Before Wayne LaPierre’s tenure and his effect on the NRA fade from memory, it’s relevant to remember how he and that organization have widely affected changes in the lives of ordinary Americans. Before the late ‘70s, when he took over the leadership of the NRA, it was principally a gun safety organization advocating and teaching proper techniques for the use of guns to not accidentally harm others.
From that time on, however, he changed the focus of the organization to become a gun advocacy group by opposing any efforts to limit the use or types of guns sold in the country. This effect has brought us to the point that virtually no type or lethality of firearm is prohibited from regulation or use here, no matter its design or intent for use, including military weapons designed just to kill people, like the AR-15.
This has brought us to the point now that no American is safe from gun violence if we visit any public gathering place. These effects fit in well with the attitudes of today that some political leaders espouse that violence against their adversaries is justified and legal. This even comes from the top, for example, where Trump’s lawyers are saying in court that the ex-president is above the law and has immunity to order the assassination of his political rivals, thus threatening the very democratic basis of our government.
To start to counter this malaise we should successfully oppose the legal arguments of our national leaders; correct the Supreme Court’s improperly interpreted “under the guidance of a well regulated militia” language of the Second Amendment to mean certain guns should be allowed only in the National Guard; and hold the perpetrators of violence, and the gun manufacturers, accountable for the carnage their products produce.
John Kennington, Cottonwood Heights