Here is my view on the gun control effort by Florida students.
Young people, survivors of the Florida shooting, were on television over the weekend, speaking out for gun control with a specific attack on the National Rifle Association (NRA). A young man, announcing a March 24, 2018 march on Washington, pushed his plan to recommend that any candidate who accepts campaign funds from the NRA be voted out of office.
I have empathy for those students, but It’s that typical knee-jerk reaction we hear after every shooting. I didn’t hear one student castigate the FBI for its failure to prevent the shooting; nor did I hear one student cast shame on fellow students, the school faculty and local law enforcement for ignoring several years of behavioral warnings about the shooter.
One of the students referred to his fellow students as the leaders of tomorrow. If that is so, we can look forward to more of the same ill-informed public.
“I’m going out on a limb here … I blame the shooter.” – Kat Timpf, National Review
Those students, like Democrats in Congress today, portray the NRA as that monolithic organization that controls the Republican Party. The NRA doesn’t even come close to making the list of top 50 companies and industry lobbying groups. Records show that the NRA spent $5,122,000 on gun rights lobbying, but another $5 million is being spent on gun rights by a handful of other organizations.
I’m sure those students probably aren’t aware that Teachers’ Unions spent some $32 million lobbing Congress, an all-time high, in 2016, and that the overwhelming majority of the funds support teachers, not better education, not improving student outcomes, and not school facilities.
Where are their student voices on the Teachers’ Unions? Why aren’t they advocating that those candidates taking money from the unions be voted out of office?
Do those future leaders know George Soros, the billionaire, who wants to radically move the country to the left? His Open Society Policy Center spent $16,110,000 lobbying in 2016.
Four of the top six lobbying spenders – Blue Cross Blue Shield, American Hospital Association, Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America and the American Medical Association – spent some $55 million protecting their interests.
When you consider what students are not taught in high schools today over a broad spectrum of subjects, by teachers who are liberal and espouse liberal causes, is it any wonder that knee-jerk reactions are what we get?
Those students should be taught in government or civics classes that lobbying isn’t a dirty word. It is through lobbying that companies, industry groups and advocacy organizations have a voice to inform Congress how legislation will help or adversely affect them and employees in their states.
The NRA has some five million members who will stand strong despite another assault on their organization, by still another march on Washington. Look for weirdos from every anti-Trump group to hijack the students’ cause. Party time in the nation’s capital.
AN ASIDE: Remember the stir over “bump stocks” after the Las Vegas shooting? The NRA called for a federal review and suggested new rules might be needed, and issued this statement: “The NRA believes that such devices designed to allow rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations.” The reaction? Crickets.
