An Open Letter To The NRA Board

Every major poll has shown that a majority of the American people support imposing restrictions on the sale of guns and ammunition, and the vast majority, including 89% of Republicans, support universal background checks. Yet you, the members of the NRA Board of Directors, continue to lobby against any and all measures to rein in the proliferation of guns in this country. What is it with you people?

Back in December, just after Sandy Hook, your spokesman, Wayne LaPierre, took to the airwaves in an attempt to cloud the issue of the murder of 20 first graders and the 6 women who died valiantly trying to protect them. In his diatribe, he stated the problem wasn’t with guns; it was with video games and the lack of mental health resources and the need for armed guards in our schools. Never mind that I, as a mother, would never have wanted my child to attend a school where I knew weapons were in the classroom. I wanted teachers who taught, not Rambo wannabees. But when the president recently issued executive orders that included some of the concerns cited by Mr. LaPierre, you guys came out swinging and accused the president of shredding the Second Amendment, endangering our children and imposing tyrannical measures on the country. According to you, we should all be armed to the teeth, locked and loaded and ready to rumble. Your insane rhetoric has served to incite even more vile rhetoric coming from the far right fringe, and has fed into the already paranoid delusions of people who have been manipulated into believing that the big, bad government is out to steal not only your guns but your freedoms. If you will recall, we had an assault weapons ban for ten years, from September 1994 until September 2004. As memory serves, our freedoms remained intact.

I realize you are the National Rifle Association, but I’ve got to ask you, where does this end? I mean, if it’s okay for anyone and everyone to go out and buy any kind of weapon they want, with no restrictions, no background checks, no nothing, then why not rocket launchers? Why not nukes? Hell, for that matter, why not fully armed nuclear submarines? I mean, if you’ve got the money and a place to put it, why not? You could form co-ops for those who are less financially well off and that way, we can pool our resources and we’d all have our shot at retaining those freedoms you keep telling us are at risk. Weapons like those would surely work much better against the government forces you say are waiting in the wings to kick in our doors and drag us off to some gulag. So how about changing your name to the National Weapons Of Mass Destruction Association? Think of the money you could make from arms manufacturers then!

You and the tactics you employ, like the odious ad featuring the Obama children, are beyond reprehensible. You are everything that is wrong with this country. You spread fear, lies and paranoia. You enable the slaughter of innocents and then turn and point your filthy fingers at everyone else. You even try to pass off the latest atrocity at Sandy Hook as a hoax. You speak of freedom, but every day the American people are robbed of freedom when a mother fears her child will not come home from school, when someone makes the decision not to attend a concert or a movie because they fear a maniac with a gun provided through your efforts may invade the venue.

I may only be one voice but I am one among many and I will not stop until all of you have been neutered and the American people get the justice and the laws they deserve. We are a better people than the ugly picture you paint.