January 29, 2013: The NRA is a Terrorist Organization, Clear and Present Danger, None Dare Call it Treason

 "The N.R.A is a terrorist organization"
                                   ----from the "Quotations of Chairman Joe"
                                                                                                                                              

“No one - no matter where he lives or what he does - can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on and on in this country of ours.”

                                ---Senator Robert F. Kennedy April 5, 1968

Senator Kennedy made those remarks at the Cleveland City Club in Cleveland, Ohio on the day following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.  The cities were then exploding in riot as the nation reeled in violent reaction.  Kennedy himself, no innocent on questions of state-sponsored violence, was nevertheless stunned by the events late in his life to have travelled a significant distance along the path of self-introspection and had begun to question the assumptions upon which violence and threats of violence were then based.  Only weeks away from his own death, he serves as a poignant reminder of the costs of violence and the tolerance of it by this society.  

It does indeed go on and on and on in this country of ours.  Last year we lost over 13,000 of our fellow citizens to gun violence; over 1300 since that day last month when a clearly mentally disturbed young man opened fire in an elementary school killing 20 young children and half a dozen teachers and adults.  The public outcry in the wake of this bloodbath has finally, it seems, moved the question of gun control up to the front burner.

The Obama administration, never eager to wander into the political swamp that gun-control entails has heretofore stood mute as it witnessed and helped the nation morn the bloodbath at Virginia Tech, the temple killings, and the shooting at a Colorado movie theatre.  The Administration even stood mute when Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was critically wounded and several of party including a judge and little girl were killed at a “meet your Congresswoman” event—a town meeting, the administration presided over the national shock and grief and quietly decided not to tackle the N.R.A. 

Often referred to as the most powerful lobby in a city where the lobbies are indeed powerful, at least since Al Gore lost Tennessee and West Virginia to ‘Ol Two-Cows back at the turn of the millennium, the reach and influence of the N.R.A has been inflated to such proportions as to resemble the dimensions of the much hallowed 100 foot Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man; a leviathan terrorizing the community as it ambles down the streets of America with chaos and destruction trailing in its wake.  Dubya’s payoff to the fealty of the N.R.A. to the Rescumlican cause was to let the laws passed during the Clinton Administration expire and open the way for the widespread sale of military-style assault weapons throughout the country with predictably certain consequences.  Following the trail blazed by the likes of Alex Jones, Glenn Beck and other tin hats, the NRA has steadfastly resisted every effort to bring reasonable action to bear in the name of public safety.  They have resisted the ban of assault weapons, hollow point bullets, armor piercing bullets, bullets that can pierce vests and other equipment for protection of police.  They have resisted the creation of a national registry, the screening of purchases by the emotionally disturbed.  They have even acted through their shills in Congress, as a reaction to alleged federal “crimes” at Waco and Ruby Ridge to the appointment of a new head of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm Agency.   So effective  have been the efforts of the NRA that  as of this writing, the ATF, which oversees what passes for firearms control in this country, has not had an agency head for the last six years.

One has only to witness the rant of one Alex Jones on national television a couple of weeks ago.  In their mind the real reason that we need to bear arms is to have weapons with which to “secure our freedom”.  In the minds of these whacko’s this means freedom from our enemy—which, since the days of “Ronald of the Late, Late Show” means, increasingly, our own government.  In the minds of these scholars, the militia referred to in the second amendment is organized not in defense but in opposition their own government.  Accordingly as the President, however tardily and reluctantly he takes up the issue of gun control, is roundly compared to King George if not Hitler and Stalin. 

Let’s make no mistake about it.  The idiot wrong and the gun-nuts aligned with them (Ted Nugent leaps to mind) espouse a world view rife with ignorance, paranoia, fear and loathing combined with the means of wreaking havoc upon the innocent at any time, and threatening periodically (the Oklahoma Bombings come to mind) to turn on the very government whose fundamental charge is to protect us from “all enemies foreign and domestic”

Query:  If the purpose of the militia is no longer to come to the defense of the state but to challenge it, and perhaps oppose it, does this militia thereby pass from being an “arm” of the state (as in to “bear arms” for the state), to bear arms against the state?  Does not such a militia thereby become an enemy of the state by definition?  Does it not follow that those who enable the formation and arming of such militias thereby creating a “clear and present” danger to the state.  Are not these open acts attempts to intimidate if not threatening to the state?  Are not these acts covert if not overt treason?   The N.R.A is a facilitator and an enabler of this threat.  It is, at base, a terrorist organization.   Let us hope that the Sta-Puft man can be as easily dispensed with.  Let us hope that the NRA proves to be a paper tiger, a bag of hot air, and a giant marshmallow man.  The recent lack of success in the last election cycle is encouraging.  Let us hope and pray that this be the case.

In the meantime it goes on and on and on in this country of ours.