I see that Mad Mike is on a crusade against the NRA for its stance on bump stocks, one of the stupidest pieces of gun paraphernalia I think I’ve ever seen (and I haven’t been paying attention very long compared to some). Mike is so pissed off at what he appears to think is craven caving to the gun control lobby that he has applied his patented brand of “fuck you assholes” snark in comments on the NRA Facebook page.
Now, look. I agree with Mad Mike on a lot of stuff, including the idea that communists, socialists, and politicians (but I repeat myself) should be given one-way Pinochet helicopter rides. But I think Mad Mike is tossing the NRA baby out with the bump-stock bathwater. Let’s face it: A bump-stock ban is not the reincarnation of the GCA.
Should NRA have fought the bump-stock ban, instead of actually saying, “Yeah, gee, those things are useless so let’s throw the controllers a bone”? I don’t know. I do know that bump-stocks are a hell of a hill to die on, considering that there are a lot of folks out there shrugging and saying, “So? Rubber band, fast trigger finger, blah blah blah.” And a lot of other folks are saying, “Fuck ’em, I just bought a bump stock specifically because of this proposed ban and I won’t be turning it in.”
Should President Trump, who was quite supportive of the NRA both during the campaign and after it, be pilloried because he’s handing the controllers a bone by advocating this ban? Trump’s pro-2A stock has slumped with some folks because they see ANY surrender of 2A territory as treason.
The fact of the matter is that EVERY gun control law is a plain, prima facie violation of the 2nd Amendment. SCOTUS started to get there with Heller and McDonald, and they’re about to give the unelected bureaucracy a smack on the hands regarding regulatory overreach, which MIGHT (and I stress MIGHT) give the BATFEIEIO pause in their ongoing attempt to ban every civilian weapon in the country. Pelosi and crew are crowing that they’re going to pass all kinds of gun control in the next Congress, to which I say, go ahead — see if you can get the Senate to agree. And even if you can, see if you can get pro-2A people to turn in their weapons. Oops, sorry, lost them all in a tragic boating accident. Or get local police to go door to door to confiscate them. Yeah. Because that’s exactly what local police want to do…not.
The NRA has the charm of at least being a very large popular organization that has, at least in recent years, usually fought government encroachment on 2A rights. But they have to pick their battles like everyone else. They’re a little more restrained than, say, Alan Gottleib’s SAF, which prides itself in filling the air with lawsuits before the NRA gets its socks on.
Of course I belong to the NRA, like I belong to the ARRL (Amateur Radio Relay League). These are large membership organizations that, by and large, work on behalf of their members to protect existing rights and privileges. The League (common nomenclature for the ARRL) advocates for amateur radio operators with the FCC and legislative bodies. And as with the NRA, which is despised by a lot of gun owners, there are a lot of amateur radio operators who despise the League and think it wastes the millions of dollars it takes in every year. But as with the NRA, which is a very large organization that can throw a lot of weight at legislators who would just as soon as disarm everyone in America, the League is a very large organization that can throw a lot of weight at the FCC and legislators, and is just about all that stands between amateur radio operators and continuing infringement on the radio bands. Tell me that I, as a gun-owning American, can walk into my congresscritter’s office and get the time of day out of him/her/it on 2A issues. Or that as an amateur radio operator, ditto regarding spectrum defense or the ability to force a HOA to let me — a federally-licensed amateur radio operator — to put up a radio antenna in my back yard. (No, PRB-1 does not cover amateur radio antennas.)
I suspect that any rabid NRA hater who tried to stand up a competing organization which would be uncompromising regarding 2A rights would have a hard time getting any traction with the powers that be. Gottleib’s SAF comes about as close to that as I think anyone does, but they still operate in the shadow of the NRA. And I think that’s because the NRA has multiple constituencies and multiple interrelated tasks — education, hunter advocacy, editorial (the magazines), training, blah blah blah. They do a lot of stuff out of that office in Fairfax. Just like the ARRL does a lot of stuff out of their office in Newington.
And I imagine both organizations just sigh and think, “Well, you can’t make everyone happy, I guess,” while doing their level best to prevent the assholes from winning.
The haters need to remember what Ben Franklin wrote: “We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” The kind of infighting I’m seeing among gun owners regarding stupid fucking bump stocks is pretty much exactly the kind of thing Franklin meant.
“Nowhere do you mention deep sea fishing rights.”
It’s the same kind of argument. Get over it, already. There is a larger game afoot.