Written by Robert S. Becker   

Four Gun Fantasies Top LaPierre’s Reign of Terror

Unpacked, core NRA dogma promotes sedition, defying regulation, mediation by police, courts of law, community values, and whatever smacks of government. NRA lobbyist Wayne LaPierre covers his reign of terror, like all zealots, by hypocritically presuming the moral high ground. Loaded with bravado, LaPierre argued to Congress itself, "without any doubt" Americans need guns to repel federal agents knocking at the door. In fact, NRA shills broadcast the law of the jungle wherein self-made "good guys with guns" save the world. Except “goodness” is another scam: LaPierre again, “Our Founding Fathers understood that the guys with the guns make the rules.”

Overall, this NRA “state of nature” posits a world of perpetual, warlike danger, channeling Thomas Hobbes’ famous rendition of life as “solitary, poor, brutish and short.” Primed for action, gun vigilantes push Hobbes aside to glorify in the lone, heroic Davy Crocketts at the Alamo fighting for survival. In the process, this rightwing mania brings home the militarized world of Bush-Cheney’s unilateral, preemptive belligerence against phantom foes. Zealots coincide about enemies who “hate us for our freedoms,” or “you’re either with us or against us.”

Thus, the NRA lies and the Iraq lies are cousins, leaning on fabricated, symbolic war cries, obsessed with payback and blows to national honor. That way lie avenging crusades, playing on cultural, racial and tribal blood feuds, targeting sub-human, cave dwelling terrorists. Such regression parallels the honor-vengeance mindset Tom Brokaw found abroad, in nations victimized by U.S. invasions: “young people will come up to me on the streets and say, 'We love America, but if you harm one hair on the head of my sister, I will fight you forever.’”

Invoking as well the western shootout, the NRA anoints the lone champion, blessed with perfect aim and massive firepower, triumphantly regaining honor, safety, a badge or the girl. Apparently, the NRA missed the memo this shootout meme was total invention, as no wise, orderly society (and the west co-operative by necessity) tolerates such unsocialized egotism. Of course, we still do, as when Dubya’s one-dimensional delusions collided with complex Iraqi realities. Inevitable disaster follows whenever lone Deciders mete out justice by trusting gut instincts and divine messages.

Dual Triggers for NRA Delusions

Scarcity first begins the scolding NRA drumbeat. Want public safety? Enforce “laws on the books” before concocting worse ones that violate rights. Staff and upgrade bungling police forces. Want school security? Pack playgrounds with armed guards, then force teachers to wield guns. Finally, never portray guns as the enemy, for that could banish guns, the only effective deterrence against disorder.

Then comes the Glut of Perils, headed by tyrannical, overweening, big brother government, along with criminals, madmen, terrorists, and miscreants going after what’s yours. With “Stand and Fight,” LaPierre fantasizes guns are the first and last resort: "Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Riots. Terrorists. Gangs. Lone criminals. These are perils we are sure to face -- not just maybe. It's not paranoia to buy a gun. It's survival,” and hordes of law-abiding Americans are “preparing to Stand And Fight to protect their families and homes.” From this core folly emanates the NRA’s four, public commandments:

Fantasy One: Only one solution answers an ever-dangerous world: more guns with more firepower. Repeated slaughters reinforce the NRA reign of terror, mandating more, not fewer arms. Only handy arsenals separate buried victims from survivors. What good parent won’t dish out $1500 for an AR-15 combo, the nation’s top-selling gun now comprising 25% of gun industry revenue? Safety (if not America) first means stockpiling against unknowable, but looming nastiness. You betcha.

Reality check: FBI numbers show overall reduced violent crime for decades, with national rates in 2010 one-third of 1994 rates (despite the recession). In fact, 280 fewer Americans were murdered in 2011 than the year before, with homicide numbers falling to low, mid-1950’s levels. Since 2007, the 2012 murder rate is down 17.4 percent; since 2002, down 16.8 percent.

Fantasy Two: Cutthroat morality for a cutthroat world: every man for himself. Only arms stockpiles can free individuals defend against savagery. During a crisis, what fool trusts police will save you (mere agents of government)? Police insist, furthermore, on law and courts where innocent victims are doubly mauled by loopholes and bleeding-heart, liberal judges.

Whence cometh “stand your ground” vigilante laws that instantly abrogate justice with one’s inner feeling of jeopardy. Shoot first, justify later. Never retreat, reload. Thus, civilization shreds centuries of hard-won social and legal contracts whereby aggrieved citizens must defer to independent professionals. Justice is turned upside down as the putative “injured party,” often the least objective player, gets a starring role.

Reality check: Trumping police encourages racial slaughter (Florida’s Trayvon Martin). “Shoot first” is bad enough when cops misbehave, but unschooled hordes of Texans can drag home AR-15s without waiting period or age restrictions (just proof of residency). Getting a driver’s license is harder; booze is age-restricted, even buying Sudafed involves a formal registry. A wireless cell contract mandates personal credit information and Social Security numbers must be revealed for credit cards or fishing/hunting licenses. Adopting a puppy could mandate being 21 and show a government ID.

3) Fantasy Three: Justice and security are mine, saith the gun lord, because government sucks. Not only discounting police and courts, the NRA distrusts federal agents, too. All serve the nemesis called big government, dying to regulate, register, tax, and outlaw the instruments of freedom. No American worth his salt would not stand and fight tyranny, nor could do so without massive firepower.

Reality Check: Amateurs make lousy police, bad insurrectionists or gun stewards, letting children and the suicidal find loaded weapons. Novices freeze during crises, getting shot or over-react, wounding bystanders. Firearms at large correlate with mass shootings, says Wisconsin gun violence expert, Dr. Stephen Hargarten: 25 massacres occurred since 2006 (before guns sales surged); in 2012, seven massacres struck a record 140 people. Emory’s Arthur Kellermann establishes home guns produce more accidents, criminal assaults, homicides or suicides than self-defense. “The risk of homicide for women” reports the NY Times, “increased eightfold when the abuser had access to firearms.”

4) Fantasy Four: Any Gun Reform = Total Ban. Anyway, Guns Don’t Kill People, People Do. Here’s the most slippery of gun slopes, as NRA paranoia departs the known universe. LaPierre lies through his sneers when claiming background check registries “will be used to confiscate your guns.” For the NRA, the dire “C” word isn’t cancer, but Confiscation. This fixation exists without a glimmer of evidence or history from any top public figure or state agency, even in the most liberal states.

On point two, do drones kill civilians or do computer buttons or remote operators? How about a package deal, just like firing loaded guns designed to kill or maim? Why mandate “safety” belts at all, or work-related health protection, as machines rarely attack people? High explosives and firecrackers don’t explode themselves, yet they’re forbidden or restricted. In short, Wayne, people and guns together kill people, and no evidence disproves that the more people using more guns produce more fiascos.

Reality Check: If America halved its guns, who wouldn’t bet that violence, crime and self-destruction would shrink? Nothing matches the facility of guns, and only Superman flies faster than a speeding bullet. Imagine the opposite: guns as accessible as bottled water. Okay, class, would violence increase or not? The best way to reduce violence is less access to arms; after major reforms Australia has endured no mass killings. True, guns alone don’t kill people, but the NRA is pushing the envelope with its shrill reign of terror. Instead of banning guns, consider banning the NRA for its ceaseless propaganda of false advertising, dangerous to children and other living creatures.