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29 March 2024

US gun lobby in the crosshairs after school killings

Published
By AFP

By the time Charlton Heston warned politicians they'd have to pry his guns from his cold dead hands, the National Rifle Association was one of the most powerful lobby groups in the United States.

The horrifying slaughter of 20 six- and seven-year-old children and six staff members at a Newport, Connecticut school last week has presented a serious challenge to the NRA's domination of the gun control debate.

After years of insisting that "guns don't kill people, people kill people," the previously uncompromising group plans to offer "meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again" at a press conference Friday.

Yet that is unlikely to be a shift from the NRA's core philosophy that people have a God-given right to defend themselves and that any attempt at serious gun control is a violation of the Constitution's Second Amendment.

The NRA has long argued that giving law-abiding citizens guns helps to deter crime and that laws will never stop criminals or crazy people from getting or using deadly weapons.

NRA newscast host Ginny Simone on Tuesday characterized efforts to renew a ban on assault weapons in the wake of the shooting as something "we all know was a failed experiment from the start."

Meanwhile, a number of pro-gun state lawmakers have repeated a solution that critics say is tantamount to giving up on civilized society: arming teachers as the best defense against school shootings.

They can sway an election one way or another

Founded in 1871 to teach Americans how to use rifles after the general poor level of skill was revealed in the Civil War, the NRA evolved into a popular sportsman's association that promoted gun safety and training.

The NRA was a rather apolitical organization until a lobbying branch was formed in 1975 in response to gun control efforts.

It has become a powerful and feared force in Washington and in state capitols, as have the grades and endorsements it gives lawmakers.

"They can sway an election one way or another," Gregg Lee Carter, a sociology professor at Bryant University and author of "Guns in American Society," told AFP.

Its success lies not just in the power of about four million card-carrying members and the financial backing of the gun industry, but also in the efficiency and reach of its organization.

"If in the state of Rhode Island in conference room 2A they're going to discuss gun control, the NRA has their members there," Carter told AFP.

The number of states with permissive gun laws -- which typically only prohibit felons, drug addicts, children and the mentally ill from carrying concealed weapons -- expanded from three to 41 in the past 30 years.

The NRA has also helped enact controversial "Stand Your Ground" laws in 25 states that grant immunity from prosecution if people use deadly force because they felt threatened.

Its power is also derived from the romanticization of guns in American history and culture.

From the American Revolution to the pioneers staking out land on the frontier, guns have long been associated with the American ideals of individualism and self-reliance.

As the nation became more urbanized, they also began to be seen as a symbol of a more idyllic rural lifestyle and a rejection of the liberalism of cityfolk.

The crime epidemics of the 1970s, 80's and 90's helped the NRA expand its reach by attracting people who sought guns for self-protection.

Even gun enthusiasts are saying things are out of control

The NRA is currently training about 750,000 people a year how to properly handle a gun -- many because the courses are required in order to get a permit.

They are also taught that they cannot count on police for help and must take personal responsibility for the safety of their family.

"From this perspective, the banning of guns translates to the banning of the last line of defense against crime amid what many gun carriers see as crumbling public infrastructure," said University of California, Berkeley sociologist Jennifer Dawn Carlson.

The NRA has also been successful in tapping into a relatively small but politically significant group of people who remain deeply suspicious of the modern American government.

"They view the colonial tradition as meaning that if they see the government as becoming tyrannical then by gosh they have the right to pick up their guns and rebel," said Robert Spitzer, author of "The Politics of Gun Control" and a professor at State University of New York at Cortland.

The NRA needs to soften its hardline positions if it hopes to survive, said Douglas Kellner, an expert on school shootings and domestic terrorism at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"Even gun enthusiasts are saying things are out of control," Kellner told AFP. "We have to get these assault weapons off the streets and be more careful about background checks."

Americans spend an estimated $3.5 billion annually on guns and critics say that appetite is largely fueled by the NRA.

America has suffered an epidemic of gun violence over the last three decades, including 62 mass shooting sprees since 1982, three of the deadliest in the second half of this year alone.