Quote of the day: The gun lobby’s idea of accountability

Larry Pratt

Most people might look at the almost-daily mass shootings in the US and think the gun industry and its enablers ought to be held accountable for the massacres caused by their products and policies. Gun lobbyists take a different approach:

The National Rifle Association has gone dark, but other gun-rights groups say they're keeping close tabs on Republicans to make sure that any new legislation doesn't see the light of day after the shooting massacre in Las Vegas.

"Given the spinelessness of so many of the Republican caucus, the best thing would be to get the leadership not to let it come up," Larry Pratt, co-founder and executive director emeritus of the Gun Owners of America, said in an interview with NBC. "If it comes to a vote, they are going to be held accountable."

The fight is less about particular gun-control measures — like a new bill by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., banning devices that allow semi-automatic guns to mimic fully automatic weapons — and more about what gun-rights advocates see as a slippery slope to more restrictive regulations on firearms.

Some of them worry that the NRA's playbook, which includes laying low in the immediate aftermath of mass shootings and sometimes giving lawmakers a pass to vote for limited regulations, amounts to a bad strategy for gun owners.

At this point, I don’t think the US has a gun culture so much as a gun pathology. It takes quite a twisted set of priorities to see an epidemic of gun violence, where your country has several times more gun-related deaths than the next two dozen developed nations combined, and react by doubling down on preventing any kind of legislative attempt to alleviate the problem.

It’s funny; the US also has a pretty vibrant car culture, with millions of avid fans of flashy and speedy vehicles. Yet somehow, no-one’s complaining about all the road safety laws and regulations in place. There are no media figures arguing that seatbelts and airbags are unnecessary, no politicians declaring that crash test ratings are an imposition upon car manufacturers, no lobbyist groups trying to do away with driver’s licenses and insurance. The nation has an expansive system governing road safety that must be strictly obeyed under penalty of severe fines, loss of driving privileges and even imprisonment, and everyone goes along with it because it’s seen as perfectly reasonable.

There must be something truly magical about guns that they deserve such uniquely special treatment.

(via Joe.My.God.)