From all reports, at its annual convention last weekend in Pittsburgh, the National Rifle Association, as usual, cloaked itself in patriotic themes, claimed special kinship with the Founders, and portrayed itself as the true protector of American values. There was much talk of "freedom". More than anything else, however, the NRA gatherings are celebrations of fear.
The NRA is the most accomplished marketer of fear in American political life.
There is, first, the fear of imminent violent attack. I'm not talking about a healthy concern for personal and family security. The NRA, and its gun industry patrons, need average Americans to believe that the threat of attack is constant and pervasive; that we are at serious risk all the time and everywhere we go. It's not enough to have a gun in the home for self-defense; you need multiple guns throughout your home so you're never too far from your gun. It's not enough to carry a concealed weapon outside your home; the law must allow you to carry it virtually anywhere an attack might conceivably occur, into restaurants, bars, sports stadiums, community centers and churches.
Indeed, NRA Executive Director Wayne LaPierre devoted much of his convention speech to reciting statistics about our continuing violent crime problem (which is interesting, given the NRA's competing message that crime rates are down because states have made it easier to carry concealed weapons). According to the gun lobby, even our college campuses (with murder rates 44 times lower than the national rate) are sufficiently unsafe to justify forcing universities and colleges to allow concealed weapons on campus. Legislation to enact this absurd idea into law fortunately has failed 51 times in 27 states in recent years, the latest being Governor Jan Brewer's recent veto of NRA-supported legislation in Arizona.
Second, there is the fear of government. The flip-side of all the NRA's talk of freedom is that the government is an ever-present threat to our freedom. The NRA has long maintained that the Second Amendment is not primarily about allowing individuals to pursue hunting or the shooting sports, or even for personal self-defense, but rather to allow the armed citizenry to resist abuses of power by government officials. As an NRA lawyer once put it, "the founders sought to protect arms from government interference, because those same arms might be needed to protect the people from government." In the NRA's world, our freedoms ultimately are ensured not by the right to vote, or to peacefully protest government policies, or by an independent judiciary providing legal redress against government abuse, but rather by armed citizens, constantly on guard for any sign that the time for violent resistance has arrived. Tragically, some, like Timothy McVeigh, not only internalize the fear, but act on it.
Third, the NRA never stops promoting the fear that government prohibition of guns is looming behind every attempt to impose restrictions on firearms. Every proponent of sensible gun restrictions is labeled a "gun banner". Over and over again, the NRA invokes some version of the "slippery slope to confiscation" argument, as it did a number of years ago when it wrote of "the plan" which is "now obvious to all who would see: First Step, enact a nationwide firearms waiting period law. Second Step, when the waiting period doesn't reduce crime, and it won't, enact a nationwide registration law. Final Step, confiscate all the registered firearms." The group's fear-mongering seems undiminished by the Supreme Court's recognition of a constitutional right to have a gun in the home. After all, the Supreme Court is part of the government, and the government must be feared, not trusted.
On the eve of the convention, the Violence Policy Center issued a report suggesting that the NRA's fear tactics may be resonating with a declining percentage of Americans. VPC reported the latest figures from the General Social Survey conducted by the University of Chicago, showing that the incidence of household gun ownership is at its lowest since the Survey began measuring gun ownership in 1973. In 2010, only 32% of households reported having a gun in the home, a sharp drop from the peak figure of 54% in 1977.
This remarkable decline sharply contradicts NRA and gun industry propaganda, which uses every imagined threat to gun ownership to feed the story (dutifully reported by the media) that more and more Americans are buying guns while they still can. It is true that the gun lobby's fear tactics periodically create a spike in gun sales (as occurred after President Obama's election, for example), but it is now clear that, even during those spikes, the primary purchasers of those guns are people who already own guns. Thus, the number of guns owned by the average gun owner is increasing, while the percentage of households with guns continues to plummet. Despite the intermittent periods of gun-buying frenzy, it seems undeniable that more and more American households are deciding against gun ownership.
This is very good news for public health and safety. Research shows that a high rate of household gun ownership is associated with higher rates of accidental gun deaths, higher rates of suicide and gun suicide, and higher rates of homicide and gun homicide. The continuing national decline in gun ownership is unquestionably a lifesaving trend.
I have no doubt that the gun lobby will not deviate from its strategy of promoting guns through fear. I also have no doubt that fewer and fewer Americans are buying what the NRA is selling.
For more information, see Dennis Henigan's Lethal Logic: Exploding the Myths that Paralyze American Gun Policy (Potomac Books 2009).
Dennis A. Henigan: Tough on Terror? Only If It's OK With the Gun Lobby
This is very good news for public health and safety. Research shows that a high rate of household gun ownership is associated with higher rates of accidental gun deaths, higher rates of suicide and gun suicide, and higher rates of homicide and gun homicide. The continuing national decline in gun ownership is unquestionably a lifesaving trend.
I have no doubt that the gun lobby will not deviate from its strategy of promoting guns through fear. I also have no doubt that fewer and fewer Americans are buying what the NRA is selling."
NPR Reports: Florida Bill Could Muzzle Doctors On Gun Safety
NRA lobbyists helped write a bill that largely bans health professionals from asking about guns. Hammer says she and other NRA members consider the questions an intrusion on their Second Amendment rights.
"This bill is about helping families who are complaining about being questioned about gun ownership, and the growing anti-gun political agenda being carried out in examination rooms by doctors and staffs," Hammer says.
It's not just questions in the examining room that lead the NRA to charge pediatricians with a political agenda. Out of concern for the high number of firearms injuries among children and adolescents, the American Academy of Pediatrics is also on record supporting gun control.
All the bill prohibits is:
1) Recording information about firearm ownership
2) Inquiring about firearm ownership
3) Discriminating based on firearm ownership
4) Harassment about firearm ownership
5) Denying insurance coverage or increasing premiums due to firearm ownership
Your comment/list is totally fallacious: another example of fakery.
The NRA wrote a bill for the Florida legislature that would make a doctor a felon for asking if a child's home had guns and if they were safely stored. For that question: 5 years prison or $5million fine. It was outrageous.
Doctors ask questions about safety measures when using bikes, pools, autos, guns in the home. They care about the health of our children and their families. That's what they do! Apparently, most manufacturers also care about family safety.
Not the gun industry. Selling guns is profitable -- no questions asked either at the time of sale or later in the doctor's office. What happens in all the ERs across our nation? Soon, the medical staff will mend bullet wounds, but no questions asked?
The NRA is running scared.
The bill will not become law the way the NRA wrote it. Ms. Hammer, former NRA president. But it may still present enough of an obstacle that a doctor may not adequately ascertain gun safety measures in the home, which could help save lives.
* 112 unintentional firearm related deaths in 2007, making it one of the top 10 leading causes of unintentional injury death in kids, according to the latest numbers from the CDC.
The NRA loses support once again for outrages such as this.
"The NRA endangers our freedom, They promote fear to destabilize society, How are they different from a terrorist group? "
"Owning a handgun doesn't make you armed any more than owning a guitar makes you a musician."
"The police cannot protect the citizen at this stage of our development, and they cannot even protect themselves in many cases. It is up to the private citizen to protect himself and his family, and this is not only acceptable, but mandatory."
"Hoplophobia is a mental disturbance characterized by irrational aversion to weapons, as opposed to justified apprehension about those who may wield them."
-Jeff Cooper
Go ahead and try to substantiate this statement.
ECS
I'm a liberal. I support the Second Amendment.
Helmke, the Brady family, and Bloomberg are Republicans. They don't support the Second Amendment.
Actually it was a 17 year old carrying a .22 pistol in his pants in the parking lot of a Baptist church for a friend's funeral. His friend was "gunned down" in Lexington the previous week. Sounds like a gang-banger since it is illegal for 17 year old "children" can't get concealed carry licenses or even own handguns. No mention of an ankle holster.
http://www.kentucky.com/2011/05/03/1728016/sister-describes-lexington-shooting.html
"Although he looked rough, he was not the gang-banging type," Gerton said. "He always fought fair. He never used a gun on anyone."
Smoke detectors and fire extinguishers are in the same light, you may never need them but it gives one a peace of mind knowing they are prepared for that time when your or someones elses life may depend on it.