Considering the NRA in light of the latest mass murder

In prehistoric times (late 50s?), on one crisp fall afternoon I was an eighth-grader who was taught to shoot a 'thirty-ought-six' rifle by a good friend's father in Jacksonville, Florida. I'd been raised in a household without guns of any kind and still do not own one; lo, these many moons later. Somehow I didn't wound anyone taking a shot at a bird which easily flew off. Since I've always been nearsighted, the pheasant had not much to fear from me. This loaner gun was, as I remember and I could be wrong, a bolt action, single shot very small bore shotgun which was accompanied by a .22 caliber. Either one, the 22 or the thirty-ought-six,' could be shot independently but not simultaneously. Later, while in college with some friends, I shot a .22 at some squirrels but didn't get one that time either! In those days of yore, and in the South, one was thought of as a kind of "wuss (Sp?)," unless he knew how to hunt and loved the sport. In those days the NRA was an organization led by and for hunters; men who valued hunting as either a sport, as marksmen, or for hunting deer or other wild things. Of course many still believe in this as a way to bring up boys, and I'm certainly not one to question the value of knowing how to defend oneself.

I would seem to me, under its current leadership, the NRA has become an extremist organization devoted to arming America with the most dangerous and deadly, high powered weapons, including the one used recently to kill so many innocent victims in Newton, Connecticut, the "AK whatever it was", Bushmaster. It should be noted also that I'm aware that the US Constitution includes the Second Amendment protecting, forever the right to bear arms. Yet the Founders lived in a different America than the one six and seven years old face today. The eighteenth century isn't the twenty-first century anywhere in the world. When the Constitution was written and adopted in the 1780's families, for better worse, were stronger than now. Children, for the most part, didn't get much more than an elementary school education; the "3 R's taught to the tune of a hickory stick," or, something closely akin to that. Unless one happened to grow up in places like Boston, Mass., where there were Latin grammar schools which were primarily closely affiliated to either Catholic or Protestant churches. In the South, where I grew up in part, so-called "dame schools" were the norm for the privileged few whose parents could afford to send their offspring to a secondary school. Abraham Lincoln, as a youth, taught others by using a stick to draw out letters in the dirt when he wasn't reading by his family's fireplace into the night.

Please forgive what I realize will seem a digression by a former teacher. In yesterday's NBC News program, "Meet the Press," the NRA's current Vice President Wayne LaPierre dismissed the new task force just established by President Barrack Obama in the wake of Newton and led by Vice President Joe Biden as a "bunch of people that, for the last 20 years, have been trying to destroy the Second Amendment...." I didn't hear the rest of it but perhaps others will contribute. There will be much, much more said as more facts come to light about this deranged murderer. A great deal of money will be spent by the NRA, now one of Washington's most powerful lobby.

It seems just WRONG to me to categorize everyone now calling for school safety and some additional gun control as fanatical "anti-2nd Amerdment-alists"! It might be recalled that the NRA was originally established by former Union soldiers just after the Civil War who thought, to their credit perhaps, that American's holy war went on so very long simply because most Union soldiers didn't shoot well. Up until the late 1970's (no one seems to know exactly when), the NRA was composed and led primarily for and by hunters who, for the most part, only wished to continue to be allowed to hunt. However in the wake of the 60's assassinations first of President Kennedy, then of the Rev. Martin Luther King and finally of Robert Kennedy, the NRA switched its focus to the primary purpose of arming all Americans, in all walks and stations in life, with the most powerful and dearly weapons available. Focus of the NRA changed from protecting hunters' rights to self defense and promoting gun sales.

After the attempted shooting of President Reagan by a crazed gunman, Congress instituted a limited form of gun control, called by the media and accepted by almost all Americans, as "the Brady Bill." It wasn't perfect, of course. Shootings still took place but having lived in California through that entire era, roughly the late 70's to the end of the 90's, it seemed to me there were far fewer incidents such as the ones at Columbine High School in Aurora, CO, then Tucson, Arizona, the multiplex movie theater in Aurora, CO, Milwaukee, WS, and now this latest by lone shooters toting these awful deadly weapons that approach, in lethal effect, such weapons as low-yield dirty nuclear bombs.

I leave you with this Christmas, 2012, prayer:
"Dear Lord, help this commission be successful in making America a safer place in which to live and work. As our Creator and final judge, please help us find a way to return this, our beloved homeland to a place where real communities exist and where we actually "do unto others as we would have done unto ourselves," Help us to relearn how important it is to look out for our neighbors' safety and welfare. Restore, dear Lord, our families in our society. Allow them to survive. On this day, one day before the blessed day of His birth, thank you for trusting and loving all nations on earth enough to send your only son, Jesus, to teach us and save us. Amen."

Happy Holidays!

I appreciate your article, but I want to present a differing point of view:

The NRA is not about protecting the 2nd Amendment. It is purely about promoting and protecting the business of manufacturing and selling firearms. It has only one goal. That is the maximization of profits for the armaments industry. Thus, in response to any event or situation involving the use or misuse of firearms, the NRA's recommendations always involve the increased sale and use of guns. They have recruited and now use those people who feel threatened by regulation of firearms to promote their objectives. If a situation arose in which approving limits to the 2nd Amendment would increase sales of guns, the NRA would find a way to approve of it.

It is a mistake to deal with the NRA on the basis of their propaganda. It only serves to hide their true motivation and objectives. They are always and only interested in the bottom line of the armaments industry.

I appreciate your information, and I would just add this to your prayer:

Dear Lord, make the "world" a safer place to live and work for the highest good of all.

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Posted in reply to the post by tree14:

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I leave you with this Christmas, 2012, prayer:
"Dear Lord, help this commission be successful in making America a safer place in which to live and work. As our Creator and final judge, please help us find a way to return this, our beloved homeland to a place where real communities exist and where we actually "do unto others as we would have done unto ourselves," Help us to relearn how important it is to look out for our neighbors' safety and welfare. Restore, dear Lord, our families in our society. Allow them to survive. On this day, one day before the blessed day of His birth, thank you for trusting and loving all nations on earth enough to send your only son, Jesus, to teach us and save us. Amen."

Happy Holidays!

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I would just like to note that the maniac behind the Newtown massacre did not use an AK, AR or Bushmaster anything. He had two hand guns, and a semi-auto shotgun. The media admitted to this mistake several weeks after the tragedy took place.

Just because it is black does not make it an "assault weapon", which is a full-auto firearm, and the majority of civilians do not have access to these. Trying to ban a specific firearm because of the way it looks is very much like racial profiling. Many rifles are constructed in the same way, however, we don't like the ones that "look scary."