America's Gun Culture and Its Effect on the 2012 Election

THE NRA NEEDS A BIGGER TENT...

The NRA must expand its membership and lobbying to include fishermen, boaters, RVers, equestrians, divers, ranchers, farmers, off-roaders and prospectors - as well as manufacturers who produce products and equipment for these groups.

By now it should be obvious that the NRA will have fewer and fewer members as areas open to hunting and shooting are being closed down. Every years millions of acres of our "public lands" are being closed to the public.

Everyday, across the nation, we all pay for the environmental crusade of the “eco-elite”. When a rancher or farmer is forced to stop or curtail operations for one “environmentally correct “ reason or another we all pay in higher food prices. When a utility company can’t produce power because of concerns about nuclear plants or can’t build hydroelectric plants because of a threatened fish or snail, it costs us all. When a home builder can’t build homes for a growing nation without spending millions in environmental studies - the fees are paid by the home buyer. Manufacturers of all types products are shackled by huge costs and fees generated by environmental, regulation, litigation and legislation and when you buy your next car, piece of lumber or box of detergent you’ll be paying.

It seems no price is too great for the “Crusaders of Environmental Purity”. That may be true for the Martin Sheens and the Barbara Striesands and other members of the “eco-elite”, but what about the working people laboring under the ever increasing burden of these costs? Try and explain to a family trying to keep food on the table or staggering under medical bills that it was necessary to spend millions of dollars doing studies and building fences and closing roads to protect some weed, insect or salamander!

And, what about the cost in freedom and the human spirit when access to our lakes, streams, rivers and forests is being lost as the result of draconian environmental regulation?

When the eco-elite demand and litigate that roads and campgrounds be closed do we consider that not everyone is a young, healthy member of the Sierra Club, able to hike many miles into the woods to enjoy nature. Isn’t the disenfranchisement of the handicapped, the infirm, families with young children, the working poor and seniors from the outdoors too high a price to pay? Would we accept this discrimination in any other sector of our society?

Is a legacy of closed roads, abandoned campgrounds, fences, outlawed recreational activities. and high fees for what little recreational opportunity remains really what we want to leave future generations?

The NRA must expand it's lobbying efforts and membership to include all groups and companies who are affected by being disenfranchised from our public wild lands. 20 million+ members would have a lot more clout than 4 or 5 million.

It the NRA doesn't learn this lesson soon they will simply become irrelevant.

R.L. Schaefer of CA 12:03PM April 23, 2012

The author is ignoring-either by accident or design-the fact that Pres. Obama is a very astute politician, as well as a statist ideologue. He was intelligent (or cunning) enough to know that "gun control" would be a controversial non-starter which might jeopardize his chances at a second term; given that there can be no third term, I think it's obvious we can expect a cavalcade of gun restrictions, both legislated and enacted by executive order, in his next term. For starters, Sec. of State Clinton is poised to sign the U.N. small-arms treaty, which is chiefly a venue for the imposition of their civilian disarmament agenda on us; should the Senate ratify it, it will become the law of the land, and Congress and the President will have "no choice" but to impose draconian regulations on us. I see this as the most immediate danger, should this radical get another term. Frankly, I doubt that Romney will be much of an improvement. I live in Massachusetts, and as governor, he was just fine with the ridiculously strict and arbitrary laws we live under here.

John W. of MA 2:58AM April 23, 2012

From the founding of our nation until 1968 there was very little in the way of gun control. Firearms, often loaded, hung over fireplace mantels and stood in corners of tens of thousands of homes across the nation. Firearms could be purchased by anyone through the mail. There were no background checks or waiting periods. Children were taught to shoot, practice gun safety and act responsibly at an early age. Some schools even had shooting teams and guns were often brought to school and shot there.

So what changed? How did guns become evil? How did these inanimate objects turn so many of our youth into twisted and tortured souls since advent of “Gun Control”?

Could it be it’s wasn’t the guns. Could it be our youth and our society is actually effected by the immoral garbage Hollywood turns out and calls entertainment? Might there be a link to the thousands of ultra violent video games kids play at an ever younger age? Is it possible there is damage being done by the soulless, mindless and violent noise that passes for “music” nowadays? Aren’t we, as a society, made less honorable, by electing those with no honor to lead us. Isn’t it a problem when raising kids is left to the government or strangers while well-off parents pursue a bigger home, a flashier car or their own personal “growth”. Isn’t it sad that we have chased God to the shadows of our society, while promoting condoms in school and parading homosexual “pride”? Isn’t it a pity that our “wonderful economy” doesn’t provide the same standard of living it did 50 years ago when only one parent had to go to work to earn what it takes two incomes to accomplish now? Why do we listen to feminist groups who think being a mother is a “waste”. Haven’t we destroyed our respect for life by the promiscuous use of abortion as birth control?

Isn't it hypocritical that the”Hollywood elite” shove sex, gratuitous violence and moral poverty down our throats and then scream they’re protected by the First Amendment, and in the same breath, denounce the Second Amendment? What about the effect of drugs, illegal and prescribed, that our children take to alter or control their minds? Is the popular belief that morality is “free floating” and “If it feels good, do it.”, a good example for our children? Is part of the problem that we teach children to have self esteem without actually having to do something to earn it?

Could it be it’s wasn’t the guns. Could it be our youth and our society is actually effected by the immoral garbage Hollywood turns out and calls entertainment? Might there be a link to the thousands of ultra violent video games kids start playing at an ever younger age? Is it possible there is damage done by the soulless, mindless and violent noise that passes for “music” nowadays?

Aren’t we, as a society, made less honorable, by electing those with no honor to lead us?

It’s much easier to restrain the freedom of the people than to teach the people self-restraint.

R.L. Schaefer of CA 6:42PM April 22, 2012

I just read that GOA said he supported (re-newed)Lautenberg gun ban.

jerry of KS 5:45PM April 22, 2012