RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:But Good Citizens In Canada Don't Need Guns, Right ? Yeah Fiddy, I know. As soon as Black people started arming themselves, Republicans were A-OK with gun control... They have no problem issuing guns to criminals nowadays because they've become radicalized.
The NRA did become corrupt: Wayne LaPierre has diverted NRA funds for trips to the Bahamas and Italy, for shopping sprees, gifts...etc.
Wilson "Woody" Philips, the NRA's CFO for 26 years, facilitated millions in entertainment expenses for NRA executives, improperly billing them to avoid IRS scrutiny. Before he worked for the NRA, he had already been fired by his previous employer for embezzling $1M in the early 90s. That's the kind of guy they chose to hire...
Joshua Powell, executive director of operations, was fired in 2020 by the NRA for falsifying expenses. He secured contracts for family members, and he ran up huge bills on the company credit card. He also tripled his salary in 3 years.
John Frazer, NRA's general counsel, assisted LaPierre in diverting funds, greenlighting millions of dollars in consulting arrangements for NRA executives that were not disclosed to the NRA board.
It is a corrupt entity.
As for society becoming more extremist, even if that were true, it is no reason to allow anyone to own a gun. Mentally ill? Here's your gun. Criminal? Here's your gun. Terrorist? A gun for you too! Don't tell me that makes people feel safer.
FiddyFiddyOddzz wrote: YGGDRASILL - It's not that the NRA became extremist and corrupt, it's society that became more extremist and corrupt, leading the citizens to feel safer if they were armed should they feel it was warranted.
As for the Mulford Act, it was designed to disarm the Black Panthers who were walking around Oakland "copwatching".
They probably didn't mention that either on Fox.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulford_Act
Yggdrasill wrote:"Americans have had guns, yes. But not as many as today, and they didn't have semi-automatic weapons with expanded magazines. Until the 70s, the NRA lobbied in favor of and co-authored gun control legislation. The NRA helped Roosevelt pass the 1934 National Firearms Act and the 1938 Gun Control Act. It's president at the time, Karl T. Frederick, testified before Congress that "I have never believed in the general practice of carrying weapons. I do not believe in the general promiscuous toting of guns. I think it should be sharply restricted and only under licenses.” In the 60s, when Oswald killed JFK with a rifle purchased through an NRA mail-order advertisement, the NRA vice-president agreed that mail-order sales should be banned. The NRA again supported Reagan's California Mulford Act in 1967 (imagine, Ronald Reagan passed gun control legislation! Fox doesn't tell you that now do they). But in the 70s, that changed. The NRA became the corrupt, extremist group we know today.
In 1994, US Congress managed to pass an assault weapons ban. Unfortunately it had a sunset clause, meaning it was allowed to expire 10 years later. Mass shootings have been on the rise ever since, exponentially so.
It's not a culture issue. It's a gun lobby issue. The reason this didn't happen after WWII is that the NRA hadn't radicalized yet. "