The gun lobby doesn't win 'em all, but when you're wielding the political firepower it possesses, close enough is good enough.
After all, the NRA killed the federal law that banned the sale of military-style rapid-fire assault weapons. The NRA has blocked laws requiring locks on all stored weapons. It's because of the NRA-style worship of the Second Amendment that we have a nation where it's legal to buy armor-piercing bullets, cop-killer guns, and pistols advertised with a "fingerprint-proof finish."
We all know that these products are marketed to the criminal element. But the zealots who pray at the right-to-bear-arms altar say no federal restrictions should be allowed for any weapons.
I would suspect that most law-abiding hunters and gun owners don't agree with some of the nuttier items on the NRA agenda. Others might argue that there's a slippery slope -- you allow some limitations on gun rights and it leads to more and more.
What I worry about is this country's unending supply of psychotics. The crazies we see in the news every day are infinitely scarier if they're joining a terrorist cell or arming themselves with weapons that can kill several people with each squeeze of the trigger.
The slippery slope of NRA thinking has led to this icy cold reality:
Those on the terror watch lists are barred from flying on an airplane or boarding a cruise ship but they can buy military-style weapons like an AK-47.
A suspected terrorist that is caught can be incarcerated and tortured for years at Guantanamo -- or worse, in some Middle Eastern hell hole. But only under very limited circumstances can we prevent the al-Qaida suspects who are on the loose from buying guns. Worse yet, we can't let the FBI use the gun-buying database to track these people down. That would violate the privacy rights promised to gun owners.
Only felons, illegal immigrants and the mentally ill can be blocked from making a purchase. And the gun purchase records must be destroyed after 24 hours, eliminating any paper trail to keep tabs on well-armed Islamic fanatics.
One senator blamed these pro-gun, soft-on-terrorism policies on the "twisted allegiances" between the NRA and the Bush administration.
Put another way, the gun nuts have become the advocates for the nuts, whether those inspired by Allah or those inspired by the devil.
:barf: The day after the article appeared, there was such a backlash against the passage of that bill that that anti-gun rag actually devoted two full pages from the outraged anti-gun people protesting that law. There was only one letter allowing that the law had merit. In the 26 years I've been reading that rag, I have never seen such an outpouring of rage against a piece of Arizona legislation.