Why I send money to the NRA

I am a registered gun owner and pay annual dues to the National Rifle Association to defend my constitutional right to own it. President Obama called people like me “bitter clingers” who cling to their guns and bibles. Hillary Clinton included us in her “basket of deplorables.”

Many journalists de-personalize gun owners. Political cartoonists often portray us as tobacco-chewing, beer-drinking rednecks shooting up the countryside with assault rifles.

My own bio? I am 77 years old – my wife and I have been married for 55 years. I served as an infantry officer, but not in combat, and regularly hunted big game in the Rocky Mountain states. Our son served in the Persian Gulf. I spent my business career managing portions of the Southern and Western U.S. for a consumer goods company.

For several years, we dined in some of San Francisco’s finest restaurants as my wife wrote reviews for a travel magazine. We preferred good wine – not beer.

We all mourn the recent deaths of 17 innocent kids killed by an alleged madman. In interviews with the media, some of the grieving survivors quickly blamed the NRA. But before the attack, the students and others reportedly had given nearly 50 warnings to authorities that this psychopath was going to “shoot up a school.”

Shouldn’t their anger instead be focused on the incompetent local sheriff’s office, and an apparently a cowardly deputy? Will motivated young people now do their own homework to propose realistic, actionable recommendations?

Local students could start their research by interviewing a California district attorney, who will explain many traditional military-style assault rifles can no longer be sold, transferred or inherited and possessing a fully automatic rifle – the version used for video games and movies – is a federal crime with a 10-year sentence in a federal prison.

Every gun purchase – including gun shows – requires a background check and a 10-day waiting period, and firearms are legally limited to a maximum capacity of 10 bullets. Ammunition purchases will also require a background check in 2019. Finally, family members and law enforcement can petition a judge to remove a person’s firearms if they are clearly a danger to the public.

For perspective, students should research the 2016 annual FBI Uniform Crime Report. Their website shows a rifle was identified as the cause of death in 374 of the 11,000 firearms homicides, pistols or shotguns killed 7,400 and an unknown type of firearm was used for 3,300 murders. Beatings or stabbings claimed 4,000 victims.

By comparison, the Centers for Disease Control website shows a firearm was used in over 22,000 self-inflicted suicides, 42,000 people died from opioid drug overdoses, drunk drivers killed 10,000 and distracted – texting – drivers killed over 3,300 people.

Before banning all gun purchases by anyone under age 21, researchers should consider that over 60 percent of the 58,000 Americans killed in Vietnam were that young. If they are old enough to fight our wars, aren’t they old enough to buy a rifle or shotgun?

Tragically, Parkside High School, the Boston Marathon bombing, the Orlando Night Club shooting and the 2017 Texas church massacre share a common story. After the event, we discover authorities were aware of the potential threat but the perpetrator simply “slipped through the cracks.”

A more disciplined National Background Check system – demanding full reporting from local authorities – could probably reduce access to firearms by terrorists or psychopaths.

Personally, I saw innocent people suffering when rampaging mobs overwhelmed police forces in Los Angeles and Berkley, and it required military rifles and bayonets to restore order. The Fresno State professor who tweeted “Justice = The execution of two Republicans for each deported immigrant” has threatened nearly half of all American citizens.

And, it wasn’t an NRA member who attempted to assassinate Republican Congressmen just practicing for a softball game last year.

Surveys show over 40 percent of Americans admit to pollsters that they live in a household with a gun. Many probably believe “When seconds count, the police are just minutes away.” I support the NRA’s defense of the original 10 Bill of Rights Amendments that citizens demanded before approving our Constitution in 1789.

This story was originally published April 20, 2018 at 3:03 PM with the headline "Why I send money to the NRA."