NRA Speaker: Let's Add A Semi-Automatic Rifle To The Seal Of United States

Ted Cruz At The NRA Convention

Via USA Today:

Sen. Ted Cruz, one of two declared Republican candidates for president, told National Rifle Association members in Nashville that he's fought the conservative battles, unlike his opponents. "In a Republican primary, every candidate's going to stand up and say, 'I oppose Obamacare,'" Cruz said at the NRA's annual meeting Friday. "The question we ought to ask is, 'Great, when have you stood up and fought Obamacare?' "Every candidate is going to say they don't support amnesty. Alright, great. When have you stood up and fought to stop the president's illegal and unconstitutional executive action?" Cruz, a first-term senator and a Tea Party favorite, boasted about the Senate's defeat of several gun restrictions in recent years. He also recalled the recent letter that he and 46 other Republican senators signed and sent to leaders of Iran, which critics said jeopardized a nuclear deal between the nations.

Headline Of The Day

Via Addicting Info, here are the NRA's stated rules: "A multilevel security plan went into works not long after Nashville was chosen as the convention destination. All guns on the convention floor will be nonoperational, with the firing pins removed, and any guns purchased during the NRA convention will have to be picked up at a Federal Firearms License dealer, near where the purchaser lives, and will require a legal identification." (Tipped by JMG reader David)

NRA Guns Giveaway At CPAC 2015

Headline Of The Day

If only there'd been another armed three-year old to stop him. Details.

The NRA Has A Question For You

Final FRC Hate Summit Roster

After yesterday's addition of Sarah Palin, the Family Research Council dropped about a dozen crackpots and deleted their "invited but unconfirmed" names from its Values Voters Summit speakers roster. In addition to the confirmed fuckweasels above, Maggie Gallagher will lead a panel titled "Moral Decline Causes Big Government." Mat Staver will sit on a panel titled "The Assault On Constitutional Rights In A Nanny State." NOM's evil triad of Brian Brown, Frank Schubert, and John Eastman will have a panel all to themselves: "The Future Of Marriage: To The Supreme Court & Beyond."

Frothy Mix, interestingly, will Skype in from Pluto (or wherever his flying saucer may be) to lead a panel on "Reclaiming Blue Collar Conservatives." Heritage Foundation anti-gay wonk Ryan T. Anderson will lead a panel about the "tough questions" on "marriage and religious liberty." (Expect lots of cake talk!)  The most entertaining trio of crackpots promises to be World Net Daily founder Joseph Farah, Janet "Loony Tunes" Porter, and Pastor Rick Scarborough - who will hopefully discuss that class action suit against homosexuality when they talk about "Standing Up To The Assaults On Our Faith"

The list of exhibitors at the Values Voters Summit includes just about every anti-gay and "ex-gay" hate group you've ever heard of, including the World Congress of Families and the Red-Caped Catholic Loons, who presumably will provide the usual bagpipe accompaniment to their Hitler Youthian rants. The NRA will be there to demonstrate proper Uzi usage for grade-schoolers and the Association of Mature American Citizens will be handing out materials denouncing those homofascist commies at the AARP. See the whole list here.

NRA Women: 7 Ways That Children Can Have Fun At The Shooting Range

NRA Women yesterday tweeted then deleted a link to a post describing all the hilarious ways that kids can have fun at the shooting range.

The story linked in the tweet lists a number of new and colorful targets that it says will engage young shooters who have grown bored with the standard bull's-eye. In describing a pack of zombie targets, the author, Mia Anstine, writes that children "can imagine they're getting rid of the monsters from their nightmares." But a nightmare is precisely what unfolded on Monday, when 39-year-old Charles Vacca, a range instructor at Bullets and Burgers in northwest Arizona, stood over a 9-year-old girl holding an Uzi. The Israeli-made submachine gun can fire almost 30 rounds per second, according to the manufacturer. Police say the child lost control of the machine gun, and Vacca was shot in the head. He died later that day in a hospital. Anstine's column about children's shooting targets was posted on August 20, almost a week before the Arizona shooting. Why the NRA would decide to push out this column to the more than 7,000 followers of its "NRA Women" account is unclear. The NRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The post is here.

Open Carry States Map

Via the Wall Street Journal:

Recently, Target, Starbucks and Chipotle have asked their patrons not to bring their guns. After petitions by gun-control groups such as Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Kroger said it would uphold local and state laws in the 34 states it operates. Carrying a firearm in a concealed manner is legal in all states, but open carry has more restrictions, especially for handguns. Though federal law doesn’t restrict the open carrying of handguns in public, several states—including California, Florida, Illinois, New York, South Carolina and Texas—ban the practice, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Thirteen states require a special permit or license to open carry. The remaining 31 states don’t require one. The laws are different for long guns, which are commonly associated with hunting.

NRA Vs "Elitist" Michael Bloomberg

From the clip recap:

Nobody insults your life like Michael Bloomberg. Billionaire, elitist, hypocrite. He's tried to ban your snack foods, your soda and most of all your guns. Bloomberg said the largest county in Colorado is "as far rural as you can get. I don't think there's roads there." That's what he thinks of your state too. Tell Bloomberg to keep his politics in NY and his hands off our guns and our freedom.

NRA Promotes Guns For The Blind

(Tipped by JMG reader Piet)

NRA: Jihadi Rifle Association

Nailed it.

Media Matter: Right Wing Rodeo

"The week's worst moments in conservative media."

NRA Complains: It's Leftist Propanganda To Refer To Shootings As "Shootings"

Via Adam Weinstein at Gawker:

Used to be when a bunch of people got murdered with a gun, it was called a "murder." But now it's a "shooting," because the leftist media lies, except it's not a lie, but whatever. The point, according to this awesome he-hulk in an NRA propaganda video is: Don't watch the news! "Now they race to label anything with a gun as a 'shooting,'" complains former Navy Seal and NRA Good Guy With Two Big Guns© Dom Rasso in the new video. "Because they know how much more attention they're gonna get with that word."

Gawker commenters offer substitute words for "shooting": forced bullet insertions, hole creation, freedom dots.

NRA Apologizes For Its Temporary Sanity Regarding Open Carry Freak Shows

Over the weekend "open carry" gun nuts paraded their penis enhancers around a Fort Worth-area Home Depot in a move that finally brought criticism from the NRA, who called their action "weird" and "scary." In response, the open carry crackpots posted photos of their destroyed NRA membership cards. Late yesterday the NRA apologized for their fleeting moment of relative sanity.

New Ad From The NRA

TEXAS: Open Carry Gun Nuts Cut Up NRA Membership Cards Over Criticism

This morning I reported that the NRA has issued a scathing criticism of gun advocates who insist on parading into businesses with their penis enhancers. From the Facebook page of Open Carry Texas:

The NRA has refused to learn for themselves how Open Carry Texas (OCT) conducts itself other than what the liberal media and Bloomberg funded gun control extremists have falsely portrayed. The real ignorance in their statement is that it was completely unnecessary. OCT - along with Come And Take It Texas, Texas Carry and Gun Rights Across America - has already changed its methods and the whole world is aware of that. The more the NRA continues to divide its members by attacking some aspects of gun rights instead of supporting all gun rights, the more support it will lose. Already, OCT members are posting pictures of themselves cutting up their life membership cards. If they do not retract their disgusting and disrespectful comments, OCT will have no choice but to withdraw its full support of the NRA and establish relationships with other gun rights organizations that fight for ALL gun rights, instead of just paying them lip service the way the NRA appears to be doing. The NRA should have instead released a statement to the effect that it applauds our groups for coming together and finding new methods to promote safe and responsible open carry.

(Tipped by JMG reader Paul)

NRA Slams "Open Carry" Nuts

The NRA has come out against "open carry" gun nuts, who this weekend invaded a Fort Worth-area Home Depot after similar stunts in local fast food outlets.

Now we love AR-15s and AKs as much as anybody, and we know that these sorts of semiautomatic carbines are among the most popular, fastest selling firearms in America today. Texas, independent-minded and liberty-loving place that it is, doesn't ban the carrying of loaded long guns in public, nor does it require a permit for this activity. Yet some so-called firearm advocates seem determined to change this. Recently, demonstrators have been showing up in various public places, including coffee shops and fast food restaurants, openly toting a variety of tactical long guns. Unlicensed open carry of handguns is legal in about half the U.S. states, and it is relatively common and uncontroversial in some places.

Yet while unlicensed open carry of long guns is also typically legal in most places, it is a rare sight to see someone sidle up next to you in line for lunch with a 7.62 rifle slung across his chest, much less a whole gaggle of folks descending on the same public venue with similar arms. Let's not mince words, not only is it rare, it's downright weird and certainly not a practical way to go normally about your business while being prepared to defend yourself. To those who are not acquainted with the dubious practice of using public displays of firearms as a means to draw attention to oneself or one's cause, it can be downright scary. It makes folks who might normally be perfectly open-minded about firearms feel uncomfortable and question the motives of pro-gun advocates.

The above-linked statement concludes: "Firearm owners face enough challenges these days; we don't need to be victims of friendly fire." The Dallas News reports on the event at Home Depot:

“I’d much rather have a handgun on my hip,” said Mark Thompson, 54, of Garland. Instead, he attended Saturday’s rally with a Beretta semi-automatic rifle strapped across his back. “We’re fundamentally changing America and changing Texas,” he said. “We’re letting people know they’re free.” Although his weapon’s chamber was empty — all those at the rally were instructed to clear their guns’ chambers — Thompson’s gun had a loaded magazine attached. That, he said, was a matter of being prepared for any hostile activity. “Every now and then we get some aggressive people toward us,” Thompson said. “We get so much hate, it’s incredible.” Saturday’s event, monitored by several North Richland Hills police officers, took place without incident. It did, however, attract a few critics and protesters.

FLORIDA: Dem Lawmaker Mocks NRA With Zombie Apocalypse Amendment

Democratic Florida state Sen. Dwight Bullard is attempting to thwart an NRA-backed and vaguely worded bill that would grant the right to carry concealed firearms during declared states of emergency. Bullard has submitted an amendment would retitle the bill as the Zombie Apocalypse Act.

Senate Bill 296, which Bullard proposes to amend, would allow Florida gun owners without the proper permits to carry concealed weapons during a state of emergency, an idea supported by the National Rifle Association but vehemently opposed by the Florida Sheriff's Association and other critics who say the language is dangerously vague. Bullard's amendment would replace the bill's title language -- "An act relating to carrying a concealed weapon or a concealed firearm" -- to reframe it with the flesh-ripping end times scenario he says is the situation best suited for such a gun-toting free-for-all.

Bullard: "For me, as laughable as the amendment might seem, it's equally laughable that people who haven't gone through the proper training, the background check, the license to carry -- we're saying because of a hurricane or flooding or sinkhole, these individuals have gone from gun owners to concealed carry permit holders. I'd argue a crisis is probably the last instance in which you want someone who is not a concealed permit holder to carry a weapon."

NRA: Do You Believe In The Good Guys?

From the new ad by the NRA:

Do you still believe in the good guys? Because you’re surrounded by a world where madmen are famous and good ones, forgotten…where filthy crimes go unpunished, where killers and con artist’s pray on anyone who still follows the rules? It takes courage to be free. A special kind of backbone to reject the world that surrounds you. To sign your name where everyone can see it. To believe that there is always a right choice and an honest consequence. That’s what it means to believe in America. It’s time to believe in the good guys again. We are the 5 million men and women of the National Rifle Association of America. Join us. Join us today.

Complete with ominous theme music. The mangled text above is direct from Ben Shapiro's Truth Revolt