Soft on Crime: Protecting the 'Second Amendment Rights' of Thugs and Terrorists
By Joe Conason - April 19, 2013
What can Americans learn from the bitter debate over the gun reform bill?
Perhaps the most obvious lesson is that the leadership of the National Rifle Association, the Gun Owners of America and their tame Republican politicians have all earned an epithet of derision they used to hurl regularly at liberals.
Yes, the gun lobby and its legislative servants are "soft on crime" -- although they routinely pretend to be tough on criminals.
During the Clinton presidency, NRA president-for-life Wayne LaPierre raised vast amounts of money with direct-mail campaigns against both Bill and Hillary Clinton for supposedly coddling criminals. Dubbed "Crimestrike," the NRA crusade pushed prison construction, mandatory minimum sentencing and sundry other panaceas designed to position the NRA as the bane of muggers, rapists and murderers. Those themes echoed traditional Republican propaganda messages dating back to the Nixon era, when the presidential crook himself often derided judicial concerns about civil liberties and promised to restore "law and order." (When Nixon henchmen like the late Chuck Colson went to prison themselves, they often emerged as prison reformers and civil libertarians, of course.)
But in the aftermath of the Newtown massacre, with the NRA angrily opposing any measure designed to hinder criminals from acquiring firearms, the public is learning who is really soft on crime.
(Original here.)
What can Americans learn from the bitter debate over the gun reform bill?
Perhaps the most obvious lesson is that the leadership of the National Rifle Association, the Gun Owners of America and their tame Republican politicians have all earned an epithet of derision they used to hurl regularly at liberals.
Yes, the gun lobby and its legislative servants are "soft on crime" -- although they routinely pretend to be tough on criminals.
During the Clinton presidency, NRA president-for-life Wayne LaPierre raised vast amounts of money with direct-mail campaigns against both Bill and Hillary Clinton for supposedly coddling criminals. Dubbed "Crimestrike," the NRA crusade pushed prison construction, mandatory minimum sentencing and sundry other panaceas designed to position the NRA as the bane of muggers, rapists and murderers. Those themes echoed traditional Republican propaganda messages dating back to the Nixon era, when the presidential crook himself often derided judicial concerns about civil liberties and promised to restore "law and order." (When Nixon henchmen like the late Chuck Colson went to prison themselves, they often emerged as prison reformers and civil libertarians, of course.)
But in the aftermath of the Newtown massacre, with the NRA angrily opposing any measure designed to hinder criminals from acquiring firearms, the public is learning who is really soft on crime.
(Original here.)
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