moosed:
Bruddah Wayne:
“They’re coming after us with a vengeance to destroy us — to destroy us and every ounce of our freedom…we need to meet them head-on,” he said.
(The problem with that statement, while I agree with it, is that it is soooooo easy to for a liberal to hear "The Liberals" when Wayne says "they.")
Bruddah Porter:
“It was started by some Yankee generals who didn’t like the way my Southern boys had the ability to shoot in what we call the War of Northern Aggression. Now, y’all might call it the Civil War, but we call it the War of Northern Aggression down South.”
(Boo, that statement has no place coming out of the mouth of a mouthpiece of the NRA. Waaay too easy to attack.)
Bruddah Wayne, again:
“Meanwhile, President Obama is leading this country to financial ruin, borrowing over a trillion dollars a year for phony “stimulus” spending and other payoffs for his political cronies. Nobody knows if or when the fiscal collapse will come, but if the country is broke, there likely won’t be enough money to pay for police protection. And the American people know it.”
(While I don't disagree... this is clearly a partisan statement and is certainly going to alienate people who don't agree but DO support the 2nd amendment.)
and
“We [the NRA] are the largest civil rights organization in the world.”
(Yup. While true in its way, try selling that to people who are on the fence about whether guns make you safer or less safe.)
and
"“There exists in this country a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people."
(Sure. And the middle doesn't know or want to know that and will write you off as a fringe conspiracy lunatic for saying it. Or, worse, they think that IS the firearms industry. THINK before you speak!)
From the NRA website:
http://www.meetthenra.org/nra-member/ted%20nugent(Huge. Mistake. Ted has waaaaaay too many character weaknesses and horrible choices of words already on record to do much other than damage the NRA's chances of looking reasonable in the eyes of the middle.)
and right there on that page about Uncle Ted:
“If ever there was an ounce of truth that came out of Barack Obama’s mouth, he would be great speaker, but—much like Hitler—if you lie and you scam I’m afraid I can’t give you much credit for being a good anything.”
(Nice. Certainly not a partisan statement at all, right? Just simple truth, of course. Nothing divisive at all about equating Obama with Hitler... Why on earth would the NRA website chose this statement to highlight?!)
From the same page:
“I know that if you believe animals have rights, I promise I will kill an extra hundred just for you."
(But really, we're not violent, unreasonable people like you think we are. No, really.)
Back to Bruudah Porter and his NRA page:
Tracing the history of the NRA, Porter added, “You know, the NRA was just a glorified shooting club up until about 1968. At that time, Thomas Dodd, father of Chris Dodd, was a Senator, and Stuart Symington, and some other Senators, got together and they tried to ban all firearm ownership. And we were able to craft a compromise.”
The legislation to which Porter is referring to, the Gun Control Act of 1968, never included any provision to ban firearm ownership.(I added the italics. WHY did the NRA include this quote and then immediately explain that the man who said it, the current NRA President, was full of crap? Especially when the liberals insist -correctly- that no one is going to take the guns away?)
Yet more from Porter:
“I get so sick and tired of all these people with this fake president that we got who wants to say, ‘Well, you know he hadn’t done anything bad for gun owners.’ I say, let me tell you something bad that he’s done. His entire administration is anti-gun, anti-freedom, anti-Second Amendment.”
(Fake president? Explain to me how this doesn't make the NRA look distinctly partisan.)
and yet more....
“Right in the United Nations today, they have an initiative that would make it illegal for individuals all over the world to own firearms. And that’s what they’re passing. And that’s what this administration is supporting.”
In truth, the U.N. Small Arms Treaty to which Porter is referring would set only international standards for the export of conventional weapons—leaving domestic laws regulating the possession of firearms untouched. (Another "Sorry, our President is full of sh!t" moment. I get that the NRA is clarifying on their web page about him... but it should never have been said in the first place.)
I could go on.
We tend not to see these statements as problems because even if we don't fully agree with them we don't mind them and understand the context they are coming. But all a leftist reporter has to do to find PLENTY of anti-NRA ammo is do exactly what I did: google "stupid NRA quotes" and go to the NRA page itself. From the point of view of someone on the left, or in the middle, who doesn't understand or agree with the context... the collected statements above can easily paint the NRA as closer to the extreme side of the Right and not interested in being reasonable.
That's what I mean by "do no harm" and how they are failing miserably to avoid doing harm. They clearly do NOT understand the world of politics and how closely you have to guard what you say and control your message. Either that or their message IS distinctly tea flavored. The left, as it would, easily assumes the latter. So does the center.
This is horrible political "performance" for what is supposed to be the most powerful "gun lobby."