Letter: Paranoia from the NRA
President Obama’s gun control initiative will have a difficult go of it, in large measure due to one gun lobby group, the National Rifle Association.
A glimpse into the evolution of Wayne Lapierre, the embodiment of the NRA, is a glimpse into the radicalization of a movement that was once arguably a coherent grassroots defense of the Second Amendment.
Railing (with some justification) against an unfair media in 1993, LaPierre made the case for gun ownership when he said, “For me the issue comes down to one Ohio police department 911 call I received (in which) a woman at home in the middle of the night called about a break-in to her home.” (The woman was subsequently assaulted and raped.) “That woman, if she wants to, has the right to own a firearm, and that is what this whole issue is all about.”
Flash forward to 2010 and LaPierre addressing an NRA audience on the same issue. “The U.N. plan (to regulate small arms) is about global agencies, monitoring, surveillance, supervision, lists, all institutional within the bureaucracy of the United Nations.”
Lapierre, the NRA leadership and many NRA members have slid from a legitimate position on gun ownership to a paranoid, delusional and highly reactive stance that seeks to intimidate any legislator who wants sensible gun control. Obama is seen by many in the NRA as an enemy whose ultimate goal is the repeal of the Second Amendment. To those who think this isn’t about the NRA, but about gun manufacturers and the money they stand to lose, think again. If the issue for Lapierre isn’t guns but mental illness, I say look to your own house first.
PHILIP MEAD
Concord
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