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The NRA's leadership is dominated by industry: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/01/new-evidence-that-the-nra-might-be-just-another-corporate-fro

The NRA's leadership is dominated by industry: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/01/new-evidence-that-the-nra-might-be-just-another-corporate-front/267244/ http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/01/new-evid... The sole purpose of the NRA is to protect corporate profit: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-weisser/open-letter-to-wayne-lapi_b_3219807.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-weisser/open-letter-to-wa...

hga 13y ago
Why do you find it difficult to believe the two are in near perfect alignment? OK, it was a bit complicated when there were large stocks of military surplus still to be liquidated, the NRA supported both the GCA of '68 but also the later relaxation of imports of military surplus. On the other hand, do you really think the members of the NRA find it damning that one of the Nominating Committee members is "a timber company executive in Alabama" like Mother Jones does??? You think we're a hot bed of hatred towards free enterprise? Very curious that the NRA put George Kollitides on the Nominating Committee because of his history, but it's hardly out of whack to have one manufacturer and one dealer member each; in fact, that sounds about right. Your claim that it having 2 out of 9 members from the industry means they "dominate" the NRA leadership does not stand up to examination. Heck, even the Atlantic article you cite says "the corporate-front theory is still probably too simplistic" and "It's very hard to disentagle the interests of the gun industry from the views of gun rights purists." Indeed: no gun or ammo manufactures rather obviously means no guns and ammo for us to shoot. We've very interested in their health, we're in the same boat, attack them, you attack us. And the NSSF does quite a bit for gun owners in a whole range of areas including the political, although their focus is of course on the industry. As for "sole purpose", I didn't bother to read the cited article, but do you mean the NRA's gun safety efforts, largely credited with decreasing the absolute number of fatal gun accidents by 1/4 at the same time the population and number of guns owned has increased by 1/2, was solely done to protect "corporate profit"? Sorry, I'm not that cynical.
- reader5000 13y ago
  The gun industry sells an image of masculinity and rugged individualism. The NRA is part of this image, and arguably is the greatest public relations strategy in the history of Western consumerism. Unlike say blue jeans commercials where manly men hang out on their pickup trucks which most people realize is purely for marketing, people really think the NRA and associated marketing is real. All the purchase of a firearm represents is a very slight decrease in the probability that you and the civilians around you will survive tomorrow. Widespread availability of firearms also enables and promotes the terrorism we regularly see carried out in the US, but of course the probability of being personally victimized by terrorism is exceedingly low. So no, gun owners and gun industry interests are not "aligned". Gun industry makes enormous profit on the sale of its image. Gun owners get the benefit of believing they are rugged individuals protecting liberty, at the cost of a couple hundred/thousand bucks and living in a modestly more dangerous society.
  - hga 13y ago
    http://www.taurususa.com/product-details.cfm?id=717&category=Pistol http://www.taurususa.com/product-details.cfm?id=717&cate... http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product4_750001_750051_795547_-1_757786_757784_757784_ProductDisplayErrorView_Y http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Produc... But most people just use Duracoat: http://www.lauerweaponry.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=1052 http://www.lauerweaponry.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.d... As in the famous, and very real and functioning California legal Hello Kitty AR-15: https://www.google.com/search?q=hello+kitty+ar-15&tbm=isch&biw=1166&bih=711&sei=zOeHUaObE-Lh4AOv4YDwDA https://www.google.com/search?q=hello+kitty+ar-15&tbm=is... Or see this curated list: http://www.kittyhell.com/category/hello-kitty-guns/ http://www.kittyhell.com/category/hello-kitty-guns/ To my eyes, most of these guns look to be real. If your mind isn't completely closed, you might take a gander at: http://women.nra.org/ http://women.nra.org/ As for your more general point, since the members of the NRA don't agree with your positions on the consequences of an armed polity, we are indeed very much in alignment with the firearms industry. Granted, we might be wrong, but you can't blithely substitute your opinion for the opinions of NRA members and then legitimately come to your overall opinion. Ah, it also goes without saying that we don't believe in the concept of false consciousness. We don't think anything is wrong with Kansas (especially now that it's under conservative state government for the first time ever and going even more pro-gun).

hga 13y ago

Why do you find it difficult to believe the two are in near perfect alignment? OK, it was a bit complicated when there were large stocks of military surplus still to be liquidated, the NRA supported both the GCA of '68 but also the later relaxation of imports of military surplus. On the other hand, do you really think the members of the NRA find it damning that one of the Nominating Committee members is "a timber company executive in Alabama" like Mother Jones does??? You think we're a hot bed of hatred towards free enterprise? Very curious that the NRA put George Kollitides on the Nominating Committee because of his history, but it's hardly out of whack to have one manufacturer and one dealer member each; in fact, that sounds about right. Your claim that it having 2 out of 9 members from the industry means they "dominate" the NRA leadership does not stand up to examination. Heck, even the Atlantic article you cite says "the corporate-front theory is still probably too simplistic" and "It's very hard to disentagle the interests of the gun industry from the views of gun rights purists." Indeed: no gun or ammo manufactures rather obviously means no guns and ammo for us to shoot. We've very interested in their health, we're in the same boat, attack them, you attack us. And the NSSF does quite a bit for gun owners in a whole range of areas including the political, although their focus is of course on the industry. As for "sole purpose", I didn't bother to read the cited article, but do you mean the NRA's gun safety efforts, largely credited with decreasing the absolute number of fatal gun accidents by 1/4 at the same time the population and number of guns owned has increased by 1/2, was solely done to protect "corporate profit"? Sorry, I'm not that cynical.

reader5000 13y ago
The gun industry sells an image of masculinity and rugged individualism. The NRA is part of this image, and arguably is the greatest public relations strategy in the history of Western consumerism. Unlike say blue jeans commercials where manly men hang out on their pickup trucks which most people realize is purely for marketing, people really think the NRA and associated marketing is real. All the purchase of a firearm represents is a very slight decrease in the probability that you and the civilians around you will survive tomorrow. Widespread availability of firearms also enables and promotes the terrorism we regularly see carried out in the US, but of course the probability of being personally victimized by terrorism is exceedingly low. So no, gun owners and gun industry interests are not "aligned". Gun industry makes enormous profit on the sale of its image. Gun owners get the benefit of believing they are rugged individuals protecting liberty, at the cost of a couple hundred/thousand bucks and living in a modestly more dangerous society.
- hga 13y ago
  http://www.taurususa.com/product-details.cfm?id=717&category=Pistol http://www.taurususa.com/product-details.cfm?id=717&cate... http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product4_750001_750051_795547_-1_757786_757784_757784_ProductDisplayErrorView_Y http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Produc... But most people just use Duracoat: http://www.lauerweaponry.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=1052 http://www.lauerweaponry.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.d... As in the famous, and very real and functioning California legal Hello Kitty AR-15: https://www.google.com/search?q=hello+kitty+ar-15&tbm=isch&biw=1166&bih=711&sei=zOeHUaObE-Lh4AOv4YDwDA https://www.google.com/search?q=hello+kitty+ar-15&tbm=is... Or see this curated list: http://www.kittyhell.com/category/hello-kitty-guns/ http://www.kittyhell.com/category/hello-kitty-guns/ To my eyes, most of these guns look to be real. If your mind isn't completely closed, you might take a gander at: http://women.nra.org/ http://women.nra.org/ As for your more general point, since the members of the NRA don't agree with your positions on the consequences of an armed polity, we are indeed very much in alignment with the firearms industry. Granted, we might be wrong, but you can't blithely substitute your opinion for the opinions of NRA members and then legitimately come to your overall opinion. Ah, it also goes without saying that we don't believe in the concept of false consciousness. We don't think anything is wrong with Kansas (especially now that it's under conservative state government for the first time ever and going even more pro-gun).