NRA to Blame for Democrats’ Extremism on Guns?

According to Ian Millhiser at ThinkProgress, the NRA can only blame themselves for the lack of cooperation on the part of elected Democrats. In Millhiser’s view, the NRA – by drawing a political line in the sand – has only encouraged Democrats to oppose them at every opportunity.

“The organization has spent the last several years seemingly doing everything in its power to discourage Democrats from playing ball with the gun lobby,” he wrote. “Early in the Obama presidency, for example, they sent a message that any official — or, at least, any Democrat — who departs from the gun lobby’s most maximalist stances would be labeled a heretic and subjected to the NRA’s full wrath.”

By taking aim at any politician who dared to oppose the official NRA stance on a variety of gun issues, Millhiser surmises, the organization made the choice easy for most Democrats. Senators, judges, and congressmen know that the NRA is always going to support a Republican over a Democrat, so there’s no incentive for Democrats to play ball with the almighty gun lobby.

It makes a certain amount of sense.

But only if you buy into the Obama/Clinton narrative that says that, were it not for that pesky NRA, gun laws in America would be completely different. This narrative – widely believed – says that this all-powerful, mysterious organization is single-handedly blocking democracy on the gun issue. Politicians want gun control, the people want gun control, the world wants gun control. Only the NRA is standing in the way.

This, of course, is obscenely false. First of all, the NRA couldn’t exist without the support of millions of Americans. These Americans have guided the direction of the NRA as much as the NRA has guided them. This organization is a political tool of the masses – masses that want to protect our constitutional liberties from the likes of liberal tyrants. Does that mean that every NRA member agrees with official NRA policy 100% of the time? Of course not. When is that ever true of anything?

But the majority of Americans who treasure the right to bear arms understand that Democrats are no friend to the Second Amendment. Maybe the NRA isn’t the best political weapon is could be. Maybe it’s even better than we appreciate. Either way, it is what it is. Not a shadowy corporation exerting influence from the top down, but a representation of the people – a loud voice comprised of millions of smaller ones.

Millhiser’s right; the NRA has been ruthless in going after anti-gun liberals. God willing, they won’t stop anytime soon.