http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/01/24/news-flash-nra-members-think-government-is-coming-to-seize-their-guns Comments On: News Flash: NRA Members Think Government Is Coming to Seize Their Guns by Dominic Holden en-us Copyright 2013 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Sat, 25 May 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Sat, 25 May 2013 18:15:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Posted by BillOfRights]]> Sat, 26 Jan 2013 14:23:37 -0800 The Stranger Yes I am a member of the NRA, and resorting to name calling does not help get your point across, it makes me dismiss you as soon as you call me mentally ill.
Well informed rational dialoge and discourse will get us all closer to a solution.
Posted by BillOfRights]]> Sat, 26 Jan 2013 14:18:40 -0800 The Stranger Yes I am a member of the NRA, and resorting to name calling does not help get your point across, it makes me dismiss you as soon as you call me mentally ill.
Well informed rational dialoge and discourse will get us all closer to a solution.
Posted by BillOfRights]]> Sat, 26 Jan 2013 14:14:36 -0800 The Stranger
Oooh. I just thought of another question. How many actual liberals are you friends with? And what do they have to say about your "liberalism", as you call it?

It's just that you constantly bring it up. You could just post your pro-gun opinions, but you've made it very, very clear that you want everyone to know what a liberal you are. You've made it a big deal and so naturally there will be questions asked.
Posted by Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn]]> Fri, 25 Jan 2013 13:35:35 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Root]]> Fri, 25 Jan 2013 11:47:54 -0800 The Stranger
As a liberal I suggest you go fuck yourself.
Posted by CPN]]> Fri, 25 Jan 2013 11:37:01 -0800 The Stranger
So yeah, I want the kind of control we have with cars placed on guns because without them the number of deaths by car would be infinitely higher.
Posted by monkey]]> Fri, 25 Jan 2013 06:47:52 -0800 The Stranger Posted by NotSean]]> Fri, 25 Jan 2013 06:42:41 -0800 The Stranger Posted by NancyBalls]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 23:10:55 -0800 The Stranger
Source: A statistically invalid sample of one. The Future Mrs. Dr. Awesome's brother's facebook page (I see you rolling your eyes already, but bear with me). Since the Sandy Hook shootings he's posted one or two picture-meme thingys every day noting that bad things always happen when the Gub'mint tries to take your guns away. For example, the reason for the Indian massacre at the Battle of Little Bighorn was that the Gub'mint initiated it by trying to take away the guns from the Indians. And of course, Hitler took everyone's guns away, and see what happened there?

Otherwise he links to utterly looney sites such as Alex Jones's Prison Planet, with all the looney conspiracy theories about the Gub'mint coming to take away your guns.

But he's not just an irrelevant outlier in his thinking. All his rural buddies click 'like' on his posts, and he does the same for their urgent posts about the Gub'mint comin' to take yer guns. Meaning he is not alone out there, many, many others share his thinking.

Future Bro-in-Law asserted to me nearly four years ago that Obama could sign an executive order any second now that would make all his guns and accessories illegal. And the fact that four-plus years have gone by without that happening tells us that that has no chance of happening, but to him it means the opposite. The more time passes without all guns being banned, the more certain he is that the day will come that all guns will be banned. Critical thinking, if you haven't already guessed, is not his strong suit.

He sure appears to me to be the classic NRA member who is whipped into a frenzy by their scare tactics and push-polls into believing that all guns could be banned any day now.
Posted by Dr_Awesome]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 20:17:19 -0800 The Stranger "The only reason to ask that question—do you think the government should seize all guns?—and promote their reply is if NRA members believe that an actual, potentially real, not-a-parody-of-itself-but-totally-genuine policy is on the horizon to do that."

I suggest that you read some of the comments in these forums.
Or just do what #8 said and run a poll asking how many of your readers would be in favor of a complete ban on guns.
Posted by fairly.unbalanced]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:35:58 -0800 The Stranger
Have you noticed that no actual liberals begin every comment with "as a liberal..."? Ever wonder why you're the only one?

So, as a "liberal" do you recall which year it was that you clued into the fact that the NRA was full of shit? And why, as a "liberal", did you send them $1000?

As a "liberal", how did you feel, 30 years ago, when the NRA pushed through a law limiting unannounced ATF inspections to gun dealers to no more than one per year? Along with a host of other rules designed to hobble law enforcement?

How many other "liberals" do you know whose only actual political cause is unrestricted gun sales?
Posted by Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:50:54 -0800 The Stranger
So they're overwhelmingly in favor of laws keeping firearms away from the mentally ill, which would constitute a federal definition of mental illness presumably accompanied by a registry, so that it would come up on a background check. (We're also presumably repealing or weakening medical record confidentiality laws.)

What's to stop the big bad government from declaring you crazy and taking your guns?

Dudes are so eager to find a boogieman to blame for the gun problem they even short-circuit their own paranoia
Posted by eptified]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:50:52 -0800 The Stranger "Who cares what 98% of 1.3% of the US population thinks?"

Politicians.
Because that 1.3% is practically guaranteed to be the first to vote in every election.
Posted by fairly.unbalanced]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:37:26 -0800 The Stranger Posted by unpaid reader]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:36:24 -0800 The Stranger
Posted by Orv]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:20:20 -0800 The Stranger
Iiberallifetime? WTF?

I wrote my post from my phone...
Posted by CPN]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:39:26 -0800 The Stranger
I also have to say that many of their so-called positions are distortions via ignrance or flat-out lies by those with a visceral hatred of guns.

It's true that the NRA's messaging sucks and they prey on weak-minded right wingers as shamelessly as FOX News but, for someone like me, they're the only game in town when it comes to protecting my rights from those who do want total confiscation, like many here on the SLOG.

As a liberal city dweller it's a shitty deal, but I see no alternative, so I hold my nose and send them my money, my vote and write letters to my elected officials.


Posted by CPN]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:37:44 -0800 The Stranger Posted by IzzytheDog]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:26:03 -0800 The Stranger Posted by YoungBS]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:24:27 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Ballard Pimp]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:15:04 -0800 The Stranger
Best thing, as we ease into implementation of the Affordable Care Act in a meaningful way (fucking finally), would be to play the NRA and their co-conspirators in Congress for maximum support of mental-health benefits (talk therapy, medications, rehab, the whole megillah) in both employer-provided and private-purchase (through exchanges) health insurance, based on the NRA's attempt to blame all run-amok shootings on the improperly neglected mentally ill rather than lax firearm licensing/tracking. Do that while improving licensing/training/background checks, and, mirabile dictu, you'll see the incidence of accidental shootings decline.
Posted by rob!]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:10:58 -0800 The Stranger
I'd really be interested to see that poll.
Posted by CPN]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:00:25 -0800 The Stranger
Not that they should necessarily be armed.
Posted by doceb]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:47:26 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Hernandez]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:43:12 -0800 The Stranger