NRA reacts like a scared bully

Until the day of the March For Our Lives rallies in hundreds of cities around the world, with 800,000 in Washington, DC, the National Rifle Association had remained relatively silent about the big day.

And then the NRA unloaded -- with mocking, sarcasm, lies -- and they used it as a membership drive impetus.  Calling it a "carnival" atmosphere, the NRA posted this call for new members on Facebook:

"Today's protests aren't spontaneous. . .  Gun-hating billionaires and Hollywood elites are manipulating and exploiting children as part of their plan to DESTROY the Second Amendment and strip us of our right to defend ourselves and our loved ones."

It's true that some media stars (like George Clooney and Oprah Winfrey) have donated a lot of money to help pay for the expenses of organizing these rallies and providing entertainment;  but it is a bald-faced lie to claim that these kids are being manipulated or, for that matter, trying to destroy the second amendment.  That's not even mentioned on their agenda.

If the Parkland kids are trying to destroy the second amendment, then so was Justice Antonin Scalia, the legal-eagle hero of conservatives.  When he wrote the majority opinion that defined it as an individual right "to bear arms," he also said in that opinion that the right is not absolute.  He said that limits may be placed on what weapons may be purchased by private individuals.  That's all the kids are demanding.

Wayne LaPierre himself should sit down with some of them, listen to them . . . and then make up his mind.    I'd put them up against any honest promoter and activist for a good cause.   The NPR is the manipulator here -- using tragedy to increase the sale of guns for its financial backers in the gun industry.   The more they can scare people with lies, the more guns get sold.

Let's see who wins in the voting booths in November.  That's what counts;  and the kids know it.   You better believe they know it, and that's where their long-range focus is.   That's why the NRA is running scared.

Ralph