To the editor:
On Nov. 7, 2017, the Boston Globe printed a long feature on gun violence, which included the editorial “Make It Stop” and a bar graph entitled “A Decade of Death.” That information is still valid today.
The NRA spent more than $54 million during the 2016 campaign. To prevent gun legislation from being passed, the NRA spent “$37 million to oppose Democratic candidates and $17 million in support of Republican candidates.” But, as the Globe’s “Gun Money Gets Results” reports, the NRA is also looking to profit from “apocalyptic-themed videos.”
Often using hot-button topics, the videos are hosted by conservative Dana Loesch. In one video, Loesch claims the New York Times is “fake news.” Ominously, he warns the Times that the NRA is “coming for you.” In another, Loesch says the NRA is “freedom’s safest place.”
“Gun Money Gets Results” says that now “… a segment of the American population [is] committed to the idea that assault weapons in civilian hands makes the country safer, when all the bloody evidence points to the opposite conclusion.”
The Globe editorial, “Make It Stop,” reports that “. . . gun violence is on the rise, with mass shootings getting deadlier. On average, roughly 100 Americans were killed by firearms last year per day, including suicides, while more than 200 were shot nonfatally.”
Denouncing all regulations on assault weapons, an NRA article was subtitled “There Will Be Blood.” The article actually encourages gun owners to take up arms against any restrictions on guns. There it is: the NRA’s use of apocalyptic language to fan the flames of fear. They are even pushing to legalize silencers for guns.
Over and over, the NRA puts profits above American lives. And the $54 million they spent on the 2016 campaign is like pennies for an industry that pulls in $10 billion a year.
Kernan Claflin
Hancock