry concealed handguns in public, a ruling that could invalidate most gun control laws throughout the country. The court doesn't care about mass death.
Excerpt…
DAVID SIROTA
Can you talk about how gun politics have shifted, and why and how it changed into a partisan issue?
ADAM WINKLER
Well, I think gun politics in America were transformed overnight. And I don’t say that to be hyperbolic.
There was a rising movement for gun owners who wanted to have guns for personal protection in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was, like our own era, a time of social disruption and the feeling that maybe people were insecure. And there were very high crime rates at the time as well.
The leadership of the NRA [National Rifle Association] at the time was pretty moderate. They were opposed to a lot of gun control laws, but the leadership hatched a plan to move to Colorado Springs to refocus the organization away from political activity and toward recreational sports, hunting, and conservation.
This really angered a group of hardliners in the membership. And at the annual membership meeting in 1977 in Cincinnati, these hardliners staged a coup of the NRA, where they used the rules of order to elect a whole new board of directors.
Literally when the sun rose the next day, the NRA had been transformed. And the new directors were all committed to political advocacy, fighting gun control, and being much more politically assertive. And that group became an active part of the coalition that led to Ronald Reagan being elected president in 1980, and has since become an even stronger part of the Republican conservative coalition.
Continues…
https://jacobin.com/2022/06/gun-control-violence-supreme-court-national-rifle-association-history
American ingenuity, applied to crowd control: “One man with a gun can control 100 without one.”
AN INTERVIEW WITH ADAM WINKLER
Jacobin, June 22, 2022
The Supreme Court isn't pro-life — yesterday, it struck down a New York State law limiting who can carry concealed handguns in public, a ruling that could invalidate most gun control laws throughout the country. The court doesn't care about mass death.
Excerpt…
DAVID SIROTA
Can you talk about how gun politics have shifted, and why and how it changed into a partisan issue?
ADAM WINKLER
Well, I think gun politics in America were transformed overnight. And I don’t say that to be hyperbolic.
There was a rising movement for gun owners who wanted to have guns for personal protection in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was, like our own era, a time of social disruption and the feeling that maybe people were insecure. And there were very high crime rates at the time as well.
The leadership of the NRA [National Rifle Association] at the time was pretty moderate. They were opposed to a lot of gun control laws, but the leadership hatched a plan to move to Colorado Springs to refocus the organization away from political activity and toward recreational sports, hunting, and conservation.
This really angered a group of hardliners in the membership. And at the annual membership meeting in 1977 in Cincinnati, these hardliners staged a coup of the NRA, where they used the rules of order to elect a whole new board of directors.
Literally when the sun rose the next day, the NRA had been transformed. And the new directors were all committed to political advocacy, fighting gun control, and being much more politically assertive. And that group became an active part of the coalition that led to Ronald Reagan being elected president in 1980, and has since become an even stronger part of the Republican conservative coalition.
Continues…
https://jacobin.com/2022/06/gun-control-violence-supreme-court-national-rifle-association-history
American ingenuity, applied to crowd control: “One man with a gun can control 100 without one.”
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