Out of more than 320 million Americans only 10 million are ignorant enough to belong to the NRA gun lobby. They pay dues to an organization which receives tens-of-millions of dollars each year from gun manufacturers and gun sellers. They don’t even say thank you.

They held their annual ‘convention’ this week. First of all, why do they need a convention? Secondly, a convention is usually held by a group who wants to exchange ideas about how to improve their business, and tout their past successes. At the NRA convention, they lie about liberals wanting to ‘take their guns away,’ while ignoring the fact that a great majority of real Americans want to ban military assault rifles which are a great danger to human life. They also denounce background checks for all gun purchases which would prevent most mentally challenged Americans, and possible white terrorists from purchasing killing machines. Trump claims that he owns a gun; if he had been forced to undergo a background check, he would not have been able to buy one.

When Trump spoke at the “convention,” he revealed the fact that he is a hypocrite. He repeated every lie told by Wayne LaPierre and his cronies. You must always remember that Trump received a record $30 million from the NRA during his campaign. He is loyal to money, not to the American people.

He also managed to anger our closest and longest allies, France and England. Contrary to Trump’s belief, we are not the only important nation in the world, and we are certainly not great compared to other developed countries. We have the worst leader, and the most racist and bigoted people in the free world.

Trump made the false statement that deaths from knife attacks have increased both in France and England, insinuating that guns would solve the problem. Sure they would, more people would have been murdered and it would have been more efficient.

France was especially ‘pissed off.’ Instead of acting like a compassionate and intelligent president, he made a damned fool of himself, again. Referring to the disaster in Paris last year, he told a crude and vicious lie.

“They took their time and gunned them down one by one — boom, come over here, boom, come over here, boom,” he said.

Of course Trump didn’t mention the atrocity in Las Vegas last October where 58 innocent Americans were gunned down by a lone gunman who had in his possession 47 military assault rifles, and tools to transform them into automatic weapons. He would like us to forget about the lone gunman, armed with a military assault rifle, who walked into a church service in a small Texas town and slaughtered 26 men, women, and children. Then there was the murder of 17 students and educators who lost their lives because a single young man, armed with a military assault rifle, opened fire at Marjory Stoneman High School in Parkland, Florida. These were some of America’s worst mass shootings, and they happened under Trump’s watch.

The truth is that the NRA and their Republican puppets love mass shootings; there are always more guns purchased after each tragic event by individuals with a less than average IQ.

Let’s get real, my fellow Americans; the NRA is a criminal organization. I stand with the students in Parkland, Florida. If our legislators refuse to pass sensible gun legislation, we will elect those who will. Time for a big change, and we can create it if we all vote in November.

Op-ed by James Turnage

SOURCE

Image courtesy of DonkeyHotey

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