The Election and Guns
John Hinderaker over at Powerline has a worthwhile post up on the influence of the NRA in this election. It is interesting at the top level because it is something you'd never read in the MSM. Oddly, while the MSM seems to think that the NRA is the all-powerful puppetmaster of US politics when they cover mass-shootings, most of the time the MSM does know, care, or think about the NRA.
But there is something about Hinderaker's post that is not quite right. The NRA didn't join the election fight recently after the Lightworker made his comments about a new Assault Weapons Ban in the debates. The NRA has been engaged all along. They launched the "All In" and "Trigger the Vote" campaigns months and months ago. Every issue of American Rifleman for the last year and a half has been a full-throated anti-Obama editorial screed. But you know what? Most gun owners yawned. Big numbers of gun folks chalked it up as typically cynical NRA fundraising - the NRA was not going to let a perfect bogeyman like Obama go to waste without larding its coffers. I kid you not, read the forums.
But then something strange happened. Late in the game, Barack Obama validated what at first seemed like so much NRA scare-mongering. In that debate with Mitt Romney (who any gun nut will tell you enacted gun restrictions in Massachusetts as Governor) Obama hinted at reviving the AWB and going after handguns as well. He couldn't have fulfilled the NRA's dreams more completely if he tried. In one instant he wiped away the charges of cynicism and scare-mongering. And the NRA's already operational anti-Obama efforts received a jolt of energy that cannot be understated. If these efforts are even half as impressive as the NRA is making them out to be they'll be decisive. There are alot of gun owners in places like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Florida, North Carolina, Colorado, and Iowa.
Of course, to observers like me, this is yet another area where we have to scratch our heads, wonder, and ask again, as in so many other areas of the Obama phenomenon, is he incompetent or just that arrogant? Could the Obama campaign have really not understand just how poised and aggressive the NRA was prepared to be in this election and blundered into this situation? Or did they know full well what the NRA's stance was and thumb their noses and pick the fight anyway?
Whichever, this is a remarkable element of the election which no one is covering or understands well.
But there is something about Hinderaker's post that is not quite right. The NRA didn't join the election fight recently after the Lightworker made his comments about a new Assault Weapons Ban in the debates. The NRA has been engaged all along. They launched the "All In" and "Trigger the Vote" campaigns months and months ago. Every issue of American Rifleman for the last year and a half has been a full-throated anti-Obama editorial screed. But you know what? Most gun owners yawned. Big numbers of gun folks chalked it up as typically cynical NRA fundraising - the NRA was not going to let a perfect bogeyman like Obama go to waste without larding its coffers. I kid you not, read the forums.
But then something strange happened. Late in the game, Barack Obama validated what at first seemed like so much NRA scare-mongering. In that debate with Mitt Romney (who any gun nut will tell you enacted gun restrictions in Massachusetts as Governor) Obama hinted at reviving the AWB and going after handguns as well. He couldn't have fulfilled the NRA's dreams more completely if he tried. In one instant he wiped away the charges of cynicism and scare-mongering. And the NRA's already operational anti-Obama efforts received a jolt of energy that cannot be understated. If these efforts are even half as impressive as the NRA is making them out to be they'll be decisive. There are alot of gun owners in places like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Florida, North Carolina, Colorado, and Iowa.
Of course, to observers like me, this is yet another area where we have to scratch our heads, wonder, and ask again, as in so many other areas of the Obama phenomenon, is he incompetent or just that arrogant? Could the Obama campaign have really not understand just how poised and aggressive the NRA was prepared to be in this election and blundered into this situation? Or did they know full well what the NRA's stance was and thumb their noses and pick the fight anyway?
Whichever, this is a remarkable element of the election which no one is covering or understands well.
posted by Donny Baseball at 1:25 AM
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