Monday, July 23, 2012

It’s time to make the NRA accountable…was Aurora movie shooter a member?

The National Rifle Assn. (NRA) has bragged for years about what a law abiding bunch its members are, with the implication that no one from their membership would be involved in illegal shootings or homicides, certainly not something as outrageous as the shooting last Friday at a movie in Aurora, Colorado.  Well, I am here to tell you it is not true.  J.T. Ready, who killed five, including himself, in a smaller scale execution in Arizona recently, was an NRA member.

Shooter James Holmes
Similarly, was Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan of the Fort Hood, Texas incident a member?  How about Seung-Hui Cho in the Virginia Tech shootings or Jared Loughner of Tucson, Arizona shooting fame?  And of course was James Holmes, the latest maniac wielding a gun to do his dirty work in an Aurora, Colorado theatre last Friday a member? 

What is equally important is whether or not NRA members had anything to do with the 569 shootings resulting in 311 deaths as documented in my Monthly Shooting Report.  I don’t expect an answer from Wayne LaPierre, who heads up the NRA but all Americans should be wondering by now.


Aurora, Colo. movie shooting

In this latest incident in Colorado, 12 people were killed and 59 injured, but those numbers were changing rapidly at this writing; it could be more by now.  Holmes was armed with 2 Glock handguns, a shotgun and an AK-47 type assault rifle.  He bought them over a period of time, avoiding federal reporting requirements in a state that has failed to pass significant gun control legislation even considering the Columbine massacre 13 years ago, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.   

Top secrets at the CIA or National Security Admin. probably aren’t guarded any more closely than the NRA’s membership roster.  But Joan Peterson on her blog, Common Gunsense, has a theory that their membership is declining so the group has resorted to desperate tactics, which you can read about on the link above.  And that makes sense with the study done by Paul Waldman and reported on Think Progress, showing gun ownership dropped 22% from 1973 to 2010.

Some gun nuts are finally turning into rational thinking individuals, while painfully discovering at the same time that they have been conned by NRA higher-ups into contributing unlimited sums just to keep those like top gun wacko Wayne LaPierre living like kings.  Most non-profits like the NRA spend only 25% on fundraising which includes administrative/salaries.  The NRA spends 46% on the latter which amounts to 84% above normal.  Does that tell you something?

Aurora movie shooting video:

This is not an attempt by me to expose the members of the NRA; there are many who are law-abiding citizens that even believe in some forms of gun control, like strengthening background checks.  But because the NRA bases its concept of 2nd Amendment rights on the need for guns to protect its membership, it owes the American public as well as the U.S. Government a look at those members.

If, for instance, a significant percentage of members, or former members, have felony backgrounds related to shootings or killings, certainly if any of them were involved in past shooting massacres, then maybe it is time to examine just how valid the NRA mandate for their 2nd Amendment rights is.  This makes perfect sense to me in view of the concentration by the NRA on fear mongering that Obama is going to take away their guns, resulting in more mass purchases.

I am an optimist when it comes to Americans finally waking up to force Congress and the White House to get tough on gun control.  It may even require getting rid of every Republican and some Democrats in Congress.  It also means taking a long look at President Obama since he says his views on gun control haven’t changed, even after the Aurora, Colo. Movie melee.  I am doing a post later this week on why the gun lobby will have absolutely no effect on the Nov. election.

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