NRA's CAMPAIGN STRATEGY: LIE LIKE HELL

[PoliticalAmazon]

For many years I was a member of the NRA, but I have let my membership lapse.

However, just because I'm not an active NRA member does not mean that I am not hit by campaign and fundraising calls.

One I received over the weekend was very interesting: The caller claimed that the USSC would ban all guns. I asked him to repeat it and asked specific questions and, indeed, the NRA is saying that we have to donate to the NRA because they will fight the USSC on the USSC's plans to ban all guns.

Obviously, this is patently absurd. To my knowledge, there isn't even a case pending in the appeal courts for such a measure. The USSC clearly would not "ban all guns" because it would be overturning the Second Amendment rights.

IMO, because of the negative political fall-out, and because it would overturn the Second Amendment, there will never be an attempt to "ban all guns."

Anyway, thought I'd give people a heads-up on the blatant lies being told by the NRA in their latest fundraising drive.

[aikoaiko]

1. You're right that its a lie that SCOTUS plans to ban all guns.

But they are deciding on a case that would allow DC to ban all handguns. Lower courts said the handgun ban is illegal and DC appealed.

Many people see this case as being critical to informing gun control laws in the future.

[SteveM]

2. Obama has a way out on this....

He has already stated his view that the Second Amendment recognizes an individual right to keep and bear arms. And he has already stated that cities and states have a role in regulation. If he were to say he would veto any bill that would restrict the individual right to keep and bear arms, then it would fall to the states/localities to regulate -- and be subject to the provisions of the 14th Amendment's privileges and immunities clause (which was passed in large measure because blacks were being disarmed during Reconstruction). SEE: www.georgiacarry.org and scroll a couple of pages to their most excellent Heller brief.

Much of this depends on how Heller is decided. The very conservative justices do not have much fondness for 14A's privileges and immunities clause and how the amendment has been used over the last 50 years to break down restrictions on constitutional rights. It will be interesting to see how they handle this one!

[mduffy31]

3. My way out was their obstinate view on guns

My thing is this, the government is NEVER going to take my long rifle that I use for hunting away from me, but NO ONE needs a fully automatic rifle to hunt game. If you want to use a weapon like that, join the Army and they give you one for free, and I heard that they need people.

[benEzra]

5. Automatic weapons have been tightly controlled for 74 years, and are irrelevant to the gun issue.

If you think the "assault weapon" bait-and-switch covered automatic weapons, you are mistaken; that term refers to the most popular NON-automatic target rifles and defensive carbines in the USA, not automatic weapons.

FWIW, only 1 in 5 U.S. gun owners is a hunter; the vast majority of us don't hunt, which is why attempting to ban the most popular nonhunting guns is a guaranteed loser. I fully support your right to hunt (and the excise taxes my wife and I pay on our nonhunting guns and ammo help fund your game lands), but we'd like to keep our handguns and carbines.

[mduffy31]

6. Dont get me wrong

I'm with you. My Glock handgun has NO use in hunting, but it is REALLY fun to target shoot with.

[benEzra]

8. Thanks! BTW, my wife shoots a Glock...

Thanks!

BTW, my wife shoots a Glock 26 9mm, and loves it. She wasn't particularly interested in guns until I kept a Glock 17 for a friend while he was at college, and she decided that she might be interested in shooting if she owned one of those. She was going to get a G19, but the smaller G26 came out after the Feinstein law passed, and she opted for the 26.

I shoot competitively (USPSA) and recreationally with a civilian AK lookalike (Romanian SAR-1). Like all civilian AK's, it's non-automatic (works like a Ruger Mini Thirty); it's legal for deer here in NC, and if I ever take up hunting, it will probably be with this rifle.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

4. Why isn't there a liberal gun organization?

I own several firearms...

I think you have the right to own a gun -- like any other piece of property -- with some common sense restrictions because guns can be deadly if used improperly.

I think if you have a dangerous occupation (private security, convenience store owner, delivery driver) you really should have the right to conceal-carry when you're on the job.

I think we should preserve and expand wilderness areas, and stop the march of suburban sprawl, because I'm a hunter and the loss of habitat effects me.

I think people who own firearms should be required to store them safely (gun locks).

I have no problem with owner licensing and gun registration, and background checks for purchases.

I don't think people should be allowed to evade backbround checks by buying guns from unregulated gun shows.

I think our urban areas need to have tough gun control legislation, but that needs to happen in a way that respects the rights of honest, law-abiding gun owners in rural areas.

[mduffy31]

7. That is another thing that pisses me off

Why is it such a big deal to wait for a gun also? Usually a handgun purchase is a big expense, so plan ahead.