NRA Vice President Wayne La Pierre is a mouthpiece, but it’s time to meet the board
By Natasha Dowdy Gordon
Never before has the NRA found itself in the position where it has had to defend its tactics, its sense of morality or the ways that it chooses to do its business, but the times, they are a changing, and in the eyes of most Americans, changing for the better. The tragedy that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which left six adults, and the lifeless bodies of 20 kindergartners riddled with as many as eleven bullet holes, has caused people across the United States to stand up and say, finally, that enough is enough.
The people have spoken in national polls, in city halls all over the nation, and they have even taken to the streets, as they have marched, held vigils, and rallied. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have listened carefully to the people of the United States, and have taken strong and undeniable moves to lay out a plan to help lessen the chance that this country will ever experience anything like the Sandy Hook tragedy again, and there are many members serving in both the United States House of Representatives, and in the Senate that stand beside them; And then there are those that continue to ignore the will of the American people, and have instead chosen to stand with the National Rifle Association (NRA).
The NRA was once dubbed one of the most powerful lobbies in the country, and although the organization has shown itself to be tone deaf, callous, and unaffected by the fact that the products that they lobby so hard to protect leave 32 people dead every day in the United States, there are people that have been elected to the United States House of Representatives, and in the United states Senate who believe that the NRA should be allowed to continue to operate business as usual, and without any restrictions.
It is almost hard for anyone to understand how anyone in the U.S. House of Representatives could bring themselves down to the level where they could throw themselves in the line of fire to protect an organization that refuses to support any type of legislation at all that has anything to do with gun control considering the fact that former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot down during an assassination attempt.
The voice of money apparently speaks louder than the voices, of reason, compassion, or the concern for the protection of the lives of American people. The NRA padded the pockets of quite a few Washington politicians. During the 2012 election cycle the National Rifle Association of America Political Victory Fund spent $11 million. The NRA PACs launched an unsuccessful fear mongering campaign against President Obama which cost them $13 million.
The questions still remain as to who are the people behind the NRA. Some may think that the driving forces behind the NRA are toothless, gun toting, squirrel eating people who are ignorant, uneducated creatures of circumstance, who never see the light of civilization, but nothing could be further from the truth. Those who sit on the board of the NRA come from an array of different backgrounds. It is time that the American people meet the board members of the NRA.
Meet Carl Malone. Many may remember Malone’s antics on the basketball court as he was a two-time National Basketball Association (NBA) Most Valuable Player and a 14-time NBA All-Star. Malone is no stranger to controversy, and has been labeled as a womanizer, a deadbeat dad, and a xenophobe, but according to an op-ed that he wrote for Sports Illustrated that appeared on Jan. 7, 2010, it would appear that Mr. Malone’s opinion regarding gun ownership differs greatly from that of the organization of the board that he currently sits on. In his piece, Malone wrote that if he were a gun dealer, he would not sell a gun to a person who walked into his shop and stated that they wanted to purchase the firearm for their protection, because he stated that a person like that is someone that is looking for the next confrontation. Malone also wrote that guns will not protect people, because if someone really wanted to get after them they would. This is a direct contradiction to the verbiage that the American people have been hearing from Wayne La Pierre, the mouthpiece for the NRA since the Sandy Hook massacre. Also in direct contradiction of the NRA is Malone’s view of gun ownership, as Malone refers to gun ownership as a privilege, the NRA has proclaimed that private ownership of fire-arms is a fundamental, God given right.
Meet Roy Innis, the Chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Innis, a self proclaimed BLACK nationalist was actually born in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and was brought to the United States by his mother in the 1940’s. Innis has come under fire by popular media outlets, and those who criticize the way that he has chosen to operate CORE, which was founded as a passive resistance organization for the purpose of integration. The founder of CORE, James Farmer accused Innis of Running a “fraudulent” organization, and has even called him “an American Idi Amin.”
Innis described Herman Cain as “an idea that was trying to be expressed for a long time by BLACK America but was stifled by the left-wing establishment”, and on October 31, 2011 the Washington Post reported that Prosperity USA, which was a private charity operated by two of Herman Cains top aids donated $100,000 to CORE just before Cain spoke at CORE’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Celebration Dinner. At the Event Innis said, “In this case we are even more pleased to bring the Tea Party people to our dinner as they have exemplified the spirit of Dr. King and are living the legacy that he helped establish in American politics.
Mother Jones, the news outlet that broke the story of Mitt Romney and his 47 percent video, which was the turning point in the 2012 Presidential Election said, “CORE is now better known among real civil rights groups for renting out its historic name to any corporation in need of a BLACK front person. The group has taken money from the payday lending industry, chemical giant (and original DDT manufacturer) Monsanto, and Exxon Mobil.”
Be sure to follow us next week as we unveil more of the faces behind the NRA. You can also follow us on Twitter at _westsidebiads or Sensible333 for the latest updates on the gun debate and other news. We are also Tweeting the names of all Democrats in the United States House of Representatives that took money from the NRA along with the dollar amount accepted.
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