I have seen the light. After all these years, I now agree that it’s fruitless to give the benefit of the doubt to people who are so obviously corrupt, so clearly malevolent, so bent on hurting innocent people for their own sick gain.
No more due process in the clear-cut case of insidious terrorism. When the facts are so clearly before all Americans, for the whole world to see, why bother with this country’s odious and cumbersome system of justice? Send the guilty monsters directly to Guantanamo Bay for all eternity and let them rot in their own mental squalor.
No, no, no. Not the wannabe sick kid who blew up the Boston marathon or the freak that’s mailing ricin-laced letters to the president. I’m talking about the real terrorist threat here in America: the National Rifle Association.
I’m not laughing. What the NRA did last week was no laughing matter. Aurora is a community that knows only too well the downside of prolific guns, of military weapons in the hands of crazy people, of a nation that’s gone so far off base when it comes to firearm regulations that common sense is beyond our reach.
If you don’t read the thousands of newspapers in this country that came out with their own editorial guns a’blazing last week after a minority of craven, lying, sniveling, cowardly U.S. senators cheated the very premise of American government to back their masters at the NRA, let me offer you a few choice excerpts:
“But now, the cowards defied the will of most Americans and helped the hardliners and hypocrites prevail. They allowed themselves to be cowed into submission by a loud but very unrepresentative minority of NRA members who threatened retribution against anyone who voted in favor of the bill.”
Just another liberal rag in a liberal wasteland toeing the liberal line? No, that was the Dallas Morning News.
“It would be shameful, except too many of our politicians have no shame. Again, the gun bill showed that … Nobody wants the mentally ill having a gun. Nobody, that is, except many of your senators. They just don’t care.”
Barefoot hippies in Boulder? No. That was the Florida Sun Sentinel.
“The U.S. Senate’s handling of a gun safety package was cowardly and contemptible … What kind of a governing body responds to a national crisis by refusing to even discuss it openly and publicly?”
I agree with that, but it was written by the Kansas City Star. Hundreds of editorials across the country used the same language, making it clear that the NRA had bullied a handful of low-life senators who are so cowardly, so corrupt that they would knowingly lie and distort the issue in a painfully obvious attempt to cover their political tracts and back ends. This, this is on par with Nixon’s nastiness. This is unforgivable.
And not only did the liars at the NRA cheat the 90 percent of Americans wanting expanded gun registration out of what they want, by cheating and extorting and misleading, they celebrated their successful deceit when they “won.”
Mission accomplished. You want to know who those people really are? Well some people estimate that 1 in 4 Americans now own a gun. That would be about 76 million people. How many “belong” to the NRA? About 4.5 million. You know how many Americans don’t answer to the NRA goons? 309 million Americans. You know who dropped his membership to the NRA? George H. W. Bush after NRA freaks bought paid ads calling the government “jack-booted thugs.”
By using the weapon of choice for all terrorist organizations, extortion, the NRA has forced the action of about 45 ineffectual U.S. senators, a clear act of terrorism and treason. And Wayne LaPierre and his arrogant cronies are laughing about it. They’re laughing at 9 out of 10 of you and your insistence that Congress do something reasonable to stop the insanity in this country.
It’s time for the majority of Americans to fight the battle cowards in the Senate are too gutless to handle. If you have a relationship with the terrorists at the NRA, end it. Insist your political heroes do the same and turn back NRA blood money from gun makers. If you really stand behind the spirit of the American Constitution, push back against the cancerous threat that seeks to undermine it for the sake of U.S. gun makers.
POST SCRIPT:
Picking on the NRA has taught me plenty
Among the things I’ve learned in the past few days is that it’s best to always start my car with the driver’s door open. That way, if my car’s bombed, my chances of survival increase as I’m blasted out the door, as opposed to smithereens.
Police included that among a long-list of pointers after my life became a little more complicated this week. For the last few days, tens of thousands of fussy gunners have taken exception to a column I wrote three weeks ago comparing the National Rifle Association to a terrorist organization. When the column went viral this weekend via websites that have now labeled me “lib-tard of the week,” my crash course in “Are you freaking kidding me?” began in earnest.
I learned that there are thousands of passionate, thoughtful, civil people all over the country who vehemently disagree with me and are motivated enough to take the time to say so — often very eloquently. Nice to meet you.
I learned that there are tens of thousands of creeps out there who are the firearms equivalent of park bathroom exhibitionists, eager to show me their stuff, talk about my orifices and defend their backyard bunkers with hollow-point bullets when the imminent communist takeover by Obama and company finally unfolds. Y’all worry me.
I’ve learned that many people who disagree with proponents of gun control seem to think that we wet the bed, and they talk a lot about that. I greet each day with dry sheets, dudes, but I have had to wake up snuggling cold pillow drool on more than once occasion, if that’s somehow telling.
I learned that despite a pretty low level of communication skills, people who hate me, and I mean really, really, really hate me, can call the newsroom and string together an extemporaneous, impressive and creative array of threats and obscenities.
I’ve learned that having people growl into the phone that they’re going to “get me,” “take care of me,” “take me out,” “fix me,” “remove me” and use “my pansy ass” for target practice is pretty scary shit. It also makes me angry that, even as hyperbole, it’s all about threats and shooting people.
I’ve learned that there are people as foolish or fed up as I am, willing to stand up to bullies at the NRA and tell them it doesn’t have to be like this. There’s room for the Second Amendment and getting rapid-fire, high-capacity military weapons out of the hands of criminals and everyone else who doesn’t need them.
But more than anything, the last few days have stumped me. I am bewildered by the number of people who are paranoid about the U.S. government coming to enslave them. So many people are convinced that if they were forced to pass background checks at a gun show, or if Congress outlawed a list of guns that act like military assault rifles, that goose steppers would be knocking at their doors demanding papers and their weapons.
Why? These folks often point to Nazi Germany, as if the German people were taken over by their government and — weaponless — were unable to regain control. The scary part about Hitler is that the Germans went willingly. It wasn’t about guns, it was about fear, paranoia, the economy and an unhealthy sense of righteousness, entitlement and patriotism.
I don’t want the government to take the hunting rifles, sharp-shooting guns or even Desert Eagle from people who think they need them for self-protection, sentiment or just an odd sense of fun. I think most gun-control advocates feel the same way. But I don’t believe that the “right to bear arms” is a limitless right to amass what Boston police might describe as weapons of mass destruction.
And I believe now more than ever that the leaders of the NRA do act like terrorists, inciting fear and hate among their members. They threaten elected officials with massive sums of money to oust them if they don’t comply with NRA demands on the House and Senate floors. They inspire members to unleash an unnerving tidal wave of threats, saying that even if 99 percent of Americans agreed that they no longer want military-weapons in the hands of American civilians, that we must “come and take” them. They say this is a “culture war” among freedom-loving patriots and despicable liberal stooges.
If more of us don’t stand up to the NRA, nothing will change. I’ve learned that I may be driving home a different way each night from now on, but I’m not going to shut up.
Reach editor Dave Perry at 303-750-7555 or dperry@aurorasentinel.com
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