"NRA taunts Parkland teens: "No one would even know your names if your classmates were still alive."" - MSN news

That is what you are supporting. That's the point of view your NRA membership dues pay for.

Perhaps the biggest argument in favor of gun control is now the NRA.

I do not particularly care one way or the other if you own firearms. I have no problem with responsible gun ownership. What I DO have a problem with is someone or some organization forcing me to defend imaginary rights to grab a freaking machine gun and mow down school kids, concert goers, etc etc etc. Don't force your mistakes on me.

Members should demand the NRA become a responsible part of the solution rather than the big part of the problem they are. This is the time to work together. To compromise. To act like the America the Constitution envisioned.
As members you should call on the NRA to stop being UN-American. But rather than do that you are allowing fringe elements to take over the organization. People, adult human beings who actually taunt recently traumatized school children - that is who you are supporting with your membership dues. You are championing that person who is making fun of a kid who had to watch as 11 bullets were pumped into her 14 year old friend all because they both made the mistake of going to school that day.
If I have to explain what is wrong with that picture than it is too late to save you from yourself.

I'm not talking about typical, responsible gun owner members. Most people I know own guns. But the NRA is being led more and more by ... a different element. More of a click-your-heels-together increasingly uber ....... something not healthy kind of leadership. This is not opinion, it is simple observation. Some of the quotes coming from upper management there? Seriously? And you continue to give money to the organization? More and more the NRA seems a group espousing something much different than what the United States was founded on.

It is becoming increasingly dangerous, not the least for those who support responsible gun ownership. The NRA is very much becoming a poster child for supporters of gun control.

The NRA is in a position to do a great deal of good. A chance to shine, to - in a major way, positively contribute to society, to show that the organization cares about the values this country was founded upon. To forge a trail of reasonable compromise. To be Americans.

I very much hope they change direction, but to this point the NRA has chosen the opposite path. By using their members, by using YOU, they are protecting their pocket books. Nothing else. This is not about anyone's "rights." Certainly not yours. To leadership at the NRA this is about power and money. Nothing more. NRA members - stop allowing yourselves to be used. Demand change. Stop paying for NRA upper management's mansions and fancy cars with the lives of our children. Instead be part of the solution. Try to help fix this uniquely American problem

"When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history," "... you will not destroy America...America will triumph over you."

- John Brennan, former head of C.I.A. commenting on one of countless recent screw-ups by President Donald J. Putin.
Copied here in celebration of Mr. Brennan's proper use of some big words.

biggest joke in the history of ever. You, me and the rest of this disaster otherwise known as the United States of America. A very big very stupid very dangerous joke.
If I wasn't here witnessing the train wreck firsthand I would not believe it could happen. Yet seemingly every day, every single day your president finds a new way to screw up. Another way to screw us over. To embarrass us. To make us weak.

We are being led by a possibly retarded likely demented playground bully imbecile with a nepotistic criminal revolving door freak-show of an administration that better belongs at the head of a failed third-world country. In just over a year Putin, excuse me - Trump has pulled us down from our position as leader of the free world to instead being an unstable dangerously unpredictable sinking ship.

Impeach invoke do something before he completely destroys 242 years of effort. Otherwise learn how to speak Chinese, or Russian. You know, from one of those countries that is going to last.

"Florida Governor Rick Scott signed into law changes to school safety and gun access on Friday."
"The new legislation raises the age to buy rifles from 18 to 21, extends a 3-day waiting period for handguns to long guns, bans bump stocks that allow guns to fully mimic automatic fire and allows some school staffers to be armed."
"The NRA immediately filed suit to block it from taking effect." Because the NRA is showing its true colors. The NRA has become a threat to responsible gun owners. With their self-serving and legally flawed reading of the Constitution, along with absolute unwillingness to compromise -e.g. their Un-American behavior, the National Rifle Association continues with its primary mission of making money for itself with which to buy politicians and provide obscene amounts of compensation to management.

Repeat:

That the Second Amendment continues to be misinterpreted to the benefit of those in favor of gun ownership remains one of the biggest stains on our nation. The language of the second amendment is clear, and so is the intent. The Second Amendment provides for armed militias for purpose of protection of the state. Put another way - as a group we are allowed weapons to be used for protection of the government.
No reasonable interpretation allows me to have my very own goddamn machine gun, whether I use it for "hunting" or mowing down school children. In fact, the Second Amendment doesn't guarantee me the right to own even a water pistol. Instead, it explicitly allows the government to decide who can bear arms, and when. It provides for, even requires government regulation of firearms.
Or, as put by Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger: "The Gun Lobby's interpretation of the Second Amendment is one of the greatest pieces of fraud - I repeat the word fraud - on the American people by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime. The actual purpose of the Second Amendment was to ensure that State armies - the militia - would be maintained for the defense of the State. The very language of the Second Amendment refutes the argument that it was intended to guarantee every citizen an unfettered right to any weapon."

For those of you who don't remember Justice Burger - he was considered conservative, very. He'd have made Stevie Bannon look like a daffodil-toting liberal. Basically he was a redneck's dream.
Well, except for his annoying tendency to state the truth. In this case, that you, me neither of us has a constitutional right to own a weapon whether it be firearm or butter knife.

If you want a gun I suppose you're going to have a gun. Just don't misquote the Constitution as part of your justification.
The Second Amendment is clear. Allowing convenient misinterpretation to the benefit of private gun owners requires massive sums of money and political clout. Enter the NRA and gun manufacturers, e.g. very wealthy individuals and groups, padding politicians pockets lest they might actually start enforcing the guiding documents of the United States of America.

Rather than using their positions of power to be part of the solution, rather than seizing on a true opportunity to make things better - the NRA and like groups instead continue with their hate-filled rhetoric, pushing self serving and blatantly incorrect legal arguments to the massive benefits of their wallets.
And in so doing absolutely positively 100% guaranteeing more massacres.

The NRA is no longer concerned with the rights of gun owners. The NRA has become a money-making machine with main purpose being to pad the wallets of management and pay off politicians. In fact, by showing absolute unwillingness to compromise they are becoming a threat to responsible gun owners. Add in a fringe element - NRA supporters actually threatening children who survived the latest school massacre - and the group is becoming the face of political peril (regardless of your thoughts on firearms most of us realize how disgusting and flat-out chicken it is to threaten these kids. Yet the bigwigs, the millionaires in management at the NRA who have become rich off your dues are strangely silent.)

At some point the scales may tip, and politicians continuing to accept money from the NRA will be finding themselves un-electable. By continuing to show unwillingness to do the right thing, to become part of the solution, the NRA will devolve into a small, unimportant club of haters.

Responsible members should demand immediate change or separate from the organization. The NRA is becoming a very visible reason for increased gun control. (I am fully aware none of this will happen. What WILL happen is things will settle down again, we'll all kinda forget, and instead find something else to concern ourselves with. God knows there's enough other stuff to worry about.

Then another massacre will happen a bunch more kids shot to pieces. There will be much crying and gnashing of teeth. Again. The NRA will continue its convenient misinterpretation of the Constitution will continue to blame everyone except those responsible and will continue to pull in massive sums of money with which to buy politicians and shower on management. The circle will keep going round and round. The only winners in this uniquely American tragedy will continue to be the wealthy elite on the top rungs of the NRA. Laughing all the way to the bank.
And once again, and again and again - the rest of us will be left to try and rationalize our part in pumping eleven bullets into a fourteen-year old girl who's biggest sin was going to school on an unlucky day.

Build a wall around Melania

The NRA is no longer concerned with the rights of gun owners. The NRA has become a money-making machine with main purpose being to pad the wallets of management and pay off politicians. In fact, by showing absolute unwillingness to compromise they are becoming a threat to responsible gun owners. Add in a fringe element - NRA supporters actually threatening children who survived the latest school massacre - and the group is becoming the face of political peril (regardless of your thoughts on firearms most of us realize how disgusting and flat-out chicken it is to threaten these kids. Yet the bigwigs, the millionaires in management at the NRA who have become rich off your dues are strangely silent.) At some point the scales tip, and politicians continuing to accept money from the NRA will be finding themselves un-electable. By continuing to show unwillingness to do the right thing, to become part of the solution, the NRA will devolve into a small, unimportant fringe group of haters. Threatening school kids who managed to avoid being shredded in the latest massacre. Responsible members should demand immediate change - or separate from the organization. The NRA is becoming a very visible reason for more gun control. (I am fully aware none of this will happen. What WILL happen is things will settle down again, we'll all kinda forget, and instead find something else to concern ourselves with. God knows there's enough other stuff to worry about. Then another massacre will happen a bunch more kids shot to pieces. There will be much crying and gnashing of teeth. Again. The NRA will continue its convenient misinterpretation of the Constitution will continue to blame everyone except those responsible and will continue to pull in massive sums of money to buy politicians and shower on management. The circle will keep going round and round. The only winners in this uniquely American tragedy will continue to be the wealthy elite on the top rungs of the NRA.

typically I haven't much cared one way or another.  That so long as you respect my right to not own a gun it doesn't particularly matter to me if you keep weapons.   Sure, every now and then (and more and more often anymore) when some unwell individual goes off it causes me to think.  But mostly the issue of guns hasn't been high on my list of concerns.  
It is getting there.  I think what might have done recently it is watching a man being interviewed on the news this past week.  A father.  Doing his best to speak coherently about his little girl.   His little angel.  Who had recently been shredded while at school in Florida.  Literally cut in half.  And right after that interview was discussion with the head of the NRA, made a millionaire by members dues, blindly raging how, through his convenient interpretation, the Second Amendment of the Constitution give people the right to have the weapons used to dismember children.  

I think I may be starting to care.  All I can figure is its part of getting old because it's happening to me more and more lately.  
That the Second Amendment continues to be misinterpreted to the benefit of those in favor of gun ownership remains one of the biggest stains on our nation. The language of the second amendment is clear, and, to me so is the intent. The Second Amendment provides for armed militias for purpose of protection of the state.  Put another way - as a group we can own weapons to be used for protection of the government.  

No reasonable interpretation allows me to have my very own goddamn machine gun, whether I use it for "hunting" or mowing down school children.  In fact, the Second Amendment doesn't guarantee me the right to own even a water pistol.  Instead, it explicitly allows the government to decide who can bear arms, and when.  It provides for, even requires government regulation of firearms.  

Or, as put by Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger:  "The Gun Lobby's interpretation of the Second Amendment is one of the greatest pieces of fraud - I repeat the word fraud - on the American people by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime.   The actual purpose of the Second Amendment was to ensure that State armies - the militia - would be maintained for the defense of the State.  The very language of the Second Amendment refutes the argument that it was intended to guarantee every citizen an unfettered right to any weapon."  

For those of you who don't remember Justice Burger - he was considered conservative, very.  He'd have made Stevie Bannon look like a daffodil-toting liberal. Basically he was a redneck's dream. 

Well, except for his annoying tendency to state the truth.  In this case, that you, me neither of us has a constitutional right to own a weapon whether it be firearm or butter knife.

The Second Amendment is clear.   Misinterpretation to the benefit of private gun owners requires massive sums of money and political clout.  Enter the NRA and gun manufacturers, e.g. very wealthy individuals and groups, , padding politicians pockets lest they might actually start enforcing the guiding documents of the United States of America.  Rather than using their positions of power to be part of the solution, rather than seizing on a true opportunity to make things better - they instead continue with their hate-filled rhetoric, pushing self serving and blatantly incorrect legal arguments to the massive benefits of their wallets.    

And in so doing absolutely positively 100% guaranteeing more massacres. 

We all know that.  The only real question is how do we continue rationalizing our part in putting 11 bullets into a nine-year girl whos biggest sin was going to school on an unlucky day.  

from the New York Times, T. Friedman:

"Our democracy is in serious danger.
President Trump is either totally compromised by the Russians or is a towering fool, or both, but either way he has shown himself unwilling or unable to defend America against a Russian campaign to divide and undermine our democracy. That is, either Trump’s real estate empire has taken such large amounts of money from shady oligarchs linked to the Kremlin — so much that they literally own him; or Trump actually believes Russian President Vladimir Putin when he says he is innocent of intervening in our elections — over the explicit findings of Trump’s own C.I.A., N.S.A. and F.B.I. chiefs." 

There's more in the article, including discussion of "Trump’s behavior continues to amount to a refusal to carry out his oath of office — to protect and defend the Constitution." That a newspaper of note would essentially openly accuse a sitting president of treason shows how far our nation has fallen in just over one year. 

The article goes on to state: "In sum, Trump is either hiding something so threatening to himself, or he’s criminally incompetent to be commander in chief. Whatever it is, Trump is either trying so hard to hide it or is so naïve about Russia that he is ready to not only resist mounting a proper defense of our democracy, he’s actually undermining some of our most important institutions, the F.B.I. and Justice Department, to keep his compromised status hidden.
That must not be tolerated. This is code red. The biggest threat to the integrity of our democracy today is in the Oval Office." - NYT, Friedman

Remember, you didn't hear any of this from me. It's all somebody else's fault, anyway.

Donald J. Trump is anti-democracy.  Definitely Un-American.  Those of you continuing to justify support of this trainwreck?  The same.