BY COLE WHITE | Opinion Editor | In the argument of gun control, one voice has emerged as the most outspoken opponent to any change in policy. That would be the National Rifle Association (NRA), an organization that is made of less than 10 percent of gun owners yet somehow speaks for all of them.
When the president announced his executive action on gun control a few weeks ago, they were the loudest to condemn it. An executive order that simply reaffirmed already standing laws on background checks and sought to close loopholes in gun purchasing laws.
The NRA’s staunch opposition to background checks and closing sale-loopholes lately stand in stark contrast to their platform in 1999 when they promoted exactly what Obama ordered. That contradiction is what caused Adolphus Busch IV, heir to Anheuser-Busch, to withdraw his membership in disgust, saying “The NRA I see today has undermined the values upon which it was established.”
When the man who owned the company that brought the world Budweiser has lost faith in your integrity as an American institution, you’ve clearly lost your way. When approximately 74 percent of your membership supports what you’re fighting so hard against, your loyalties become painfully clear.
Those loyalties? They don’t lie with the gun owners or even the Second Amendment. They lie with the gun manufacturers. Stricter background checks means potentially fewer buyers. What they care about is making money for both themselves and their interests, and they’ve been doing an impressive job at that.
In an investigation by Business Insider, it was found that the majority of their revenue came from gun manufacturers themselves. Since 2005 the gun industry has given between $20-56 million to the organization.
The problem with the NRA has become that they are more committed to making money than then they are to catering to the real needs of the public. The group has gone from being an inclusive gathering of firearm enthusiasts to pandering to it’s lowest common denominator -- the far right fringe that is far more likely to donate excessive amounts of money to strengthen its grip on the public thought.
The NRA has made millions for the gun industry by peddling the false narrative that Barack Obama is a gun-grabbing tyrant who wants to steal our freedoms. If you happen to buy into that, then you also have to agree that if Obama is a tyrant he’s pretty terrible at being one. It’s been over seven years and he’s been unable to accomplish any meaningful gun control measures. But that hasn’t stopped that narrative from causing guns sales to skyrocket following most mass shootings, such as Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2013.
Why? Because instead of being horrified at senseless violence we’ve been conditioned to be more worried about our guns.
It would be easy, looking at their mentality, to think that all gun owners are ultra-conservatives who want to shove an assault rifle into the hands of every newborn instead of broad spectrum of ideologies that are actually present. And that view would be fair, because if you are a member, you’re conservative by default. They’ve funneled millions into campaign finances through practices that could be best described as illegal.
It’s become too easy for them to hide behind a constitutional amendment and pretend that they are some vanguard of freedom.
But I can play the constitution game, too.
As a journalist, I’ll admit I’m somewhat jealous that the First Amendment hasn’t proven to be nearly as lucrative as the Second, but even if I could net millions of dollars by shouting “fire” in a crowded theater I still wouldn’t because I’m a socially responsible human being.
We understand as a society that there are acceptable limitations to what we can do under our constitutional rights. That’s the social contract. No one is coming for our guns. No one ever was.
I am a gun owner. I enjoy owning guns. I, like the vast majority of gun-owning Americans, am a reasonable person with reasonable views.
Gun control isn’t a complicated issue, but until we can push corporate interests out of the debate and have an honest discussion based on conviction rather than profit margins, we aren’t going to get anywhere.