Avlon: NRA's enemies list: Most of America

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/06/opinion/avlon-nra-enemy-list/index.html ^

[ExxonPatrolUs]

(CNN) - Question: What do George Clooney, Chaka Khan, the American Medical Association, Bon Jovi and C. Everett Koop have in common?

Answer: They are among the 500 names on the National Rifle Association's absurd new "enemies list."

Richard Nixon would be embarrassed to find that his once sinister form of score-keeping has been revived so promiscuously by the NRA. But there is some redeeming social value here: The list illustrates an organization that has become hermetically sealed from society at large, so caught up in conservative debates that it has forgotten how to connect with Main Street America.

The enemies list was first posted on the NRA's website in mid-September, hiding in plain sight under the banner "National Organizations with Anti-Gun Policies." But with the debate about reasonable gun restrictions reignited after the Sandy Hook Elementary School slaughter, the NRA's enemies list has become just the latest example of seriously bad judgment inside this once proud organization.

Because whatever staffer was tasked with accumulating the list took the idea of "you're either with us or against us" so literally that everyone who isn't a card-carrying conservative seems to be counted as an enemy.

The list is divided into broad categories, including "Anti-Gun Individuals and Celebrities," journalists, civic organizations and corporations -- as well as a grab bag category that includes religious leaders. You don't have to be a charter member of Mensa to see how this is going to alienate far more Americans than it attracts.

[dbehsman]

What a bunch if crap! The author acts as if the NRA is persecuting the anti-gun actors. The list has been around for years. It was compiled so that NRA members would be aware about who hates them. In fact, Dustin Hoffman was insulted that his name was not on the list and publicly complained about it. In keeping with his wishes, the NRA put his name on the list.

I also like the one about how the NRA is not mainstream. Really CNN? In the past couple of months, the NRA has added about 250,000 members in the last two months. That's more members than CNN has viewers!