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Video: Obama's Press Conference on Gun Violence

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Shiplord Kirel: From behind wingnut lines12/19/2012 11:22:04 am PST

When I first became aware of the NRA, back in the 50s, it was an organization of rather kindly older people who ran safety and marksmanship classes, supervised shooting competitions, and handed out various awards. They shied away from the idea that you might actually shoot a criminal with one of your guns, let alone resist the national government or any other lawful authority.

Today, of course, the NRA is one of the bulwarks of right-wing conspiracy culture, its every move rooted in the assumption that the right’s political opponents will set up a tyrannical state if given the slightest opportunity. How this change came about has been documented in a number of places, and will be a subject for historians a thousand years from now, but it has been a source of wonder and dread to see it happen in real time.