Colorado Shootings: Latest Evidence That America Is Poisoned by the NRA's Dark Gun Culture

[aikoaiko]

25. Blaming the NRA is missing the point.

Last edited Tue Jul 24, 2012, 12:50 AM - Edit history (1)

I can only assume that Bill is engaging in election year posturing because he is not making a good argument.

He tries to connect rhetoric from the 2007 NRA convention with the VATech shooting, but there is no evidence that Cho was connected to the NRA in anyway.

He tries to connect the NRA's stance on the arms treaty to the shooting in Aurora, but they have nothing to do with one another.

He says there are a lot of guns in the US and many are complying with legal requirements to carry them which includes criminal background checks, but compliance with the law is a good thing, no?

Toys are regulated more than guns? I don't even know how he can make that point, but it is unsupported by any facts.

Then he goes on to say that violence is our alter ego and we'll move on from this tragedy. He's probably right about that.

No one is saying that people should own any weapon they want without regulation. This is a great strawman. Most gun owners and NRA support some form of gun control laws.

Here is the part that is most shameful: he brings up the specter of terrorism to prop up his argument.

The thing that Bill Moyers and others don't understand is that before 1968, you could buy any legal firearm and ammo via the mail without background checks. You could file the paperwork and own any domestic or imported fully automatic firearm which, in general, didn't cost more than twice a semi-automatic version. Prior to 1968, the NRA was very reasonable.

It was the "guns are evil crowd" that brought about drastic and punitive laws that inflamed gun owners and empowered the NRA in order to fight back. Not that I think that all the gun laws since 1968 are bad, but many were clear attempts to punish people who we now call in the gun culture but would never even think about committing a crime with their guns.

For the record, as a gun owner, Democrat, and NRA member, I reject the nonsensical, hyperbolic, and even false rhetoric coming out of the NRA these days, but I seek to change the NRA from within.