The National Rifle Association (NRA) as an Untouchable Special Interest

Just as the American Civil Liberties Union is out of touch with Americans by supporting the Westboro Baptist Church’s crusade against homosexuals, the National Rifle Association has taken the competitive post of the right’s craziest lobbying group. Robert Chappell’s article, “Missing the Mark” shows that the people of America at large are being assailed by a particularly insidious brand of special interest. This special interest genre tries to make something without real world purpose (i.e. machine guns) palatable to the great mass of people who don’t own a gun or want nothing to do with guns and their terrible costs to society.

Many states in our nation have a strong tradition of hunting and that culture should not be tainted by gun nuts and arms dealers parading around as legitimate business men. The hunters detailed in Chappell’s story are the kind that populate much of the vast political spectrum between Pat Robertson and Ralph Nader, a sort of political flyover territory made bite sized by political consultants. It is time for these people to take back the political system by taking back the ballot, running for office, and telling Wayne LaPierre to pack it up and find a legitimate way of making a living.