Virginia Tech

Someone close to me has been a hunter and meticulous gun owner all his life. He gladly joined the NRA because he pictured it as an organization populated and led by people just like himself.
But in 2004 he quit his membership, when he found it impossible to support that organization's effort to prevent renewal of the ban on semi-automatic assault rifles. In this case, the NRA parted company with the vast majority of law enforcement officials who wanted the ban maintained. My friend could not reconcile the disparity.
My career as a journalist demonstrated to me that the NRA is both the most rabidly aggressive special interest group in promoting its interests, and the most paranoid in the face of any opposition or criticism.
Today, most of the rest of the world is asking, again, 'what the hell is wrong with America?' They properly cite the psychotic gun culture that permeates much of our country. John Howard, prime minister of Australia (and no screaming liberal), said, "“We took action to limit the availability of guns and we showed a national resolve that the gun culture that is such a negative in the United States would never become a negative in our country."
In England, the Times of London editorialized, "“Why, we ask, do Americans continue to tolerate gun laws and a culture that seems to condemn thousands of innocents to death every year, when presumably, tougher restrictions, such as those in force in European countries, could at least reduce the number?”
Indeed.
In our media, you won't even see the gun issue debated seriously anymore. They cower in fear of the gun nuts. It doesn't matter how many die. It doesn't matter how many survivors and relatives are scarred for life. It doesn't matter that the blood is on the hands of the NRA.
This is a happy day for the NRA. They have won.

diderot