Don’t blame the NRA for the Florida shooting


(Opinion) The horrible shooting in Parkland, Fla. yesterday isn’t the first, and it almost certainly won’t be the last.

At least 17 people were killed when a 19-year-old man opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in south Florida on Wednesday afternoon. Fourteen were wounded with five of those facing life-threatening injuries.

The suspect was identified as Nikolas Cruz, who is charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Predictably and immediately, the partisans in Washington, D.C. go to their battle stations. The Democratic side goes for the easy shot-on-goal and blames Republican lawmakers for an unwillingness to pass legislation to restrict the purchase of guns.

As we’re to believe, the evil organization playing puppeteer behind the scenes is the National Rifle Association.

Take former beauty queen and Democratic congressional hopeful Mallory Hagan, who is making a long-shot bid against Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Saks) for Alabama’s third congressional district seat.

Almost immediately on Wednesday after Rogers took to Twitter to offer “thoughts and prayers,” Hagan took a swipe at Rogers for accepting contributions from the NRA.

Another example on a national level comes from Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), the Democratic Party’s 2016 vice-presidential nominee. He appeared on this morning’s episode of a self-proclaimed righteously indignant “Morning Joe” on MSNBC to argue Republicans shouldn’t be afraid of the NRA.

“I live in the state where the NRA has the headquarters,’” he said. “I know this organization. When I run, they give me an F. They campaign against me. They have never been able to beat me in Virginia. But you don’t need to be afraid of them. They’re sort of a paper tiger. But I have colleagues who are still afraid, and I’ll tell you why. They’re not afraid that the NRA’s positions are popular. No, support for background checks is popular. But they’re afraid the NRA will come in their state and run ads against them. And when the NRA runs ads, they don’t say you’re for background record check. They pick something else and attack you over that because the NRA knows its own positions aren’t popular with the American public.”

He’s right about one thing – the NRA is sort of a paper tiger. In last year’s U.S. Senate special election GOP primary runoff, the NRA touted spending a “seven-figure sum” to help Luther Strange in his bid for U.S. Senate.

Mainly, the NRA tried to make Roy Moore out to be a gun-grabber. How did that work out? Was that money well spent?

Ultimately, no it wasn’t. Strange took a loss to a candidate in the runoff that would give Democrats their first statewide election win in over a decade.

The NRA will boast about throwing a lot of money in a particular race, but much of that money has to wet a lot of beaks before that money is put into any effort that adds value to a race’s outcome. It’s not the all-powerful apparatus it is made out to be.

The NRA does function as a target for Democrats in these situations. After any of these tragedies, it’s easier to demagogue one organization than it is to attack each politician. It is Alinsky-ish in that it offers a target for opportunistic political factions to polarize.

It’s sad and cynical. A tragedy occurs and those on the left that are unabashedly for gun control strike with the emotional pleas while the iron is hot.

There may be a few in the United States Congress that fear an onslaught of generic poorly produced NRA TV and radio spots run against them. But most of the Republicans that resist the run to some knee-jerk gun control measure after any shooting are responding to what their constituents want, not the NRA.

For most people in this state, the Second Amendment probably isn’t their top issue of concern. But there are some for which it is. The fear is if you give an inch to the government on the Second Amendment, it will take a mile. Then you’re headed down a path, and the result will be an Australian 1990s gun confiscation.

Rational or not, that’s what people think given the nature of an ever-expanding federal government, and that’s the real reason Republicans aren’t going to go along with these so-called “common sense” gun control measures.

They also realize much of the noise the day after a tragedy is bluster from Democrats trying to make political hay and it will go away as the news cycle evolves.

Whatever the public policy solution is to stop mass shootings in America, it won’t be obstructed by fear of political action from the evil NRA. Instead, voters who elect members of Congress will determine that, which is how it should be.

Jeff Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and works as the editor of Breitbart TV. Follow Jeff on Twitter @jeff_poor.