Today's fringy NRA, out-of-step with America and gun owners

Firefighters salute as the funeral procession for Sandy Hook victim Rachel Marie D'Avino makes it way into the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Connecticut. NRA shrugs. Yesterday we saw the results of our PPP/Daily Kos poll of American attitudes toward sensible gun control. How out of step?

Ninety-two percent of Americans support background checks. Of course, the NRA opposes them.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) is calling on its membership to help repeal a 1989 law that created the Virginia Firearms Transaction Program (VFTP).   A state-of-the-art database that is second to none in the nation, the VFTP works in conjunction with the FBI's National Instant Background Checks System (NICS) to check the background of those purchasing firearms in the Commonwealth of Virginia [...] In an August 18 alert to its members, the NRA described the VFTP as 'obsolete and unnecessary.' [...]

This is not the first time the NRA has attempted to undermine the background check system for firearm purchasers.  After the Brady Act was signed in 1994, the NRA funded lawsuits in nine different states that sought to have the law struck down as unconstitutional.  The NRA argued that states could not be compelled to submit records to the federal background check system maintained by the FBI.  The Supreme Court agreed with that principle, but rejected the NRA's argument that 'the whole statute must be voided.'  In large part because of this litigation, millions of records are missing today from NICS that otherwise would be stopping dangerous individuals from buying guns.

Sixty-three percent of Americans support banning assault rifles, only 32 oppose. That includes a majority of conservatives and gun owners. But of course, the NRA is opposed.

Sixty-nine percent of Americans support banning internet sales of guns and ammo. The NRA is financially vested in such sales.

Seventy-six percent of Americans support closing the gun-show loophole, only 19 percent oppose. Seventy-one percent of conservatives agree. Logically, the NRA sits with the 19 percent fringe.

Only five percent of Americans oppose banning gun ownership for convicted violent felons. Naturally, the NRA sits with that five percent fringe. Heck, they're even okay with potential terrorists buying and owning guns!

Sixty-four percent of Americans support banning magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, including a majority of conservatives and gun owners. Too bad the NRA opposes that too.

Magazines that fed bullets into the primary firearm used to kill 26 children and adults at a Connecticut school would have been banned under state legislation that the National Rifle Association and gunmakers successfully fought.

It's hard to believe that at one time, the NRA had something to do with gun safety and the rights of hunters. Nowadays, they're merely an industry trade group, designed to foster the kind of paranoia that drives gun sales, and a regulatory scheme that protects the rights of gun manufacturers to maximize profits.

If 20 first graders and tens of thousands more have to die in the process, oh well.