Shooting at Virginia Tech

[TheMercenary]

NRA Statement On Legislative Efforts On Capitol Hill

Friday, April 27, 2007

Recent reports in the Washington Post, Newsweek and other media outlets are fanning Internet rumors regarding the NRA’s position concerning legislation currently being discussed in Congress in the aftermath of the horrific crimes that occurred at Virginia Tech.

The NRA has a long history of supporting measures to prevent guns from being acquired by violent criminals and those who have been adjudicated by a court as mentally incompetent. And we wrote into law mandatory prison sentences for armed felons and other prohibited classes who violate state and federal gun laws.

We will continue to make certain that the National Instant Background Check System (NICS) is accurate, fair, and instant by seeking changes to permanently ensure that no fee is associated with the check, that system outages are minimized, and that our men and women in uniform who have served our country honorably are not unjustly denied their constitutional rights. As always, the NRA is committed to ensuring that any proposal does not infringe upon the rights of law-abiding gun owners.

It is impossible to predict right now what any final bill will look like; therefore, we will withhold judgment until we see a final product. However, the NRA will continue to work with Members of Congress throughout the process to ensure that any changes to the NICS benefit lawful gun purchasers while ensuring that those adjudicated by the courts as mentally incompetent are included in the system.

Including necessary records on prohibited persons into the NICS is a position we have long supported. However, history has shown that no law will stop a madman intent on doing evil.

The NRA believes that our schools are not adequately protected. Therefore, we believe a national conversation on school security is necessary, and we look forward to those discussions and finding meaningful solutions to keep America’s children safe.

For more information, visit http://www.nraila.org/Issues/FactShe...=217&issue=018

[Urbane Guerrilla]

It does not surprise me that as warped a big-C Communist as tw is would be so friendly to the disempowering of the general population: this man is not visibly a democrat, nor is he that sort of democrat known as a republican.

He forgets something a famous commie once wrote: "Power grows from the barrel of a gun." Yes, I can from time to time quote Mao, to my own ends. Considering that in more normal times in China Mao would have been arrested as a bandit and beheaded, whereas my conduct is exceedingly unlikely to get me executed, I'd say my own ends are better than Mao's. It's so often like that for the anticommunists.

In a republic, the source of political power is the people, the electorate. That which reduces the power of the electorate should simply not be countenanced.

Yet, even in the face of all his perfidies, the NRA will patiently uphold tw's gun rights, and encourage him to actually enjoy the use of the rights and the guns.

Charts comparing gun ownership in America compared to a following increase in violent death demonstrates a problem that is also well proven throughout the world.

Of course, if this kind of thing is what tw accepts as factual, no wonder his conclusions are raddled with error, and likewise with all the subsequent horrors that spring from them. The numbers of guns in America have climbed steadily, and crime of all sorts has been slumping -- violent death too -- in all the states of the Union that have liberalized concealed carry of weapons, and accidents with arms have fallen off also. NRA sources are the most convenient places to find the data, but sources outside the NRA exist also -- viz., John Lott and FBI statistics.

Nah, a convenient litmus test for who's the more democratically inclined is to examine their enthusiasm for private arms ownership. Like most convenient tests, it's not comprehensive, but in tw's case, it is most surely illuminating, to say nothing of, in Tolkien's words, "perfectly true and applicable."