NRA's scare tactics diminish its ability to persuade

To The Daily Sun,

In response to a previous letter, a contributor to this forum has taken offense to my negative appraisal of the NRA and the gun industry. It’s unfortunate, but because I take issue with the NRA and the gun culture of our society, I’m labeled an “idiot”. Although most of my political views would be considered right-of-center, when I express favoring lives over guns I’m maligned by the alt-right — so be it.

I’m not sure who’s “alleging my intelligence” (a first to my knowledge), but if using multisyllabic words in my letters offends my critic, I do apologize. I would not resort to disparaging the writer’s mental acuity, but based on his anger and resentment of others with opposing views, was an expression of fear that someone, I assume liberal leftists, were trying to bring him down. Conspiracy theories, including that the government is coming to take his guns, are voiced by this writer who feels a lack of control over a situation and leads him to connect dots that aren’t necessarily connected to reality. Because of his paranoia, it allows him to buy into propaganda where truth is no obstacle.

The NRA, once an organization that promoted hunting firearms safety programs, organized rifle clubs, and taught marksmanship, has now morphed into a political arm of the Republican Party and a pimp for the weapons industry.

The NRA’s mission for better than 30 years has been to promote higher salaries for the top brass by promoting donations and memberships via outlandish scare tactics. They’re probably the most profitable nonprofit in history. It has become questionable if they give a fig about the 2nd Amendment, gun “rights”, gun ownership or shooting activities. They’ve done so much damage to their reputation that the effectiveness of any NRA statements in attempts to sway opinion has to be considered diminished. Currently they are facing revenue shortfalls, staff layoffs, investigations into their Russia connections and loss of commercial partnerships. Attempts to renew its strength are, for all intents and purposes, either dying or dead.

The NRA sells pro-gun extremism, and fewer and fewer Americans are buying it.

Robert Miller

Alton