NRA - America's gundamentalists!

[Yerdaddy]

<p>I've always hated the NRA but not because I hate guns - I grew up&nbsp;in a house full of&nbsp;them in Arizona and I actually pondered the idea of blowing up a goat with an RPG in Yemen - but because the message and tactics of the organization are fundamentalist, extremist, intollerant of moderation and compromise and unashamedly use bullying as a tool to force their positions through in Washington. And their decades of successful politicking scares the shit out of me.</p><p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/23/AR2007022301709_pf.html" target="_blank">Yet even this story surprised me a little bit.</a> </p><p></p><p>SEATTLE -- Modern hunters rarely become more famous than Jim Zumbo. A mustachioed, barrel-chested outdoors entrepreneur who lives in a log cabin near Yellowstone National Park, he has spent much of his life writing for prominent outdoors magazines, delivering lectures across the country and starring in cable TV shows about big-game hunting in the West.</p><p>Zumbo's fame, however, has turned to black-bordered infamy within America's gun culture -- and his multimedia success has come undone. It all happened in the past week, after he publicly criticized the use of military-style assault rifles by hunters, especially those gunning for prairie dogs.</p><p>&quot;Excuse me, maybe I'm a traditionalist, but I see no place for these weapons among our hunting fraternity,&quot; Zumbo wrote in his blog on the Outdoor Life Web site. The Feb. 16 posting has since been taken down. &quot;As hunters, we don't need to be lumped into the group of people who terrorize the world with them. . . . I'll go so far as to call them 'terrorist' rifles.&quot;</p><p>The reaction -- from tens of thousands of owners of assault rifles across the country, from media and manufacturers rooted in the gun business, and from the National Rifle Association -- has been swift, severe and unforgiving. Despite a profuse public apology and a vow to go hunting soon with an assault weapon, Zumbo's career appears to be over.</p><p>His top-rated weekly TV program on the Outdoor Channel, his longtime career with Outdoor Life magazine and his corporate ties to the biggest names in gunmaking, including Remington Arms Co., have been terminated or are on the ropes.</p><p>OK, so here's a guy who doesn't know his audience and expresses an opinion that many of his colleagues probably share but know enough not to publicly state them because they'd piss off some freaky people - people who like to shoot animals with AK-47s. But I get to the NRA's role in this and it's starting to look less like a spontaneous outcry among gun-owners and more like the NRA enforcing it's absolutist docrtine with an iron fist over the entire industry it's supposedly representing, (ie: the industry that pays the bills sets the message for their spokesmen, not vice-versa). </p><p>The NRA on Thursday pointed to the collapse of Zumbo's career as an example of what can happen to anyone, including a &quot;fellow gun owner,&quot; who challenges the right of Americans to own or hunt with assault-style firearms.</p><p>When the NRA says Johnny Fontane gets the picture&nbsp;you better give him&nbsp;the fucking picture!</p><p>[quote]</p><p>From his home near Cody, Wyo., Zumbo declined repeated telephone requests for comment. He is a 40-year NRA member and has appeared with NRA officials in 70 cities, according to his Web site.</p><p>In announcing that it was suspending its professional ties with Zumbo, the NRA -- a well-financed gun lobby that for decades has fought attempts to regulate assault weapons -- noted that the new Congress should pay careful attention to the outdoors writer's fate.</p><p>&quot;Our folks fully understand that their rights are at stake,&quot; the NRA statement said. It warned that the &quot;grassroots&quot; passion that brought down Zumbo shows that millions of people would &quot;resist with an immense singular political will any attempt

[cupcakelove]

This is another example of an exteremist group pushing around the moderates.&nbsp; It seems to be becoming more and more common today.

[Dan 'Hampton]

Hunting with an assault rifle is like playing ball with an aluminum bat.&nbsp; I'm against both.

[KnoxHarrington]

The NRA wants a lack of any sort of restriction to the "right" to bear arms that we give to no other right, including the rights in the first amendment.

I mean, imagine if the ACLU argued against the existence of libel/slander laws. You'd think they'd gone totally insane. Yet, the NRA will not accept similar reasonable limitations on gun ownership.

[Dan 'Hampton]

I don't have a problem with people owning guns I do think that they should have backround checks.&nbsp;

[Don Stugots]

i am all for people owning guns and a background check to buy them. i also believe in people hunting, though, i dont, its too cold and too early but, an assult rifle to go Deer hunting is retarded.&nbsp;

[johnniewalker]

<strong>dschef</strong> wrote:<br />Hunting with an assault rifle is like playing ball with an aluminum bat. I'm against both.<p>&nbsp;I think the point of the NRA was that criticizing assault rifles as having no use in hunting and not explaining its uses in other contexts (recreational shooting) was damaging towards gun rights because its just another knock on assault rifles.&nbsp; I think KnoxHarrington is correct too, they are attacking this with so much verocity it not really reasonable.&nbsp; I wish other groups would attack like this for some worthwhile causes. &nbsp;&nbsp; </p>

[Yerdaddy]

<strong>johnniewalker</strong> wrote:<br /><strong>dschef</strong> wrote:<br />Hunting with an assault rifle is like playing ball with an aluminum bat. I'm against both. <p>&nbsp;I think the point of the NRA was that criticizing assault rifles as having no use in hunting and not explaining its uses in other contexts (recreational shooting) was damaging towards gun rights because its just another knock on assault rifles.&nbsp; I think KnoxHarrington is correct too, they are attacking this with so much verocity it not really reasonable.&nbsp; I wish other groups would attack like this for some worthwhile causes. &nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p>If I say I think driving a car on the sidewalk is bad, but I fail to mention all&nbsp;the myriad benefits of driving a car on the road, have I somehow slighted the automobile industry? Should they destroy my career for failing to promote them in expressing my specific opposition to one particular use of their product? It sounds like you're saying they should, and that other groups should do the same - presuming their cause is worthwhile.</p><p>Because I'm gonna have to go ahead and, you know, disagree with you there Bob.</p>

[MrPink]

Jim Zumbo is dead to me! I'm actually looking at a Shooting Times magazine right now, and there's a Smith and Wesson AR on the cover. The only difference between an AR and a regular semi-auto rifle is the way it looks. I don't know where he stands on ownership of AR's, but you can't alienate people like that and not expect to get in trouble. You're either with us or against us!

[MrPink]

<strong>Yerdaddy</strong> wrote:<br /><p>I've always hated the NRA but not because I hate guns - I grew up&nbsp;in a house full of&nbsp;them in Arizona and I actually pondered the idea of blowing up a goat with an RPG in Yemen - but because the message and tactics of the organization are fundamentalist, extremist, intollerant of moderation and compromise and unashamedly use bullying as a tool to force their positions through in Washington.</p><p>The NRA realized that the only way to get anything done is to be fundamentalist and extremist. That's why the NORML people haven't got&nbsp;weed legal. Plus they aren't willing to fight for other drug rights.</p>

[Yerdaddy]

<strong>MrPink</strong> wrote:<br /><strong>Yerdaddy</strong> wrote:<br /><p>I've always hated the NRA but not because I hate guns - I grew up&nbsp;in a house full of&nbsp;them in Arizona and I actually pondered the idea of blowing up a goat with an RPG in Yemen - but because the message and tactics of the organization are fundamentalist, extremist, intollerant of moderation and compromise and unashamedly use bullying as a tool to force their positions through in Washington.</p><p><strike>The NRA</strike> Al Qaeda realized that the only way to get anything done is to be fundamentalist and extremist. </p><p>OK, now that I changed that subject, tell me how the principle at work&nbsp;is different or the same?</p><p>And by getting things done you mean by pressuring Bush and the Republican Congress to allow the Assault Weapons Ban to expire just before the 2004 elections dispite support of the ban from 75% of the population and every law enforcement organization in the country? </p>

[joeyballsack]

<p>Would you have the same reaction if the story was about an abortion rights activist that was being shunned for comments he/she made criticizing the actions of some of the more extreme abortion activists ?</p><p>While I think the NRA is wrong on this and other issues, its their job to protect the rights of their membership. If they give an inch, they have to worry about the anti gun lobby taking a mile, the same&nbsp;way abortion activists cant give up anything without worrying about Roe vs Wade being overturned. </p>

[Yerdaddy]

<strong>joeyballsack</strong> wrote:<br /><p>Would you have the same reaction if the story was about an abortion rights activist that was being shunned for comments he/she made criticizing the actions of some of the more extreme abortion activists ?</p><p>Yeah I would and have. I was a lobbyist/activist in Washington for five years and I spend much of my time trying to quell the extremism of crazy liberals. I couldn't bear to be around the actual communists - which I rarely had to do. But, yeah, I do have a problem with extremism in general. It is by nature intollerant and usually unproductive and can be a dangerous thing in a democracy. </p><p>I've been in a position where I've lost out on positions because I wasn't &quot;liberal&quot; enough or &quot;committed&quot; enough. One person who passed me over later admitted she regretted it. But to literally destroy the career of someone for not being absolutist enough is the way things worked in Fascist Germany and Spain and the Soviet Empire. It was the worst they had to offer and no, I don't fucking approve of those tactics on any issue. </p><p></p><p>While I think the NRA is wrong on this and other issues, its their job to protect the rights of their membership. If they give an inch, they have to worry about the <strong>anti gun lobby</strong> taking a mile, the same&nbsp;way abortion activists cant give up anything without worrying about Roe vs Wade being overturned. </p><p>Thanks for demonstrating the effectiveness of the NRA's approach to demonization of opponents. Show me the &quot;anti-gun lobby&quot; please. And show me one example of this group ever taking a mile on the issue of guns. </p>

[NewYorkDragons80]

I think anyone should be allowed to own a gun, but why oppose registry of guns and closing the gun show loophole?&nbsp; If you genuinely support responsible gun ownership, then allow the government to ensure that the people who use guns are responsible.&nbsp; That's where the &quot;well-regulated&quot; part comes in.