What Does The NRA Want? (And What To Do About It)

[billh58]

The National Rifle Association spent more than $30 million to elect Donald Trump President. Particularly with Republicans in control of both the Senate and the House, and a vacancy on the Supreme Court, the gun lobby will expect an impressive return on its investment. What will it want?

Following the massacre of first graders at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre infamously said that the lesson to be learned was: “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” That phrase perfectly captures a core premise of Trumpism: that the nation is neatly divided into “good guys” (who have been forgotten by the elites controlling our government) and “bad guys” (Muslims, undocumented immigrants and “the others” who have been allowed to threaten the safety and well-being of the “good guys”). LaPierre’s slogan likely will animate the entirety of the NRA’s Trump Administration agenda

- Snip -

First, gun control activists must not surrender to despair and leave the playing field to the NRA. Given the extremism of the NRA’s “guns everywhere” vision of American society, the Trump gun agenda can be an effective vehicle to build on the organizing that has occurred since Sandy Hook. It is clearly possible that much of the pro-gun agenda can be stopped in the Senate, but it will require constant constituent pressure.

Second, it must be made clear to both political parties that the gun control movement is now a potent political force and will remain so. The 2016 election cycle brought a historic infusion of resources from gun control groups into the political process, with Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety and his Independence USA Super PAC, along with Gabby Giffords’ Americans for Responsible Solutions PAC, leading the way. Their spending contributed to some impressive victories, particularly the successful Nevada referendum to extend background checks to all gun sales, in a state with a record of hostility to gun control, aided by $16 million in spending by gun control forces, as well as the defeat of Republican incumbent Senator Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire, with the help of $8.8 million in ads hammering her pro-gun votes in the Senate. Significantly, Republican incumbent Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania was reelected, even though he sacrificed NRA support by co-sponsoring a universal background check bill after Sandy Hook. Toomey received the support of Everytown and ARS, which sent a message that gun control forces will exercise their political muscle to support Republicans willing to buck the gun lobby. Going forward, this kind of well-financed, hard-nosed election activity by the gun control movement must become a permanent feature of the political landscape in a way that it has not been in the past.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dennis-a-henigan/what-does-the-nra-want-_b_13135086.html

Even Trump and his red-necked "Second Amendment Solution" gun nut followers can't overcome the gains made by the gathering tide of a majority of average American's calls for stricter gun control measures.

We may have lost a battle, but we have not lost the war against gun violence.

[HassleCat]

1. My guess about their desires

I was an NRA member, long ago, before they ran off the rails. Comparing the old NRA to the current organization gives me a few ideas about what they want.

Their members are much more interested in military style weapons, particularly what we commonly call assault rifles. They feature short barrels, a rapid rate of fire, 20 or more rounds in a magazine, low recoil, attachments for laser sights or night vision equipment, and other features that make them suitable for miltary or paramilitary use. The NRA will probably seek legislation and administrative decisions making it easier to buy and sell such weapons by creating loopholes and exemptions.

Of course, they will continue to fight against any and all gun control measures at all level, because their membership now includes a rather large fraction of genuinely insane people who believe, for example, that background checks are just a prelude to rounding them up and sending them to a FEMA death camp.

Perhaps the worst thing they will do is support any candidate who declares allegiance to the Second Amendment. No matter how crazy that candidate might be in other respects.

In other words, more of the same. It's working for them, so they'll stay with it.

[billh58]

2. Yes, the NRA will keep

appealing to the right-wing gun nuts who voted for Trump, but the gun control movement has become a powerful NRA foe, and we are winning more battles with common sense than they are with their same old fear tactics.

Demographics are changing, and the white supremacists who barely managed to elect Trump are dwindling in number. Hopefully the bright lights shining on them in the wake of this debacle will put them squarely in the waste bin of history.