...But look, we're talkin' well-meaning, retirement-age, country-club Republicans. What were you expecting? (And who else are Congressmen gonna take seriously? Tattered hippies are okay for Bernie Saunders but that hemp-stamped buck stops there.)
I was pleased to see him stand up for the Second Amendment -- and I was pleased to see his focus (however hazy) was on kids and the dangers of enforced-victim zones.
The traditional media is, of course, outraged; which they had planned on being. If Wayne LaPierre had gone out on stage and suggested reinstating the '94 AWB, they'd'a damned him for half-measures.
Tam calls his presser "friendly fire," especially for the Gun Culture 2.0 folks, who grew up playing Call Of Duty and 99.999999999...% of whom did not proceed to shoot up a school full of kids. True -- but we are already taking heavy incoming fire from the real enemy and it hasn't let up, so I'm inclined to cut ol' Wayne a little slack -- just as long as NRA hies itself off to Capitol Hill and the various State Assemblies and Legislatures and lobbies good and hard. We've all got to keep those cards and letters and phone calls coming in, too -- but the towering intellects who write our laws need to see some well-groomed folks in quality suits presenting our side, too, or they'll think we're just more of those strange little people, who fix their car and their furnace but who don't really count.
If there was a message for us from today's press conference, it was that we mustn't relay on the NRA to carry this all by themselves. Oh, they're still all manner of useful and may well be chivvied into becoming usefuller (!) but there's no popping popcorn, fetching a fizzy drink and letting this play out in the headlines and the evening news.
Pretty close to my take which I posted over at Tam's. But you are braver than I since she is right there.
ReplyDeleteNRA support is OK. S'wot I give a couple of Franklins every year for. Along with a contribution for Eddie.
ReplyDeleteBut ever telephone call from a real live constituent counts for about as much as a call from an NRA lobbyist.
Stranger
The NRA is the 800# gorilla in the RKBA fight. The organization may not be perfect but they're the biggest voice we've got right now, and we don't need to be doing the anti's work for them by infighting.
ReplyDeleteFor all of Wayne's many faults in wording and delivery, all the top headlines are now about armed guards in school, and not about gun bans, and the people who are crying out against armed guards in schools are showing how unhinged and nutty they are.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the real solution involves getting government out of the education business altogether...
I didn't say the NRA sucks.
ReplyDeleteI didn't say I'm tearing up my membership card.
I said the presser was awful, which the general consensus outside of a few stalwarts seems to agree with.
This isn't the Catholic church. Wayne wasn't speaking ex cathedra. It is okay to disagree with the handling of the press conference and still donate to the NRA.