I’ll Admit It. I’m Like A Piggy In NRA Slop!

I’m walking on sunshine   Katrina and the Waves   Walking on sunshine

Bein’  a hard drinking Irishman, it takes some doing to make me giddy. The last time I can remember being giddy was decades ago, when a Guinness truck broke down in front of my house. Let’s just say that a suitable accommodation was reached. But to Lutetia James I can only say, Thank  you so much, Madame Attorney General!

This moment, to my mind, has been long overdue. I am not a gun owner, but in my younger days, I used to be. I had me a sweet .44 caliber Ruger Super 44 Magnum Blackhawk, with a 7 1/2 barrel. The first time I fired it, people from either side came over, wondering what idiot had brought a shotgun to an indoor range. I outgrew the craze, but have no ill will towards legitimate gun owners. Love and let live.

Those of you who know me, and read me regularly, know my passion for this subject. Last year, I posted multiple articles about the unraveling of the NRA. In what should have been a purely internal pissing contest within the NRA hierarchy , the election of, and subsequent ouster of former Lt Colonel Oliver North as the new President of the NRA spilled over into a very public, very messy dispute. Lawsuits followed, with attached documentation that seemed to show that for the top members of the NRA, a non profit organization, membership dues were being treated as a personal slush fund for those with access, most notably Wayne Pepe Le Pew Lapierre. This sudden eruption of internal chaos was something that obviously battled for some kind of governmental oversight.

The NRA actually started out as exactly what it claimed to be, a non profit advocacy group for 2nd amendment gun rights. In return for membership dues, the NRA offered things like gun safety classes, along with newsletters to members that outlined specific gun rights legislation that the group was keeping and eye on, and advocating for or against. But then it changed into something much more dark, and destructive.

The NRA chafed under the restrictions that membership dues placed on them in terms of being major political players, and they started a program for corporate sponsors. That changed the frame. The NRA started accepting massive contributions from armaments makers with US operations ti fill their coffers. And overnight, the NRA went from an advocacy group for gun owners, to a protective group for gun manufacturers. You only have to look at their legislative record since then to see where their true values lie.

And that’s part of the problem that led to this explosion within the NRA. Over the last several years, the number of households that own guns has steadily shrunk, but the sales numbers hasen’t lagged by that much. It means that fewer and fewer gun nuts are buying more and more guns, but that only goes so far. The recent spate of chapter 11 bankruptcies of armament manufacturers in the US has hit the NRA in the short-n-curlies. The Death Merchants can no longer afford those pricey corporate memberships.

In bringing this lawsuit, Attorney General James has made a gutsy call. With just the publicly available information, it would have been easy for her to conduct her own investigation, impanel a grand jury, and return true bills of indictment against the top four miscreants at the NRA. That would be a real Dr Feelgood result, and just with what’s known, would likely lead to long prison stretches for the defendants. But Attorney General James has her eye on the larger picture, and the larger prize.

Attorney General James is instead looking at long term, systemic corruption at the highest levels of the National Rifle Association itself. What Attorney General James is saying in her filing is that it won’t do any good to go after the four assholes at the top, because if you get them and leave it at that, four more assholes will climb the ladder, let things lie fallow for a while, and then pick up business as usual. The only solution it to pull the weed up by its root, and let it die. Besides, once that bitter chore is done, there should still be plenty of time under the statute of limitations to go after the four main assholes for their crimes.

Obviously, this thing is going to drag out in the courts for a long time, the NRA isn’t going to go down without a fight. But their retaliatory lawsuit was comforting. They chose to argue that the NY AG was violating their first amendment rights. What in the hell overt corruption at the highest level of the NRA has to do with first amendment rights is beyond me, but hey!, at least it’s a response. I will be on this like flies on shit, so don’t touch that dial.

To know the future, look to the past.before the insanity of the 2020 election, relive the insanity of the 2016 GOP primary campaign, and the general election, to see how we got to where we are. Copies of President Evil, and the sequel, President Evil II, A Clodwork Orange are available as e-books on Amazon, at the links above. Catch up before the upcoming release of the third book in the trilogy, President Evil III: All The Presidents Fen

Follow me on Twitter at @RealMurfster35