re: #151 kirkspencer

I agree, but allow me to run the opposition for a moment.

I can recall when those who held that attitude were ridiculed as the ‘black helicopter crowd’. The sovereign citizen movement, the patriot movement, the citizen militia movement, the constitutional convention movement, all (most of which overlapped) were seen as, well, loonies even less acceptable than the KKK and the Birchers.

But they’ve always had a stronghold in the second amendment organizations and for the last 30 years have been dominant in the NRA. You’re not breaking that unless/until the tea party dominance of the Republican Party breaks.

The NRA has always been stronger in the Republican Party than in the Democratic Party. The NRA founders were all former Union officers and Ambrose Burnside was its first president. The NRA’s first fights against gun laws were those laws intended to disarm black people. Such actions made the NRA greatly disliked in the South. That attitude changed as time went on, but it was not till the 1960’s-70’s that the south really gained traction within the NRA, in large part due to growing anti-gun sentiment in northern states. Even so, the NRA is still more Far West than southern in its nature, with Colorado as part of its natural home.