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How the NRA won
Most Americans support
tougher gun control measures. Too bad the gun lobby has so many politicians in
its pocket
By Joe Gandelman | 6:24am
EST
Wayne LaPierre, head of the National
Rifle Association, at the Conservative Political Action Conference on March 15.
There's no denying it: The
National Rifle Association has won — again. Even though more than 3,000 Americans have died
via gun violence since 20 children and 6
adults were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary in December, the NRA has somehow
managed to triumph. The victims' families and gun control advocates have lost. Forget an assault weapons ban — or any other serious gun regulation. It's
not happening.
The
Washington Post notes
that not only have the NRA's tactics cowed politicians and beaten back
substantive national gun control efforts, but in some instances, they've
actually led to moves to make guns easier to get. Meanwhile, at least a dozen GOP
senators have signed on to Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's
call to filibuster any gun control measure.
This is just one more issue
where polls show Republicans at odds with mainstream America. A Morning Joe/Marist poll found
six in 10 respondents — including 83 percent of
Democrats, 43 percent of gun owners, and 37 percent of Republicans — believe
that the laws covering gun sales should be stricter.
Here's the problem: The
NRA has a lot of money, and NRA donations go overwhelmingly to
Republicans. They are unsurprisingly
blocking tougher gun control.
Writes The
Daily Beast's Michael Tomasky: "I have never seen a situation in which a
Congress, terrified of a particular lobby, has behaved in such open contempt
of American public opinion as it's doing now on guns." [emphasis added]
The brutal truth is that the
20 little kids who perished in Newtown in a terrifying massacre involving 154
rounds fired in 5 minutes was NOT enough to significantly move the dial on gun
control. These kids are now (more) collateral damage in the decades-long
political gun-control ballet involving lobbying money and the way American
politics truly functions. Poll numbers alone won't enact change.
Political
scientist Jonathan Bernstein writes: "See, the problem here is equating '90 percent
in the polls'" — polls show that 9 in 10 Americans support universal
background checks — "with 'calling for change.' Sure, 90 percent of
citizens or registered voters... will answer in the affirmative if they're
asked about this policy. But that's not all the same as 'calling for
change.'...Action works. 'Public opinion' is barely real... At best, public
opinion as such is passive. And in politics, passive doesn't get results."
We know the pattern: (1) a
massacre; (2) intial shock, media saturation, and noble-sounding rhetoric from
politicians about change; (3) statements of regret or lawyerly type statements
with loophopes from the gun lobby; (4) mobilization of the NRA and ideological
echo chambers to go on the attack and wield political clout.
I was one of many staffers on
The San Diego Union who covered James Huberty's July 18,
1984, San Ysidro McDonald's massacre. Huberty fired 250 rounds and
killed 21 people from 8 months to 74 years old. He wounded 19 more before being
shot dead by a sniper. There was outrage in the immediate aftermath. Then
reform efforts failed.
For real gun control to
triumph, it must get through a huge maze of institutional, political, and
ideological media obstacle courses.
Gun
control advocate Matt Bennett told the Washington Post that if there was
a secret ballot on gun control it would "pass overwhelmingly, because from
a substantive point of view most of these senators understand that this is the
right thing to do." Politics hold them back.
President
Obama recently expressed dismay
over these sad truths, and reminded America
about the first-graders butchered in Newtown:
"The entire country was shocked, and the entire country pledged we would
do something about it and that this time would be different," he declared.
"Shame on us if we've forgotten. I haven't forgotten those kids. Shame on
us if we've forgotten."
Shame on us, indeed. Because
in American power politics — as the long battle for gun control stymied by big
money, cowardice, and lack of organized-for-action public outrage shows — there
is no change. Just more and more cases of collateral damage.
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