The NRA's FAIL Parade Marches On

I replaced the original image that went with this post because some gun nut got his undies in a bunch because it was a purchase list for plastic toy guns for action figures. This may or may not be a real picture of a real uzi, but if you don't placate these babies, they'll cry all day about their precious little details about weapons they cannot afford in a world that simply doesn't understand how much smarter they are than everyone else. Wah!

Do you know what shocks me about Wayne LaPierre's speech today? It was completely and utterly tone deaf to the political reality of America right now.

The NRA has brought legislators to heel because of a superior command of politics and the political process in Washington D.C. Given what has happened in the last week, that would mean knowing the pulse of Republicans and Democrats in the Midwestern states right now. Many of them are ready to do something about limited gun control in order to make the issue go away.

LaPierre did nothing to cover those politicians today. He drew attention to the failure of his organization to make a meaningful attempt to sway public opinion in favor of a constitutional right to bear arms.

Now, we have the ability to focus on the fact that video games don't cause violence and putting an armed cop in every school in the country is a budget-busting impossibility. The NRA has thrown those two things out there because they appeal to emotions (enough people think video games cause mass shootings) and they make people feel good about doing something (even though rent-a-cops with handguns are more likely to increase shootings, not decrease them because each and every gun you introduce into a school leads to the possibility that that gun will be used in the wrong way).

Today was a massive failure for the NRA. They went for emotions over logic, and emotions are decidedly aligned against their organization.