The news media has moved on from the Oregon school shooting, as it always does, but the aftermath of the tragedy remains, as does the need for common sense gun laws.
But we know the NRA will be up in arms (no pun intended) to prevent that from happening.
Which leads me to say again that I really, really, really do hate the NRA. Honestly, I cannot think of a more useless, worthless, and menacing organization in the country than this bunch.
Moreover, what is truly disgusting is the support it has among Republicans in Congress who are awash in warped values.
Consider this. Republicans are on a Planned Parenthood witch hunt, but are cheerleaders for the NRA, yet Planned Parenthood provides healthcare services around the world to almost five million people while the NRA is trying to get as many guns as possible in the hands of as many Americans as possible.
Last week Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood, was vilified by Jason Chaffetz, a Republican representative from Utah who wants to be Speaker of the House, for receiving what he termed “an excessive salary.”
She makes $590 thousand a year, and that includes retirement benefits.
Wayne LaPierre, NRA president and CEO, makes $970 thousand a year in salary alone.
I wonder if Rep. Chaffetz believe LaPierre’s salary is excessive. If he had been testifying before Chaffetz’s committee, do you think he would have been questioned about his salary as she was?
I know the answer to both of those questions, and you do, too, and the reason we do is obvious.
Republicans believe owning a gun is a basic right of all Americans, but having healthcare is not.
They do in spite of the fact that in 2013 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported there were 33,169 deaths related to firearms.
What is more, gun violence costs the American taxpayers something like $229 billion (with a B) a year when all costs related to it are considered, costs such as medical treatment, hospitalization, long term medical disability, trials, incarceration, and security systems in homes and schools, to name a few.
Like I said, I really, really, really really do hate the NRA.
Here is the simple truth. Gun laws are not complicated, and, contrary to what the NRA says, are certainly not a threat to anyone’s Second Amendment rights.
Nor is registration the first step in the government taking away all guns.
Frankly, I wish the government WOULD take away everyone’s guns and make people rent them during hunting season and return them when it’s over.
I would rather have a gun free country than worry about needing a gun to fight a tyrannical government.
Anybody stupid enough to believe guns and rifles would defeat our nation’s army, or believe such a circumstance would ever happen, is already too dangerous to own a gun.
I heard two Republican presidential candidates say after the Oregon shooting that gun laws cannot prevent such a thing happening.
My thought was, “Well, as long as you have your way we will never know, will we?”
And that is precisely the problem.
linnposts.com 
Amen to that, Jan.
Right on target, Jan, and no pun intended here either!
But a good one, nonetheless!
The two Republican Presidential candidates are wrong. My country hasn’t forgotten the day in March 1996, when an ex-youth club leader named Thomas Hamilton walked into a primary School in the quiet Scottish town of Dunblane. With his arsenal of 4 firearms (all legally held) and 700 rounds of ammunition, he proceeded to kill 16 children and 2 teachers. In the following year, the incoming Labour government enacted the Firearms (Amendment) Act, 1997, which totally banned the ownership and possession of firearms. There has not been another incident on the scale of Dunblane to date.
Yes, even in Britain, we will always have problems of criminals with guns, but the law is supported by a national consensus that you as a citizen have no business to have any kind of gun in your home, and that the use of firearms must be the exclusive preserve of specialised branches of the Police, or the armed forces of the Crown. Building such a body of public opinion in your country will take a very long time indeed, although organisations like the Snowdrop campaign will help.
I hope you are right about us, Nigel, but at this point I am doubtful that mindset will ever take root.
The NRA of my youth was a different organization. They used to promote hunting, marksmanship, safety training, and common sense gun laws including measures to license firearm dealers, restrict access to machine guns, and advocated for passage of major federal gun legislation like the National Firearms Act of 1934 and the Federal Firearms Act of 1938.
Not today. Now they take a scorched-earth approach to politics, compiling an enemies list that includes any organization or individual who dares question the party line. And they bury evidence, silence researchers, and blacklist companies that contradict the NRA’s agenda or cooperate with those who seek to reduce gun violence.
I used to support their agenda; Not anymore. I hate them too.
Amen Jan. Thanks!
We have to keep at it, Luke.
Abut the only thing I dislike more than the NRA is the members of Congress that let themselves be led around like sheep by the NRA. As I see it, Congress is the organization, that is supposed to stand between the American public and outfits like the NRA. Congress is failing its duties to the American public.
In about 1978, I used to be a member of the Hampshire Ritle & Pistol Club, which met at the Navy’s firing range in Portsmouth every weekend. I left because I found that the cost of buying boxes of ammunition was way too expensive, and so I started shooting with a camera instead – so much more rewarding…