Things The NRA Was For, Before They Were Against

This is interesting. Here’s Wayne LaPierre, speaking to NRA members after the 1999 Columbine shooting:

First, we believe in absolutely gun-free, zero-tolerance, totally safe schools. That means no guns in America’s schools, period … with the rare exception of law enforcement officers or trained security personnel.

We believe America’s schools should be as safe as America’s airports. You can’t talk about, much less take, bombs and guns onto airplanes. Such behavior in our schools should be prosecuted just as certainly as such behavior in our airports is prosecuted.

Rare exception? But that’s not what he’s saying now. What the hell changed?

(And by the way, let’s do prosecute all of those Tea Party Republicans who keep “forgetting” they’ve got a loaded gun in their bag when they arrive at the airport. People like California Assmeblyman Tim “God and Guns” Donnelly, who does not have a concealed carry permit yet still was stopped by TSA with a loaded Colt .45 and an extra magazine stashed in his carry-on. If you haven’t read this story, it’s hilarious. Donnelly said he had the weapon with him because he was getting death threats, and also he wanted to “hide it from his wife.”)

But I digress. Back in 1999, Wayne LaPierre also gave the following testimony before Congress:

We think it ‘s reasonable to provide mandatory instant criminal background checks for every sale at every gun show. No loopholes anywhere for anyone. That means closing the Hinckley loophole so the records of those adjudicated mental ill are in the system.

Got that? No loopholes, anywhere, for anyone. Now fast forward to this week and LaPierre calls universal background checks a “nightmare.”

What changed? I’m sure this has something to do with it:

More than 50 firearms-related companies have given at least $14.8 million to the Fairfax, Virginia-based group, according to the NRA’s own list for a donor program that began in 2005. That same year, NRA lobbyists helped win passage of a federal law that limited liability claims against gun makers. Former NRA President Sandy Froman wrote that it “saved the American gun industry from bankruptcy.”

What a coinky-dinky. The assault weapons ban expired in March 2004, and in 2005 the NRA gets the Bush Administration and GOP-led Congress to push through liability immunity for gun manufacturers. That was convenient. And then NRA created its “Ring Of Freedom” program to reach out to high dollar corporate donors. Not a surprise the NRA did a big about-face on gun laws, is it? They know who butters their bread.

For more, read this:

The report, Blood Money: How the Gun Industry Bankrolls the NRA, reveals that since 2005 contributions from gun industry “corporate partners” to the NRA total between $14.7 million and $38.9 million. Total donations to the NRA from all “corporate partners”–both gun industry and non-gun industry–for the same time period total between $19.8 million and $52.6 million. The vast majority of funds–74 percent–contributed to the NRA from “corporate partners” come from members of the firearms industry: companies involved in the manufacture or sale of firearms or shooting-related products.

What’s frustrating to me is that the news media has tripped over itself handing Wayne LaPierre a microphone to spout his pro-gun nonsense, yet no one has asked him about the NRA’s complete reversal on policies like background checks and gun-free schools.

This opinion piece from MSNBC purports to look at “how the NRA became the fringe,” and traces the group’s evolution into what is basically an anti-government organization. But even this piece overlooks the elephant in the room: the NRA’s positions really changed when they started getting more money from gun manufacturers, gun retailers like Walmart, and the arms industry.

Memory Hole: NRA Edition

From May 2011 comes this item:

If all goes as expected in Pittsburgh today, American Conservative Union President David Keene will be elected president of the National Rifle Association at the organization’s board of directors meeting.

One person who presumably will not be attending the event is Keene’s son, David Michael Keene, who according to news reports and trial documents was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison for a 2002 road-rage incident in which he fired a handgun from his moving vehicle at another car on the George Washington Memorial Parkway in Virginia.

I guess if you’re the president of the NRA, having your son go to prison for using a handgun in a road rage incident is considered a positive. Yeah, keep reminding everyone about all of the gun safety seminars you guys hold. Riiiight.

There are no words.

[UPDATE]:

• NRA board member Robert K. Brown, founder and publisher of Soldier Of Fortune, was shot in the leg in an accidental gun discharge incident.

• NRA board member Bob Barr was also involved in an accidental gun discharge:

A few weeks before the election, he was at a fund-raiser in a supporter’s home and someone handed him an antique .38-calibre pistol, which went off in his hands. No one was injured, but afterward Barr was ridiculed. His opponent called him a “loose cannon” and promised to “wear a bulletproof vest” at their next joint appearance. At a campaign event, one of Barr’s two sons attacked a man who had come dressed as Yosemite Sam, claiming to be “Bob Barr’s Official Gun Safety Trainer.” The scuffle was filmed by a news crew. “Everybody was trying to say, ‘Oh, no, we don’t know who did that,’ and then we look at the footage and it is Bob’s own son,” one of Barr’s former advisers told me.

Amazing.

Extreme To The Extreme

[UPDATE]:

Apparently Wayne LaPierre’s nutball idea was proved to be a massive failure at Columbine over 10 years ago. ‘Nuff said. (h/t, Mistermix.)

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Someone, somewhere — probably John Cole at Balloon Juice, but I don’t remember exactly — said post-Newtown killings, membership in the NRA should be a badge of shame along the lines of membership in the KKK. And thanks to Wayne LaPierre’s bizarre press conference this morning, we should be well on our way.

This makes absolutely no sense unless your organization represents one group only: gun manufacturers. Not sportsmen, not gun owners, but manufacturers. And we’ve pretty much established elsewhere on this blog that this is who they are, so end of discussion.

I’ve traveled a fair bit in my life, and one thing I recall from my travels to far-flung lands years and years ago was how in some countries, you had jack-booted military types with assault rifles slung over their shoulders patrolling airports. You didn’t see it everywhere but you would see it in more Third World-type places, places known for instability, and places which had experienced some terrorist activity. Back in the ’70s you’d see them in front of the El-Al Airlines counter in Athens and Rome. It always made me feel extremely uncomfortable, like, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough uncomfortable.

America has never been that place. We’ve never been a militarized police state, the unstable Banana Republic where the army patrols public gathering spots. That is not who we are. If that is who you think we should be — if that is who you want us to be? — then get the fuck out. As I said earlier, move to Somalia. Uzbekistan. Syria. Knock yourself out getting your G.I. Joe jollies in some war-torn shithole. Leave our kids alone.

You people are extreme to the extreme.

A Tale Of Two Accidents

Two tragic and preventable accidents. Both result in death, caused by one person’s irresponsible, negligent behavior. In one, the person responsible is arrested for manslaughter and faces 20 years in prison. In the other, police call it a tragic accident. So sad, so devastating. Lesson learned.

I really don’t get why everyone agrees if a drunk gets behind the wheel of a car and the inevitable tragedy occurs and they kill their friend, there’s a penalty to be paid. They go to prison, sometimes for years. But if a gun loon who’s too fucking irresponsible to remember there’s always a bullet left in the chamber kills his kid in the parking lot of Twigs Reloading Den, that’s just a sad accident.

No. There are no accidents. Just inevitable, predictable tragedies, the likes of which Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey and the rest of gun loons here want to inflict on us with Tennessee’s “guns in parking lots” legislation. Because the NRA loons say people can’t commute to work unarmed. Where the hell are they commuting from, Baghdad? Kabul? Seriously?

Y’all need to stop giving these people a pass. You folks who say gun owners are always so responsible need to start laying the hammer down on those among you who are irresponsible. Because until you start doing that, your argument carries zero weight.

So you people who leave a loaded handgun lying around for your kids to find (and the inevitable occurs), or for your three-year-old to mistake for the Wii controller, or you think the church porch is a great place to disassemble your 9mm and shoot your friend in the leg, or you shoot your pastor’s daughter in the head because a church closet is the perfect place to show off your gun, I want to know that your ass is going to jail for a long, long time. If you’re that stupid and irresponsible and negligent, then I don’t want you walking or driving around me, armed and dangerous.

Gov. Ramsey and the rest of the gun loons in this state think we need to have a guns-in-parking lots bill? Let’s first start prosecuting the shit out of the negligent gun owners who kill and wound people because they’re too stupid to remember their firearms are loaded. Instead of just calling it “a tragic accident.” There are no accidents.

>NRA Member Of The Week

>Some people are just too stupid to be allowed to own guns. Like, this guy:

Wild West City owner pleads not guilty in shooting stunt that left actor paralyzed

by Joe Moszczynski/The Star-Ledger
Monday August 11, 2008, 4:22 PM

The owner of the Wild West City theme park pleaded not guilty today to charges in connection with a shooting during a staged gunfight that left a cowboy actor paralyzed.

Michael Stabile, 59, pleaded not guilty in Superior Court in Newton to 13 charges that include violations of New Jersey firearms laws; aggravated assault; tampering with evidence; hindering apprehension; and violating a law intended to protect the public safety.

The charges stem from the shooting of Scott Harris, 39, during a performance of the “Sundance Skit” at Wild West City in Byram on July 7, 2006, when a bullet struck Harris in the forehead and caused severe brain damage.

The shooter, then a 17-year-old fellow cowboy actor, accidentally loaded a .22-caliber revolver owned by the theme park with real bullets instead of blanks while running late for the shootout skit.

And who thought it was a smart idea to keep the real bullets anywhere near the blanks?

Idiots.

>Hell Freezes, I Thank The NRA

>Why? Because they just took away the trusty old standby argument they’ve used against every Democratic candidate since forever:

“They’re gonna take away our guns!!!”

Well, no we’re not. We can’t. Even if we wanted to (which we don’t). The Supreme Court just said we can’t. Thank you, NRA and SCOTUS! They’ve trotted out that ridiculous “they’re gonna take away my gun” nonsense so many times, it’s become like kissing babies and eating barbecue: an expected part of every campaign.

It’s even resulted in ridiculous moments of Democratic pandering like this one:

So thank the heavens we will no longer be subjected to that tired old warhorse. We won’t have to see pictures of Barack Obama trotting through a Midwestern field in a brand-new LL Bean hunting jacket, or wearing hunter orange at some Florida hunting reserve. Democrats don’t do that type of pandering very well, it always rings false–whether it is or not. Chalk that up to another label conservatives stuck us with, despite the fact that there are plenty of Democratic sportsmen and women who love their guns.

Now we don’t have to worry about defending ourselves against the stereotype of the anti-gun liberal. It was never true anyway, but now it doesn’t matter. Thank goodness that’s over! Whew. Now we just have to say, “hey, even if we wanted to, we can’t. End of discussion.” The point is moot.

That fear-mongering talking point that’s been a standby of every single election since forever? Kiss it goodbye, GOP. It has been effectively retired. I guess that just leaves you with God and gay-hate to hammer your base into the polls from now on, eh? Too bad for you those don’t seem to be working so well lately.