Damn the National Rifle Association!
There’s a special corner of hell where Wayne La Pierre and the NRA’s biggest funders will be called upon to explain to the thousands of innocents senselessly gunned down why the NRA didn’t lift even a trigger finger to stem the bloodshed. He will have to explain the NRA’s failure to act to those souls whose lives were cut short by gun violence.
What will La Pierre say? How will the NRA square this with the dead? Surely the explanations will be hollow and wanting. No, Wayne and his posse didn’t pull the trigger, they didn’t plan this pandemic of violence – but they did nothing to stop either. Instead, they whined on and on about the alleged threat to gun rights, a bold-faced lie to begin with.
They never asked how they could help to staunch the flow of blood in our schools or on our streets. The NRA’s hunter safety courses are a nice gesture for those who enjoy hunting, but it’s not hunters who are murdering kids. The NRA’s support of stupidly powerful military assault rifles, as ubiquitous as BB guns, keeps them needlessly in the hands of the public.
The NRA’s chokehold on Congress keeps meaningful gun legislation from being enacted, laws that would truly protect gun rights and people at the same time. Yes, Wayne and his gang could have been helping to create such legislation to control the wholesale distribution of military-grade assault weapons, but they have chosen to hide behind the imaginary threat to the Second Amendment instead.
But what if we didn’t have ongoing gun violence to rationalize the need for the NRA? Maybe we wouldn’t need an NRA at all! Think about it.
John Egan
Pagosa Springs
