Saturday, November 23, 2013

NRA and Business
Part III

Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy with a mail order rifle purchased for $19.95.  The rifle was advertised in the NRA's American Rifleman magazine.  During November 2013, the same month the United States is remembering the 50th Anniversary of JFK's assassination, this same magazine was advertising the following:

...high capacity concealed carry pistols, semiautomatic
military style assault weapons, including a mobil device
to aid the accuracy of snipers "that can take the guesswork
out of...long-range ballistic solutions."

The magazine also features a full-page ad presenting a
"Historic NRA exclusive offer from NRA corporate 
donor Universal Coin and Bullion to purchase a JFK
half dollar - - "the last circulating 90% Pure Silver
Half Dollar Minted in U.S. History" for only $11.95.

(For the record, UCB has given between $500K and 
$999,000 to NRA Corporate Partners and is a member 
of the "NRA Business Alliance.")
(Huffington Post-22 November 2013)

The point of the above reference is to cite the relationship of the NRA as an weapons business.  One of the main purposes of the NRA is to sell guns.  Furthermore, its marketing techniques challenge sensitive ethical boundaries, having the audacity to use JFK's assassination anniversary to market the silver half-dollar in the same magazine advertising high-capacity rifles helpful to snipers.  Was not Oswald a sniper?  Did not Oswald purchase his rifle from the NRA magazine?  

But business is business.  According The Rolling Stone magazine, "The NRA says it is not a trade organization.  Lie.  NRA patrons include 22 firearms manufacturers, 12 of which make assault weapons.  Industry donors, including Blackwater (now Xe), have funnelled up to $52 million to NRA bank account in recent years."

In 1995, Wally Arida, publisher of Gun Games, introduced his magazine at the NRA Convention.  "According to Firearms Business, Arida 'sees his magazine as a route for the industry to take a new direction in promotion and marketing.' He is quoted as saying, 'I'm trying to publish a magazine and build a whole industry around it.'" Arida asks: "Which gun is better for self defense? What bullet design causes the biggest wound channel?" And the NRA allowed him to advertise at their convention.  But, business is business.

Tom Diaz, in his book Making a Killing, comments: "The Violence Policy Center has documented financial links between the NRA and the industry, and the NRA and others are active participants in industry planning sessions.  The following conclusion from a 1993 Boston Globe series on the NRA summarizes well what is known about the NRA and the firearms industry: 

The bond between the gun manufacturers and the
NRA involves direct financial contributions, almost-
always-favorable reviews of newly developed products
in NRA publications like American Rifleman, and 
including NRA literature in the packaging of new guns.

Tom Diaz writes: "The United States is the world's greatest market for civilian firearms....Foreign gun companies have increasingly exploited the U.S. gun market." Now, look at the prolific marketing of weapons in the NRA's American Rifleman. But business is business.

The New Republic of 28 May 2013, reports that gun ownership is declining from 1/2 of American households in the 1970s to 1/3 of households today.  Senator Joe Manchin (Democrat from West Virginia and an NRA member), noted that "A recent Al Qaeda tape urged would-be terrorists to load up on arms at American gun shows."  And which organization is prominent at gun shows? But business is business.

The NRA is majorly involved in the business of promoting and selling all types of firearms.  Contrasted with its gun safety program called "Eddie the Eagle", is the powerful marketing of weapons. Indeed, this segment of the NRA is the largest part of its organization's reason for existence.  After all, business is business, regardless of the carnage it creates.

"By their fruits you shall know them."
Matthew 12:33

Peace!

Ron Letnes






Tuesday, November 5, 2013

N.R.A. and Values
Part II

Part II of this series on "N.R.A.: Testing the Spirits" will focus on values.  Values drive an organization, move it forward, provide the lens through which it activates its purpose. What are some core N.R.A. values?  I would suggest that the following values are on balance more expressive of the N.R.A. leadership rather than regular members.  Let's see some values.

INFLEXIBLE, ABUSIVE BULLIES:  Four respected national leaders resigned their membership saying: "[The NRA has become] very inflexible and almost radical; they appeal to a fringe element of gun owners." General Norman Schwarzkopf; "[I object to the] ludicrous and offensive implication that federal agents are encouraged to commit acts of violence against ordinary citizens." Congressman John Dingell; "They've become abusive, accusatory, sick, violent, threatening bullies.  They want absolute subservience, and they are not going to get it from me." Former Colorado Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell; "[I object to the BATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) being referred to as a bunch of] jack-booted thugs." Former President George H.W. Bush (1)

ANTI-RESEARCH: In 1995 the N.R.A. mounted a successful campaign to cut funding for the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control whose responsibility is to do research on why accidents and tragedies happen, believing that understanding the reason will help lead to higher safety standards and fewer accidents and deaths.  The reasons for their opposition: "They want to foster a negative image against law-abiding gun owners.... All their research comes to the conclusion that owning a gun is bad and dangerous to your health." Their research is "obviously flawed". (2)

Also criticized were two highly respected medical journals: The New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association saying, "We have a problem with these organizations, too, for not holding the articles to their usual standards." (3)

RACIST AND DISRESPECTFUL: Jeff Gordon, N.R.A. Board Member, referred to the Japanese as "Nips" and suggested calling South Africans from Gauteng Province "Orang-gutangs". Comparing Los Angeles with Ho Chi Minh City he said, "LA and Ho Chi Minh City have declared themselves sister cities.  It makes sense as they are both Third World metropolises formerly occupied by Americans." (4)

Ted Nugent, N.R.A. Board Member and celebrity spokesperson, called Hillary Clinton a "toxic c--t".
"This bitch is nothing but a two-bit whore for Fidel Castro." Also, "I met a couple of guys in line yesterday who go, 'Write something to my girlfriend, she won't let me go hunting'.  I wrote her something and I said, "Drop dead, bitch.' What good is she, trade her in, get a Dalmatian. Who needs a wench." (5)

INSPIRED "RIGHT TO CARRY" AND "STAND YOUR GROUND" LAWS: Stand Your Ground laws make it legal for a person who is attacked in public to use lethal force as a first resort.  A new study out of  Texas A&M found that "...lowering the expected costs associated with lethal force..." these SYG laws "...induce more of it".  In Florida justifiable homicides tripled between 2005-2011 because of SYG laws. (6)

STOKE FIRES OF FEAR: Wayne LaPierre writes: "Americans are facing the reality that they are on their own.... People are anticipating dangerous times and are responding in the only sensible, logical way possible - they are buying guns." "America's women are leading the way!... The more women who buy and shoot guns, the safer and better off we'll all be." (7)  The N.R.A. has run ads to promote gun purchasing: "Should you shoot a rapist before he cuts your throat?" and "If you are attacked on your porch, do you want your neighbors to be opposed to gun ownership or a member of the N.R.A.?" (8)

EXTREMIST-MILITIA MOVEMENT FRIENDLY:  "The N.R.A. has made martyrs out of two odd characters, not because either is particularly heroic, but because both came in the cross hairs of the BATF."  Jack Anderson is speaking of Randy Weaver, an avowed white separatist, and David Koresh, child sex molester, who is quoted as saying, "I am God's chosen instrument, and the laws that govern mere mortals do not apply to me." (9) The N.R.A. is consistently referenced in the Southern Poverty Law Center's magazine Intelligence Report which is dedicated to exposing right-wing extremist militia groups, as defending citizens' right to bear arms.  In fairness, the SPLC does not say the N.R.A. directly supports  violent militia actions. Yet, one needs to ask, why the linkage?  Even Jack Anderson asks for an investigation of the linkage between the N.R.A. and the militia movement. (10)

A word about the sources for the above commentary.  Jack Anderson's book, Inside the NRA, copyright 1996, is cited in numbers 1-5, and 9. Jack was a member of the NRA, a Republican, a respected journalist, and a dedicated Mormon, hardly the type of person who would have an ideological axe to grind. I find that what Jack wrote in 1996 is consistent with the present NRA actions.             The Rolling Stone, a 2013 article, is quoted in numbers 6-8.  The Intelligence Report is referenced to support Jack Anderson's inquiry.

Since this is the second commentary on the theme of "NRA: Testing the Spirits", connecting the NRA with a Biblical witness is necessary.  Hence, I conclude with words from the hymn, "Healer of Our Every Ill", ELW 612:

Healer of our every ill, light of each tomorrow,
Give us peace beyond our fear, and hope beyond our sorrow.

Too often the NRA leadership fails the test of being a healer, but instead foments fear, creates the rationale for justifying more violence, makes people into objects, and instills a spirit of "the enemy", us vs. them. I find these outcomes contrary to Biblical witness.

Peace!
Ron Letnes