It's time for America to wake up to a new reality: that, for more than a generation, a radical fringe group has held sway over the nation's politics. We're talking about a cadre that traffics in conspiracy theories as loony as many militias or 'Patriot' groups, accusing the President of planning to grant himself dictatorial powers while embracing "black helicopter"-style tropes about the United Nations. It's a posse that's clashed with America's police chiefs over public safety while thwarting all efforts to eliminate weapons that are good only for committing mass murder.
This is not about the millions of responsible American gun owners, folks who overwhelmingly support reasonable steps toward preventing violence. No, this is about the leadership of the National Rifle Association, a group that has veered far from its twentieth-century origins as a sensible gun-safety group. And it's about their funders— merchants of death who've learned that paranoia can be profitable— and a handful of radical foot soldiers who pretend to speak for all.
The horrific mass murder that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School should make America finally think differently about the NRA and any role it plays in the national conversation.
The NRA must be marginalized, pushed to the far fringes for promoting hysteria and enabling violence, drowned out by the voices of the majority of Americans who desperately desire gun sanity.
Candlelight vigils after all-too frequent mass killings are just the first baby step of a thousand-mile journey. This must be a radical movement. Politicians must be made ashamed to take the NRA's money and do its bidding. Cities that agree to host its convention should be embarrassed, not honored.
It must be made shameful to have your name linked to the NRA. That's radical. But that's what it will take to get sane gun laws.
Most people don't know the history of the NRA, that it was long a group that supported firearms training and sensible regulations, including the gun-control laws enacted in 1934 and 1968. But, in 1977, its leadership was hijacked by radicals, and it has since moved toward the far-right fringe, often engaging in paranoid and apocalyptic fearmongering in the spirit of the John Birch Society or, more recently, Glenn Beck.
Rico says that he's quite happy to have his name linked to the NRA, but not to the John Birch Society or Glenn Beck...
No comments:
Post a Comment