I
am still mulling over a very recent conversation with my 84 year old
father about guns. He is NRA, a long time member. I am not a
supporter, which should be abundantly clear to anyone who reads this
blog. My father on the other hand, is a classic example of the
successful marketing done by the National Rifle Association. Dad is
just a guy who likes to hunt. He also has guns for home protection.
He taught his daughters how to shoot. My mother is a better shot than
my dad, if truth be told. He keeps them in a locked safe, which he
didn't do when I was a kid, but chose to do when he started having
grandchildren. He innately realized that today's kids are different
from the kids of yesterday. Yesterday, if we were told not to touch
the gun, we didn't, even if we knew where it was, and we did. We just
left it there. My first memory of guns in the house dates back to when I was six. It was a handgun that I would come to know later was a 38. But Dad also tends to believe everything the NRA tells him
in the magazine and mass mailings to which he is subjected on a
weekly basis.
The
message since January 2009: Obama is coming to take away all of
your guns.
Now
my father is an intelligent man. He reads absolutely everything that
finds its way into his mailbox along with the books that he buys or
articles that he comes across in the newspaper, which he reads daily.
My parents are still subscribers. He is skeptical about much of it.
He questions a lot of what he reads. In fact our conversation began
with him calling me and asking me for the definition of the word
“heretic.” The word was used in an article, to refer to Chuck
Hagel by republicans during the confirmation hearings last week.
From
that jumping off point, we got onto gun control.
We
talked about the NRA position. I told him about the NRA lies to its
membership. I talked about what the President has really said. My
father admitted reading about Obama's positions. I told him about how
the NRA stood with Ronald Reagan against blacks and specifically the
Black Panther Party carrying guns according to the Second Amendment,
back in the day. How it's apparently okay for white people to own
guns but not blacks. I explained the assault weapons ban that Bush
allowed to expire, while Obama refused to put it back in place.
Because in fact, Obama is as big a hindrance on gun control as the
GOP and the NRA, regardless of how many tears he sheds in public.
I
talked about how and why the NRA buys congressmen in order to get
their laws passed instead of laws that would better the people and
society. My Dad admitted reading articles on the subject, and
recently, too.
We
talked for a long time, but in the end, all my father could or would
say despite all that I told him was:
“But
Obama is coming to take my guns and make me register the ones he lets
me keep!”
NRA, mission
accomplished...
