Saturday, November 23, 2013

Kurt Hoffman Points out the VPC Bizarre Claims about the NRA

Kurt shows how silly the VPC claims are.  It shows the leftist roots of the argument that they feel compelled to use discredited Marxist economic theory to explain why the NRA exists and what its motivations are.

While anti-gun groups all seem fixated on the notion that the "gun lobby" (a term they use as a synonym for the NRA, despite the wild inaccuracy of that idea) is primarily motivated by a mutually profitable relationship with the gun industry, it's the Violence Policy Center that pushes this charge most consistently and shrilly. This column has covered VPC's obsession with that issue before:
The group's executive director Josh Sugarmann has written several Huffington Post opinion pieces on just that subject: "NRA, Board Members, Have Financial Stake in Stopping Ban on High-Cap Magazines," "NRA Receives Millions from Gun Industry 'Corporate Partners,'" "NRA Reaps Profits From the Internet Ammo Sales It Made Possible."
And let us not forget: "Trayvon Martin: Victim of NRA/Gun Industry Marketing of Concealed Carry," "NRA’s Long-Running Opposition to Regulation of Common Explosives Threatens Public Safety While Benefiting Its Gun Industry 'Corporate Partners' New VPC Report Reveals" and "NRA Meets in Houston to Promote Gun Industry's 'Latest and Greatest Products'."
VPC's favorite theme, in other words, is that the NRA is a bought and paid for propaganda arm of the gun industry, opposing gun laws because the less regulated guns are, the more money there is to be made manufacturing and selling them. As VPC's executive director Josh Sugarmann wrote in the Huffington Post:
The report, Blood Money: How the Gun Industry Bankrolls the NRA, reveals that since 2005 contributions from gun industry "corporate partners" to the NRA total between $14.7 million and $38.9 million.
Hmm--"between $14.7 million and $38.9 million"--not a whole lot of precision there. And, of course, no mention of how much of the NRA's income came from members.

On Wednesday, Sugarmann once again took to the Huffington Post, to complain about the NRA's relationship to corporations, with "NRA 'Corporate Partner' Exploits JFK Death in American Rifleman Ad":
Universal Coin & Bullion is one of the NRA's top "corporate partners" and a member of the "NRA Business Alliance." It has given between $500,000 and $999,999 to the organization.
One could point out the hypocrisy of a "gun control" advocate accusing the NRA and friends of "exploit[ing] JFK death," but wait a second--what does Universal Coin & Bullion have to do with firearms? How can such a company profit from the defeat of draconian "gun control"? And wait another second--what's this from Sugarmann?

More Here at St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner

No comments: