NRA = Front Group for Military Style Weapons Industry

Open carry law - Texas

GUNS ARE TOO EASY TO GET.

Although the NRA was founded in 1871 to improve marksmanship, starting in 1975 the NRA has increasingly become a major front group for the manufacturers of weapons currently referred to as military-style weapons. At the same time, the media continues to misleadingly identify the NRA as primarily representing the interests of the many members who are amateur hunters.

In 1934, the Fire Arms Act was passed to protect the public from killings by “military- style” weapons, “destructive” devices, and concealed weapons. Military-style weapons meant machine guns and any firearm that could be “readily converted” to fire more than one bullet per trigger pull.  Pistols, revolvers, normal length rifles and shotguns were not restricted by the Act. The Gun Control Act of 1968 updated the legal basis for addressing the same concerns. Until 1975, the NRA leadership best represented the concerns of hunter, target shooters and sportsmen - and not dealers or manufacturers.

After 1975, the NRA focused more and more on political involvement through PACs and lobbying groups and, in effect, rejected the threat to the public of mass violence weapons. The post-1975 NRA “framed the issue” not in terms of public safety but in terms of the for-profit interests, gun dealers and

Guns for sale via interest.

manufacturers, and their self-serving interpretation of the 2^nd Amendment. (Of course, the type of weapon is no longer the only safety issue since large ammunition magazines increase the ease/speed of mass lethal violence and some types of munitions put law enforcement etc. at greater risk.) 

Ever since the mid 1970’s, the NRA has consistently opposed the types of gun control restrictions in Western Europe or Japan and has increasingly and deliberately taken advantage of the media’s failure to recognize that the modern NRA is, first and foremost, an economic interest group that rejects majority public opinion  - even the majority opinion of hunters, target shooters, and sportsmen.

Focusing on background checks misdirects attention from the types of weapons, clips that are readily available. This also ignores the long standing evidence that the ability to predict violent behavior is so weak that background checks are not “common sense” gun control but misdirection on the part of the gun industry. Proven gun violence control policies do not rely upon background checks as a central strategy.

We MUST mobilize against this very real threat to our safety and well-being! 

We MUST WORK TOGETHER, UNITE BLUE! 

Only a Democrat POTUS and a Democrat Congressional majority can make the common sense gun law changes we want and need. 

Common sense gun law deniers=VOTE THEM OUT!

VOTE BLUE! EVERY VOTE MATTERS!