Joe Henderson
While survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre got headlines and lots of support in the weeks following the murders there, the National Rifle Association was raking in cash.
Lots of cash.
The Miami Herald reported the NRA’s Political Victory Fund raised $2.4 million in March. For perspective, that is $1.5 million more than the NRA raised in the same period a year ago.
It’s just the latest mixed message about how to fairly and legally confront the issue of gun violence in Florida and throughout the nation. Rather than create a unified spirit of compromise after 17 people died in Parkland, lines have hardened and the violence continues.
Even as a 16-member commission created to study what happened in Parkland and make recommendations began its work, Gov. Rick Scott ordered flags lowered to half staff in memory of Gilchrist County Sheriff’s deputies Noel Ramirez and Taylor Lindsey.
They were shot to death last week while sitting down for lunch.
The killer was identified as John Hubert Highnote. He was found dead nearby after the shooting.
Why did he do it?
We may never know. Why does anyone do something like that?
Meanwhile, everyone now knows the story of James Scott, praised as a hero for wrestling an AR-15 away from the shooter during an attack Sunday morning in Nashville that killed four people at a Waffle House.
Scott likely saved many lives by confronting accused shooter Travis Reinking in the middle of the attack.
Scott was unarmed.
So much for the theory that a good guy with a gun is the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun.
Oh, and there was another school shooting in Florida – this time at Forest High School in Ocala, just as students were preparing to join a nationwide walkout to protest gun violence.
It didn’t get a lot of publicity because no one died, but it underscores the fact that lives can be shattered because someone with a grudge, a mental breakdown, or is bored and craves publicity has a firearm.
The NRA’s cash stash further shows that even as public opinion appears to be increasingly supportive of tighter gun controls, many others echo the vow of former NRA icon Charlton Heston’s that people will have to pry his gun from “my cold dead hands.”
Those weren’t big-money moguls filling the NRA’s coffers. The Herald reported all but $500,000 of the $2.4 million haul came from people writing checks of $200 or less.
That’s the kind of grass roots action that keeps gun-friendly politicians in line out of fear for the jobs.
It tells everyone else that the eternal quest for “commonsense gun laws” is futile. There apparently is no middle ground.
Strange days indeed.
Plan accordingly.
2 comments
Tim Curtis
April 24, 2018 at 12:55 pm
Lil’ Joey Henderson continually ignores the larger issue of the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens and continues his biased narrow focus. There’s No LAW that will preclude a bad person from obtaining a gun unlawfully. Joey apparently believes his good wishes will stop bad people from doing bad things – in fact, the only thing that stops people are good people – Armed or even unarmed, as the example of Mr. Scott demonstrates. Joey, welcome to reality. The other point to be made is there are sufficient laws that when properly enforced have the constitutional authority to remove guns from the hands of those that shouldn’t have them. “When properly enforced” is the key operative phrase. The guns shouldn’t have been returned to this person and that is a failure of enforcement – not a failure of our constitutional rights. Joey, get a clue.
Dan
April 24, 2018 at 7:22 pm
The Constitution states, “…,the right of the people to bear arms shall not be infringed.” Therefore, the “Commonsense gun law” is to find another inalienable right to stomp on, because this one will not be infringed or compromised for the Communist manifesto of this writer, or any other Marxist front group. The NRA is not our enemy, but one who teaches safety. If NRA stopped doing Mass Shootings we would not have a single life saved but if Left Wing Socialists, Communists, Collectivists, Progressive or Democrat stopped shooting people we would not have a Mass Shooting.
Comments are closed.