Today, Republican Donald Trump crossed yet another red-line in his campaign of offensive misery today, when he suggested that “Second Amendment people” do physical harm to his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, causing legitimate criminal complaints to be filed with the FBI.
Then the National Rifle Association put out a sympathetic message about Donald Trump’s probably criminal incitement, to its hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter, and 4.5 million members, most of whom actually support common sense gun controls by an overwhelming margin. Certainly the vast majority of those members probably oppose sedition, yet, they’re still members of the NRA, for now.
The NRA’s founders have to be rolling over in their graves as what used to be a sportsmen’s group just relinquished whatever shred of credibility that remained by supporting the Republican candidate for President’s seditious incitement of violence at a rally today.
It’s a capstone political statement in the NRA’s decades long anti-government campaign to fear-monger decent people into buying as many guns as possible, while enriching the corporate donors to its legislative PAC like gun makers Smith & Wesson, Ruger and Beretta.
.@RealDonaldTrump is right. If @HillaryClinton gets to pick her anti-#2A #SCOTUS judges, there’s nothing we can do. #NeverHillary
— NRA (@NRA) August 9, 2016
This isn’t the first foray into anti-government extremism for the NRA, which started in the early 90s after the original ban on assault-style weapons and intensified in 2010 when it egged on the Tea Party extremists, but it might be the very worst moment for a group whose top leadership claimed that only more guns in schools could help after more than 20 children were murdered at Sandy Hook.
Perhaps this incident will awaken a few gun owners, and send those citizens who are seeking leadership on gun issues from responsible adults, to check out the Americans for Responsible Solutions and their pledge to stand with Gabrielle Giffords.
One can only hope.
What do you think?
