Whenever there is a major shooting, I get a letter from the NRA a week or two afterward. In each case, the envelope contains a pitch to join their organization as a member. And it always includes a survey—which is possibly the most biased, one-sided survey I have ever seen.
Normally, I throw these away. But this time, I am going to share parts of it it with all of you.
Dear Mr. Andersen:
When someone hits your freedoms, you fight back.
Interesting. What do you do when someone takes a military-grade firearm and shoots up a school?
And right now, hundreds of gun-hating politicians, judges, and media elites are doing everything in their power to sabotage and destroy your freedoms,
They’re attacking your freedoms in courts. They are attacking in cities and small towns all across America. They’re attacking in the states…the media...even in Congress.
They’ve spent decades passing anti-gun regulations...packing our courts with gun-hating judges...and they’re promising to fight on and never surrender until they tear the heart out of our Second Amendment Rights.
Oooooh, sounds scary—but completely wrong. In my lifetime (all 50 years of it), gun control laws have been rolled back at an alarming rate. The only thing they have right is that those of us who think it should be illegal to own an M-1 Abrams Main Battle Tank will fight on, and we will never surrender.
By answering this Survey today, you’re DRAWING A LINE IN THE SAND — making it clear to politicians across America that you’re not going to stand by while extremists threaten your individual liberties.
Your Survey answers offer crystal-clear PROOF that if they push gun and ammo bans, sky-high taxes on gun purchases, and other attacks on your freedoms, then they risk DEFEAT in the next election.
I will spare you the rest of the letter. It is pretty much the same thing, selling fear and misinformation (and some now nonexistent discounts). The NRA claims to have 5 million members, but those numbers are sketchy at best. They are a very loud and vocal minority with deep pockets, and it is time we all tell the NRA to stick it where the sun don’t shine.
The Second Amendment is not the only amendment to the Constitution of the United States. It’s just like the other articles: amendments have limits, and none of them are written in stone. You cannot yell fire in a crowded movie theater, and you cannot claim religious freedom when committing a human sacrifice. The courts have ruled in favor of warrantless searches, even though the Fourth Amendment explicitly spells out that warrants shall only be issued with probably cause.
When the 18th Amendment passed, no constitutional amendment had ever been repealed in our nation’s history. But the 18th Amendment was repealed by the 21st Amendment. The rights granted in the Constitution and Bill of Rights are not inviolable, and can be revoked or changed if the citizens on the United States agree to that. The NRA and the gun lobby could easily put an end to much of the gun violence by supporting very reasonable restrictions and laws. However, they have collectively decided to drag their feet in order to protect their precious guns—and the profits made on selling death.
Now, to share two of the most ridiculous questions on their survey.
#6. Do you oppose any United Nations treaty that strips the U.S. or of its sovereignty and gives the U.N. diplomats the power to regulate every rifle, pistol, and shotgun you own?
They are peddling a conspiracy theory. That is all this is: a conspiracy theory.
#7. The anti-gun media claims that most gun owners support mandatory, national gun registration. Do you agree that law-abiding citizens should be forced to submit to mandatory gun registration or else forfeit their guns and their freedom?
Now, I have never seen a poll or a news story about a hypothetical national gun registration. I have seen polls that state the majority of Americans want background checks.
The NRA wants me to spend my hard-earned money so that they can fight for people to carry the same goddamn rifle I carried in the Army. It’s a rifle that was designed for a battlefield. It has no place on the civilian market, and I will not give the NRA a damn cent. Anyone who does has given them blood money, and will have the blood of children on their hands when a school shooting happens again.
And it will happen again, thanks to the NRA.
Oh, and if anyone from the NRA is reading this: take my name off your mailing list.