Whom Does the NRA Really Speak For?
Whom Does the NRA Really Speak For? - Jordan Weissmann - the Atlantic
The National Rifle Association has gone radio silent in the immediate wake of the Newtown massacre. But the country’s most powerful gun-lobbying group will undoubtedly make its voice heard in the weeks ahead as Congress considers whether or not to impose new curbs on firearms.
So it’s worth asking whom, exactly, the NRA speaks for: America’s gun owners, or its gun makers?
It’s far from obvious. The group bills itself as the 140-year-old voice of the gun-loving grassroots — the deer hunters, sport shooters, and self-defense-minded 2nd Amendment devotees who woud kindly like the government to keep its hands off their Glocks and AR-15s. But the modern NRA’s hard-line political stances, which often seem out of step even with the majority of gun-owners, and its deepening industry ties have led some to argue that the group is little more than a corporate lobbyist dressed up in woodsy camouflage.
They “started out as a grassroots organization and became an industry organization,” William Vizzard, a professor of criminal justice at California State University, told Bloomberg in January.
So which is it really? Do they represent Joe Six-Shooter or the good folks at Bushmaster, Browning, and Smith & Wesson? The messy truth is, as you might imagine, somewhere in-between.