{"id":5642,"date":"2017-10-06T10:28:50","date_gmt":"2017-10-06T08:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/?p=5642"},"modified":"2017-10-06T10:35:15","modified_gmt":"2017-10-06T08:35:15","slug":"the-nra-responds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/5642\/","title":{"rendered":"The NRA Responds"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the BBC<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The National Rifle Association has called for “additional regulations” on bump-stocks, a rapid fire device used by the Las Vegas massacre gunman.<\/p>\n

The group said: “Devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations.”<\/p>\n

Republicans have said they would consider banning the tool, despite years of resisting any gun control.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers plan to hold hearings and consider a bill to outlaw the device.<\/p>\n

The NRA called on Thursday for regulators to “immediately review whether these devices comply with federal law”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is odd. Before the echoes of the shots had ceased ringing around the buildings that line the Las Vegas strip, reputable newspapers and reporters were confidently telling us the NRA would vociferously oppose any attempts to change existing gun legislation. Could it be they were talking shite?<\/p>\n

The NRA’s strategy for responding to the Las Vegas mass-shooting is now coming into focus.<\/p>\n

By recommending that an executive branch agency conduct a review of the legality of bump stock devices, the extremely influential gun rights lobby is seeking to direct efforts towards administrative, not legislative, solutions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is BBC speak for: the NRA is actually responding in a calm, mature, and responsible manner that we didn’t expect, so we now need to resort to semantics to downplay it as much as possible to avoid us looking foolish.<\/p>\n

If Congress were to start drafting new laws, the process may be more difficult for the NRA to control.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The NRA has called for additional regulations. Apparently these are wildly different from new laws.<\/p>\n

Democrats, who have been clamouring for the opportunity to debate new gun-control laws, could have their chance.\u00a0Republican congressional leadership may try to clamp down on the proceedings, but there’s a chance other proposals -like limits on magazine capacity, military-style rifle features and new background check requirements – could come up for consideration.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ah, so the NRA wants to regulate or ban the precise equipment used in the shootings, whereas the Democrats simply want to use the incident to ram through firearm restrictions which are wholly unrelated. Is that it?<\/p>\n

These types of provisions are popular with the public at large but vigorously opposed by the NRA and their supporters in Congress.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As if the NRA is ten guys in a dingy backroom instead of a body representing 5 million members of that same public at large.<\/p>\n

The White House and many congressional Republicans are pledging to have a “conversation” about the issue and “look into” the details. That, for the moment, is a far cry from action.<\/p>\n

The NRA is now suggesting an alternative route.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There appears to be at least one adult in the room, and it isn’t the media.<\/p>\n

In the same statement the NRA urged Congress to pass their longstanding pet proposal to expand gun rights nationwide, so-called right-to-carry reciprocity.<\/p>\n

The lobby group wants gun-owners with concealed-carry permits from one state to be allowed to take their weapons into any other US state, even if it has stricter firearms limits.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I presume the gay lobby is fully supportive of this proposal? This is the argument they used prior to the SCOTUS ruling to get states where gay marriage was illegal to recognise their marriage from permissive states.<\/p>\n

A bill to ban bump-stocks was submitted to the US Senate on Wednesday by California Democrat Dianne Feinstein.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I bet she’d never even heard the term before Monday, and I’d bet even more she couldn’t competently describe what one is or how it works at the time she submitted the bill.<\/p>\n

One of the most popular manufacturers of bump-stocks, Slide Fire, said they had sold out “due to extreme high demands” since the Las Vegas shooting.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And that’s the problem in a nutshell. A running joke during the Obama years was that his portrait adorned the walls of gun shops beneath the words “Salesman of the Year”, meaning his continual threats to enforce stricter gun controls caused millions of Americans to go and buy more guns and especially ammunition. I read an account the other day of guys complaining they couldn’t buy their standard few dozen rounds of ammunition because all the stores had been cleaned out by people stockpiling. America is awash with guns and ammunition, and now it appears bump stocks also. These things are not biodegradable, and confiscating them will be nigh-on impossible. And even if these devices were all destroyed, somebody would come up with a legal work-around within days. That might be why the NRA is happy to see them regulated or banned: it won’t make any difference to its members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the BBC: The National Rifle Association has called for “additional regulations” on bump-stocks, a rapid fire device used by the Las Vegas massacre gunman. The group said: “Devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20,44],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5642"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5642"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5645,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5642\/revisions\/5645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}