Hey, Hey, NRA: How Many Kids Did You Kill Today?

Perhaps no stronger argument exists for removing private funds to support public functions, such as elections, than the existence of the National Rifle Association (“NRA”). This group, full of people who believe in the sovereignty of guns, rifles, and all things that go “bang,” loudly proclaims as inviolate Americans’ “rights to own guns.” They pour many millions of dollars into the campaign coffers of politicians throughout the land, from the Presidential campaign all the way down to local races for schoolboard members. And to what end?

This country has had a psychotic fixation on guns for many years. The NASCAR-watching, beer-guzzling, Walmart-shopping rednecks have a pernicious love for things that kill or seriously injure people. They say, “Well, it’s in the Constitution.” Not so fast. It was less than 10 years ago (on June 26, 2008) that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in District of Columbia vs. Heller (2008) 554 U.S. 570, squeaking by in a narrow 5–4 decision, that the right of gun ownership was individual, and not connected to service in a militia or military force.

Prior to that, for the 217 years since the passage of the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution did the Supreme Court view gun ownership as a kind of “collective right,” to help counterbalance the cooercive and possibly dictatorial forces of a too-powerful central government.

Nowadays, the gun nuts — let’s call them by their proper names — caress their precious pistols, and stroke their redemptive rifles. They…