UPDATE: The fact that the NRA is a lunatic organization appears to be entering the national zietgiest.
Certainly the NRA will be able to gauge public opinion. Obviously they would understand that recent events have shocked America out of its’ gun stupor. Clearly they would be able to avoid a public relations debacle. Right? That’s why I said…
I seriously doubt the NRA will come out “guns blazing” for the status quo. They will claim that guns “keep us free” and they will never acknowledge that high capacity clips, explosive rounds and military style assault weapons are not covered under the 2nd amendment. But there will be some change in tone.
The NRA is very wealthy, so they have very well paid PR people who will know how to soften the message.
I figured that the NRA was big enough and wealthy enough to hire professional public relations people. Turns out, they only employ true believers. Like the unreality bubble that the Romney campaign occupied, the NRA lives in its own world and is not bound by reality.
Former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele was left dumbfounded, saying, “I don’t know where to begin“:
“I just think that this was a missed opportunity to create another conversation at a higher level where the American people are right now. This incident cut to the bone. This is unlike anything that’s come before it because it did involve such precious young people and it really starkly called us to think about our society, those issues, not just gun control laws but mental health and a whole bunch of other things I think the NRA could have brought to the table, the idea that the message, the top line message out of this press conference is let’s put a gun in the hands of teachers in our classroom and I do not think that’s where rank-and-file NRA members expected this to go to.”
Their press conference was a shameful evasion of the crisis facing our country. Instead of offering solutions to a problem they have helped create, they offered a paranoid, dystopian vision of a more dangerous and violent America where everyone is armed and no place is safe.
Anonymous GOP staffers:
“100 percent true,” one GOP staffer said when asked if the NRA had jumped the shark Friday.“True,” replied another. “But only after they set themselves on fire first. That was BRUTAL.”
“The NRA’s press conference was appalling. […] It was galling, and an overreach, and it may well backfire on them as the public reviews Mr. LaPierre’s statements.”