The big local news story of the day was New York State Attorney General Letitia James announcing a suit to dissolve the National Rifle Association. In a stroke of genius, AG James couched the suit as an effort not to regulate gun ownership, but to eliminate a corrupt organization:
“The NRA’s influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets. The NRA is fraught with fraud and abuse, which is why, today, we seek to dissolve the NRA, because no organization is above the law.”
The NRA defrauds and abuses its members, whose membership fees serve to enrich such scumbags as former CEO Wayne LaPierre. By pursuing a civil suit, AG James has neatly sidestepped the issue of gun control, though the right-wing propaganda machine has conveniently ignored that. Predictably, Vulgarmort claimed that she is waging a war on the Precious Second Amendment:
I'm more inclined to agree with this assessment by an independent investigative journalist:Just like Radical Left New York is trying to destroy the NRA, if Biden becomes President your GREAT SECOND AMENDMENT doesn’t have a chance. Your guns will be taken away, immediately and without notice. No police, no guns!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 6, 2020
You'd think people passionate about gun rights would prefer to have a non-corrupt organization defending them.
— Travis View (@travis_view) August 6, 2020
I doubt that Leticia James is a Sex Pistols fan, but I immediately thought of John Lydon when I heard that she was initiating this lawsuit: “You don’t sue the NRA because you hate the law-abiding gun owners. You sue the NRA like that because you love them, and you’re sick of seeing them mistreated.”
I just wish that our Attorney General would have been a bit more calculating from a political perspective... this lawsuit is going to be cited in Republican political ads for the next three months, and Biden (a centrist Democrat who shouldn't scare middle-of-the-road, middle-of-the-country swing voters) will be portrayed as a gun-grabbing Maoist. The subtleties of going after the organization for abusing gun-owners will be buried under a deluge of bad-faith arguments. Put succinctly, I think she should have waited until mid-November to announce this lawsuit.
4 comments:
Is anyone who genuinely believes that Biden is coming for their guns, actually likely to have voted for him in the first place?
Isn't this just as likely to get more Democrats to the polling place because they approve of this action and want more of it, only at the federal level?
Unless Biden makes Tish James his VP choice, he can disavow this action if he wants. And can also calmly point out that pursuing the NRA for its blatant corruption has nothing to do with law-abiding gun owners, except to stop them being ripped off further.
Is anyone who genuinely believes that Biden is coming for their guns, actually likely to have voted for him in the first place?
It's primarily a ploy to motivate lazy, one-issue voters to the polls. Sure, they might not like that Trump hasn't improved their lives, but dagnabbit, they have to protect their precious shootin' irons.
Given the National Russian, er, Rifle Ass.'s longstanding role as a laundromat for illegal Russian contribution$ to the Gang Of Putin, I'm actually pretty OK with her timing and approach. The more I see from her, the more I hope she has a long and significant future in public service.
Seeing that other gun nut groups are now attacking the NRA, I am coming around to seeing her timing as not-that-flawed.
Post a Comment