Brady Campaign Looks Back on What the NRA Used to Believe on Guns
By Paul Helmke
Oh, the good old days. Leave it to Beaver, the Andy Griffith Show, and a National Rifle Association that told people to be careful with guns and favored laws that kept dangerous people from buying guns.
We came across this advertisement, from a 1954 NRA publication, on eBay. But seeing how representative it is of sweeping historic change, maybe it ought to be in the Smithsonian. Because when this advertisement was designed, the NRA actually thought:
-- it was a good thing to be opposed to violent overthrow of the government of the United States, and
-- anyone who had been convicted of a violent crime should lose their ability to buy a gun.
Here’s the text of the “Pledge” that would-be NRA members were asked to take:
“I certify that I am a citizen of the United States; that I am not a member of any organization which has as any part of its program the attempt to overthrow the government of the United States by force or violence; that I have never been convicted of a crime of violence and that if admitted to membership I will fulfill the obligations of good sportsmanship and good citizenship.”
Now, the organization’s leaders fight against limiting the access to firearms of people on the government’s terror watch list, and oppose eliminating the loopholes that allow convicted felons from buying guns. And NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre argues that “the people have the right, must have the right, to take whatever measures necessary, including force, to abolish oppressive government.”
On our side, we’re for making it harder for dangerous people to get dangerous weapons. We believe that suspected terrorists and convicted felons shouldn’t be able to purchase firearms.
It seems to me the members of the NRA would be well served by looking at this ad and seeing how far things have gotten off track. Watch that muzzle, boys. And be sure of your target.
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Paul Helmke calls 1954 the “Good old days.” Yes, those were the days before formation of any gun control groups, and the days before the Brady Law. Those were the days when a citizen could walk into a hardware and purchase a handgun with no waiting period, no and no background check, and when a citizen could order the handgun of his/her choice mail-order through the Sears and Roebuck catalog with no waiting period and no background check.
Paul, go ahead and turn the clock back to 1954. Of course, you will be out of a job .
Funny, I saw those same words in my by- laws when I got my life membership just.....LAST YEAR.
So what has changed? Nothing. The NRA is not about letting terrorists have unfettered access to firearms , they are about preserving due process. You can't put me on a secret list and then deny my civil rights because of it. Sorry Paul, it doesn't work that way.
Research conducted by noted historians and consititutional scholars such as Clayton Cramer and David Hardy have really got you upset. The Second Amendment has never been about hunting or sporting purposes. All the written evidence from the founders point to a very good understanding of what the 2A was there for. It's only been groups such as HCI and the VPC who have somehow invented this 'collective rights' theory that has led to the growth of NRAs clout. They didn't get to be the 800 lb gorilla in the room for nothing.
You've done just as much recruiting for the NRA and like minded organizations, Paul, face it. Your feeble attempts at Starbucks and your crowing that the NRA was done like dinner kind back fired , didn't it.
Well, I see The US Constiution doesn't phase the Brady Bunch one bit where 2A rights are concerned: that pesky little 5th Amendment, you know, tha part that says, " No person shall...be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law . Lots of people quite innocent find themselves on the secret "terror watch list," and worse with no way off of it. Why should they be treated like a convicted felon?
The thankfully late Ted Kennedy even found himself on it, but he had the pull to get it fixed.
And perhaps the Brady Bunch should read the Federalis Papers where it talsk about overthrowing oppresive governments, or maybe just the Declaration of Independence, where it says:
"...That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it..when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new guards for their future security .
Do they take umbrage to what our founders wrote and in fact did?
The Founders' solution to tyranny is viable in all eras and is the true purpose of the 2A.
SamAdams1776 III
Molon Labe
No Fort Sumters