The NRA - This Gun Organization For Hire.

Many years ago, there were a series of novels written about a private detective named Mike Hammer. One of the more famous of these novels was entitled. "This Gun For Hire." Now we have "This Gun Organization For Hire", as the NRA has, and is, selling out to the highest bidder, that being the gun manufacturers. They perpetrate this chicanery on the American public, by spreading rumors that the government wants to take your guns away, thereby working the gun nuts into a frothy frenzy. Of course this is nonsense, but as we learned from Hitler, The "Big Lie" as a propaganda tool can be quite effective.

The NRA tells the gun nuts that, "We have your back." Not so, as the NRA owes only one allegiance. They are in the hip pockets of gun manufacturers and both these manufacturers and the NRA have but one goal. Sell, guns, guns, and more guns. Of course if you're one who wants to buy guns, guns and more guns, then the NRA is your cup of tea.

School children and theater goers alike are slaughtered in huge numbers by crazed gunman with weapons that fire a number of bullets in just a few seconds. The NRA's response to this is to put even more guns in schools wielded by armed guards, which is tantamount to trying to fight a fire by pouring gasoline on it. Then they duck behind the dubiously worded Second Amendment by saying law abiding citizens have a right to buy and keep all types of guns. Here is a recent quote by the NRA.

"Attacking firearms and ignoring children is not a solution to the crisis we face as a nation," the NRA said in a statement. "Only honest, law-abiding gun owners will be affected and our children will remain vulnerable to the inevitability of more tragedy."

This is one of the stupidest statements I have ever heard and is consistent with another big lie the NRA delights in spreading. It goes something like this. According to the NRA, there are crooks and bad people, and there are good people. The crooks and bad people shouldn't have guns, but many do, and the good people should have guns to protect us from the bad people with guns. Black and white, with no gray, and everyone placed into a neat little box of good or bad. That is pure folly, as over 60 percent of gun violence in this nation is perpetrated by people with no prior criminal record. In other words they are US!

On the opposite side of the coin, here is what Henry Blodget from the Daily Ticker had to say.

"The Second Amendment was written 220 years ago when 3.9 million people lived in America and the most powerful guns available were single-shot flint-lock muskets. Even if you ignore the "well-regulated state militia" clause in the Amendment language, it is reasonable to wonder whether the "Framers" had today's commonly available modern assault weaponry in mind. (Also, the Constitution is occasionally modified when it becomes outdated and/or inappropriate. Slaves were legal in those days, too.)"

Of course, criminals are guilty of much of the gun violence, but the shooter in the theater in Aurora, Colorado had no prior criminal record. The shooter in the Sandy Hook school killings had no prior criminal record. Over 60 percent of the people who injure or kill someone with a gun have no prior criminal record. All of these people are part of the "law abiding citizens" the NRA says would suffer by new and stricter gun laws.

The NRA says we need to put more emphasis on mental health. Obviously we do, but not at the expense of having the gun nuts and their lobby run roughshod over the interests of the American people.

To drive my cars, I need to be licensed, and so do the cars. Yes, people with cars kill and injure people, but not with nearly the same intent of deadly mayhem as do people with guns. Is it too much to ask that we control, and license guns and the people who own them, as we do cars and the people who drive them?

Yes, people in this country have a right to own guns. I may not entirely agree with all of that right (there is the "well regulated militia" aspect), but it is the law and I respect the law. But with rights comes responsibility, and that responsibility needs to be spelled out in an ironclad way by new and tougher gun laws and (the only area in which I have ever agreed with the NRA) more vigorous enforcement of the current gun laws. It is a felony to lie on a background check, but few are prosecuted. That should stop.

We are a nation of laws. We are a nation of rights. We are a nation of responsibility. It will take a strong dose of all three to even begin to reduce the gun violence in our country.

Is it time? No, unfortunately, it's way past time!

Ready, Aim, Fire!

The recent incident in Florida in which an innocent teenager was gunned down by a man with a Neanderthal mentality is terribly tragic, but not unique. The fact that it is not unique constitutes another terrible tragedy.

Florida has a law known as "stand your ground" which means a private citizen may use firearms against any person they deem is an immanent danger. They are allowed to do this at home, on the street, in a restaurant, in a park, and anywhere else. It seems, by the lack of an arrest of the Florida shooter, that this laws protect those who actually were in immanent danger, as well as those who were not. All they must do to comply with the law is to state, after the fact, they thought they were in danger.

The "stand your ground" law is a dangerous law, as the Florida killing illustrates.  What makes it even more dangerous than one might suppose is that it is not just a Florida law, but laws like it have been passed in twenty one states in our nation.

What would possess state governments to pass such off the wall legislation? As Mr. Rogers might ask, "Can you say NRA?"  The NRA is driven by some $200 million dollars a year, mostly from gun manufacturers and gun sellers to use their influence to see that America becomes an armed camp.

They are now urging bills that would allow concealed weapons in day-care centers and school buses. The more places that allow gun (concealed guns in most cases), the more guns that can be sold and the more profit the gun sellers and manufacturers will make.

Getting back to Florida, Brian Malte, of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence said, "Florida is the NRA Utopia. They make it as easy as possible to carry a loaded gun in public, virtually anywhere. And then instill the mentality that you can shoot first, ask questions later."

In Arizona they recently considered a law that would make it legal for anyone on the campus of public colleges and universities to carry a gun. I am not a big fan of the Arizona governor, but to her credit, when this law was actually passed in her state, she vetoed it. The NRA, no doubt, will surely try there, again.

The NRA and other pro gun organizations and individuals will tell you that armed citizens will counteract the guns in the hands of felons and other criminals. Well, that sounds pretty good until you are faced with one startling fact. Two thirds of the gun violence in this  country is committed by these same citizens, who prior to their act of violence, had no criminal record. To use that old phrase, "We have met the enemy, and it is us," seems quite appropriate here.

In a recent op-ed piece, Gail Collins of the New York Times said," I am thinking that the best solution for all concerned would be a strict national gun-control law that makes it very difficult to get a concealed weapons permit, permits gun dealers to sell only one handgun per individual per year, and makes it illegal for even permit holders to keep handguns anywhere but their home, store or car glove compartment unless they are employed in the security business." 

Of course what Collins is advocating in her op-ed piece is no more than common sense, and while the NRA may be flush with cash, they are significantly over-drawn on their common sense account.

So the gun carnage in our country continues, while the NRA is screaming, "MORE, MORE, MORE." They love to say that guns do not kill people, people kill people. That is both true and incomplete, as in fact, people with guns kill people, as the NRA makes doing so easier and easier.

I do think the NRA has missed one important area where guns should be legal, if not mandatory. That would be in the shower. Picture, if you will that while taking a shower you hear what you believe to be an intruder in your house, or worse yet in your bathroom. You grab your gun (a water proof one, of course), leap naked from the shower, assume a slight crouch, and while holding your gun with both hands, holler (in your best Clint Eastwood impersonation) "Freeze, punk." Then all you have to do is to wait until the intruder keels over, either from fear or laughter.

Hey, the NRA being what it is...it could happen!