The NRA has hit upon the selling point of all selling points to goose gun sales. Jon Stewart opines: “These types of contradictions — they use fear, we use fear — are not an anomaly, not a bug in the NRA’s system, but a feature… At the heart of the NRA’s message is, ‘Don’t let liberals say it’s a dangerous world and scare you into gun control. Let us say it’s a dangerous world and scare you into a Gun-a-pa-looza!’”…. The NRA warns the government is busy going after your guns; that any attempt to regulate firearms, including background checks is the first step towards tyranny. The NRA, and people like Glenn Beck, warn of the government - that the government is the enemy. In turn, you get the NRA praising law enforcement, which is directly reporting to (and is a part of) … wait for it… the government. It’s such a muddled message as to make your head hurt.
Say what you will about the National Rifle Association, but Satan Incarnate Wayne LaPierre understands messaging, and he recognizes that message control means controlling public perception. And NO ONE- and I do mean no one- is more disciplined and relentless at maintaining control over their message than the NRA.
It’s not about public safety or obeying laws or even sensible gun use. It’s about keeping gun owners and the general public in such a fear-driven lather that they’d believe Barack Obama’s a space alien who’d like nothing me than to probe their nether regions. It’s about making certain that any attempt at sensible gun control is automatically perceived as the precursor to a national gun owners registry and a Liberal gun grab.
If it sounds as if LaPierre and the NRA uses the language of extremists, it’s because that’s exactly what they’re doing and what they are. How else could anyone justify their obstinance and intransigence in the aftermath of Newtown and Aurora and so many other mass shootings? When you listen to the NRA’s rhetoric, it’s clear they view the loss of innocent lives as merely the cost of maintaining our “freedoms.”
Hey, as long as it’s someone else burying their children….
I’ve seen the face and heard the voice of Evil…it looks like Wayne LaPierre.
As Charles Johnson put it, “Fear leads to hate, hate leads to anger, anger leads to…more gun sales.” This is the world the NRA creates and reinforces on a daily basis. Combine this with their purchase of Congress, and it’s not hard to understand why the NRA has been Washington’s 800-kb. gorilla through the years.
