NRA: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

After the Orlando shootings, everyone has had their own ideas about the root of the problem and you won't be surprised to learn where the worst ideas came from. I've been talking about it for a long time and I've been saying it's going to happen, we're taking thousands of people into our country, we have no idea where they come from, we have no idea who the hell they are, okay, there's a lot wrong in that, among other things the fact that We know exactly where this shooter came from because he was born in Queens, about eight miles from where Donald Trump was born, presumably when a racist fairy gave life to a pumpkin.

Now, for their part, Democrats have chosen to focus less on the shooter and more on the The weapons he used even caused a surprise filibuster on the Senate floor. Democrats led by Chris Murphy of Connecticut held the floor for nearly 15 hours pushing for new regulations to prevent people on the terrorist watch list from buying guns and to expand background checks after nearly 15 hours Murphy said we had received signals that both of his measures would get a vote. He wait if he is absolutely sure he saw those signs or it was a hallucination caused by ammonia poisoning after holding his urine for 15 hours.

To be fair, although those proposals are actually going to vote, but before you get your hopes up, there may be a slight problem, let's not kid ourselves, the Republic, the Republicans control the House of Representatives, there will never be any gun control Let it be approved, that is true, to close the gun. It's incredibly unlikely that there will be a loophole in this Congress, even regulating the gun show Paul Ryan puts on every day is practically a lost cause at this point, which means here we are again after another mass shooting with legislation weak doomed to failure and clearly there is a disconnect. among public opinion that is in favor of two degrees, a series of different gun control measures and any practical action in Washington and it's pretty clear what stands between those two things and it's the National Rifle Association like Peter, but for weapons and effect and to be fair.

To be fair to the NRA, it's no surprise that they take a hard line on gun legislation. They are an advocacy group. It's what they're supposed to do. What is surprising is the success they have had in it. Just look at the latest greats. failed gun control attempt known as the Manchin-Toomey amendment, there were high hopes for it, partly because it didn't actually do much, only requiring background checks at gun shows and online sales, but mainly because Joe Manchin, who co-sponsored He had some credibility regarding firearms as his senator. I will protect our Second Amendment rights, which is why the NRA endorsed me, and I will target the cap and trade bill.

Holy shit, that's a guy so comfortable with guns that he basically just used one as a hole punch, the three-hole puncher in his office must be terrified, and Manchin Mountain did everything he could to appease the NRA. He even inserted several of his direct requests into his bill, including allowing firearms dealers, for the first time since 1968, to sell firearms statewide. lines, which is a strange provision to include in a gun control bill, is like letting José Cuervo convince you that the seventh step in Alcoholics Anonymous should be tequila shots, but despite all that, the The NRA turned against Manchin and the bill and then punished him by running ads.

So in his home state, Manchin is working with President Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, concerned that yes, the NRI stabbed the mansion in the back, even though it would have been more like him to shoot him in the back and then argue that he never would have done it. It happened if your back had had a gun and the thing is that every time a possible regulation comes up the pushback is always the same and there is simply no evidence that these gun laws would deter these students, there is at least an absence of evidence certain about effectiveness. of gun ownership laws in the past to think that somehow gun control is or more gun control C is the answer in my opinion that would have to be proven oh yeah it's the old I won't do anything until you can prove it The arguments are the same arguments favored by climate change deniers and the parents of the baby in Maury, happy Father's Day, and that brings us to what is perhaps the NRA's most ingenious and insidious tactic because not only do they manage to block the legislation regarding weapons that have also managed to block information that concerns them, for example, one of the main funders of academic research, the Centers for Disease Control, has been paralyzed in studying the best way to prevent armed violence over the

last

20 years.

In 1996, the NRA successfully lobbied Congress to implement this restriction. of the CDC budget, none of the funds made available can be used to advocate or promote gun control now that the CDC had already been prohibited from advocating for gun control laws or any form of legislation except the Dickey amendment of 1996 named after his sponsor Jay Dickey and The fact that it was something extremely Dickey had a chilling effect on the CDC. Other things that have dropped 96% in the

last

two decades are Oh searches and tickle-me-elmo-related stampedes and it's not just the CDC that's struggling to collect reliable gun-related information for decades, the NRA successfully lobbied to prevent ATF from having a database that can be electronically searched by name when tracing the origins of firearms, so, for example, this is what gun shop documents have to do with that have closed, workers here are left with an antiquated system for tracking 350,000 guns a year that requires them to review by hand tons of paper records and 500 million entries on microfilm.

Many of the records are barely legible. For example, these are records we received as a result of Hurricane Katrina. We're drying them too much in the parking lot. clearly absurd because that doesn't look like a current record of gun ownership, it looks like the manifesto of a Spanish galleon that sank in 1610, so how has the NRA managed to pull all this off? Because the truth is that they are not that big. It's a big organization, they claim they have about 5 million members, but that's 3 million less members than Planet Fitness and Planet Fitness members have almost no power, but most of them They don't even have the power to go to Planet Fitness. and that's true, that's true, whereas in January that place is nothing more than a storage facility for the colored exercise bikes and, although the NRA spends a lot of money on lobbying, often even the NAR or the National Association of Real Estate Agents spend more than them. a group of sneaky bastards who have somehow convinced us all that we should live indoors like a bunch of nerds, but the real power of the NRA is in its members, who are highly motivated and can mobilize quickly, just look On the NRA political action committee's website you'll find alerts for virtually every law in the country, and not just write your alerts for the congressman, like the following bills to be heard on June 14 at 9: 00 a.m. m. in rooms one through six of the state capitol because they know their members often show up and one of the reasons they can rally their base so effectively is because they have a compelling, simple message: It's all about one issue. , there is no four point plan that they have to defend and I would point out that they only have to say no, so they are not in favor of anything, they are against something, a single issue, a word, not exactly, it is Much easier to get support when you're simply against something, there's a reason TLC insisted on no scrubs and not the implementation of a national registry of potential scrubs, aka Buster's, that would shout out trends or affiliations with known bushes who knew there were no bushes is very catchy, oh and the truth about politics is that it's all about showing up, remember. the manchin-toomey amendment which a national poll at the time found 88% of people supported universal background checks and yet Manchin's office maintains that of the calls he received were two hundred to one in opposition to the bill and that's why it's important to call your congressman.

You can't just contact them on Twitter or Facebook because you won't get a personal response or, worse yet, you'll get a very personal response. In fact, save it. Carlos, save it and remember. The Dickey amendment, which has effectively prevented the CDC from studying gun violence, is now opposed by both the American Medical Association and Jay Dickey, the man who sponsored it in the first place and yet every time a member of Congress tries to kill him like Nita Lowey did last time. summer this is how it goes let's support research to prevent gun violence let's protect our communities and save lives thank you the question is about the LOI amendment all in favor say yes all against say no it doesn't seem like they have it the amendment is not in favor agreement is like this.

It's like watching a committee of loved ones vote against investigating the effects of cars coming in the opposite direction, let's stay still. I like our opportunities and those beacons shine and if you're thinking right, I'm sure after Orlando, if anyone tries it, they'll be successful because we. We're all paying attention, well this is the thing about Rep. Tony Cardenas who tried to repeal it again this Wednesday with an amendment to a mental health bill and this was the result. Those in favor will say yes. All those who oppose it say no. Are you kidding? That happened four days ago and I'm guessing you're hearing about this for the first time.

To be honest, it feels like we found out yesterday and we've been working on this story all

week

. And look, the Dickey amendment is emblematic of the strangulation the NRA has on even basic gun facts and should obviously be repealed, but the hard truth is that NRA members seem to care more consistently about preventing gun control than most. of us for approving it because while you may be focused on gun control right now, they're going to be focused on it two

week

s before Orlando and they'll still be focused on it two weeks from now, so this is where I would normally say call to your senator and representative and tell them that you want to repeal the Dickey amendment and you absolutely should if you want, but you will need to do more than that.

You'll have to call them again and remind them to repeal it, then call them on their birthday and tell them happy birthday. and also get rid of the Dickey amendment, call them Arbor Day and say happy Arbor Day, whatever that is. By the way, what's going on with that Dickey amendment? Call them on the days when there wasn't a mass shooting and I know those days are getting fewer and fewer people and they say, Hey, it's me again. What about the Dickey amendment? Because repealing it isn't asking much, it's not gun control, it allows us to have an informed conversation about what a proposal you like might look like and when. is on the table, you'll have to make all those calls again because remember it doesn't take much to outnumber the men at NRA Planet Fitness, but it's time we learned what those members don't have if you want.

To see serious changes, you actually have to show up every day.