Reader dmac writes:
Usually, gun related stories on CNN are aggravating due to their incompleteness and/or use of skewed statistics. This piece, “Why the NRA fights background checks”, actually angers me because of the implications Mr. Donohue makes about those who work in in firearms industry. Some of those people are personal friends of mine and to imply that all they care about is bottom line profit, that they are not only okay with criminals and the mentally ill having guns, but are down right giddy about it!? Them’s fightin’ words . . .
[Gun manufacturers] are the ones who call the shots at the NRA, and they are the most important people in the opposition. The manufacturers don’t want anything that interferes with total gun sales and profits.
Background checks would impose a minor burden on gun transactions, but more importantly, limit the size of the market (and therefore, profits) in two ways.
The direct loss of profit comes because closing the current gaping loophole in the background check system will shut off sales to criminals and the mentally ill who are effectively free to buy all the guns they want at gun shows and through private transactions.
But there is also an indirect loss of profit: Cutting off sales to the mentally ill and criminals will reduce crime and thereby reduce the public’s demand for guns for self-protection.
It’s not hard to tell that Mr. Donohue is a lawyer (okay, a professor of law). If this was a line of questioning it would be so leading that the other side would be jumping up and down screaming “Objection!” And well they should. I have to wonder if the author is being knowingly misleading or if he really is this jaded against the the firearms industry.
This stuff is on the front page of CNN.com. At least it’s labeled as “Opinion”. This time.