CARLTON FLETCHER: The NRA: Turning tragedy into dollars

Bang bang, he shot me down.

— Sonny & Cher

Just when I thought the blind partisan politics embraced by so many in this region couldn’t get any partisaner — that the Albany sheep who fall in line with the mention of a trigger word or two couldn’t get any Albanier or sheepier — some subhuman uses an arsenal of military-grade weapons to shoot and kill a bunch of innocent people who were enjoying themselves at a concert, and suddenly this mayhem becomes secondary to politics as usual.

While most normal people were stunned … numbed …. outraged by this unspeakable violence, diminished by our genetic connection to such human garbage, the crowd that can’t breathe unless they’re breathing “Republican” or “Democratic” or “liberal” or “conservative” air weighed in on the gravity of this issue.

It’s not, according to these mindless followers, the fact that innocent human beings lost their lives for no other reason than some insane monster decided to go on a killing spree that’s so disturbing. And it’s not that our country has so devolved into lawlessness and terror that people are becoming afraid to venture out into the public.

No, what’s important is the argument over whether the shooter was a Democrat or a Republican and whether the people who were shot — and killed, for God’s sake — were Republicans or Democrats. And, since this is Albany, race had to enter into it for good measure.

But that’s not the real compelling issue for most of these clueless wonders. No, the big thing is not the grieving families who lost love ones for no other reason than they went out to enjoy a show, and it’s not that a line has been crossed in domestic terrorism that leaves each of us feeling vulnerable.

What’s foremost is that someone’s going to “come after our guns.”

I found it sickening that, before the blood that was pooling up at the outdoor Las Vegas concert venue had even started drying, the gun nuts started shouting “2nd Amendment” and defending the rights of people like this crazed killer to buy weaponry whose only purpose is what happened at that concert so that they could “protect themselves.”

It’s the same argument the mouthpieces for the NRA used to try and deaden the horror when a semiautomatic weapon-toting lunatic shot and killed a bunch of 6-year-olds at a school in Connecticut. It doesn’t matter who was killed or how many, just don’t let those liberals start talking about taking our guns away.

That so many people buy into that scare tactic B.S. used to amaze me. Now, it’s par for the course.

Think I’m exaggerating? Think back a few years to when Barack Obama became president. The NRA shills assured the God-fearing, Constitution-backing gun owners that Obama was, without a doubt, coming after their guns and would no doubt push a law through Congress that would outlaw the sale of weaponry. Which drew the exact response these shrewd, calculating pitchmen wanted … a panicked population rushing out to buy every weapon they could find before Obama took their guns away.

It’s not hard to imagine ghouls with the NRA and gun manufacturers slapping a few high fives and shooting a few bursts of their semiauto weapons into the air as sales soared.

Funny thing, though, is that not only did Obama not take anyone’s guns, there was never any attempt during his eight years in office to pass any kind of gun-control legislation. But the people who are so easily led weren’t quite able to put two and two together on this issue. They just kept stockpiling their guns.

Now, with someone in the White House who’ll probably push to make gun ownership mandatory if it’ll keep his ever-shrinking base happy, the gun nuts need another reason to keep the true believers shelling out their hard-earned dough to upgrade and keep the wheels of commerce turning. So they take a tragedy like the one in Las Vegas and use it to push their agenda.

“You have to protect yourselves these days, at least until that wall’s built down at the Mexican border. Better get on out and stock up on plenty of bullets before the liberals … ummm … before the illegal aliens vote our right-thinking leaders out of office and the new group takes your guns.”

Meanwhile, the people in Las Vegas are burying their dead.

Email Carlton Fletcher at [email protected]. Follow @ABH_Fletcher on Twitter.

Staff Photo