# Surprising? No "pro-gun rights" Senators would go on Meet the Press Sunday **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [December 17, 2012, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-no-pro-gun-rights-senators-would-go-on-meet-the-press-sunday/644325 "2012-12-17T18:05:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-no-pro-gun-rights-senators-would-go-on-meet-the-press-sunday/644325/61 "2012-12-18T03:29:35Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > . . . I’m tired of saying the same damned thing over and over, one incident doesn’t change anything . . . Can you, at least, see why this phrasing concerns some of us? ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-no-pro-gun-rights-senators-would-go-on-meet-the-press-sunday/644325/62 "2012-12-18T04:12:38Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Look at it this way: the Assault Weapons Ban, which ended almost a decade ago, did not result in the confiscation of any guns and a new AWB won’t either; Obama has stayed far away from this issue throughout his first term; and the Supreme Court has been ruling against gun control laws for years in cases like Heller. And yet the rhetoric on the right doesn’t reflect any of this: Obama expanded access to guns in some small ways in his first term, and the NRA continued to spout theories about his secret intentions and then gun sales went up again after he was re-elected. That may put the gun lobby in the same position as the Cult of Norquist (i.e. “They can’t be rationally negotiated with, so we just have to roll over 'em”). ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-no-pro-gun-rights-senators-would-go-on-meet-the-press-sunday/644325/63 "2012-12-18T04:28:12Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Apparently reading comprehension goes out the window, because the first line above was in response to something you quoted from me where I very clearly said the world didn’t care about me either. You make it about you when you put your individual gun rights above the lives of 26 kids and teachers, not to mention the 30,000 other people killed by guns this year. Statistically, there are going to be another 30,000 gun deaths in the coming year, including who knows how many senseless killing sprees of innocent people, and you still think your precious gun rights are more important than their lives. That’s the very definition of _you_. And let’s be clear about what’s meant by “gun control”. If you’re afraid of your guns being taken away from you, please turn off Fox News and stop reading NRA pamphlets. There’s absolutely no chance of that or anything close to it happening, despite what the fear-mongers want you to believe. As a supporter of the Second Amendment, you should know that. At the very most, you’ll have to “suffer” one or two more restrictions, like maybe longer waiting times or smaller limits or something like that. Do you think you can live with that if it helps save innocent lives? > [@Chimera](#): > > 1\> First world problems. I’m sure the people of North Korea, Syria, Bangladesh are all worked up over these deaths. In other words, don’t proclaim that “The World” cares just because you woke up to it. You got me there. I don’t know about North Korea, Syria and Bangladesh. But [how about these…](http://www.wfmz.com/news/World-reaction-My-heart-is-in-Newtown/-/121458/17804488/-/imqtv6z/-/index.html) \*As news of the tragic shooting at a school in Newtown, Conn., rippled across the globe, Mari Lolarga found a candle in his home in the Philippines and lit it in honor of those who died. “I wanted people to understand that while we may not be Americans, we too are parents who care deeply for our children,” the father of two said. From Haiti to Pakistan, people said they were shocked at the apparent targeting of children and expressed helplessness that they could not do more to stop the violence. “May Allah give courage to all families to face it bravely, may the souls of those angels rest in peace,” said Ghulam Murtaza, an elementary school teacher from Pakistan. In Lithuania, a teacher identifying herself as Veronika commented: “I send all my love and prayers to the families. It is all I can do from so far away, but my heart is now in Newtown with all the affected people. God bless them all.” And in Haiti, Frisnel Oxine said he could barely read the news reports for crying. “I also have a girl of 6, and I just imagine she could have been there,” he said. “We used to travel to the U.S. and wanted (her) to stay for school.” In Port Said, Egypt, Maggy Hamada spent hours glued to CNN in her home, growing increasingly depressed and sympathetic toward the families left bereft. “… I guess it’s a wake-up call for America because they tasted a bit of what the other countries in the Middle East go through every single day.” Lisa Garnier from Canada said she and her husband were so devastated by the news they both sat down and cried. “What else would your reaction be?” Garnier asked. “It doesn’t matter where you were. Anyone who heard it had to take a moment to sit down. It’s horrible.”\* And that doesn’t mention official condolences from the Prime Minister of Australia, an impromptu shrine set up by Russians at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, and a memorial in India that I know of. Still think it’s just another incident? > [@Chimera](#): > > 2\> Media frenzy. Can’t look at a news page without it being full color splash. As shown above, shooting six-year-old kids to death is news. > [@Chimera](#): > > 3\> Did YOU care about these kids when they were alive, or is it just their deaths that makes you suddenly care? That isn’t worth a serious response. > [@Chimera](#): > > To your second, thanks for underlining his point. People like you are NOT looking for discussion, you’re looking for people to scream at. The NRA deserves to be screamed at. Calm reason doesn’t work. Thirty thousand gun deaths a year doesn’t stop them from trying to sell even more guns and influencing elections for that sole purpose. Mrs. Lanza was a poster mom for the NRA’s propaganda, and look what happened. Their position is indefensible, and that’s why they’re not showing their face these days. Their bully pulpit has finally been ripped from their cold, grubby hands. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-no-pro-gun-rights-senators-would-go-on-meet-the-press-sunday/644325/64 "2012-12-18T04:31:42Z")
The NRA doesn’t sell guns. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-no-pro-gun-rights-senators-would-go-on-meet-the-press-sunday/644325/65 "2012-12-18T04:35:27Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > The NRA doesn’t sell guns. That’s like saying Norquist doesn’t sell low taxes. ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-no-pro-gun-rights-senators-would-go-on-meet-the-press-sunday/644325/66 "2012-12-18T04:44:52Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > The NRA doesn’t sell guns. Like Obama didn’t kill bin Laden, and Truman didn’t drop the bomb. Lame point on semantics is lame. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-no-pro-gun-rights-senators-would-go-on-meet-the-press-sunday/644325/67 "2012-12-18T04:50:08Z")
> [@Esox\_Lucius](#): > > The NRA deserves to be screamed at. Then please accept that we will give your irrational screaming temper tantrum all the time and consideration it deserves. Calm reason doesn’t work? :dubious: Calm reason is what resolves issues and creates civilization. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-no-pro-gun-rights-senators-would-go-on-meet-the-press-sunday/644325/68 "2012-12-18T04:52:16Z")
> [@Esox\_Lucius](#): > > From Haiti to Pakistan, people said they were shocked at the apparent targeting of children and expressed helplessness that they could not do more to stop the violence. While NO normal, decent person alive on planet Earth today wants to see children slaughtered, you can’t possibly think that for America to emulate Pakistan in any aspect of child safety or welfare would be a positive step forward, can you? Children are routinely targets of slaughter in Pakistan and Afghanistan (suicide bombers, primarily) and the relative likelihood of an American kid getting murdered by a psychopathic stranger has got to be 100x less likely than what it would be for a Pakistani kid. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-no-pro-gun-rights-senators-would-go-on-meet-the-press-sunday/644325/69 "2012-12-18T05:50:13Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Progress will be as slow as the campaigns for gay marriage and decriminalized marijuana, but we’re heading for a future in which limiting access to guns will be the norm. > > That’s the best-case scenario. The worst case is one in which there are two camps in America: a side that says “the only way you’ll get my gun is to pry it from my cold, dead fingers” and a side that says, “Fine with us.” I disagree with this. The best case is what you call the worst case. We have gone through this before. Gun control was mainstream in much of the country a half-century ago, around the same time the death penalty was abolished and the EPA instituted. This was a modern Western social democracy at one point. And then the madmen trashed it. The gun rights movement is just another aspect of the anti-modernity movement that Wm. F. Buckley knit together, right alongside banning birth control, opposing socialized medicine, putting “inferior Negroes” to death on spurious grounds, gutting environmental law, and opposing social democracy generally. The gun nuts are the same people as the anti-contraception maniacs, the white supremacists, the “free-marketers,” and the anti-environmentalist backlash. The previous generation assumed that progress would proceed peaceably. But the best long-term way to defeat the rabid right in the USA’s federal democratic system is to defeat them militarily. This is what the abolitionists had to do. It is what we or our children will have to do. And time is short. The madmen still have their hands on the tiller and will not permit us to stop the destruction of our economy by climate change. They have already set their terms, long ago. Cold dead hands. I do not ask those terms to change. I ask only an acceptance of those terms from those of us who made the mistake of thinking this reform–any reform–could stand without being enforced by bloodiness worthy of U.S. Grant and Wm. Tecumseh Sherman. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-no-pro-gun-rights-senators-would-go-on-meet-the-press-sunday/644325/70 "2012-12-18T05:51:40Z")
> [@Esox\_Lucius](#): > > Statistically, there are going to be another 30,000 gun deaths in the coming year, including who knows how many senseless killing sprees of innocent people, and you still think your precious gun rights are more important than their lives. That’s the very definition of _you_. Again: you can compare priorities here, but if you want to comment on someone’s personal failings or mock them, take it to the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-no-pro-gun-rights-senators-would-go-on-meet-the-press-sunday/644325/71 "2012-12-18T06:22:16Z")
Eh, getting off-topic. Rant at me [here.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=15808681&postcount=44) ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-no-pro-gun-rights-senators-would-go-on-meet-the-press-sunday/644325/72 "2012-12-18T06:28:45Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > Spoken as a lazy, liberal, vulgar, Godless hippy who hasn’t eaten any meat for 20+ years and who has never fired a handgun in his life, I seem to recall that a fattie pack o’ “feel good” laws were passed in the hysterical wake of another national tragedy, collectively called _The Patriot Act_ (sounds like the name of a Randy Travis album to me) which turned out to be the best thing that’s happened to this fine cunt-tree since the mollyfocking 18th Amendment, right??? Do you mean “Spoken as a lazy..” or “Speaking as a lazy…”? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-no-pro-gun-rights-senators-would-go-on-meet-the-press-sunday/644325/73 "2012-12-18T07:50:13Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > Spoken as a lazy, liberal, vulgar, Godless hippy who hasn’t eaten any meat for 20+ years and who has never fired a handgun in his life, I seem to recall that a fattie pack o’ “feel good” laws were passed in the hysterical wake of another national tragedy, collectively called _The Patriot Act_ (sounds like the name of a Randy Travis album to me) which turned out to be the best thing that’s happened to this fine cunt-tree since the mollyfocking 18th Amendment, right??? I have fired a handgun. In fact I took pistol in college. But, like so many other things, all we have to do is to go back to some reasonable controls. Not that many of us felt oppressed when assault weapons were actually banned. Registration, like we do for cars, might be nice, as would background checks and waiting periods. Hell, we have keys for our cars, to make them harder to steal. Something like that might be nice for guns also. It strikes me that when we talk about tax policy the right keeps saying things like raising taxes on the rich won’t solve the problem by itself - as if anyone ever said it would. It seems a lot of this discussion has the gun lovers screaming that we want to ban their precious toys. Or that even if we did, there would still be some murders. It keeps them from having to respond to policies like registration, bullet control, and background checks. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-no-pro-gun-rights-senators-would-go-on-meet-the-press-sunday/644325/74 "2012-12-18T07:56:01Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > This time the victims were children, white, and from a well-to-do suburban town, presumably Republican-oriented. They cannot be written off as “those people”, “those types of areas”, “tsk, tsk”, not this time. This time there just may have been enough shock to break through. Manchin has been shaken into sanity, no doubt others who aren’t yet willing to say so. And did I mention these were \*white \*kids? There was an interesting article in the Time today about the town. For quite a while people in the area have been disturbed by the sound of automatic or semi-automatic fire. There are unlicensed ranges because the licensed ones have waiting lists. An effort, led by the Police, to keep gunfire away from homes was soundly defeated by a mass of gun owners. And there is a gun advocacy group in town - might be an industry group. Plus, it seems that the killer and his mother went out in the woods to shoot her weapons - she may have taught him how to use the gun that killed her. It will be interesting to see of the town passes some reasonable regulations now. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-no-pro-gun-rights-senators-would-go-on-meet-the-press-sunday/644325/75 "2012-12-18T12:58:30Z")
Former Congressman Joe Scarborough [has been shaken to his senses](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/conservative-joe-scarborough-stuns-call-gun-control-article-1.1222198): > [@](#): > > I am a conservative Republican who received the NRA’s highest ratings over 4 terms in Congress. I saw the debate over guns as a powerful, symbolic struggle between individual rights and government control. In the years after Waco and Ruby Ridge, the symbolism of that debate seemed even more powerful to my colleagues and me. > > But the symbols of that ideological struggle have since been shattered by the harvest sown from violent, mind-numbing video games and gruesome Hollywood movies that dangerously desensitizes those who struggle with mental health challenges. Add military-styled weapons and high capacity magazines to that equation and tragedy can never be too far behind. > … > > And our Bill of Rights does not guarantee gun manufacturers the absolute right to sell military-styled high-caliber semi-automatic combat assault rifles with high capacity magazines to whoever the hell they want. > > It is time for Congress to put children before deadly dogmas. It’s time for politicians to start focusing more on protecting our school yards than putting together their next fundraiser. And it’s time Washington stops trying to win endless wars overseas and instead starts focusing on winning the war at home. ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-no-pro-gun-rights-senators-would-go-on-meet-the-press-sunday/644325/76 "2012-12-18T13:07:37Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Then please accept that we will give your irrational screaming temper tantrum all the time and consideration it deserves. If you think that was irrational screaming, you have a pretty low threshold for it. I _will_ accept that calling it that gives you an out from responding. If you want to see a _real_ screaming temper tantrum… > [@Chimera](#): > > Here’s the TRUTH: NO ONE GIVES A SHIT ABOUT ANYONE. Get used to it. The World doesn’t give a rats ass about you, me or anyone else. Get the fuck over it, like everyone else. Now, do you still think your gun rights are more important than more innocent lives? Do you think Obama wants to take away all your guns? > [@Chimera](#): > > Calm reason doesn’t work? :dubious: Calm reason is what resolves issues and creates civilization. I repeat: It hasn’t with the NRA. Tell them, not me. They have a lot more influence when it comes to creating civilization. > [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > While NO normal, decent person alive on planet Earth today wants to see children slaughtered, you can’t possibly think that for America to emulate Pakistan in any aspect of child safety or welfare would be a positive step forward, can you? > > Children are routinely targets of slaughter in Pakistan and Afghanistan (suicide bombers, primarily) and the relative likelihood of an American kid getting murdered by a psychopathic stranger has got to be 100x less likely than what it would be for a Pakistani kid. 😕 That quote was about reaction to the shootings; it isn’t advocating anything, nor did I quote it for that purpose. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-no-pro-gun-rights-senators-would-go-on-meet-the-press-sunday/644325/77 "2012-12-18T13:37:50Z")
> [@Esox\_Lucius](#): > > Like Obama didn’t kill bin Laden, and Truman didn’t drop the bomb. > > Lame point on semantics is lame. Do you know what the word “semantics” means? [Here](http://www.nrastore.com/nrastore/Products.aspx?c=New) is the NRA store. They do sell, I see, an air soft revolver and the Daisy Red Ryder BB gun. If you can find any firearms for sale by the NRA, please point them out. Otherwise, I’ll be forced to conclude you don’t really know what you are talking about or you are knowingly just making shit up. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-no-pro-gun-rights-senators-would-go-on-meet-the-press-sunday/644325/78 "2012-12-18T13:52:16Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Then please accept that we will give your irrational screaming temper tantrum all the time and consideration it deserves. > > Calm reason doesn’t work? :dubious: Calm reason is what resolves issues and creates civilization. Pardon me while I open an American History textbook… [Three hours later, finally able to breath after a dozen laughing jags from looking at the way Americans have used calm reason on problems.] I’m likening Sandy Hook to Stonewall. It took the calm reason of a riot to motivate a community that thought that change could never occur into forming activist groups that spurred - over the course of a generation - a revolution in attitudes. I’ve seen the evolution of the NRA from a group that supported the Gun Control Act of 1968 to one that lobbies against any legislation of any kind. The 1986 Firearm Owners Protection Act was in fact blowback to the stronger provisions of the 1968 Act. I’m not completely familiar with the politicking in 1986 but I think that the machine gun ban, which was put in as a last minute amendment, was a mere sop to appearances since it effectively did nothing at all. Which is the opposite political takeaway to what some are saying, that it proved that gun control nuts will ban even weapons not involved in crimes. In some ways the NRA parallels the union movement. Having won virtually all the basic requirements, unions have been forced by political logic to improve their hand and demand greater and greater concessions. This overreaching has undermined public support for them. If you’re not old, you probably can’t remember how strong unions used to be in a time when mass public opposition would have been unthinkable, even unAmerican. The NRA has won too often and now settles for nothing less than absolutism. That’s politically unstable as a position. And it gives cover to politicians. NRA supporter and A rater [Senator Joe Manchin](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9751302/Connecticut-school-shooting-NRA-backed-senator-calls-for-gun-controls.html) is now talking about controls. I’m not saying anything will come of this in the near future. The NRA effectively lobbied to death even mild provisions about unlicensed gun dealers after Columbine. Nothing happened for a while after Stonewall either. The future always wins, though. And the NRA is the past. Use your calm reason on that equation and see what answer it gives. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-no-pro-gun-rights-senators-would-go-on-meet-the-press-sunday/644325/79 "2012-12-18T14:03:42Z")
Please. The NRA _exists_ to sell guns. That’s where the money is. You’re being intentionally obtuse by pointing to their official store. Everytime there is a shooting tragedy, gun sales go through the roof. Happened again this week. Then those manufacturers turn around an reward the NRA for keeping all its members in a blind panic about gun registration and limits on high capacity magazines. Wait three months, then repeat. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-no-pro-gun-rights-senators-would-go-on-meet-the-press-sunday/644325/80 "2012-12-18T14:16:43Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > Please. The NRA _exists_ to sell guns. That’s where the money is. You’re being intentionally obtuse by pointing to their official store. Then it shouldn’t be hard for you to provide something besides your assertion to show that is the NRA’s raison d’être. Follow the money, show me the money, all those cool movie phrases. Or, is this just something you mystically _know_? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-no-pro-gun-rights-senators-would-go-on-meet-the-press-sunday/644325.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-no-pro-gun-rights-senators-would-go-on-meet-the-press-sunday/644325.md?page=5)