Candid Questions for the NRA

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Here's just one comparison for you. A country with VERY strict gun control v a country that doesn't.

link

Maybe if the Scots knew a thing or two about guns and freedom they wouldn't be a sub colony of England atm. Unlike the Scots, us Yanks won our freedom from the Brits by putting bullets in them. The Brits tried to have another go at us about 50 years later and we put more bullets in them and it worked like a charm for us. We have our freedom yet Scotland is still subservient to London.

[justashooter 430]

Show me the gun safety regulation and legislation the NRA has lobbied for.

FOPA 1986.

[kwakun 23]

The NRA teaches gun safety. The rest is up to the states and the Feds. Feds trump states.

Is there any gun safety course offered by the NRA tailored to the needs of the mentally ill or others that the general public thinks shouldn't have access to guns to begin with?

Edited December 16, 2012 by kwakun

[himher 634]

Knock yourselves out. This, I believe, would be typical.

Posted: December 15

Updated: Today at 9:49 AM

Bill Nemitz: Again, NRA has much to answer for

I have 20 questions for the National Rifle Association -- one for each of the schoolchildren massacred Friday in Newtown, Conn.:

1. Why, more than 24 hours after the horrific shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, had no NRA official uttered a single word of sympathy for the victims? NRA members all over the country, including members with young children themselves, are horrified at this tragedy

2. Why, over the same period, did your Twitter feed go silent? As a member I will comment that the NRA twitter is not our personal twitter feed. We take quiet note of the fact that the laws in Connecticut which prohibit someone under 21 from being in possession of a handgun and prohibit assault weapons altogether failed and we also take quiet note of the fact that we will continue to need to maintain our ability to protect ourselves and our families.

3. Why, whenever the United States suffers yet another mass murder by a lone gunman bristling with semi-automatic weapons, do your supporters insist that "this is not the time" to debate this nation's NRA-fueled obsession with firearms? Using tragedy as an excuse to take away rights of the uninvolved is inappropriate. Unless we would like to imply that the NRA was somehow involved?

4. If this isn't the time to talk about gun control, when is? It is time to talk about gun control and failure of gun control laws. Gun control failed here. The shooter, who had nothing to do with the NRA nor was an NRA member, violated an assualt weapon law and violated a handgun law. The same people who flag-wave for gun control have little to nothing to say about control of nuts who freely roam our streets.

5. A recent "Gun of the Week" in the NRA publication American Rifleman was the DRD Paratus-16, described as "a quick break down semi-automatic rifle (that) can be assembled in less than a minute without the use of tools." Why is assembly time so important? The same reason assembly of anything is important. Some guns take forever to put back together after you break them down and clean them. NOTE: There is no relationship between assembly and how good the gun shoots. Was this what was being implied?

6. Uncle Henry's website currently lists more than 900 items under "firearms" -- including numerous handguns. Why does the NRA vehemently oppose any effort to require background checks on buyers of those weapons? I bought a handgun yesterday. I filled out the forms, they called the FBI, and did a background check before they sold it to me. The NRA supported the current background check system

7. Why do you fight with equal ferocity against mandatory background checks at gun shows? I really don't go to gun shows

8. What is the purpose of a magazine that contains 100 rounds of ammunition? Is this a trick question or is it to educate the dimmer lights on the street? The purpose of a magazing that contains 100 rounds of ammunition is to fire 100 shots without reloading.

9. Why, on your "NRA Store" website, do you feature a cloth baby bib with colorful blocks that spell "NRA?" Most of us are parents who go to work every day, attend church, and pay taxes. That's a cool bib.

10. Why, on the same site, do you offer a "Camo Marshmallow Shooter" with "an easy-to-fill magazine tube (that) holds up to 25 marshmallows for rapid fire action?" I didnt see that. Sounds fun

11. Have you no shame? To my knowledge the NRA had nothing to do with this shooting. So, No. I don't

12. Currently there are an estimated 300 million guns in the United States -- almost one for every American and by far the highest concentration of privately owned weaponry in the world. In the NRA's view, how many guns in this country are too many? I am quite sure that no time has been wasted considering such a silly question

13. After NBC's Bob Costas said pro-football player Jovan Belcher and Kasandra Perkins would still be alive had Belcher not owned a gun, NRA President Wayne LaPierre accused Costas of "trying to piggyback his agenda on the back of this national tragedy." What say you now, Mr. LaPierre? I think that forwarding a political agenda on the backs of tragedy is terrible

14. Ralph Nader on Friday called the NRA "the enabler of mass murder." Can the NRA prove him wrong? Real mass murder is perpetrated on unarmed societies. Would you like some examples? Like say for instance Burma?

15. A tearful President Obama on Friday called for "meaningful action" to prevent future mass shootings. Will the NRA use those two words to urge its members to go out and stockpile more guns? The NRA does not encourage its members to "stockpile guns"

16. On the same day that a man with a Bushmaster semiautomatic rifle and two handguns killed 27 people in Newtown, a man with a knife attacked 22 children and one adult outside a primary school in China. If, as the NRA is so fond of saying, “guns don’t kill people – people kill people,” how do you explain the fact that in China, nobody died? There were no NRA members at either place. That would normally imply that the NRA was involved in neither.

17. Has the NRA ever seen a piece of gun-control legislation it didn't consider a threat to the Second Amendment? Legislation that targets blameless gun owners who have done nothing wrong, committed no crime, and harmed nobody is a threat to the second amendment. Legislation that targets crime and criminals is always welcome however

18. If Adam Lanza were a member of the NRA, would you posthumously denounce him? He's not. Which puzzles me as to why this tragedy would be used to attack a group of people who had nothing to do with it? What kind of people use the death of children to target a group whose political beliefs do not agree with theirs? That's pretty sick.

19. Has any member of the NRA's senior staff ever visited the scene of a mass shooting? Has the NRA, who is the target of this silly list of questions, and who are the most heavily armed group of people on the planet, ever been involved in a mass shooting? The question is answered then. You will not find NRA members at the scene of mass shootings, nor involved in them, nor part of them. BUT: They get held responsible for them?

20. What if they were your children? I have (5) children. I would be devastated and wish to know why people who would do such a thing freely roam our streets

Columnist Bill Nemitz can be contacted at 791-6323 or at:

bnemitz@mainetoday.com

Edited December 16, 2012 by himher

[kwakun 23]

FOPA 1986.

Quote from Wikipedia: Firearms Owners Protection Act

"Under the Gun Control Act of 1968, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, now the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) was given wide latitude on the enforcement of regulations pertaining to Federal Firearms License (FFL) holders. Allegations of abuse by ATF inspectors soon arose from the National Rifle Association (NRA) and certain targeted Federal firearms licensees."

I searched for information on what "soon arose" meant specifically but I have not been successful. I wonder if we are talking days, weeks, months or years here.

[DaveE 178]

Show me the gun safety regulation and legislation the NRA has lobbied for.

Here ya go: after VA tech. The NRA is urging Congress to tighten loopholes in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, a government database that provides background checks on gun buyers. The changes, which stem from the Virginia Tech shooting last spring, would ensure that more mentally ill people are barred from purchasing firearms.

NRA backed legislation

[scotinmass 588]

Maybe if the Scots knew a thing or two about guns and freedom they wouldn't be a sub colony of England atm. Unlike the Scots, us Yanks won our freedom from the Brits by putting bullets in them. The Brits tried to have another go at us about 50 years later and we put more bullets in them and it worked like a charm for us. We have our freedom yet Scotland is still subservient to London.

Well as you brought up England lets add in their gun homicides too. Last year there was a total of 14 in the whole of the UK. That's a population of over 60 million people. Maybe it's just a coincidence that the rate is so low in a country where hand guns are illegal and if you want to own any other kind of gun you need to prove that you have a damn good reason to need one.

Or maybe not.

[DaveE 178]

About 40% of gun sales happen without any background check. Thank the NRA for that.

All guns sales that go through a dealer or licensee have a background check period. Sales between two individuals from the same state, (even if they meet at a gun show), do not require background checks. I sold my neighbor a firearm Friday night, and no background check. I also gave my daughter a handgun for christmas - - no background check. Thank Federal law for that. I am part of the 40%.

[justashooter 430]

Quote from Wikipedia: Firearms Owners Protection Act

"Under the Gun Control Act of 1968, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, now the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) was given wide latitude on the enforcement of regulations pertaining to Federal Firearms License (FFL) holders. Allegations of abuse by ATF inspectors soon arose from the National Rifle Association (NRA) and certain targeted Federal firearms licensees."

I searched for information on what "soon arose" meant specifically but I have not been successful. I wonder if we are talking days, weeks, months or years here.

you didn't read the entire article. the NRA advocated for the FOPA because ATF enforcement was not uniform, and because people transporting guns between states in which they were legal were often harassed or arrested by police in intervening states. FOPA 86 guarrantees my right to drive thru NY city on my way to maine with unloaded firearms in the trunk of my car. i have to unload them and put them in the trunk before leaving Penna, and reload them and bring them into the car after crossing the maine line because my penna carry permit is no good in NY, CT, MASS, but it is good in Maine.

[Martyshk 137]

All guns sales that go through a dealer or licensee have a background check period. Sales between two individuals from the same state, (even if they meet at a gun show), do not require background checks. I sold my neighbor a firearm Friday night, and no background check. I also gave my daughter a handgun for christmas - - no background check. Thank Federal law for that. I am part of the 40%.

That shouldn't be this way though...

[DaveE 178]

That shouldn't be this way though...

Actually, I wasn't quite correct. In my state "Georgia", we don't have background checks for private individual sales at gun shows. Other states have different rules.

Edited December 16, 2012 by DaveE

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

That's a whole other story... you can go from a gun show directly to an elementary school now and exercise your 2nd amendment rights..... I want to bang my head against the wall...

That's the whole story. That's the issue. That we are sitting here having a debate based on the false claim that background checks are performed to ensure that only law abiding citizens can obtain firearms. THAT IS FALSE. Anyone can obtain a firearm and you don't have to do it on some dark street corner. You can do it in broad daylight at your neighborhood gun show. Anyone can. That means that there is ZERO control on who buys and own guns in this country. And that is an issue that must be addressed.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

NRA supported Brady when it was debated.

Stop lying!

[himher 634]

Not the guns used in this shooting sport. Those guns were bought legally and the purchase was registered. SO - when are you going to discuss nut control?

That's the whole story. That's the issue. That we are sitting here having a debate based on the false claim that background checks are performed to ensure that only law abiding citizens can obtain firearms. THAT IS FALSE. Anyone can obtain a firearm and you don't have to do it on some dark street corner. You can do it in broad daylight at your neighborhood gun show. Anyone can. That means that there is ZERO control on who buys and own guns in this country. And that is an issue that must be addressed.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

Well as you brought up England lets add in their gun homicides too. Last year there was a total of 14 in the whole of the UK. That's a population of over 60 million people. Maybe it's just a coincidence that the rate is so low in a country where hand guns are illegal and if you want to own any other kind of gun you need to prove that you have a damn good reason to need one.

Or maybe not.

The UK didn't have many guns to begin with. The peak was I believe 200,000k. Very much apples to oranges.