The Issue That Goes Ignored

[spin]

39. You are simply using the NRA as a bogeyman. ...

The simple fact is that an estimated 70 to 80 million individuals personally own firearms in our nation and often members of their families enjoy participating in the shooting sports. An estimated 42% of American households have one or more firearms. 67% of gun owners own their weapons for self defense while 66% enjoy target shooting and 41% use their weapons for hunting. (source: http://www.justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp)

Oddly enough the NRA has ONLY 4.3 million members despite the fact that the cost of an NRA yearly membership is only $35. Strong gun control advocates and the media need someone to blame for their failure to implement draconian gun control and the NRA fits the bill. Another sad fact for the gun control side is that possibly the most effective pro gun control group, the Brady Campaign has under 28,000 members!!! (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brady_Campaign)

The reason strong gun control measures often fail is that such laws are perceived by gun owners as a threat to their ability to defend themselves and their family or engage in the shooting sports which they value. Because they often have a considerable amount of money invested in their firearm collections they WILL show up at the polls to vote against any politician that they perceive as a threat. In close elections the vote of gun owners can make the difference in winning and losing.

Strong gun control advocates will also show up at the polls to vote for those who wish stronger gun control laws. This works well for politicians who represent areas of the nation where firearms are tightly regulated and fairly uncommon. In such areas firearms are often used by the criminal element to cause unnecessary tragedies and the voters often know few, if any, people who use firearms in a responsible manner. Obviously it is easy to assume that gun owners are "rednecks" or unintelligent poorly educated fools who are excessively paranoid or buy firearms to make up for certain deficiencies in certain physical attributes. This form of bias does not exist in areas where firearm ownership is common.

In gun friendly areas of our nation many well educated people own and use firearms in a responsible manner. If you live in such an area you may well have close friends who own firearms and enjoy the shooting sports or co-workers who you respect who do the same. You may well chose not to own a firearm but you do not feel that firearm ownership is a bad thing for all people. If you live in Florida as an example, as I do, where firearm ownership is common and many people have concealed carry permits, your views on firearms may differ considerably with those who live in gun unfriendly areas.

I have had numerous discussions with co-workers who didn't own firearms and most see absolutely no problem with my owning own or even having what some people would consider being an arsenal. Some of the people I talked to were interested in trying the sport and I was always willing to meet them at the range and introduce them to the sport of target shooting using my own personal weapons. A high percentage decided that target shooting was indeed fun and challenging and decided to purchase a firearm in order to participate. A few even eventually decided to get a concealed weapons permit.

One example was a black co-worker. He was initially fearful of going to a range with me as he expected to find prejudice from all the white shooters. He was amazed when he was welcomed and also quickly realized that shooting a handgun is far more challenging than portrayed in the movies and on TV. He developed an interest in target shooting and did eventually obtain a concealed weapons permit. His concealed weapons instructor was so impressed with his skill that he tried to get him to engage in competition. He also later became my supervisor. Had he lived in Chicago, New York City or San Francisco he would have probably voted for politicians who favored extremely strong gun control. Let me assure you that he does NOT vote for any politician who pushes strong gun control such as another assault weapons ban as he owns at least one firearm that would qualify.

You also blame the GOP when you state:

So you gave us John Kasich in a narrow victory. Well done, NRA/GOP

My personal opinion after researching gun control is that the GOP uses gun control as a wedge issue to obtain votes but will sell out gun owners in a heartbeat if the party senses a political advantage. Romney for example has a history of supporting strong gun control but currently, because he is attempting to portray himself as pro-gun and a true conservative, has abandoned his previous position. On the other hand Obama has been actually gun friendly during his first term. Unfortunately the NRA has pushed propaganda that portrays Obama as a gun grabber who plans to implement gun confiscation in his second term. I feel that this is obviously false and the NRA will regret its decision to support Romney if he gets elected.

I have been an NRA member for over 40 years but I have decided to drop my membership in their organization. Based on his record as President I feel that the NRA should better support him. He did at one time after his first year get an "F" rating from the Brady Campaign. I am not saying that the NRA should "endorse" Obama but they should at least be fair in their appraisal. To be fair the NRA does give many high ratings to some Democrats and sometimes endorses some. The NRA is supposed to be a single issue organization. I feel that their rating of Obama is a total sell out and I have lost respect for their rating system. It is not at all surprising that Obama favored strong gun control as a politician from Illinois. He would have never been elected as a dog catcher if he supported gun rights in that state. I seriously believe that as he traveled across our nation during his presidential campaign the experience changed his views on gun control.

Of course even if Obama does plan to implement draconian gun laws in his second term he faces a Congress who is unlikely to pass such measures. The conservative Supreme Court is also unlikely to support any such laws. Realistically any strong gun control laws such as another assault weapons ban are unlikely to pass.

There are far more important issues in our nation than strong gun control. I personally feel that the very liberal portion of the Democratic Party should totally stop pushing for unrealistic gun control and instead focus on much more achievable improvements to current gun laws and support stronger law enforcement to help eliminate the "straw purchase" of such weapons and smuggling of these lethal weapons into the inner cities in our nation. This approach is reasonable and would be strongly supported by a high percentage of gun owners. Democrats would then win far more close elections and our nation as a result would be far better in the future.