The NRA Has Its Own Gun Owner Database: I Propose Another Conspiracy Theory

According to Buzzfeed:

The National Rifle Association has rallied gun-owners — and raised tens of millions of dollars — campaigning against the threat of a national database of firearms or their owners.

But in fact, the sort of vast, secret database the NRA often warns of already exists, despite having been assembled largely without the knowledge or consent of gun owners. It is housed in the Virginia offices of the NRA itself. The country’s largest privately held database of current, former, and prospective gun owners is one of the powerful lobby’s secret weapons, expanding its influence well beyond its estimated 3 million members and bolstering its political supremacy.

That database has been built through years of acquiring gun permit registration lists from state and county offices, gathering names of new owners from the thousands of gun-safety classes taught by NRA-certified instructors and by buying lists of attendees of gun shows, subscribers to gun magazines and more, . . .

My cynicism prompts a few little question. If Google, Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook, and Twitter have provided information to the NSA, how can gun owners be certain that the NRA didn't provide their information to the NSA? How do they know the NRA didn't build a backdoor to allow the NSA as some these social networking companies did? Even if there was no backdoor, how can anyone know that the servers weren't hacked? Heck, how can gun owners be certain that Edward Snowden hasn't given their names and addresses to the Russians and the Chinese? If that happened, it will be because the NRA had a secret database.

The NRA And Decency: Two Things That Don't Go Together

Let's walk through this step by step.

First, Wayne LaPierre believes Hollywood produces too many violent movies::

“We have blood-soaked films out there, like ‘American Psycho,’ ‘Natural Born Killers’ that are aired like propaganda loops on splatter days.”

In addition, he also believes video games are too violent:

“There exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells and stows violence against its own people through vicious and violent video games.”

Further, the media glorifies mass murderers and this glorification produces copycat murderers

“How many more copycats are waiting in the wings for their moment of fame from a national media machine that rewards them with wall-to-wall attention and a sense of identity they crave?”

On the other hand, selling a "shoot it until it bleeds" zombie target that closely and intentionally resembles President Obama during the NRA convention doesn't seem to be a problem unless some liberals will complain. Buzzfeed provides the details about the target that was displayed for two days and sold during the duration of the NRA convention:

"Someone from the NRA came by and asked us to remove it" a Zombie Industries booth worker told BuzzFeed in hushed tones. "They thought it looked too much like President Obama."

When asked if the Obama likeness was intentional the worker said, "Let's just say I gave my Republican father one for Christmas."

"They are just scared some liberal reporter will come by and start bitching" another booth worker said to men gathered around the booth. "But ya know, he does look very familiar."

Shoot It Until It Bleeds Target

Of course, one can rename the target "Barry."

Let's review, according to the NRA violent films and video games are "callous" and "corrupt," but shooting a target designed to look like the President is just good clean fun.

As the group's spokesperson, LaPierre has a First Amendment right to be classless and hypocritical; I wish had a sense of shame.

Getting Ready For A Revolution?

Gordon Howie's hyperbole is usually good for a laugh, but this morning Gordon outdid himself. He issued the following blast implying that President Obama is on the road to exterminating Christians with Hitleresque precision:

It has always amazed me how Hitler could exterminate so many Jews with so little resistance.  I can’t help but wonder if Obama is being equally successful in the early stages of a “War on Christians”.

Will America’s Christian leaders PLEASE stand up and speak out?!!! 

If Obama is engaged in "the early stages of a war," one wonders how long it will be before Gordon goes calling on people to do more than speak out.

Some allegedly responsible folk already are. Jim Porter, the NRA's president, apparently wasn't satisfied with the results of the last one in the 1860s, so he's advocating people prepare for another one:

In a June speech, Porter noted the NRA was “started by some Yankee generals who didn’t like the way my Southern boys had the ability to shoot in what we call the ‘War of Northern Aggression.’ ”

“Now y’all might call it the Civil War, but we call it the ‘War of Northern Aggression’ down South,” Porter said to the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association.

He also advocates training all U.S. civilians to use standard military firearms so “they’re ready to fight tyranny.”

Porter apparently has a lot of company. A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll taken in late April finds a large sector of the Republican party believes armed revolution might be necessary with in the next few years.

Overall, the poll finds that 29 percent of Americans think that an armed revolution in order to protect liberties might be necessary in the next few years, with another five percent unsure. However, these beliefs are conditional on party. Just 18 percent of Democrats think an armed revolution may be necessary, as opposed to 44 percent of Republicans and 27 percent of independents.

 The poll might be flawed. It sampled only 863 people, but I have to agree with big boy blogger Ed Kilgore:

You can dismiss it for its sample size or its question order or its wording if you want, but I’m sorry: when nearly half the self-identified members of one of our two major political parties in any sample looks benignly on the possibility of “armed revolution”—particularly when it’s the supposedly conservative party—we’ve got real problems. If the actual percentage of Republicans thinking positively about armed revolution as a near-term necessity is 15%, we’ve got real problems. [italics in original] 

There's little logic in Howie's assertion that Obama is at war with Christians; Obama is a Christian, so he probably would not be attempting to engage in war against himself.  For his part, Porter is as illogical as Howie if he truly believes the Civil War was about Northern aggression rather than Southern efforts to preserve slavery.

It doesn't take much effort to see how people who believe a Hilteresque leader will lead an aggressive war against Americans because of their religious faith will see the need to prepare for an armed revolt "in the next few years." It's unclear how any of those beliefs are reasonable, conservative, or Christian.

Jihad Joe Looks Like Wayne LaPierrie, Especially Around The Eyes

I saw this on The Maddow Blog. It's a "you gotta see it to believe it" video.  I keep thinking it's an Onion parody, but Steve Benen claims its real.

I suppose NRA could stand for No Rifles for Allah. On the other hand, it could just be a ploy to sell more guns. I can see the tagline now: Buy your assault rifle now because the Terrorists are buying theirs tomorrow."