What if the NRA went away?

[nostradumbass]

The left loves to shit on the NRA and have cute chants like "Hey Hey NRA, how many did you kill today?"(answer is always 0 btw). They also make the claim that NRA has bought congress and the senate, as if Marco Rubio was anti-gun until that sweet $5,000 campaign donation changed his mind. They give to the candidates who already agree with them to help their campaign, they don't control how pro-gun or anti-gun a candidate is. It's the same reason planned parenthood gives 100% of its donations to pro-abortion democrats.

So what would change if the NRA went away? Is it just that it would be easier to take away constitutional rights? What would disbanding the NRA solve?

 

[nac386]

The NRA gives gun owners a bad name, in my opinion. The propaganda ads that they put out these days seem like SNL spoofs. I am a gun owner, and I'd like to keep my guns, but I'd also like the NRA to stop making everybody think that gun owners are paranoid and insane.

 

[ocfightfan]

Someone else would fill the gap. In a big democracy like ours you are going to have advocacy organizations trying to influence public opinion and elected officials.

 

[Gestas]

The NRA gives gun owners a bad name, in my opinion. The propaganda ads that they put out these days seem like SNL spoofs. I am a gun owner, and I'd like to keep my guns, but I'd also like the NRA to stop making everybody think that gun owners are paranoid and insane.

You should be paranoid. You have a whole generation of brain-deads who will be voting soon. They'll be voting to restrict and eventually ban guns, so that they'll "feel" good.

 

[new_mexico1]

Hopefully a better group would replace it. A not so garbage one.

 

[Viva]

Well I can imagine the public's perception of your average gun owner would likely improve tremendously. The NRA is just another wonky organization that further divides the country’s views on guns.

 

[Gestas]

It's interesting that people are whining about an organization that is for protecting the second amendment. It'd be like if a person whined about an organization that protects the first amendment. You'd wonder what that person's intentions were.

 

[nostradumbass]

Well I can imagine the public's perception of your average gun owner would likely improve tremendously. The NRA is just another wonky organization that further divides the country’s views on guns.

They're the reason there still is an "average gun owner". They keep the conversation where it is because there is no place where the left got what they wanted and then just stopped and plenty of examples where they completely wrecked places piece by piece.

 

[nostradumbass]

The NRA gives gun owners a bad name, in my opinion. The propaganda ads that they put out these days seem like SNL spoofs. I am a gun owner, and I'd like to keep my guns, but I'd also like the NRA to stop making everybody think that gun owners are paranoid and insane.

Well the left flat out say they want to ban guns, so it's hardly paranoia.

 

[Steven_Universe]

The NRA takes in hundreds of millions per year.

They ain’t going anywhere until people stop donating.

 

[hillelslovak87]

There would be plenty enough gun organizations to print magazines for Ted Nugent to jerk off to. Otherwise, he'll be reading teen magazines....

 

[Scrody]

It'd be a sad day.

 

[panamaican]

We'd have fewer crappy threads about them?

Make the War Room Great Again.

 

[GOATER]

If the Option is NRA or no NRA.....I think the 2nd amendment will be safer with Crazy ass NRA.


However, if the was another group like the NRA who didn't use fear tactics and bullshit....I believe it will help gun owners/America much better.

 

[Farmer Br0wn]

Without the NRA, our gun rights would be similar to the U.K.'s gun "rights".

"No excuses: there is never a reason to carry a knife, Anyone who does will be caught, and they will feel the full force of the law."

-Sadiq Kahn, current mayor of London

It's quite telling that those who oppose the NRA are trying to impose the kind of society that those in power desire and thrive in most.

 

[Trotsky]

The left loves to shit on the NRA and have cute chants like "Hey Hey NRA, how many did you kill today?"(answer is always 0 btw). They also make the claim that NRA has bought congress and the senate, as if Marco Rubio was anti-gun until that sweet $5,000 campaign donation changed his mind. They give to the candidates who already agree with them to help their campaign, they don't control how pro-gun or anti-gun a candidate is. It's the same reason planned parenthood gives 100% of its donations to pro-abortion democrats.

So what would change if the NRA went away? Is it just that it would be easier to take away constitutional rights? What would disbanding the NRA solve?

Umm, not a lot, probably.

The "muh guns" 2nd Amendment absolutist obsession didn't spring from the NRA, but from the right-wing generally after we elected a black man and the Republicans could rally support by saying he was going to assemble a Black Panther army, enforce Sharia Law, put everyone in concentration camps, etc. Before that, Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II had all passed gun-restrictive measures.

The fact of the matter is that the right and the Republican Party have successfully carved out footholds in anti-gun fear mongering now, such that it's much more about electoral considerations than it is about the (relatively small) amount of financial support from the gun lobby.

If the NRA was dissolved, the conversation would probably be slightly less vitriolic, since there would be one less platform for videos like that recent one talking about armed revolution against the liberal thugs and their fake news, etc. But I don't think it would mean all that much.


The NRA is really just a stand-in for gun rights absolutism generally.

 

[Trotsky]

Without the NRA, our gun rights would be similar to the U.K.'s gun "rights".

"No excuses: there is never a reason to carry a knife, Anyone who does will be caught, and they will feel the full force of the law."

-Sadiq Kahn, current mayor of London

It's quite telling that those who oppose the NRA are trying to impose the kind of society that those in power desire and thrive in most.

You think that an interest group with a total worth of about $250 million is what is protecting that (huge) span of rights?
On behalf of an industry that is worth $30 billion (120x more)?
In a country that spends $20 billion a year (80x more) on campaigns?

 

[Farmer Br0wn]

You think that an interest group with a total worth of about $250 million is what is protecting that (huge) span of rights?
On behalf of an industry that is worth $30 billion (120x more)?
In a country that spends $20 billion a year (80x more) on campaigns?

Yes.

Because it's not about the money.

It's the millions of active, voting members that give the NRA the power to protect the Second Amendment.

 

[Trotsky]

Yes.

Because it's not about the money.

It's the millions of active, voting members that give the NRA the power to protect the Second Amendment.

That doesn't make any sense. Those members give the NRA power through the aforementioned money. The NRA itself doesn't get to vote. So to say it's "not about the money" is just nonsensical. It's only about the money, unless you somehow think persons who don't care about guns randomly join the NRA for ???? and then are thereafter converted into firearm enthusiasts.

If the NRA didn't exist, the GOP would be held to the exact same electoral pressures from their base that they are now. And if you think it's the NRA's independent expenditures, or are of the cynical opinion that it's just those relatively small donations to candidates that make them toe the line (and not the fear of being tossed out of their job by the voters), then I assure you there are plenty of similarly situated and similarly purposed interest groups.

Those "millions of active, voting members" are the ones protecting the 2nd Amendment...not some mid-sized interest group. To think otherwise is to have a supremely cynical view of how corrupt the GOP is (and that is a red pill that you cannot regurgitate).

 

[Cuauhtemoc]

That doesn't make any sense. Those members give the NRA power through the aforementioned money.

It's not just through money. An organization let's people organize and plan on how to vote on a specific idea. The same applies to churches, the freemasonry or whatever. These groups can have a larger influence than the money they manage.