NRA Enables Gun Terror

By FRANK LINGO

A stunningly heartless video was released on April 27 by The New Yorker and The Trace. USA Today reported that it showed NRA head Wayne LaPierre Jr. and his wife Susan shooting two endangered elephants in Botswana in 2013.

I watched this sickening spectacle. It took the inept Wayne several shots and he still didn’t finish the elephant off. A guide had to put it out of its misery. Then Susan apparently shot her elephant more effectively before exchanging hugs and smiles with her guides. Finally, she cut off the elephant’s tail as a trophy.

There is no conscience left in gun nuts like this and their organization. Their gun thrills matter more than the lives of humans or animals.

Once upon a time, the National Rifle Association was a club for hunting enthusiasts.

But for the last few decades, the NRA has become a powerful lobbying force in both the US Congress and most state legislatures.

Their goal is unfettered freedom for firearms. They oppose universal background checks, safety locks, age minimums, required training and banning assault weapons.

The majority of the American people favor every one of those reforms, but politicians, mostly Republicans, block them from becoming law. The NRA and the rest of the gun lobby contribute lots of money to those politicians, along with threats to primary them out of office if they don’t comply.

It almost always works. One notable exception was the 1994 federal ban on assault weapons signed by President Bill Clinton. It expired in 2004 under our formerly worst president ever, George W. Bush.

During the decade the ban was in effect, fatalities were reduced by 70%, according to a New York University School of Medicine study.

In the ensuing 17 years, mass slaughters with automatic weapons have increased exponentially. All further efforts to ban assault rifles have gone nowhere.

Other countries have drastically fewer murders per capita. They have angry people, crazy people, race supremacists. The difference is they don’t have easy access to guns. Assault rifles are not for self-protection like a handgun. They are not for hunting like deer rifles. They are designed as a military weapon to kill many people very quickly. They are so dangerous that there is no reason for a civilian to possess one.

There are nearly 400 million guns in America, more guns than people. This is a gun-nut nation. We regulate driving, drugs, fishing, home remodeling and many other things far more than we control firearms. How does this make any sense?

Until we face the truth of this sanctioned insanity, the mass murders will go on — and unbearable grief will be inflicted on thousands of American families every year.

Until we stand up against the tyranny of the minority and compel our representatives to pass common sense gun controls, we are all accountable for letting the horrifying massacres happen.

Frank Lingo, based in Lawrence, Kansas, is a former columnist for the Kansas City Star and author of the novel “Earth Vote.” Email: lingofrank@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, June 1, 2021

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