The NRA is backing terrorism: Wingnuts and “patriots” are the real safety threat we should fear

[applegrove]

The NRA is backing terrorism: Wingnuts and “patriots” are the real safety threat we should fear

by Melissa Duclos-Yourdon at Salon

http://www.salon.com/2016/01/05/the_nra_is_backing_terrorism_wingnuts_and_patriots_are_the_real_safety_threat_we_should_fear/

"SNIP..............



It’s hard to debate the point, given the NRA’s success in blocking public safety research into guns. Prior to 1996, however, when that research ban was passed, the CDC concluded that in households where guns were present, family members were three times as likely to be shot as those who live in homes without guns. More recently, a Stanford University study found that right-to-carry laws were linked to an increase in violent crime; and researchers from the University of California, Davis, and the University of Newcastle in Australia, using data from the 2013 FBI crime report and gun control laws by state, concluded that homicide rates in cities within states that require a permit to buy a gun are lower than those in cities within states that do not require permits. And the National Journal, citing data from the CDC, the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, and the NRA-ILA, reported that states with more restrictive gun laws have the fewest gun-related deaths.

This research—which is to say these facts—don’t matter to the gun extremists who argue for their unassailable right to own guns. After they claim that gun legislation is ineffective, they will shriek about the Constitution, failing to see the illogic in the argument that an amendment is something that must never be changed. Writing in Psychology Today in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, David Ropeik explains that the extremists who speak of clutching their guns with their cold, dead hands are “fighting for the right to own a gun [as] a way of asserting control against a society that many feel is encroaching on their values and freedoms.” To such extremists, the right to bear arms is not one of many constitutional rights. It is the most important right, through which all other rights must be defended.

Simply put, the right to own a gun is the right to stand up against the government. For example, heavy artillery has made it possible this week for terrorists to occupy a federal building in Oregon, to stand against the perceived tyranny of having to pay (at a rate 93 percent lower than the average market rate) for the use of federal lands for grazing.

Here these men are, exercising their “freedoms” behind the barrels of their guns. All of their talk of tyranny makes it very clear then what the debate over guns in this country is really about: When gun extremists resist the commonsense legislation that would curb gun violence, they are fighting for their “freedom” to break the law. (It’s a freedom, it’s worth noting, only available to whites in this country, as people of color—children of color—do not have the freedom to hold even toy guns without being shot by police.) Claiming to stand against tyranny, gun extremists—backed by the NRA and the rest of the gun lobby—are the real tyrants, holding Americans hostage, putting our lives in danger.



...............SNIP"

[randys1]

1. Just today didnt the NRA imply they want to shoot and kill lawmakers?

think so


http://a1.img.talkingpointsmemo.com/image/upload/c_fill,fl_keep_iptc,g_faces,h_365,w_652/b2exe31i0cjvvclssyyp.jpg

[madokie]

3. One of the first post I read this morning

[GGJohn]

2. Heavy artillery?

What heavy artillery?
Where did these loons get 155mm artillery?
Does the author of this article even know what the fuck they're talking about? Didn't Salon proof read this crap?

[linuxman]

4. That's salon for you.

They fired all the fact checkers so they could pay the privilege checkers.

[Shandris]

5. LOL. Salon. Might as well post from the Extraterrestrial Monthly Digest. n/t

[applegrove]

6. You know that since 9/11 but not including it, there have been as many right wing killings of

innocents than innocents killed by radical muslims?

[GGJohn]

7. There's been many, many more killings over drugs gang shootings, since 911 than killed by RW loons,

what's your point?
Also, WTF is the author of this Salon article talking about heavy artillery?
Doesn't Salon fact check their articles before they go to print?

[applegrove]

8. My point is that the GOP stirs fear but the resulting fear is misplaced. They should be afraid of

the big white man taking their wages and jobs and economy and forcing a gun culture on them because it is a GOP wedge issue. More gun owners family members die at the hands of their own guns than than use it to actually defend themselves from outsiders.

[GGJohn]

11. ...

More gun owners family members die at the hands of their own guns than than use it to actually defend themselves from outsiders.

Really? Got stats and links for that claim?

[applegrove]

13. Here is something.

http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/160/10/929.full

[GGJohn]

16. Thanks for the link,

but I already see a glaring error, there are not over 50,000 firearm deaths each year in the US, it's more like 30,000, of which 2/3 of those are suicides.

Of course having a firearm in the home increases the danger of being shot, but the same could be said of having a vehicle, it increases the chances of having an accident.

[Shandris]

18. I'm sure you can massage statistics to say anything.

In fact, that's pretty much Intro to Statistics. Yes, I'm well 'aware' of it. Salon is still a joke. I used to think it was credible, but the kind of toxic tripe they push now is D&C shill territory. No thanks.

[onehandle]

9. Gun culture's reckoning is coming.

They are waving their fetish at us while children, families, and other normal people are dying at an alarming rate.

[hack89]

10. What about gang culture? It is killing many more people. Nt

[GGJohn]

12. More comedy gold. eom.

[onehandle]

14. More laughing at human slaughter. dlt.

[GGJohn]

15. More lies.

I'm laughing at you, not slaughter.
Reading comprehension is your friend.

[TeddyR]

17. More fear mongering

The NRA is not some all powerful deity and isn't he boogeyman. If you want to blame someone for not getting gun laws passed then blame your state and federal representatives. As far as I know they are the ones that cast the vote, not the NRA.