To start with, everyone should watch Dana Loesch's now infamous "clenched fist of truth" video. Really look at the imagery and note the language. https://youtu.be/XtGOQFf9VCE
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Using a known film technique called the Kuleshov effect, the result is the rapid juxtaposition of a narrative of attack and images of violence after...the facade of the New York Times, Hollywood, postmodern architecture, Cloud Gate in Chicago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuleshov_effect …
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This is amazing! And then the language. "*They* use *their* news to assassinate..." Over and over again, "*They* use *their*..." ending with what sounds like will be a call to murder liberals in the street, but rather shifts to using "the clenched fist of truth".
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Similarly Wayne LaPierre in a speech to members said "It’s up to us to speak up against the three most dangerous voices in America: academic elites, political elites, and media elites. These are America’s greatest domestic threats,”https://thinkprogress.org/nra-recruiting-video-violence-dana-loesch-1abc41393d5c/ …
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Academic elites, hey that's me! Anyway, I'm not anyone's enemy, but now I bet you're wondering right? This language is wildly divisive. It casts other Americans as our "greatest domestic threats." And they have reach - 80 million magazines a year, newsletters, NRA TV...
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I'd be surprised if it wasn't part of a pattern, and a very successful one that the NRA has used for decades to create division between its membership and their fellow Americans who we have everything in common with.https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-the-nra-manipulates-gun-owners-and-the-media …
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The NRA has been enormously successful, so much so, that really, it's hard to argue they haven't completely won. The assault weapons ban is no more. There's so many loopholes in background checks you can anonymously buy a gun in a parking lot without breaking a law.
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Throughout the Obama presidency they were predicting doom, confiscation, the end of America at the hands of Democrats. Don't really have to tell you it didn't happen. But that's their narrative - and it's been growing more extreme even as they're winning. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/08/opinion/nra-mass-shootings-thousand-oaks.html …
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It's a constant drum beat, "you are under attack, you are under attack, liberals with their black presidents and weird architecture are coming for your guns!" But really, the idea of gun bans is known to be so politically toxic for so long, it's an absurd suggestion.
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People who acknowledge gun violence is a public health problem want such a bare minimum of action, the evidence is there are far more areas of agreement with gun owners than areas of disagreement - even among NRA members.
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When you look at Pew polling, for instance, the overwhelming majority of Americans, gun owners and non-gun owners alike, agree criminal access to guns is too easy. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/06/22/views-of-guns-and-gun-violence/ …
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And Monmouth University polling finds gun owners, even NRA members (remember - a minority of gun owners), overwhelmingly support universal background checks at a rate of 70%.https://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/MonmouthPoll_US_030818/ …
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NRA members have a lot more in common with doctors trying to prevent gun violence than not - we are mostly focused on keeping guns out of the hands of the wrong people. But the NRA beats the drum of fear and divisiveness to try to keep us from recognizing that fact.
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Discord is their product. It's a constant drumbeat of fear and divisiveness designed to convince their loyal constituency that any call for action on guns is a ban, even though no one is talking about bans.
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But they are afraid. Their worry is that if we are allowed to fully study gun violence, guns for personal protection - which about 70% of gun owners cite as the reason they own guns - will be exposed as untrue.
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It's too bad, because we could make ownership more safe, we could make this true, if we could study how to change habits of ownership like keeping guns locked up (66% agree) so children don't kill themselves or the neighbor kid.
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Or we could identify who absolutely should not be allowed to own guns - like people who are violent, beat their spouse, or torture animals. Or how guns are getting out of legitimate markets and into the hands of criminals.
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If, as the NRA says, people kill people, not guns, let's figure out who those people are and don't let them get their hands on guns. You set animals on fire? No guns for you. You beat your wife? No guns for you. NRA members are law abiding people, they agree with this stuff.
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They are kept from finding common cause with those of us looking for solutions because they are told, over and over, by the NRA, in newsletters, 80 million magazines a year, and online, that anyone who wants to fix gun violence wants to take their guns. Discord is their product.
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So while I think common cause with the NRA is impossible, common cause with NRA members is. We agree more than we don't. Here is the
@AmCollSurgeons recommendations on gun legislation.https://www.journalacs.org/article/S1072-7515(18)32155-0/fulltext …Show this thread -
The *only* one I see being a real source of disagreement is on a registry. 52% of gun owners agree with that but only about 32% of NRA members. Other than that? Background checks? Check. Education and Training? Check. Safe storage? Check.
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Licensing - depends on how far. Eg, no one really disagrees civilian ownership of fully-automatic weapons deserves additional scrutiny. How far does that go? NRA members are law abiding, they know they can jump through a hoop if it keeps guns from criminals. Let's talk about it.
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We can compromise. I bet most gun owners have common ground with the balance of the ACS recommendations. Let's talk about it, and let's not have the NRA fear monger us into seeing fellow Americans as the enemy, because we agree with their members far more than we disagree.
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The NRA currently has everything they want. There is no federal restriction of firearms, gun ownership as a personal right was enshrined by SCOTUS, yet their followers still think gun bans are all we want. They lose if we talk. Discord is their product.
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A clarification. This was vague and I’m fully aware of NFA. This reflects AWB was allowed to expire. There is no effective restriction on what models you fan buy and with an FFL and a stamp you can even access fully automatic arms. There are effectively no bans in this country.
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Especially relative to other countries Americans can access an incredible amount of firepower just for turning 18. Jump through the hoops to get a FFL and even more is available. This is not to say federal laws don’t exist, but their talk of bans bans bans is hugely overblown.
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End of conversation
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