“Appearing on ABC’s This Week, the NRA’s top lobbyist slapped down presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump for saying club goers should carry guns to prevent another tragedy like the one that took 49 lives in Orlando last Sunday,” rawstory.com reports. “Chris Cox, the executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, said Trump’s suggestion is both dangerous and against the law. ‘No one thinks that people should go into a nightclub drinking and carrying firearms,’ Cox explained. ‘That defies common sense. That also defies the law. That’s not what we’re talking about here.'”
And there I was thinking that the NRA was all about individual armed citizens carrying responsibly, without preemptive government infringement on their right to keep and bear arms. I mean, isn’t it up to the individual carrying a firearm to drink responsibly — or not drink at all — when carrying in a nightclub? As gun owners do in states where it’s perfectly legal to drink and carry as long as you are not impaired.
Equally, Trump didn’t say people should carry in clubs and drink to the point of impairment. In fact, he didn’t say anything about drinking. Sounds to me that Mr. Cox is bending over backwards to appease firearms fence straddlers. Which may be sound politics but sounds horrible to those who see “gun free zones” as an affront to common sense. Or, if you prefer, a mass shooting waiting to happen.
As for Cox’s explanation of the NRA’s position on the “No-Fly, No-Buy” proposal — prohibiting Americans on the FBI’s secret, unaccountable Terrorist Watch List from purchasing firearms for 72 hours — it’s as clear as mud.
I think the NRA wants the FBI to arrest people on the Terrorist Watch List when they try to buy a gun, within 72 hours of the purchase request, so they won’t buy a gun after the 72 hours and proceed to do something horrible with it. Unless the FBI doesn’t arrest them because the Bureau doesn’t have enough evidence to do so. At which point the person on the Fibbies top-secret potential enemies list can buy a gun.
Which kinda makes the whole “No-Fly, No-Buy” law sound like a firearms purchase “cooling off period” for suspected terrorists. Who could be anyone, really. As the interviewer points out, in reality, the NRA’s 72-hour delay “compromise” is completely unworkable. In fact, it would tip-off terrorists that they’re on the Watch List and, perhaps, trigger an attack.
And if something is unworkable for the government, imagine how unworkable it would be for an individual citizen wrongfully denied their gun rights. Probably just as unworkable as it is for someone wrongly placed on the No-Fly list, condemned by no less than the ACLU for pissing on Americans’ right to due process.
Oh, and one more thing. If Uncle Sam gets into the business of preventing suspected terrorists from purchasing a new gun because they might use it to commit an atrocity, why wouldn’t he take away guns already in the suspected terrorists’ possession? Answer: he would. As they lottery people like to say, it could be you! How great is that?