Schumer says the NRA Is an extreme “fringe group”

Reported at The Blaze (and linked at Drudge):

Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sat down with HuffPost Live Friday, where he made a noteworthy statement about the rapidly-growing National Rifle Association.

Responding to interviewer Alicia Menendez’s question about whether Schumer’s colleagues are “willing to admit” that the NRA is a “fringe group,” the senator responded: “Well they sure are a fringe group, but whether enough of my colleagues are ready to admit that, I’m not sure.”

He continued: “They are a very extreme group. They don’t even represent average gun holders.”

And in America 2.0, which has now explicitly replaced America 1.0, Schumer is a moderate, even a conservative.

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James N. writes:

I recently (October 2012) decided not to renew my NRA membership, mostly over their support of Harry Reid in 2010 and the fact that membership results in incessant telemarketing calls from NRA “partners.” Serious gun owners and Second Amendment supporters belong to Gun Owners Action League (GOAL) and other organizations that are much more advocacy-oriented than the NRA.

However, in light of more recent events, I renewed my membership for five years.

Among gun lobby organizations, the NRA is exceedingly moderate, even weak. Like any other successful lobby, the leaders enjoy schmoozing with politicians and living the DC high life.

It is frightening how successful the governing class has been in blowing up the NRA into a boogieman responsible for many social ills it has nothing to do with. This campaign of slander and lies is without precedent in our history. Liberal drones of my acquaintance are parroting the government’s lies about the NRA, an organization of which they know nothing.

If they can do it to the NRA, in a “five-minutes hate” like fashion, they can do it to anyone. Things are moving along very quickly now.

John Dempsey writes:

James N.’s points about the NRA are essentially accurate. There should be some clarification of the difference between the NRA and groups such as GOAL. The NRA is a national organization and GOAL is a state (Massachusetts) association. So their lobbying habits will be different.

January 21

Karl D. writes:

I agree with James N. about the NRA and their telemarketing. They shoot themselves in the foot with their incessant phone calls which reach the level of harassment! I am not a member, and up until the last couple of months (when I finally flipped my lid with them) they would call me twice a day five times a week! When I blocked the number they were calling from, within a matter of hours they started calling from a new number. When I blocked that number the same thing happened. Harassing your base is not a great way to win friends and influence people.

LA replies:

That’s totally unacceptable. They seem to be insane. I would have nothing to do with an organization that behaved that way.

I was turned off by Allen West when, as soon as he was elected in 2010, he began sending me fund-raising e-mails every day. And the NRA according to your account is much worse than that.

These are marks of a culture in which self-intoxication is the norm—a culture which has lost its mind, lost a normal sense of limits. And many conservatives are as much a part of that self-intoxication and loss of reason as liberals.

LA continues:

To complete my story on Allen West, before the 2012 election, I attempted to send him a donation, and it was so difficult, with so many hoops to jump through, that I gave up. So they insanely send you fund-raising messages every day, then when you try to give them funds, they make it maddeningly hard to do so.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 20, 2013 03:55 PM | Send