Gun Group's Radio Show Tests Limits on Advocacy (NRA Radio)

[onehandle]

WASHINGTON, June 15 - In a direct challenge to federal limits on political advocacy, the National Rifle Association plans to begin broadcasting a daily radio program on Thursday to provide news and pro-gun commentary to 400,000 listeners (starting with Sirius satellite radio).

The group says its jump into broadcasting with its program, "NRANews," means that it should be viewed as a media organization that does not have to abide by provisions of a sweeping campaign finance law from 2002. That law stops organizations from using unregulated "soft" money to buy political advertising that directly attacks or praises federal candidates in the weeks before federal elections and primaries.

The N.R.A. says its three-hour program constitutes news and commentary, not advertising. As a result, when other advocacy groups are required to stop running political commercials, "NRANews" intends to continue broadcasting its reporting and commentary against politicians who favor gun control to Nov. 2.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/16/national/16nra.html

Gun Nut Radio coming this Thursday.

[cleofus1]

1. yow!

someone at the NRA must have grown brain...this is a brilliant move.
damn them all to hell...actually i love guns...i just think they should be regulated just like cars or other licensed activities...
some one will challenge this in court and i have to wonder where it will lead...but hell of a move on their part.

[billbuckhead]

2. The NRA "is" the right's answer to the NAACP and NOW

Grover Norquist and his ilk are trying to cast white guys with guns as victims

"Guns entered national politics in the 1970s. What is called the gun rights movement sprang into motion against a waning civil rights movement and a growing push for women's rights. One organizer of gun rights from the early '70s put it bluntly when I interviewed him. Conservatives were taking a beating. Something was needed to "reverse the flow in the pipes" of the civil rights movement. The social movements based on the rights of women and minorities had bolstered the Democratic Party. Conservatives who had fought against the gains of civil rights and the Equal Rights Amendment needed to counter. Enter the gun."

________________snip----------------------------------------------
<http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/176458_focus06.html >
"

[JayS]

7. "trying to cast white guys with guns as victims"

If they wish to do this, they will be successful. When we are not actively helping them do this, we will be bending over and taking it as always.

[biftonnorton]

3. Dru Sjodin Won't Get To Hear That Debut

Too bad the NRA gets so far-reaching in its advocacy that it gets a bad rap for anything it tries. Dru won't be around to judge for herself. I wish Ms. Sjodin would have taken advantage of the permit-to-carry laws in either ND or MN. Her alleged rapist/killer just might have found she wouldn't allow him to kidnap, rape and stab her, but her power of choice, at the point of contact, was obliterated by the attacker's holding a knife. The NRA wasn't responsible for helping Rodriguez get a knife, but may have been an advocate for allowing Dru to legally carry a small revolver, and certainly would have provided low-cost training for her. At any rate, the NRA advocated for her being allowed the *choice*. Yes, guns are icky and we want them all to just go away, but maybe we can contemplate the power of choice and be trusted to make our own decisions about what we choose for recreation or what we choose to have available for self-defense. The NRA advocates for that power of choice, at least. The other hijackings of the organization by political powers? I hate it. I love my power of choice, though.

[billbuckhead]

4. Actually guns usually end up killing family members and not predators

Domestic Violence and Guns:
A Lethal Combination

2nd paragraph

In the United States, over 4000 women are killed by homicide each year. According to a 1998 Violence Policy Center study, more than 12 times as many females were murdered by a male they knew (1,699 victims) than were killed by male strangers (138 victims) <1>. Up to 25% of women report being abused by intimate partners in their lifetimes, compared with 7.5% of men <2>. The violence tends to escalate over time and most violent incidents occur in the home <3>.

In Iowa, at least 68 women were killed in domestic violence murders between January 1995 and September 2003 <4>. One study found that 84% of females killed in Iowa between 1996 and 1998 were killed in domestic situations—the majority in domestic disputes or murder-suicides <5>.

One of the major risk factors for domestic homicide is the presence of a gun. Guns are used in 59% of all iDomestic Violence and Guns:
A Lethal Combinationntimate partner homicides of women, and 51% of such homicides of men, as well as in two thirds of intimate partner violence murders of spouses or ex-spouses <6>. In Iowa between January 1995 and September 2003, 63% of women killed in domestic abuse murders were shot <7>.

A gun in the home increases the risk of intimate partner or domestic homicide. One study found that a gun in the home makes a woman is 5.4 to 7.2 times more likely to be the victim of an domestic violence homicide <8>; if there is a history of violence, she is 14.6 times more likely to be a homicide victim <9>. Approximately one third of all women who are killed by their partners have either autopsy evidence of recent trauma or have previously reported injuries <10>.

In addition, the accessibility of a firearm often turns a domestic dispute into a fatality. A 1992 study found that domestic assaults involving firearms were 12 times more likely to result in death than those assaults not involving a firearm <11>. Overall, assaults that involve firearms are 3 to 15 times more likely to result in death than those involving other weapons <12>.

<http://www.ipgv.org/legis-dv.html >

They'll be alot more accidents and guns taken and used against the victim than 138

[biftonnorton]

6. Yes Guns Are Icky And Should All Go Away

In the meantime, people, especially women, should have the power of choice to own and to be trained to use a gun. Training includes how to safely store, use and retain the weapon. Don't take their power of choice away. If they don't want to have one, they don't have to have one, but let them make their own choice.

Brady Campaign has some recent stats on problems encountered with permit holders. As usual, dumbasses foul the waters for those who could be trusted to be responsible, and everyone's power to choose can be negatively impacted.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. Sounds like an exciting program!

Sit and listen, riveted and enthralled, as greats like James Minder, former chairman of Smith and Wesson, discuss their 15 year stints in prison for armed robbery and bank jobs!



http://money.cnn.com/2004/02/27/news/smith_wesson/?cnn=yes

[DoNotRefill]

8. Guess what Radical Right Wing group supported the NRA's challenge to CFR?

yup, those nutty folks at the "far-right" ACLU.........Goddamned Rightwing Ideologues....

/sarcasm

Free speech is supposed to be for everyone.