Gun Control Part 1

I know, I know right after I said I didn't want confrontation, but this one gets my blood up. To avoid too lengthy a screed I am going to do installments on this topic, with no particular order or emphasis.

Why does the NRA continue to have any influence or power? To wit: 

- they no longer represent the interests of their membership. A large majority - in many cases over 80% - of NRA members agree with many of the proposals set forth by President Obama, but the NRA execs continue to be outraged by his ridiculous and extreme ideas. In testimony before a Senate committee recently, LaPierre was physically discomfited by questions regarding his continuing opposition to closing the so-called gun show loophole. Couldn't or wouldn't defend his, the NRA's, position. Ninety-two per cent - 92!! - of Americans and 85% of NRA members agree that there should be universal background checks, but the spokesman for the NRA says no - or tries not to.

CBS Poll

(As a topical aside, this might be the definition of no-brainer. Background checks are used to prevent convicted criminals and the mentally ill, among others, from purchasing firearms. Seems sensible, right? But around 40% of guns purchased in this country are purchased privately, read gun shows, where . . . wait for it . . . there are no background checks. So is it a surprise that everybody thinks that should change? No-brainer.)

- they set a new standard for political impotence during the 2012 election cycle. Less than 1% of the money they spent actually achieved the desired result. People they backed lost, people they condemned won, the policies they desperately wanted - and spent handsomely to get - still do not exist.

NRA Ineffective

- people aligned with them or supported by them are starting, finally, not to care. When called to task for their adherence to the extreme gun lobby, public figures who had always lined up with - or bowed to pressure from - the NRA are now cutting ties.

My answer to the question I posed above is: they don't. As a political entity they are an extremist fringe group whose time has passed. Let's put them in the same file as the Flat Earth Society and move on.