VPC goes to bizarre lengths to establish link between NRA, gun industry

St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 22 November, 2013 | Kurt Hofmann

[marktwain]

While anti-gun groups all seem fixated on the notion that the "gun lobby" (a term they use as a synonym for the NRA, despite the wild inaccuracy of that idea) is primarily motivated by a mutually profitable relationship with the gun industry, it's the Violence Policy Center that pushes this charge most consistently and shrilly. This column has covered VPC's obsession with that issue before:

The group's executive director Josh Sugarmann has written several Huffington Post opinion pieces on just that subject: "NRA, Board Members, Have Financial Stake in Stopping Ban on High-Cap Magazines," "NRA Receives Millions from Gun Industry 'Corporate Partners,'" "NRA Reaps Profits From the Internet Ammo Sales It Made Possible."

And let us not forget: "Trayvon Martin: Victim of NRA/Gun Industry Marketing of Concealed Carry," "NRA’s Long-Running Opposition to Regulation of Common Explosives Threatens Public Safety While Benefiting Its Gun Industry 'Corporate Partners' New VPC Report Reveals" and "NRA Meets in Houston to Promote Gun Industry's 'Latest and Greatest Products'."

VPC's favorite theme, in other words, is that the NRA is a bought and paid for propaganda arm of the gun industry, opposing gun laws because the less regulated guns are, the more money there is to be made manufacturing and selling them. As VPC's executive director Josh Sugarmann wrote in the Huffington Post:

The report, Blood Money: How the Gun Industry Bankrolls the NRA, reveals that since 2005 contributions from gun industry "corporate partners" to the NRA total between $14.7 million and $38.9 million.

[marktwain]

Kurt shows how silly the VPC claims are. It shows the leftist roots of the argument that Sugarman feels compelled to use discredited Marxist economic theory to explain why the NRA exists and what its motivations are.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks marktwain. Violence Policy Center ping.

[gundog]

I’d be willing to bet that most of the money ends up in the pockets of trial lawyers.

[marktwain]

You are welcome.