Reading the article from Media Matters on the NRA started me thinking back and remembering some of the statements like 'jack-booted thugs' coming out of NRA members in Texas. The militia in Kerville were always touting their NRA membership as if it made them legitimate as part of the mainstream. In Oklahoma in 2010, a candidate for Republican Governor wanted the militia to become the military arm of the Tea Party as part of the 2nd amendment. I thought he was nuts but looks like he wasn't the only one as the NRA has been playing to the militia movement according to Media Matters:
The NRA was forced to make a choice. Would it be a fiercely ideological yet mainstream organization? Or would it side with its worst demons and become the Washington trade association for anti-government militias?
NRA board member Ted Nugent gave us a clue to the answer at the beginning of April when he reiterated his pre-election statement that "if this America-hater, if this freedom-hater, if this enemy of America becomes the president again I'll either be dead or in jail" and tied it to background check legislation that subsequently failed in the Senate.
For decades the NRA toyed with the violent extremes of America politics, reaping members and dollars. After this weekend's annual meeting there should be no confusion about what the NRA is - a group fully controlled by the rhetoric of anti-government extremists.What has changed that Glenn Beck felt free to run this attack on Mayor Bloomberg during his speech? Seems the NRA has decided to stop wearing two masks by jettisoning the one for mainstream America on gun safety with backing some form of background checks. Today they have chosen to take off their other mask permanently to showcase they are a group who caters to the hard right including militia types of this Country. Looks like the internet and other sources of news have finally outed the real NRA that was being hidden from public view.
Comparing Mayor Bloomberg to Hitler is not mainstream America - it is extremism that is permeating the hard right today with their conspiracy theories. IMHO it is harmful to America because some people actually believe what the hard right out of touch people are saying. That defies my belief that even Beck would go that far but truthfully I should be more surprised if Beck said something that was not radical. Beck and Sarah Palin made a good pair on their visits around the Country several years ago playing to the hard right. Palin was also back at it at the NRA Convention. Wonder if they paid her as she has been trolling for dollars since even Fox News cut her like they did Beck.
Leading the charge of the hard right was none other then Glenn Beck according to Media Matters:
Beck Exposes The NRA As Anti-Government Extremists
ARI RABIN-HAVT, 6 May 2013
This weekend former Senator Evan Bayh echoed the beliefs of many in the media that the National Rifle Association has only recently moved to the fringe, telling Politico "their position is now in the end zone, not at the 40-yard line."
These extremes were on display at the NRA annual meeting this weekend where Glenn Beck, during a keynote address just days after the announcement that New York's Cablevision would soon begin to carry his Blaze network to millions of households, displayed on the screen a poster-like image of Michael Bloomberg giving the Sieg Heil salute. To equate the Jewish mayor of New York City to Nazis used to be beyond the pale in American politics.
One could say this outrageous hate speech was Beck acting like Beck, demonstrating his herculean effort to prove Godwin's Law, but Nazi comparisons have been part and parcel of the NRA's rhetoric for decades.
In 1995, former President George H.W. Bush resigned his lifetime membership in the organization after Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre signed a fundraising letter that claimed the Assault Weapons Ban passed earlier that year "gives jackbooted Government thugs more power to take away our constitutional rights, break in our doors, seize our guns, destroy our property and even injure and kill us."
Bush told the organization, "your broadside against Federal agents deeply offends my own sense of decency and honor; and it offends my concept of service to country."
The rhetoric might have been new to Bush, but the organization had freely referred to law enforcement officials as "jackbooted thugs" for years. It was only in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing that previously ignored communications, such as direct mail pieces, were scrutinized by the media, outing this disgraceful language.
Likewise Beck's Nazi rhetoric is nothing new for the NRA. In 1994, a year before Bush resigned from the organization, LaPierre claimed in the organization's magazine The American Rifleman that Federal agents "are scarier than the Nazis -- who at least never concealed their faces." This was after writing that "it may be that this is a valid comparison" to "compare the behavior our uncontrolled Federal agents to that of the Nazis in the Third Reich."
Is the rhetoric coming from the NRA and its allies today any more extreme?
The difference is, in an age of communications transparency created by the internet, the organization can no longer maintain two faces. While they've long used language designed to appeal to militia members and other anti-government extremists they depend on to fill their membership roles, they used to also employ more moderate language designed to appeal to lawmakers and the media - in 1999 the organization claimed to support background checks at gun shows - and even some left leaning Democrats could formally claim an alliance with the organization.
Read more about the NRA at MediaMatters.orgNRA adopting a resolution from World Net Daily, home of the conspiracy theories, shows just how far out of the mainstream the NRA is today. No wonder they have lost a lot of common sense members who don't want to be associated with this organization.
NRA Adopts WND Columnist's Resolution Opposing All New Gun Laws
››› MATT GERTZ
The membership of the National Rifle Association has unanimously adopted a resolution proposed by a WND columnist expressing opposition to any and all additional restrictions against guns during the session of its annual meeting. This position puts the activists in attendance out of step not only with the American people, but with the broader membership of the organization.
The resolution was offered by fringe gun activist Jeff Knox during the open session of the May 4 meeting. Knox is head of the Firearms Coalition, a hardline organization that promotes the "unencumbered right to arms" and opposes "any moves toward more restrictive and/or intrusive gun laws." He also writes a column about gun policy for WND, a discredited right-wing website known for its conspiracy theories. Knox's father Neal is credited with leading NRA hard-liners to crush the group's moderate wing in the 1970s and 1990s, helping to establish the organization as a no-compromises right-wing lobbying powerhouse.
The text of Knox's resolution cites its necessity as "a public repudiation of the lies and distortions from the media and politicians suggesting that the majority of NRA members support the expansion of gun control laws as clearly and unequivocally we do not." Polling indicates that the public -- including self-described NRA members -- overwhelmingly support at least one proposal to strengthen gun laws, the expansion of the background check system.
Excerpt: Read More at Media MattersOn July 4th, there is a 1,000 (sponsor wants 10,000 now) loaded rifle carrying man march planned on the Capitol which is in violation of the DC laws which prohibit open or concealed carry. These hard right gun people don't care about laws as any law on guns doesn't apply to them because they believe there should be no gun laws. Would like to see the whole bunch thrown in jail after being arrested, have to post bond, and fined big time by the District. A lot of people go to DC for the 4th of July festivities that have to do with celebrating the birth of our Country who don't want to be around a group of rifle carrying gun nuts who believe their rights supersede our right to live a peaceful life.
It was announced Sunday that over 900 gun enthusiasts have RSVPed for a July 4 march on Washington, D.C. where the protestors plan to carry loaded rifles.
While it is against the law to openly carry a gun in D.C., libertarian radio host Adam Kokesh, the organizer of the event, said the march is an act of "civil disobedience" that attempts to prove gun advocates’ point in the “SUBTLEST way possible.”
The event's Facebook page is describing the planned march as nonviolent, “unless the government chooses to make it violent":
This is an act of civil disobedience, not a permitted event. We will march with rifles loaded & slung across our backs to put the government on notice that we will not be intimidated & cower in submission to tyranny. We are marching to mark the high water mark of government & to turn the tide. This will be a non-violent event, unless the government chooses to make it violent. Should we meet physical resistance, we will peacefully turn back, having shown that free people are not welcome in Washington, & returning with the resolve that the politicians, bureaucrats, & enforcers of the federal government will not be welcome in the land of the free.
Tide is already starting to turn against the NRA but they refuse to admit that their bought and paid for members of Congress are getting all kinds of heat from the 90% of us who support background checks. Like so many on the hard right they are living in denial and refusing to face reality that times are changing and people are fed up with the NRA, along with their bought and paid for politicians who refuse to take action in the Senate.There’s a remote chance that there will be violence as there has been from government before, and I think it should be clear that if anyone involved in this event is approached respectfully by agents of the state, they will submit to arrest without resisting. We are truly saying in the SUBTLEST way possible that we would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.
We are marching to mark the high water mark of government & to turn the tideHow arrogant is that statement from the Facebook page for the march? They are about to find out in 2014 that a lot of Americans are fed up with the NRA and their puppets in Congress. A lot of Republicans are saying no to the hard right and yes to common sense candidates from the Democrats. Hard right is systematically destroying the Republican Party and the NRA is a willing accomplice.
We need to oust the hard right NRA members from Congress who are running for reelection in 2014.
NRA has overstepped and time for us to fight back. Let's make sure our children are safe from guns by starting to enforce child endangerment laws when there is a loaded gun in the house available for children to get their hands on to shoot. Time to put restrictions on the age that children can be given guns as five is way too young. The little five year old that shot and killed his sister will have to live with that the rest of his life. Is that what the NRA wants with no laws on guns? Never figured out why gun locks are not required by the law in homes with children.
Time for common sense to prevail over NRA gun extremists.
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