As the N.R.A. continues to implode...

[raison de arizona]

An anti-N.R.A. ad campaign focuses on the group’s own members.

A new advertising campaign from Everytown for Gun Safety is targeted at an unusual demographic for an organization that promotes stricter gun laws: card-carrying, dues-paying members of the National Rifle Association.

The six-figure campaign includes television ads on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC, as well as digital ads directed at N.R.A. members and gun owners. Ads will also be shown to viewers in Virginia, where the N.R.A. has its headquarters, and Orlando, Fla., where the group’s chief executive, Wayne LaPierre, is expected to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference later this week.

“When you pay to join the N.R.A., you get a sticker — and that’s about it,” the television ad says. Over images of a shooting range and a hunter, it continues: “Today, just 10 percent of what they spend protects things like this. The rest pays for N.R.A. executives to enjoy this: designer suits from Beverly Hills, luxury trips to Italy, Hungary and the Bahamas, private jets, golden parachutes and lots of lawyers. No wonder the N.R.A. is bankrupt.”

“Ditch their sticker,” it concludes. “The N.R.A. has lost its way.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/22/us/e ... ra-ad.html

[jadedmonk]

I've been warning Conservatives about the NRA for decades. Dipshits worry about gun registration, about others knowing where they live and what their political idealogies are, then they subscribe and donate to it and magazines like, "Guns & Ammo."

[noblepa]

I've heard gun nuts claim that state gun registration laws are a national security threat. "When the commies invade, they only need to check the records in 50 state capitols to find and confiscate all the guns", or some such nonsense.

In reply, it was pointed out that the commies just need to capture NRA headquarters for a list of members.

[jadedmonk]

I've heard gun nuts claim that state gun registration laws are a national security threat. "When the commies invade, they only need to check the records in 50 state capitols to find and confiscate all the guns", or some such nonsense.

In reply, it was pointed out that the commies just need to capture NRA headquarters for a list of members.

Logic is not a strong suit for those dumb enough to support the NRA.

[northland10]

I've heard gun nuts claim that state gun registration laws are a national security threat. "When the commies invade, they only need to check the records in 50 state capitols to find and confiscate all the guns", or some such nonsense.

In reply, it was pointed out that the commies just need to capture NRA headquarters for a list of members.

I think Russia may already have captured NRA headquarters but RW is now in love with Putin. They ignore that Putin would sell the list to China in a heartbeat if would serve his needs.

[raison de arizona]

I think Russia may already have captured NRA headquarters but RW is now in love with Putin. They ignore that Putin would sell the list to China in a heartbeat if would serve his needs.

Time to break out this classic...

[AndyinPA]

I'd rather they were, too--in Russia. See how that works out for them.

[raison de arizona]

I'd rather they were, too--in Russia. See how that works out for them.

I'm sure they'd love the restrictive gun control laws there...

Among other things.

[neeneko]

I'm sure they'd love the restrictive gun control laws there...

Among other things.

They probably picture themselves as the kinds of people who find themselves unrestricted in Russia.

[Frater I*I]

"When the commies invade, they only need to check the records in 50 state capitols to find and confiscate all the guns"

As opposed to going to local gun stores and confiscating the ATF form 4473 that they are required to keep...

These idiots think Red Dawn is a documentary...

[Kendra]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nr ... t-n1263147

Embattled National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre feared for his safety after mass shootings in recent years, forcing him to take refuge aboard a friend's luxury yacht, the gun rights advocate testified.

LaPierre made the admission in a deposition connected to the NRA's bankruptcy case in Dallas.

"They simply let me use it as a security retreat because they knew the threat that I was under. And I was basically under presidential threat without presidential security in terms of the number of threats I was getting," LaPierre said.

"And all of us were struggling with how to deal with that type situation with a private citizen with the amount of threat that we were having. And this was the one place that I hope could feel safe, where I remember getting there going, 'Thank God I'm safe, nobody can get me here.' And that's how it happened. That's why I used it."

LaPierre was questioned why he didn't pay the yacht's owner, Hollywood producer Stanton McKenzie, for its use or cite it in conflict-of-interest forms.

"I actually thought that given the security threat that I was under and the fact that NRA was — was at almost a loss as to how to protect somebody with the amount of threat that I was having, that — that my work and the threat that came with it, this was — was a place that I could go and be safe, and it was related to that that I — that I — that I did it," he said.

LaPierre acknowledged that the craft, dubbed the Illusions, was always fully stocked with food when he used it, included two water scooters and had a crew of at least three people on board, including a cook.

[northland10]

I thought if you armed, then you are protected. Why would he need a security team to protect him. He has a gun, and the NRA has said that is all you need.

There's a whole bunch of bs going on there.

[Azastan]

I thought if you armed, then you are protected. Why would he need a security team to protect him. He has a gun, and the NRA has said that is all you need.

There's a whole bunch of bs going on there.

I see I am not the only one who can't understand how a 'good guy with a gun' can't take care of his own security. Why would he need to cower in a hidey hole? Surely he's not afraid of liberals with guns, is he? Or is he more afraid of gun nuts with guns, you know, the very people the NRA encourages to arm themselves?

[Suranis]

I, too, feel I need to go on a free cruise for my own safety.

[Uninformed]

I, too, feel I need to go on a free cruise for my own safety.

I’m willing to provide security

[bill_g]

I'd watch out for the cook Wayne. He won't need a gun to get ya.

[roadscholar]

No, he’ll just disable the caterpillar drive.

[noblepa]

"When the commies invade, they only need to check the records in 50 state capitols to find and confiscate all the guns"

As opposed to going to local gun stores and confiscating the ATF form 4473 that they are required to keep...

These idiots think Red Dawn is a documentary...

Yeah, but there are thousands of gun stores around the country. The point was that one place, NRA hq, has a pretty good list of gun owners throughout the US.

[Frater I*I]

No, he’ll just disable the caterpillar drive.

Or blow up one of the ICBMs

[Suranis]

I hear that a lot of Shings in here don't react well to Bulletsh.

[Frater I*I]

I hear that a lot of Shings in here don't react well to Bulletsh.

[fierceredpanda]

I hear that a lot of Shings in here don't react well to Bulletsh.

Okay, it took me a minute to pull the movie reference out of the memory banks, but when I did, I legit belly laughed.



"One ping only, please."

[northland10]

I hear that a lot of Shings in here don't react well to Bulletsh.

[Kendra]

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-des ... ype=earned

After the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in 2012, Wayne LaPierre, the head of the National Rifle Association, told Americans agitating for new gun regulations, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” Less than a year later, LaPierre and his wife, Susan, travelled to Botswana’s Okavango Delta, where they hoped to show N.R.A. members that they had the grit to take on a different adversary: African bush elephants, the largest land mammals on Earth. The trip was filmed by a crew from “Under Wild Skies,” an N.R.A.-sponsored television series that was meant to boost the organization’s profile among hunters—a key element of its donor base. But the program never aired, according to sources and records, because of concerns that it could turn into a public-relations fiasco.

The Trace and The New Yorker obtained a copy of the footage, which has been hidden from public view for eight years. It shows that when guides tracked down an elephant for LaPierre, the N.R.A. chief proved to be a poor marksman. After LaPierre’s first shot wounded the elephant, guides brought him a short distance from the animal, which was lying on its side, immobilized. Firing from point-blank range, LaPierre shot the animal three times in the wrong place. Finally, a guide had the host of “Under Wild Skies” fire the shot that killed the elephant. Later that day, Susan LaPierre showed herself to be a better shot than her husband. After guides tracked down an elephant for her, Susan killed it, cut off its tail, and held it in the air. “Victory!” she shouted, laughing. “That’s my elephant tail. Way cool.”

Hunts in Botswana can cost tens of thousands of dollars per person, and, according to testimony in the bankruptcy case, a company that belongs to Makris covered the LaPierres’ costs. After the trip, in late September of 2013, footage of Makris shooting an elephant on a different expedition aired on NBC Sports, which then hosted “Under Wild Skies.” The episode caused an immediate public backlash.

The footage of the LaPierre hunt never aired, but records show that the couple still wanted their trophies. To avoid bad publicity—and at Susan’s written request—body parts from both elephants were shipped to the U.S. in a hidden manner. A man travelled two hours to Johannesburg to remove the couple’s names from shipping crates. The Master Airway Bill was in the name of a taxidermist, whom Makris’s company paid to turn the animals’ front feet into stools for Wayne and Susan’s home.

[Luke]

Email from Jakey.

The Ethical Case for Hunting Elephants
Inbox Jacob Wohl <jacobawohl@substack.com> 6:06 PM (10 minutes ago)

The Ethical Case for Hunting Elephants
Wayne LaPierre did nothing wrong

Jacob Wohl
Apr 27

In light of The New Yorker’s recent story entitled “The Secret Footage of the N.R.A. Chief’s Botched Elephant Hunt”, I felt it was a good time to re-up an article that I originally published on JacobWohl.org back in November of 2019.

The Ethical Case for Hunting Elephants (Published 2019)
African big game hunting is necessary for the conservation of the continent’s bio-stability and economic prosperity. While I’ve never personally engaged in the practice, I endorse it as ecologically necessary, economically meritorious and deeply ethical.

About 400 elephants are hunted annually on the entire continent of Africa. To put that number in perspective, an estimated 12,450 African elephants die each year of old age. If the death of elephants is what ails your heart, then your real problem is with God, not big game hunters. There are well over 400,000 elephants in Africa and legal big game hunting can’t even come close to putting a dent in that number.

Humans have always been part of the food chain on the African continent, but even absent the consideration of who’s eating what, the economic consequences proves to be a massive boon for struggling African economies.

As Alastair Gunn writes in Environmental Ethics and Trophy Hunting:
Wild resources are vital to the survival of millions of Africans. One study estimated that wild resources contributed over $120 million to the Tanzanian economy in 1988 (Kiss 1990); hunting licenses alone yielded $4.5 million in 1990. Sports hunters who wish to hunt lion in Tanzania are required to stay for 21 days and on average spend $35,000. Before Kenya imposed a ban on hunting, the total revenue from sport hunting contributed about 6.5% to the total foreign exchange from tourism (Makombe 1993, 28). At Phinda Izilwane Park in Kwa-Zulu, South Africa, hunters pay $30,000 to shoot a white rhino. Permits are issued only for old males that are past breeding age; most are in poor condition with a very limited life expectancy (McGregor 1996).

When legal African big game hunting is encouraged, people who were once poachers become guides and game wardens. Otherwise poor villages become prosperous towns and starving people become well-fed. Animal populations are kept at healthy levels and Africa’s limited agriculture is allowed to prosper. On the other hand, when legal African game hunting is stifled, as happened after the international histrionics over the death of Cecil the Lion, African guides become poachers, at-risk populations go hungry and the natural ecosystem of predator and prey falls out of balance.

Contemporary ecofeminist Yashar Ali has gleefully celebrated on Twitter when a pack of elephants charged at a troop of big game hunters. What Yashar probably doesn’t know that hippos kill nearly 3,000 people every year, and that overwhelmingly, these are people of color. Elephants kill at least 100 people of color each year. That’s more than 3 times more people than are killed by police violence in the United States ever year. If Yashar really cared about people of color, he would call for more, not less, big game hunting, if only to limit the senseless slaughter of people of color by hippos in Africa.

About The Author: Jacob Wohl is a registered lobbyist and the host of Man Up with Jacob Wohl on Censored.TV.