Yes, there is blood on your NRA membership card, and it is not yours. The blood you carry is that of the innocents killed due to the forced policies of the NRA of which, through your membership, you support. In simple terms, you are an accessory to mass murder and the deaths of children. Harsh words? Too difficult for you to grasp? Does it make you angry that I call you out for the NRA’s pathetic existence? Too bad …
The ridiculous comments in the news today demanded the writing of this article. I could no longer sit idly by, simply shaking my head in frustration at each mass shooting.
To begin, I am a gun owner, and I’ve enjoyed shooting all types of firearms, whether it be handguns, rifles, or shotguns. I also enjoy the exotic guns, including assault rifles (military-style weapons), carbines, LMGs, sniper rifles, and even classic firearms. Even though I enjoy shooting these weapons, I do not consider myself a “gun enthusiast” in any form of the definition. In fact, although I believe in the original context of the 2nd Amendment, I do not agree in the ways many individuals and the NRA have twisted its meaning in recent years. I have a strong belief that many people should NEVER own a firearm, and diligent enforcement is necessary to prevent those individuals from access to any firearm.
Additionally, I am NOT an NRA (National Rifle Association) member, and never will be! This organization is NOT for you or I, it is merely a political arm for the gun manufacturers to use your membership fees and other financial influx to distort the 2nd Amendment, and force an agenda that is detrimental to America–while at the same time lying to its membership and the nation. It does not take a research expert to find the many examples of how the NRA lies or manipulates the common sense of its members. The NRA creates and fosters unsubstantiated fears–suggesting that the government will come take our guns, that the communists are coming, that we need militias, or a broader variety of excuses and manipulative fabrications.
One prime example shows how the NRA defended the right for potential terrorists–individuals on the national No-Fly list–the ability to purchase and sell firearms. Read More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/05/AR2010050505211.html?hpid=topnews
However, the example that really set me off were comments by National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre, who stated that we need MORE guns, and we need armed security at every school, and that the media and video games are what is really to blame. Are you kidding me? Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/22/us/nra-calls-for-armed-guards-at-schools.html?_r=0
When will the NRA cease to promote murder? This is NOT about the 2nd Amendment!
In Defense of Video Gaming
I often play video games that are considered quite violent! FPS (or better known as first person shooter) games such as the military simulations of Call of Duty, Black Ops (see image below), Battlefield, Counter-Strike, Rainbow Six and other games are fun to play. I do however, feel that the Modern Warfare 2 developers (Infinity Ward and Activision) went too far with their single-player scene of terrorists shooting civilians in an airport. That was too much, and I was actually a bit queasy from it. In the past I’ve joked that playing these games prevents me from killing people that piss me off in real life. I will probably never use that inappropriate joke again, but if I do – it is a JOKE! I have no desire to go on a shooting spree in real life. To me, the video games I play are “games” in which I enjoy the tactics and teamwork. I have often considered them as stress relief. As a chess player I take (kill, remove, eliminate) the other player’s game pieces. In pencil wars or marbles in my youth, we were trying to break the opponent’s pencil, break the marbles, or in one way or another win against an opponent. Could someone have gotten mad and stabbed their opponent to death with a pencil if they lost? Probably. Did it ever occur? I don’t know and did not research it.
I’ve been playing these video games for a long time, and I am quite good at them. My adult children also play video games at times for enjoyment. Are my children violent or showing signs of wanting to hurt others? Not in any way at all! Could an individual who is a bit unstable take the tactics and skills learned in these realistic, military-like games, and use them in real life? Of Course–and especially if the weapons used in the games were easily available to the general population. Here is the agenda. Have fun in the games, but don’t allow the few unstable idiots enough access to act out their aggressions in real life with real firearms! This is both a mental health issue and an access issue. I’m not a mental case for playing and enjoying a military-style action game, and I know I’m not hurting anyone in real life when I play these games.
The NRA
The NRA and its millions of members have blood on their hands. There is no other way to describe it. If you are an NRA member, you are NOT having your 2nd Amendment rights protected by holding that membership, nor is the illicit cover of gun training and protection of your rights the honest agenda of the NRA. That is simply the teaser that the National Rifle Association is serving you with a large dirty spoon. You are simply unable to smell the stench of what they are really serving you. You are being used–punked into believing that their agenda is yours. That makes you a fool.
This is what the NRA tells us:
- Be afraid of invasion, every immigrant, and everything else–fostering fear with more fear, throwing gasoline on the fire of ignorance
- The government is coming for you
- You need a bazillion round clip– You’re such a horrible shot that you might miss with the first 10-15 rounds
- These are not “assault rifles” – that is just a political term from those damn liberals
- We still need militias
- We do not need regulation of gun ownership
- It is always someone else’s fault (government, those who don’t own guns, the media, Hollywood, video games)
- We need more guns in the hands of the “good guys”, then murders and the kill counts will drop– this has been proven incorrect over and over again
- Guns in schools, bars, churches, and everywhere else
- We need armed police in every school– How well did that work at Columbine, considering the fact they had armed police there?
- It is the “illegally” obtained weapons that are the problem
Each of these examples are ways the NRA is lying to all of us.
I started this topic saying that if you are a card carrying NRA member, you have blood on your hands. You do, and it is because you are supporting these ridiculous ideals of the NRA. What will it take for every one of us, NRA members or not, to push back against the patronizing bullshit the NRA keeps claiming? Does it require your own child or loved one to have died at the hands of a lunatic with easy access to a firearm? The NRA has fought to keep these military-style weapons available, fought for high capacity clips, body armor sales to the public, fought against background checks, and much much more. This is NOT responsible gun action, it is stupidity, inaction, and financial greed–all at the expense, and the real cost of human life.
Who Should NOT Own Firearms?
I do have a list of people who should not own firearms. I’m not listing names, just actions and activities that disqualify you from gun ownership in my opinion. Here is a short list:
- You pose with any firearm on your Facebook or other social media page
- You have a picture of yourself with a firearm on a dating site. Posing, shooting, it does not matter –your firearm privileges are revoked
- Your Christmas cards include someone in your family holding any type of firearm
- You have been in, or made a YouTube video, showing off either your firearm prowess or stupidity (it is usually the latter). See video example below:
- You own more camouflage clothing than regular clothing (this does include active military personnel)
- You get off on shooting enough rounds that the weapon catches fire or jams
- You worry that there is an ammo shortage and regularly “stock up” and joke about “keeping your powder dry”
- You think the government is coming for you
- You are involved in Civil War reenactments (and especially those who allow the South to win)
- You think you are Rambo, indestructible, or holding a weapon makes you feel like a badass
- Alcoholics, those who consume illicit or excess prescription drugs
- If you are going through a high stress, or depressive state (anguish, divorce, anger)–and if you’re a gun owner in this state of mind, please give your firearms to a friend to hold for you–then GET HELP!
- Anyone who states, “guns don’t kill, people kill people”
- Criminals (Duh!)
- Anyone who has had a single incident of questionable gun handling (threatening another with a weapon, or stupid use)
- Anyone making gun parts in a 3-D printer to avoid registration
- You believe more than half the crap the NRA spews
- You agree with the suggestion of “Second Amendment Remedies”
- You’ve supported a politician primarily for their support of the NRA and 2nd Amendment
- You think that open carry is OK or that it somehow intimidates criminals
The NRA advocates that many of those I have mentioned above should be gun owners, and that the 2nd Amendment guarantees that right. Well, I’m sorry to say that is a BULLSHIT statement of ignorance!
The Facts
Mother Jones has put together a very detailed article on the various mass murders in the United States from 1982 through last week’s disturbing event in Newtown, Connecticut. The facts are that in the majority of mass killings, the weapons were LEGALLY obtained more often–by a 4 to 1 margin. Semi-automatic handguns and assault rifles were the preferred weapons, and many involved were unstable individuals with some sort of mental issue. These are people the NRA believes have a right to own firearms.
We have heard the term “guns don’t kill, people kill people” which is so ridiculous I feel anyone who uses that rational should be committed. This asinine statement is used to prevent restrictions on the guns a person wants to purchase, and seems to make the claim that the person spewing that comment is sane enough to own whatever firearm they want. I have to disagree. If you are so ignorant to let those words leave your lips, you should have every firearm you may already own stripped from your possession.
Comments since the Sandy Hook disaster by the likes of Wayne LaPierre, and NRA-backed politicians make me want to vomit. I’m disgusted by the blame-game shuffle, the ridiculous suggestions, and their blatant side-stepping of the facts. I wanted to jump through the television screen today and slap the stupid out of him. I was screaming at the screen, furious that this jackass is getting this much attention. He should be ignored, black-balled, and his persona exterminated from society.
In Closing
The images I created for this article are disturbing to me, but I felt the need to make those who see this page remember what was lost due to greed and the failure to help those in need. Armed teachers or police would not have stopped the carnage at Sandy Hook. The attacker was wearing body armor and had the element of surprise in his favor. If his mother did not have these weapons, limited his unsupervised access, or if his mental issues were handled more promptly, could this have been prevented? We will never truly know.
I’m saddened by the loss at Newtown, Aurora, Virginia Tech, Columbine, and everywhere else these horrible events have occurred. But even more, I’m angry. Angry at the policy and enforcement failures, the greed, the ignorance, the NRA, the extremist individuals in our own society, and also at myself for not screaming at the top of my lungs before today. What is it going to take before people wake the hell up? Is your AK-47, AR15, Barrel Clip, or other massive magazine more important to you than the lives of children, the innocents in our society, our family members, friends, and all those Americans who have died to support your gun addiction? If you’re one of the millions of NRA members, you are the PROBLEM and not the solution. It’s time to wake up to reality.
I want to end this article with a short, tragic and true story.
Many years ago, a small family of a father, mother and toddler-age daughter experienced the horror of having their home robbed. The father worked nights, and the mother and their daughter were home alone in a small single family, two-story home in a good and relatively quiet neighborhood. One night, the mother awoke to the sounds of something going on downstairs. Looking at the clock, she knew it was not her husband. Listening closely, she realized someone was in the house. In a panic she quickly went to her daughter’s room, locked the door and picked her up, hiding in a closet and covering her mouth to make sure no sounds came out that would alert the intruder to their location. Hours later, she finally came out of the closet, still too afraid to go downstairs and call the police.
When her husband arrived home from work, her fears and panic finally released as she broke down. Emotionally traumatized, she refused to stay in the house alone. Many weeks went by where either a friend would stay over, or she and her daughter would stay at a friend’s house. This started to place a drain on not only their marriage, but also the relationships with their friends and family. During this time, some recommended that they should consider purchasing a gun for protection. They spoke with friends, family, the police, gun dealers, and considerable conversations between each other. They decided to purchase a basic handgun, a .38 revolver. The gun was of a size she could handle, and they both went through gun training, learning all the proper methods of gun safety and use. Both became relatively comfortable with the prepared handling of the weapon, and fairly accurate when shooting at targets. Additionally, they both became certified in their state, acquiring the permits necessary to carry a concealed weapon.
Through all of this, she had regained her prior level of comfort in staying home while her husband worked nights. It was about 8-months to a year later (I do not remember the exact time frame) where she was again startled one evening by the sounds of something out of the ordinary downstairs. They had installed a phone line upstairs by this time, and she quickly called the police, quietly collecting the handgun from the dresser at the same time. Suddenly, she felt that she must get to her daughter. Before the dispatcher could say, “No, stay here!” she was already headed across the darkened room toward the bedroom door–loaded gun in hand.
Unknowingly, her daughter had also awoke to the noises downstairs, and was headed to her parents’s room. When the mother reached the door she was startled by the door opening as she reached for the doorknob. In a panicked, inexperienced reaction, she fired the gun. The bullet pierced the temple of her daughter, killing her instantly. All the dispatcher heard from that moment until the patrol car and officers arrived were the traumatic screams of, “No!” and the painful shrieks and crying through uncontrolled anguish. She was hospitalized for some time after that, unable to function normally or forgive herself. About a year or so later they divorced, never fully getting past the unfortunate failures of that dreadful evening.
Was the death of their daughter worth the replaceable trinkets being stolen downstairs that evening? If there was no weapon, and they merely hid in a room behind a locked door again, would things be different today? It is not too difficult to see how a decision to own a firearm forever changed their lives.
The NRA does not protect our rights. In fact, their actions have placed all of us at a greater risk of experiencing gun-related violence. Remember forever, those lost due to our inaction.
