L
nra = appeasement
nra not = constitution
Call ‘em. It’s a toll free number. 1-800-392-8683.
My response to the NRA-ILA and my congressman:
Gentlemen,
There is an article in today’s Washington Post that indicates the NRA is working with Representative John Dingle to “bolster the national background-check system and potentially block gun purchases by the mentally ill.” While no one supports unstable individuals having access to any means of harming others, the devil is truly in the details.
Will guns be singled out as the only covered means of harm, as opposed to a two thousand pound vehicle traveling at seventy miles an hour, for instance? Who gets to establish who is “mentally ill” and by what criteria? For example, would a person who is prescribed a medication for a hopefully temporary condition of depression (a mental illness) qualify? Or, will a medical doctor who might consider possession of a gun in home with small children as “crazy” adjudicate the criterion? Will, the provisions of HIPPA be strengthened to require notification of the individual that they have been blocked and provide real and meaningful recourse to have the process independently evaluated and reversed?
After long debating joining the NRA and finally doing so this year, I did not sign up to being a party to knee-jerk responses to a tragedy in the hopes of being seen as “reasonable”. I trust the NRA will concentrate on broadening the means of self defense of all law abiding individuals over the potential for inviting unintended consequences by attempting to restrict the very, very few.
If we gather anything from the horrible events at Virginia Tech this week, it should be that the picture could have been vastly different had the victims not been denied the means of effective self defense by “reasonable” restrictions. Criminals and the unstable will always have the means to harm others, whether by guns, or knives, baseball bats, or their bare hands. Let’s not dip our hands in the blood of innocents by weakening their survivors in the attempt to show how reasonable we are.
Sincerely,
LTCJ
NRA 000xxxxxxxxx
JPFO, Charter Member
cc: Representative Jack Kingston
Let the NRA agree to this...it will be the mental health lobby that blocks it.
Besides, I’m not sure that preventing mentally ill (If defined as involuntarily committed) people from purchasing a firearm wouldn’t be considered a reasonable restriction that would survive strict scrutiny.