The NRA: An American Bully
By Bryan Miller
Two seemingly unrelated news items made a singular impression last week, and deserve the consideration of New Jerseyans and all Americans, as they, in fact, are linked.
First, newspapers across the country reported that the National Rifle Association began in recent weeks to vociferously promote a boycott of ConocoPhillips gas and oil products, because that corporation joined several others doing business in Oklahoma in a suit to block an NRA-inspired state law making it illegal for any employer to prohibit its employees from having guns in their cars in company parking lots. Yes, the NRA is boycotting a company that wants guns kept off its premises. This despite periodic workplace massacres across the country, made possible by easy access to firearms.
According to ConocoPhillips’ suit, 17 Americans lose their lives weekly, on average, to workplace violence. The company said, in a statement, "Our primary concern is the safety of all our employees. We are simply trying to provide a safe and secure working environment for our employees by keeping guns out of our facilities, including our company parking lots."
It seems that the NRA cares not for the safety of workers in their place of work and is attempting to bully ConocoPhillips into a dangerous business practice.
And, that’s the point. The NRA has achieved the status of societal bully, determined, in all of its hubristic glory, to remake American society into one that is totally armed, fearful and violent, so that the NRA’s patrons in the gun industry might never have to worry about a decline in sales and profits.
The NRA’s bullying has become more obvious and toxic in recent months.
Florida enacted an NRA-inspired and -promoted law enabling citizens to legally use lethal force in public against anyone by whom they might feel threatened. This law eliminates a duty to retreat first in the face of threats in public and immunizes shooters from prosecution in most cases if they claim they felt threatened. The NRA has stated that it will seek to have this “shoot first” law enacted in most other states, as well.
At its annual convention in Houston in April, NRA Board Member Ted Nugent called from the podium for rank and file NRA members to become “hard core, radical extremists” for so-called gun owners’ rights and admonished them to associate only with other NRA members. His calls were met with thunderous applause from the assembled NRA adherents.
The NRA pushed through a law in Minnesota, over the opposition of businesses, educators and clergy, to make it illegal to prohibit the carrying of handguns in business establishments, schools and churches, synagogues and mosques unless they post large signs on each entry.
The NRA is pushing hard at present to gain enactment of a similar law in Wisconsin.
Last month, the NRA unceremoniously pulled its long-planned 2007 annual convention from Columbus, Ohio because the Columbus City Council passed (unanimously) a local assault weapons ban.
The US Senate passed an NRA-promoted bill granting gun manufacturers, distributors and dealers nearly wholesale immunity from civil liability and halting existing lawsuits against the industry for defective products and negligent distribution. It is scheduled to pass the House in the fall. NRA shills falsely categorize the bill as “tort reform,” when would it actually give reckless gun dealers carte blanche to sell to anyone at anytime, and lessen the ability of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to discipline reckless gun dealers
The second news item was a report in the Pittsburgh Business Times describing the dramatic rise in costs to Pennsylvania taxpayers for hospital treatment for gunshot wounds. According to the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council and the Pennsylvania Department of Health the median charge for inpatient hospitalization due to firearm injuries during 2001-03, the most recent period available, was $30,814 -- more than double the $15,182 median charge for 1996-98.
Further, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council said: "These cases also represent mounting costs to publicly-financed health care as 70 percent of all firearm-related injury victims in Pennsylvania were either Medical Assistance recipients or had no health insurance coverage at all." The financial responsibility for the bulk of cases of hospital treatment for gunshot wounds falls on taxpayers.
This particular report may have been specifically about Pennsylvania’s costs, but such increases are faced everywhere across the country, making each and all of us bear the climbing financial burden of gun violence.
These seemingly unrelated items are, in fact, closely linked. The NRA’s bullying tactics and determination to create an even more gun-saturated society affects all of us, both in the fear of venturing into everyday life outside our homes and in the growing financial burden we all face due to the gun violence enabled by the easy access to firearms promoted by the NRA. The juxtaposition of these news items, and what they portend, is particularly troubling, given the NRA’s determination to force more state legislatures into enacting its vision of a totally armed America.
Watch closely for NRA bullying coming soon to a legislature near you.
Bryan Miller is Executive Director of Ceasefire NJ, a statewide coalition of groups and individuals devoted to reducing gun violence in New Jersey.
