To the NRA, the second amendment was never about defense against a government gone totalitarian.
davidnanglesays
They can never use the “fighting tyranny” thing again.
davidnanglesays
Posted before I saw the full cartoon.
brucejsays
To the NRA, the second amendment was never about defense against a government gone totalitarian.
Well they’re right, it never really was. It was all about raising private armies ‘state militias’ to hunt runaway slaves and put down slave revolts.
komesays
The second amendment rhetoric since the 1980s has been entirely centered on terrified white people scared shitless of what would happen to them if minorities ever gained true social equality in the United States.
MichaelEsays
Davidnangle; You’re probably right, they can’t. But you know they will.
wzrd1says
The NRA sees the second amendment as an exceptional sales tool.
The never wanted the guns in order to be able to stand up to bullies.
They want them to be bullies.
Jeremy Shaffersays
A portion of something I posted in the comments over on Libby Ann’s Love, Joy, Feminism blog earlier today:
Then again, I also note that we now have the camps they claimed to fear, and even if we didn’t have those we’ve long had private prison companies that push laws in states for the sole purpose of imprisoning more and more citizens, subjecting them to human and civil rights abuses, to increase company profits. We also have a President who has called the media an “enemy of the state” and publicly questioned if he should shut a news company down for its unflattering reporting, and has also stated that he believes lack of full support of him is treasonous. He has also demanded, from the bully pulpit of the Presidency, private businesses fire employees who he disagrees with or has injured his ego in some way. There are also several state legislators pushing bills that would allow people to run down and likely kill protesters. We have law enforcement agents at the federal, state, and local levels who run rough-shod over the right of citizens everyday; in some cases to the extent they’ve all but created despotic fiefdoms right in the midst of the allegedly freest nation in the world.
And that’s a short list of creeping fascism and oppression in this nation, yet I don’t see many of the these supposedly last line of defense for our freedoms against dictatorship doing much in opposition to it. I don’t see them showing up to the President’s “campaign” rallies with their guns and politely asking for a discussion to enlighten him on the 1st Amendment rights to speech, religion, the press, assembly, and petition. I don’t see too many dictatorial sheriffs, ICE agents, border patrol officers, or gun-happy cops legitimately fearing reprisals from patriotic Americans. I don’t see any state houses surrounded by well-maintained militias wanting to know why the legislators are so against protests to the extent they’re actively trying to legalize the murdering of protesters.
I do see many- possibly most- of them cheering all that shit on though.
Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaidensays
The NRA sees the second amendment as an exceptional sales tool.
.
I haven’t looked into it myself, but I’m told that structurally the NRA is much more an industry association (like the National Restaurant Association or similar) focussed on sales than it is a rights organization. It doesn’t typically attempt to intervene or provide legal representation for those who have guns seized in civil forfeiture, for example, even though that’s literally the bogeyman about which the NRA complains all the time – guns being taken away by government with no proof at the time of confiscation that any crime has been committed.
i would think that at a fucking minimum any organization actually protecting “gun rights” rather than promoting gun sales would fight civil forfeiture of firearms.
patricklinnensays
kome @1006;
Said rhetoric is both ironic and to the point given that an earlier gun control law, the Mulford Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulford_Act , was signed into law by California Gov. Ronald Reagan to keep guns out of the hands of the Black Panthers
By the way, a history of the NRA is instructive. Short form: it was a fishing/gun/sports group that got taken over by money-grubbing authoritarians, who then proceeded to purge the “sporting lifestyle” crowd and became industry lobbyists. But mostly they’re lobbying for themselves. I doubt it’s even possible but I bet a close audit of their books would reveal that a large amount of the revenues are siphoned off into the pockets of the managers and there’s the usual raft of corrupt practices like first class travel, nepotism, doing business with buddies, etc. That’s just a prediction, don’t quote it as fact. I see there are several histories of the NRA available; I’ve added them to my input queue.
EnlightenmentLiberalsays
To the NRA, the second amendment was never about defense against a government gone totalitarian.
Probably correct.
…
Well they’re right, it never really was. It was all about raising private armies ‘state militias’ to hunt runaway slaves and put down slave revolts.
To the NRA, the second amendment was never about defense against a government gone totalitarian.
They can never use the “fighting tyranny” thing again.
Posted before I saw the full cartoon.
Well they’re right, it never really was. It was all about raising
private armies‘state militias’ to hunt runaway slaves and put down slave revolts.The second amendment rhetoric since the 1980s has been entirely centered on terrified white people scared shitless of what would happen to them if minorities ever gained true social equality in the United States.
Davidnangle; You’re probably right, they can’t. But you know they will.
The NRA sees the second amendment as an exceptional sales tool.
The never wanted the guns in order to be able to stand up to bullies.
They want them to be bullies.
A portion of something I posted in the comments over on Libby Ann’s Love, Joy, Feminism blog earlier today:
.
I haven’t looked into it myself, but I’m told that structurally the NRA is much more an industry association (like the National Restaurant Association or similar) focussed on sales than it is a rights organization. It doesn’t typically attempt to intervene or provide legal representation for those who have guns seized in civil forfeiture, for example, even though that’s literally the bogeyman about which the NRA complains all the time – guns being taken away by government with no proof at the time of confiscation that any crime has been committed.
i would think that at a fucking minimum any organization actually protecting “gun rights” rather than promoting gun sales would fight civil forfeiture of firearms.
kome @1006;
Said rhetoric is both ironic and to the point given that an earlier gun control law, the Mulford Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulford_Act , was signed into law by California Gov. Ronald Reagan to keep guns out of the hands of the Black Panthers
By the way, a history of the NRA is instructive. Short form: it was a fishing/gun/sports group that got taken over by money-grubbing authoritarians, who then proceeded to purge the “sporting lifestyle” crowd and became industry lobbyists. But mostly they’re lobbying for themselves. I doubt it’s even possible but I bet a close audit of their books would reveal that a large amount of the revenues are siphoned off into the pockets of the managers and there’s the usual raft of corrupt practices like first class travel, nepotism, doing business with buddies, etc. That’s just a prediction, don’t quote it as fact. I see there are several histories of the NRA available; I’ve added them to my input queue.
Probably correct.
…
Patently false.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ak6bx8jyDxIlsLuFHHevw-4RQ7R5vJb15RtTNG5d79w/edit
Please, we can fight for proper gun control without lying about history.
…
To Marcus
Yea. That’s my understanding as well.