Moveon.org released a video attacking the NRA last month. While I don’t like certain aspects of NRA marketing, I decided to make a video pushing back against some of their more egregious lies. Here it is, with citations following the video.
Citations:
The one that started it all
The NRA American Rifleman ha a list of the 10 handguns you have to own before you die…a bucket list if you will…they are:
I have fired 1,2,3,6,8,9 and 10.
I have owned a Glock 17L and a Colt 1911 but it was in .38 Super. I fired/carried the Browning HiPower in the Army. I aslo owned a S7W Model 10 but it was highly customised for competitions.
I have always wanted a Colt Single Action Army.
From American Rifleman:
Whatever bias senior network executives once had against guns, it has appeared to have evaporated. In television, ratings rule (especially when it comes to hard-to-reach viewers through traditional programming, such as, uh, men), and those who produce entertainment have finally realized that firearms and shooting are part of mainstream America. And, perhaps more importantly, guns and the people that own and use them are interesting. While there is contrived drama and, at times, there are scenes that make this NRA Certified Instructor wince, these shows bring firearms ownership into literally tens of millions of homes every week. From such shows, people who have never been exposed to firearms and their lawful owners can see them being used, made, bought and sold, like the artifacts and tools they are. Whether it was through the Heller and McDonald decisions or the simple success of shows where firearms are featured (Hollywood and New York love to dog pile success), guns and shooting equal ratings, which is good news for the Second Amendment. Such programs demystify firearms, and they show what we have known all along—shooting is fun and marksmanship competition is challenging.
The pity is that we don’t get similar shows here.
The moment that I realized I was genuinely hooked on reality firearm shows was when my oldest son excitedly told me, “Dad, get down here. Big Mike is back!” Of course, he was referring to Mike Hughes returning to “Top Shot” late in Season Three of the hit History Channel show. Tuesday nights are reserved for the two of us, with the basement TV and the couch. “Top Shot” begins its fourth season this week, 10 p.m. EST on Tuesday, and I look forward to it. The first season, with its high-speed camera work, exploding or reactive targets, and the increasingly interesting guns and challenging shooting stages of Season Two and Three have made a good premise into a truly interesting and entertaining show.
I haven’t seen Top Shot…but there are other shows:
Firearms are a part of this genre’s most successful programs, as well as other shows doing well in the rating these days, including “Mythbusters,” “Pawn Stars,” Sons Of Guns,” “American Guns,” “Only In America With Larry The Cable Guy,” “Top Shot,” “Cajun Pawn,” “Swamp People” and even Discovery’s top show “Gold Rush.” Speaking of the latter, we had a great interview with NRA members Todd Hoffman and his dad, Jack, who plan to be at the NRA Annual Meetings in St. Louis. Todd and Jack did say there was a downside to the reality TV business, though—they missed out some prime hunting last season.
I love Sons of Guns. I’m not sure the other shows are shown here…with the exception of Mythbusters.
I think I will have to add an NRA Laser boresight to my Birthday/Christmas wishlist.
The NRA Laser Boresight is the most accurate, easy and inexpensive way to sight in your firearm. You get on target faster because a laser light is projected down the bore of your rifle and onto your target showing your bullet strike point. Great for sighting in or confirming your zero, your boresight can be used when and where shooting is not an option.
…Simply insert the boresight in your chamber and sight in from 15 to 100 yards. Dot size is 1” at 25 yards.
The NRA are great because they win campaigns. Their latest email to members says:
In the past, we’ve won countless legislative battles against anti-gunners, because politicians know that you’ll vote them out of office if they attack your Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
Bill Clinton gave them credit for knocking over the speaker in 1994:
“ The NRA had a great night. They beat both Speaker Tom Foley and Jack Brooks, two of the ablest members of Congress, who had warned me this would happen. Foley was the first Speaker to be defeated in more than a century. Jack Brooks had supported the NRA for years and had led the fight against the assault weapons ban in the House, but as chairman of the Judiciary Committee he had voted for the overall crime bill even after the ban was put into it. The NRA was an unforgiving master: one strike and you’re out. The gun lobby claimed to have defeated nineteen of the twenty-four members on its hit list. They did at least that much damage and could rightly claim to have made Gingrich the House Speaker. ”
—Bill Clinton, My Life pp 629-30
The NRA has 4.3 million members and these members are regularly told which politicians need knocking over. The grass roots are supported by professional campaigners and together they get politicians they don’t like beaten.
In a tight Presidential race in 2012 the way the NRA breaks could be decisive in the end result. Usually they would support the Republican candidate, and they have not liked Obama much, but Obama can point to record gun sales to show he is a pro-gun president.
Bomber Bradbury is obviously from the school of political numpties that believe if you tell a lie and get caught, tell it again and hope no one noticed that you got caught.
Yesterday I smashed up his lies:
But if you look at some real facts, not just the one pulled out of his rectum you find:
Mangere: 76% of households have landlines
Mt Albert: 89% of households have landlines
North Shore: 94% of households have landlines
If you go through all of the Auckland seats, you can’t find a single one that even remotely matches Bombers figures. So Bomber is saying (I suspect he invented the figures from his rather large and expanding arse) than since the 2006 census, 40% of Households in Mangere have given up their landline and 39% of those in Mt Albert have also given up their phone lines.
Yet today he repeats them. Why is it Labour and their mouthpieces and flunkies just lie at the first opportunity?
I pointed out Bombers lies in the comments yesterday. Yet he repeats them. I at least have provided evidence and links he hasn’t.
I issue a challenge to Bomber then, that if he can prove his numbers, categorically, then I will donate the equivalent of a 5 year membership to the NRA to the Mana Party. But if he can’t produce any proof of his assertions then he has to join the NRA for 5 years.
I bet he isn’t man enough to accept this challenge.
A very interesting video about an air rifle projecting “peace through superior firepower”.
The Girandoni air rifle was an important first. It was the first repeating rifle of any kind to see military service. It was one of the first uses of a tubular magazine. And, although it saw service for only 35 years, it predated and was more advanced in design and mechanical technology than the Henry rifle which arrived fifty years later.
Beautiful video of a mast at work training people how to shoot properly with a pistol. I used these techniques when I was pistol shooting in my early twenties. Anyone who says pistols aren’t accurate is mis-informed and/or has no practical experience shooting lots of rounds down range with a pistol. Sure they are the hardest of firearms to master for accurate shooting but in the hands of trained professionals they are very accurate pieces of equipment and a nice handy size to boot.
These techniques as shown by Todd Jarrett in the video are all still used by the top shooters in the world, the likes of Rob Leatham, Jerry Miculek, Doug Koenig, and Eric Grauffel. All of those guys are a pleasure to behold as they shoot. The poise, balance and accuracy that comes from thousands and thousands of rounds of practice.
