The Gun Lobby: Who's The NRA?

Included with the bombast, hysteria and name calling on the editorial pages that followed the VA-Tech shooting were numerous villifications of the "Gun Lobby." Apparently a heavy percentage of the nation's editorial writers loathes the Gun Lobby. If it weren't for the darn Gun Lobby and their fiendish plots, the whole nation would be safe, they tell us.

Here's just one example:

"The gun lobby, with its generous campaign contributions, operates as a powerful Loopholes “R” Us, and few politicians of either party have the courage to stand up to it." NYT May 2, 2007

There are, natch, others. A few moments with Google and a printer, and you should have enough to wallpaper your house.

Ignorance, I can tolerate. It's willful ignorance that makes my stomach churn. Where do the writers of these editorials think the Gun Lobby comes from? I don't know if anyone at the New York Times, USA Today, The New Yorker, etc. will read this, but let me assure you of something.

The Gun Lobby did not spring fully formed from the pits of hell. Its not a creation of a foreign government. This boogeyman you keep trying to frighten your readers with is us, the people. (Some of us, anyway)

There are about 70 million gun owners in the United States, which means that about half the adults in the country are armed one way or another. About 3 million of them are in the NRA. And even the gun owners who aren't, as the Democratic Party has found out to its chagrin in recent elections, look with dissaproval on attempts to disarm them.

What I want is for the editorial pages of this country to stop referring to the Gun Lobby as if it was some artificially created menace. The NRA has a powerful voice because its members, millions of voting American citizens, profoundly care what happens to their rights. They write, they call, they send money.

In a very real sense, the influence the NRA wields is proof that our system works, that active mobilized citizens engaged in government can make it work for them.

Permit me to quote the last person on earth I thought I would see cited in this entry: George Stephanopoulos said,"Let me make one small vote for the NRA. They're good citizens. They call their Congressmen. They write. They vote. They contribute. And they get what they want over time."