Las Vegas Sun

April 25, 2024

Letter to the editor:

NRA is just a boogeyman

The National Rifle Association isn’t the problem. While the NRA does have some idiots running it into the ground, it’s just a stalking horse for failed gun control.

Most NRA members are angry because the organization is wasting money and not putting it where it should go — into both state and federal battles. A good example is Question 1 in 2016, which got $3.5 million in support from Micheal Bloomberg alone but only $6.6 million total from groups opposed to the initiative. Question 1, which mandated background checks for gun purchases, won by a less than 1 percentage point.

It wasn’t even implemented for two years because its proponents made people think background checks were somehow going to be done by the FBI, instead of the proper way through the state background system.

It almost lost because millions of gun owners in Nevada and across the country vote. It’s not any single organization like the NRA. It’s the votes and the determination of regular people who know that not a single gun law passed in the past 200 years stopped a single determined person who wanted to hurt or kill someone.

I go to gun shops, gun shows and firing ranges and I see people of all races, creeds, genders, nationalities and sexual orientations buying, learning and using firearms of all different types and models. Pandering to traumatized teenagers and holier-than-thou college kids doesn’t change the history of the United States, the nature of politicians or human nature.