Take the Game to the NRA

As the NRA strong-arms the Gun Control debate with legislative extortion, when do we get to call these guys the Right Wing version of ACORN?  They want to register their people and have them pressure law makers - that is fine.  But not on our dime.

In many places across the country the NRA is embedded with the government for the purposes of gun training and gun safety programs.  The NRA is proud of this.  (Want to host your own Gun School Link) ?

The NRA can no longer be the vanguard in gun safety programs as part of a political movement; it needs to be divorced from the government.  That means all certifications for police firearms training needs to come from the government.  The NRA is out.

If you think it is time for reasonable gun control and see the NRA as a legislative impediment - you may want to begin asking questions of your local government.  Is your town funding the NRA by way of their police training programs? 

You can find out with a simple Freedom of Information Request or Right to Know Request to your local government.  Once you know if your city or town is participating with the NRA, you can then take action locally by petitioning your local elected officials to correct this situation.  Many places have local elections this year, so this is the time to hold officials accountable.

To replace the NRA's function, we are told that our military is the best on the planet.  Police training as well as firearms certifications needs to come from the government; whether it is the Department of Homeland Security, the ATF, or the Department of Defense.

The NRA also performs individual gun training.  In the last decade or so - before the NRA decided to really flex their political muscles to create a societal vision of mass paranoia - I really didn't have a beef with these types of training initiatives.  The NRA knows guns.  I imagined they had a hierarchy in place where one would be trained gradually for different types of firearms and there would be tests and certifications for what one could do.  I thought it was much like a union where you have an apprentice, then journeyman, then master.  Here is the civilian training portal (Link).

But it appears the reality is much different.  When you open your membership to anyone with a buck willing to give a credit card number over the phone - it dilutes the product.  It is no longer about gun safety - it is about finding a critical mass of people who agree with your viewpoint; in other words politicking.

Those who want to see gun control also need to look at the accessibility of training.  When was the last time the NRA took responsibility for the training they imparted to a member or an associate member? 

We keep hearing the mantra from the NRA that guns don't kill people, people kill people.  OK, but as long as the NRA is training people without regard to the mental condition of the people they train, they need to be held liable for the actions of their training. 

As with a locksmith or a black belt in martial arts; anyone who is NRA Trained needs to get additional punishments when their training is used against the general public.

The NRA has run as far away as possible from the Sandy Hook shooter, but NRA Achievement Certifications were found with his effects.  I am surprised that the Sandy Hook families have not filed individual lawsuits against the NRA for putting their vaunted training into the hands of a miscreant.  Could a good lawyer form the term 'willfull negligence' on the way into court? 

Could discovery yield the way the NRA really works in much the same way spilled coffee revealed the way McDonald's worked?  (Another way to find how much in tax dollars are going to NRA contracts for training?)

If the NRA will not police their own people, then it is time to subpoena their membership list and actually cross-reference their membership against those folks who are locked up for crimes already committed.  Is this the real reason they are afraid of background checks?

We could always repurpose the acronym 'NRA' to mean Not Responsible at All.  I hope the media and Gun Control Advocates can begin painting with a wide brush every NRA member.  The membership needs to be painted with the stigma of allowing crazy people to have guns.

I wonder - does the NRA support arming blind people the same way they do lunatics?