Thursday, July 13, 2017

NRA afraid to confront 'real threat' to Second Amendment

Bravo, Radley Balko!
[The National Rifle Association] is the group that claims to be the only thing preventing the government from obliterating the Second Amendment, yet they’re noticeably quiet about the people doing the most violence to the Second Amendment — the armed, badge-wearing government employees we call law enforcement officers. For all the NRA’s dire warnings about government gun confiscation, the real, tangible threat to gun-owning Americans today comes not from gun-grabbing bureaucrats but from door-bashing law enforcement officers who think they’re at war — who are too often trained to view the people they serve not as citizens with rights but as potential threats. Here, the NRA just doesn’t want to get involved. ...
[T]he NRA’s allegiance to law enforcement has made the NRA indifferent to the ways that police tactics, use-of-force policy and police training violate the rights of gun owners (and those perceived to be carrying guns). And as with most bad criminal-justice policy, the laws, policies and training disproportionately violate the rights of blacks and Latinos — and the NRA is indifferent to that, too. The group does itself no favors when its figurehead spouts lazy, racist dog-whistles; when its aforementioned record of criticizing ATF goes silent when the agency’s aggressive tactics are aimed at minority neighborhoods
Preach, brother!

4 comments:

Soronel Haetir said...

Note that the NRA has long been a follower rather than leader. They were, for example, opposed to bringing both Heller and McDonald due to fear of negative court rulings. I actually suspect that such negative court rulings would have done far more to help the cause than the victories those cases ended up being. That is, I believe there would have been immediate and strong political backlash if either of those had come out the other way.

rodsmith said...

You are right. The real thing protecting the second amendment is the 5 to 7 guns for every man, woman and child in America in civilian hands. they know there are a lot more of us than there are of them so if tgey go to far to fast they will shortly mostly be dead.

Anonymous said...

Spoken like a true gun but rod. Be sure to kiss your gun goodnight when you cuddle up next to it tonight lol

rodsmith said...

Actually I haven't owned a gun in 20 years or so. Gave them to relatives or friends when my eyes started to go. But I am the nut? Not the one ignoring reality?