It comes as little surprise, but the National Rifle Association noted yesterday that it would not cooperate with a White House push to enact further legislation to control the sale and ownership of guns. The move by President Obama and Vice President Biden is largely one of diversion – current gun laws are loosely enforced, violators leniently punished and violence occurs even outside the scope of the so-called "assault rifles" and high-capacity magazines that the administration wishes to restrict. Thinking that the administration may be interested in curbing violence against children, the NRA took part in the early talks, but quickly learned that the point of the talks was to immediately jump to gun restrictions rather than stopping violence and its underlying causes.
As a case in point, a school student in California yesterday opened fire with a shotgun and wounded two students, then decided to stop the would-be rampage for unclear reasons. There is, of course, no talk of limiting the sale of shotguns. More telling is that there has been no discussion of other, larger problems in American society, where the social fabric of the country has begun to tear and the way of life little resembles the idyllic Rockwellian world that America purported to be back in the 1940s and 1950s.
Perhaps because of that, or more likely because its goal is to protect all gun ownership and the second amendment of the Constitution, the NRA wasn’t on board with Biden. "We were disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment. While claiming that no policy proposals would be 'prejudged,' this task force spent most of the time on proposed restrictions on lawful firearms owners - honest, taxpaying, hardworking Americans," the NRA said. "It is unfortunate that this administration continues to insist on pushing failed solutions to our nation's most pressing problems."
As a case in point, a school student in California yesterday opened fire with a shotgun and wounded two students, then decided to stop the would-be rampage for unclear reasons. There is, of course, no talk of limiting the sale of shotguns. More telling is that there has been no discussion of other, larger problems in American society, where the social fabric of the country has begun to tear and the way of life little resembles the idyllic Rockwellian world that America purported to be back in the 1940s and 1950s.
Perhaps because of that, or more likely because its goal is to protect all gun ownership and the second amendment of the Constitution, the NRA wasn’t on board with Biden. "We were disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment. While claiming that no policy proposals would be 'prejudged,' this task force spent most of the time on proposed restrictions on lawful firearms owners - honest, taxpaying, hardworking Americans," the NRA said. "It is unfortunate that this administration continues to insist on pushing failed solutions to our nation's most pressing problems."