20 Years After OKC Bombing, NRA Has Mainstreamed McVeigh's Insurrectionist Idea in Conservative Movement

Josh Horwitz writing for Huffington Post and further to Jadegold's post of a few days ago.

When Timothy McVeigh bombed the Murrah Building, he was wearing a t-shirt he purchased at a gun show. It had a picture of President Abraham Lincoln on the front with the words "SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS [THUS ALWAYS TO TYRANTS]." On the back, it featured an excerpt of a quote from Thomas Jefferson: "THE TREE OF LIBERTY MUST BE REFRESHED FROM TIME TO TIME WITH THE BLOOD OF PATRIOTS AND TYRANTS." It's remarkable to think that, 20 years after we buried 168 Americans in a horrific of terrorism, we are hearing the same exact perverse philosophy being promoted by Republican candidates running for the office of President of the United States.

It's a grim reminder of the absolute grip the NRA has on the modern Republican Party, which has moved much further to the right than it was in 1995. It also makes you wonder just how many people are listening to folks like Ted Nugent and Ted Cruz, and whether one (or more) of them might go as far as Timothy McVeigh did to carry this nightmare vision to fruition.

The Declining CDC Research into Firearm Injury Prevention

The NRA is an Enabler of Death

U.S. GUN DEATHS: 2011: 32,163 2010: 31,672 2009: 31,347 2008: 31,593 2007: 31,224 pic.twitter.com/6LPmUPHwFE @Methos2010 @TeriPDC

— The Baxter Bean (@TheBaxterBean) April 19, 2014

NRA News Fights For The Right To Leave Unsecured Guns Around Children

NRA News host Cam Edwards

Media Matters

NRA News host Cam Edwards attacked laws to prevent children from accessing guns by positing that there should be no criminal penalty even when an admittedly careless adult allows a child access to a gun that the child then uses to kill themselves.

On the January 6 edition of NRA News program Cam & Company, Edwards attacked Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America founder Shannon Watts for advocating for state laws that create a criminal penalty for adults that negligently allow children access to firearms. In an interview with USA Today, Watts cited the fact that only 15 states have child access prevention laws and contended, "This idea that a shooting that involves a toddler is accidental is asinine. If I was drinking and driving and hit my son, I would immediately go to jail. But if I left my firearm on the top of the refrigerator and he found it and shot himself, everyone says, what a horrible accident."

Edwards responded to Watts' USA Today interview by suggesting that if "you are careless with a firearm and one of your own children accidentally kills themself" that the "horror" of the incident alone would be sufficient punishment for the adult. But in arguing against laws that criminalize negligently allowing children to access guns, Edwards ignores that research has shown that these laws are associated with a reduction in gun deaths among children resulting from accidents and suicide.

Mocking Watts' comparison between a child access prevention law and a law that criminalizes killing someone while drunk driving, Edwards said, "We don't have a negligent storage law for alcohol," and, "We don't have a negligent storage law for automobiles, and so I'm not quite sure what she is talking about." But state criminal laws governing the storage of dangerous items are hardly uncommon. For example, Michigan has a number of criminal laws concerning the improper storage of hazardous materials with increased penalties for conduct that endangers the public.

My opinion is that safe storage laws must apply to all. The half-a-million stolen guns a year demand it.

But how the gun nuts can possibly object to the extremely reasonable suggestions of Shannon Watts is beyond me. And when a smart-ass talk show host mocks her it really shows what kind of people they are.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

NRA Board Member Invokes Holocaust To Insult Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop Over Gun Safety Survey

Think Progress

In Jersey City, Mayor Steven Fulop (D) is undertaking a small step toward gun safety at the local level through the process for soliciting gun vendors. He will disseminate a survey to all vendors bidding to supply firearms to local law enforcement asking how they handle gun safety issues, including whether they take steps to prevent illegal gun trafficking. In responding to the initiative, National Rifle Association Board Member Scott Bach blasted Fulop on NRA News, citing the fact that Fulop’s grandparents were Holocaust survivors as a reason why he should “get it.”

Comparing gun control to the Holocaust is one of a number of faulty and offensive analogiesthe gun rights movement has used to illegitimize gun reform measures. The NRA and others have repeatedly claimed that gun violence prevention is like Hitler’s fascism because Hitler took away the guns of Holocaust victims, who could have overcome the regime if they had them. This claim has been repeatedly debunked as both logically and historically inaccurate, because, unsurprisingly, taking away guns was only one of infinite ways in which the Nazis suppressed an uprising. That’s probably why even those who did acquire guns wereunsuccessful in fighting back.