The NRA's Position on Bump Fire Stocks was Genius
BY
JOHANNES PAULSEN |
OCT 08, 2017
.....The National Rifle Association's decision to stand down over the issue of
bump fire stocks has generated a lot of concern, both among TTAG's readership and elsewhere in the gun owning community..... I'm not worried.
This is the strongest position the NRA could have taken, and it has made me roll back some of my general concerns over whether the gun rights org's leadership has the chops to fight for the Second Amendment during the Trump years and beyond.
....
From the NRA's
official statement:
In Las Vegas, reports indicate that certain devices were used to modify the firearms involved. Despite the fact that the Obama administration approved the sale of bump fire stocks on at least two occasions, the National Rifle Association is calling on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) to immediately review whether these devices comply with federal law.
The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations.
This was a smart move. For the price of giving up something that couldn't be defended anyway, they've improved their strategic position in two ways:
1) The NRA dodged an incoming blow from the enemy aimed at poisoning the image of their organization in the minds of the people.
2) The NRA has taken a position that requires the enemy to attack its own allies if they want an immediate victory.
On the first point, the gun control lobby and its collaborators were already ginning up a propaganda salvo against the nation's oldest civil rights organization. Instead of taking the blow, the NRA stepped out of the way.
"In war," Sun Tzu tells us, "the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak."
Wait a minute, shouldn't the NRA fight tooth-and-nail against every regulation that remotely affects guns?
No. As any gambler knows, you gotta know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em. In this case, the enemy has blind, ignorant, emotional fear in a mass audience and a clearly-defined target: bump fire stocks.
In opposition, the pro-bump fire stock side has…well, not much. Bump fire stocks don't add anything to a citizen's ability to use a rifle in defense of herself or our nation. They appear to be fashion accessories for entertainment purposes only. In fact, the
SildeFire tag line is "Prepare to change the way you play." As far as self-interest goes, we're lucky if maybe 1/10th of 1% of gun owners actually own or aspire to get one.....
We could compose a well-crafted libertarian argument for the abstract right of a man to possess anything he wants as long as he's not harming others, and the freedom to be square pegs in round holes. But in the court of fickle public opinion, an abstract argument in the clouds falls to one based on mass fear aimed a concrete target any day of the week.
Standing against this would devalue the credibility of the NRA in the minds of people who, again, are being guided by irrational fear in the aftermath of an atrocity. People tend not to respond well to others who exacerbate their fears.
So the NRA declined the opportunity to fight on terrain that could not be defended, and that would leave them with a stain on their record in the eyes of the many whose analysis on this issue is guided by fear in the wake of the Las Vegas attack.
That was good by itself. But the NRA also laid a subtle trap for its opponents.
They said regulations should be reviewed — and they encouraged the BATFE to do so. Not Congress. Now, if the gun control left wants a quick win for which they can gain political credit, they need to endorse
Steve Bannon's position on the administrative state.
Yes, that's right, the NRA just walked away from a losing hand and moved to the most favorable ground possible.
my comment: But in the meantime the so-called "pro gun" enemies of the NRA have ramped up the attacks and helped out the antis by trying to make the pro-gun lobby self-destruct.