Anti-gun groups--the NRA's best recruiters

When I try to nudge gun owners who are unsure about joining the NRA (or any of the other, less moderate pro-rights organizations), I don't point them to that organization's web site. My purpose is better served by illustrating the imminence of the threat to gun rights. Instead of asking them to take my word for it, I prefer to show them the shrill, extremist rhetoric on the anti-gun websites, such as the Brady Campaign, the Violence Policy Center, and my personal favorite (the shrillest, most hysterical, most extremist of them all), the Gun Guys. Even for the hunter with no interest in so-called "assault weapons," or in carrying a handgun for self-defense, and who thinks his hunting guns don't face a grave threat from these groups, a bit of browsing around on those websites is generally a sobering wake-up call.

The Gun Guys are particularly uninterested in trying to disguise the fact that they will not rest while a single firearm remains in private hands. They endlessly repeat such phrases as "A gun is a threat no matter who is holding it," and, "If we want to get rid of the violence, we have to get rid of the guns," as if those are their mantras. They want shooting ranges shut down ("Considerations like not allowing the shooting range to operate in the first place. In Canada or the US, these places aren’t safe– the fewer of them we have around, the better."). They tend to put quotes around the word "rights," as if to express doubt about the whole concept of rights! They also have trouble resisting the urge to put quotes around the term "law-abiding gun owner." The implication of course, is that the way they see it, a person should not be able to be both law-abiding and a gun owner, because they think that owning guns should be a crime.

It might be tempting to dismiss these guys as harmless loonies, screaming impotently into the void, but to do so would be a mistake. According to this article, a group called the Joyce Foundation has recently bestowed the impressive sum of $650,000 on the cynically misnamed Freedom States Allicance, the parent group of the Gun Guys and several other, similarly rabidly gun hating websites. The gun rights deprivation lobby is relentless and appallingly well-funded, and they will not rest while a single firearm remains in private hands.

The good news is that they don't bother, really, with trying to hide their extremism. A few minutes spent reading their hysterical rhetoric is usually enough to convince any gun owner that if he does not support those on the front lines (the NRA, for example) of the fight against these people, he has no one but himself to blame for the next draconian piece of filth the gun rights deprivation lobby's pet legislators inflict on us as part of their agenda of turning the Land of the Free into a "gun free utopia." If you can read their arguments, and still believe your hunting shotgun or rifle would be safe from them, I'll offer you an amazing deal on a pair of breeding mules.