The N.R.A. Is Naming Names

The New York Times ^ | 10-13-03 | BOB HERBERT

[johnny7]

The National Rifle Association doesn't call it an enemies list, but deep in the recesses of the organization's Web site is a long, long compilation of the names of groups and individuals that the N.R.A. considers unfriendly.

I'm happy to report that I'm on the list, but my name is truly one among very many. The A.F.L.-C.I.O. is there, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. The Children's Defense Fund and the Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs are there. The United States Catholic Conference, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Y.W.C.A. of the U.S.A. are all there.

Among the celebrities on the list are Dr. Joyce Brothers, Candice Bergen, Walter Cronkite, Doug Flutie, Michelle Pfeiffer, Vinny Testaverde, Moon Zappa and the Temptations. Also on the list are the Kansas City Chiefs, Hallmark Cards, the Sara Lee Corporation, Ben & Jerry's, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City. I'm sure there's a method to the N.R.A. madness, but to tell you the truth, all I can see is the madness.

All of the groups and individuals listed are supposed to be anti-gun. I can't speak for the Kansas City Chiefs or Moon Zappa, but I'm not anti-gun. I think soldiers, the police and certain other law enforcement officials should have guns. Civilians, however, should be required to demonstrate a good reason for having firearms. We should go to great lengths to keep guns out of the hands of children, criminals and insane people. All guns should be registered. And all gun owners should be properly trained and licensed. The N.R.A. sees this as a radical, even lunatic position. So I guess we're at odds.

I asked Andrew Arulanandam, the N.R.A.'s director of public affairs, why the list had been compiled and displayed on the Web site. He said, "We put the list together in response to many requests by our members wanting to know which organizations support the rights of law-abiding Americans to keep and bear arms, and which organizations didn't." I asked what he thought his members would do with the information. He said, "How they use the information is at their own discretion."

I recently read Jules Witcover's book "The Year the Dream Died: Revisiting 1968 in America." The murders that year of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were among the great tragedies of U.S. history. Both were killed by freaks with guns. What is not so well known now is that President Lyndon Johnson tried, in the aftermath of the murders, to get Congress to pass legislation requiring the registration of guns and the licensing of owners. The gun lobby fought and killed that effort, and it continues to fight to the death any attempt to bring sanity to the manufacture, sale and possession of guns. Between 1968, the year of Johnson's failure to get his legislation passed, and 2001, the last year for which complete statistics are available, more than one million Americans were killed by firearms.

No number of gun-related fatalities or serious injuries is sufficient to deter the N.R.A. from its fanatical course. A former N.R.A. lawyer has admitted in an affidavit in a lawsuit that distributors and gun dealers have for years been illegally diverting guns that end up in the hands of criminals, and that the industry has closed its eyes to the practice.

Instead of fighting to end this threat to the public's safety, the gun lobby and its allies in Congress are pushing legislation that would protect the practice by granting special immunity from liability to gun manufacturers and sellers.

The big item on the legislative agenda next year is the federal assault-weapons ban signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994. Because of a sunset provision, the law will expire next September if it is not renewed by Congress and the president. The gun lobby has made it clear that it will do all in its power to bury the ban. The plan is to not even let the issue come up for a vote.

The N.R.A. Web site and its enemies list (which looks like nothing so much as a broad cross-section of America) has led inevitably to a counter Web site, nrablacklist.com, created by a group called stopthenra.com. In addition to facing off against the gun lobby on legislative matters, the new group and its site are inviting people to volunteer for a spot on the N.R.A. enemies list. Ah, free expression. 

[lepton]

since it almost doubles

Almost?

[grumple]

I stopped reading here...

Civilians, however, should be required to demonstrate a good reason for having firearms.

Who determines what is "good reason"? Thanks for lumping honest law abiding citizens who use their own "good reason" and sound judgement as compared to thugs and criminals who could care less about anyone's definition of "good reason"

One thing is for sure though...the criminal who could care less about "good reason", has one thing in common with the sound judgement minded individual at least...he's more than likely a "civilian".

And what about the folks who so thoughtfully determine "good reason" for those of us who exercise "sound judgement when owning a firearm....are they any less of a criminal? And if so, how do they determine and/or demonstrate "good reason"?

[strela]

I'm shocked to note that the United States Democratic Party is not on that list.

[Squantos]

Bob Herbert and his fellow presstitutes just don't get it. Without the 2nd there is no 1st..........ect ect ect

Stay Safe !

[in the Arena]

I think soldiers, the police and certain other law enforcement officials should have guns. Civilians, however, should be required to demonstrate a good reason for having firearms.

Police are civilians...

[Tijeras_Slim]

They'd be perfectly happy to work for Pravda or Der Sturmer.

[Joe Brower]

"Bob Herbert and his fellow presstitutes just don't get it."

Well, at some point they will "get it", and by then it will be too late for them.

Fools. Worse, fools with a very large megaphone.

[Joe Brower]

"Police are civilians..."

Telling, isn't it? To dumbsh!ts like Bob Herbert, they are the same, when, as we here know better, despite similarities in equipement and tactics (somewhat unfortunately), the missions are extremely different.

This common misperception must make those "large and in charge", lean back, smile with satisfaction, and say to themselves, "Mission accomplished!".

[auggy]

I knew it. The AARP had to be there.

I refused to join them because, they were too liberal. I wrote them about it. Never received any reply.

[CAfraudPI]

He probably took the liberty of lumping the 'Nam statistics into that figure.

[auggy]

I'll bet 80% of the Hollywood stars own guns or their bodyguards carry guns.

[archy]

I think soldiers, the police and certain other law enforcement officials should have guns. Civilians, however, should be required to demonstrate a good reason for having firearms.

Thanks for nothing, Mr Herbert.

[MarkL]

The reason that the KC Chiefs and BC & BS of KC is on the list is the fact that they publicly opposed the CCW law in Mo.

I wrote a letter to Lamar Hunt telling him that I would never attend another Chiefs gate. I love football, and the Chiefs, but I'll never step foot in Arrowhead Stadium again, and it irks me that some of my taxes go to the Chiefs organization.

Mark

[archy]

Absolutely! I'm not for taking the right to vote away from women either.

Only those who haven't served in the military, per Heinlein.

-archy-/-

[Spok]

When liberals do this, it's called a boycott. When conservatives do it, it's an enemies list. This kind of doublethink spin reveals their lack of serious arguments.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

They forgot the US Attorney General John Ashcroft
and the members of 103d US Congress who "gave" us the unlawful Brady Bill.
Ashcroft has done nothing to challenge this law.

Text of the Second Amendment
"A well regulated Militia
being necessary to the security of a free State,
the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed."

Anyone who actually reads AND understands the 2nd Amendment will see that there is no need or authority for any type of gun registration and there is no need for anyone to have to apply for a license to carry a gun.
Any political party, politician, judge (etc), organization or individual who trys to convince you that:
1) you must register a firearm
2) you must pass a background check
3) you must wait (x) amount of days before you can get your firearm
4) you need to have a license to carry a gun
is either uneducated about OUR rights as citizens
OR is actively working to undermine OUR country.

How Did the Founders Understand the Second Amendment?

CONGRESS in 1866, 1941 and 1986 REAFFIRMS THE SECOND AMENDMENT
The Bill of Rights, including the Second Amendment right to keep and bear firearms,
originated in the United States Congress in 1789 before being ratified by the States.
On three occasions since then--in 1866, 1941, and 1986--
Congress enacted statutes to reaffirm this guarantee of personal freedom
and to adopt specific safeguards to enforce it.

ON THE DAY BEFORE Thanksgiving 1993,
the 103d US Congress brought forth a constitutional turkey.
The 103d Congress decided that the Second Amendment did not mean what it said
("...shall not be infringed") and passed the Brady bill.
How the Brady Bill Passed (and subsequently - "Instant Check")
When the Brady Bill was passed into law on November 24, 1993,
the Senate voted on the Conference Report
and passed the Brady Bill by UNANIMOUS CONSENT.

[unixfox]

I'm not anti-gun. I think soldiers, the police and certain other law enforcement officials should have guns.

Good little serfs usually get what they deserve.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

"I'll bet 80% of the Hollywood stars own guns or their bodyguards carry guns."

I'll bet that 100% of the 103d Congress who "gave" us the Brady Bill
own guns or their bodyguards carry guns.

[TERMINATTOR]

Burt Gummer (Michael Gross) is a gun grabber? Say it ain't so!

Molon Labe!

[Squantos]

Polidiots, teachers and media historically are the first to get "enlightened" in most countries civil wars. Too many tin horn dictators use the international media at that point to promote themselves to the world as the answer/cure to the ills of a nation they subvert.

Polidiots at the point hostilities start have zero purpose "officially" and are fair game for payback in such arenas . Teachers are shot or replaced and little minds are re-educated. With all that said history IMHO has proven to Polidiots, Presstitutes and teachers that if the a republic falls and anarchy prevails they are the first to go.

Pretty much ,sadly, they are the last to get it and the first to get it per se..........Their choice, our task is to prepare, prevent and repair if it comes to such a shit storm..

Such prevention includes monitoring those losers who kick the USA in the teeth daily from other countries like Candice Bergan (Charlie McCarthy's biggest dummy) who lives in France, hates the USA with a passion , yet is considered a celeb worth listening too.......Bizarre ? No ......NRA just monitoring Cultural Terrorism and it's supporters !

Stay Safe !