Florida has taken incremental steps toward gun safety – timid, but a start.
Even that was too much for the National Rifle Association, which sued to block Florida from raising the age to buy assault rifles from 18 to 21. The NRA will lose the legal battle. Courts have consistently ruled that guns can be regulated within the Second Amendment, and there are many age-related public and private sector precedents – the drinking and voting age, plus restrictions on driver's licenses, on car rentals, more. Almost 100 per cent of Americans now support universal background checks for any gun sale under any circumstances. The NRA would have you believe the current system is just fine. In fact, it's shot full of loopholes. The NRA exists solely to promote the gun industry, trying to wrap itself in our flag even as it corrupts our political process and perverts the Second Amendment – which is not threatened one iota by basic gun safety measures. NRA Spokeswoman Dana Loesch, she of black hair, black clothes and a black outlook on the First Amendment, recently released a video on NRATV. She addresses it to athletes who exercise their right to protest, journalists who tell the truth, comedians who use jokes as weapons. She calls them liars and phonies. Loesch ends her screed with: “Your time is running out. The clock starts now.” With that, she turn an hourglass upside down. Well. Marjory Stoneman Douglas survivor Sarah Chadwick reduces Loesch to a mean-spirited fool with her own video on behalf of the #NeverAgain movement. Chadwick looks straight into the camera and parodies Loesch: "We've had enough of the lies, the sanctimony, the ignorance, the hatred, the pettiness, the NRA ... “We're done with your agenda to undermine the safety of our nation's youth and the individual voices of the American people ... “To every government official unwilling to take action and make change, to everyone with an A-plus rating from the National Rifle Association, to every spokeswoman with an hourglass who uses their free speech to alter and undermine what our flag represents …“ "To the politicians who would rather watch America's youth die than get assault rifles off the shelves, to the manipulating lobbyists who think their political stances should be the only ones supported by legislation, to those who refuse to accept common-sense gun safety as a bi- partisan issue, to those who call high-school students paid crisis actors and refuse to listen …" “Your time is running out. The clock starts now.” Then Chadwick turns her own hourglass upside down. The video is posted everywhere. Find it, like it. Share. Comment. Call your elected officials' attention to it. Tell them an A grade from the NRA equals nay on election day. And congratulate the companies that have ended relationships with the NRA. Call their customer service lines – Delta, United, First National Bank of Omaha, Enterprise, Alamo, National, Symantec, MetLife Auto & Home, Simplisafe, Allied and North American Van Lines, Hertz, Teladoc, Chubb, Avis, Budget. The list grows. Two iconic companies that have done nothing so far: Apple and Amazon. Both continue to carry the NRATV channel in their streaming services. Amazon customer service managers will tell you the NRA channel is under review, and they're taking feedback at [email protected]. We can wonder why they need more feedback to do the right thing. This isn't an issue of free speech – the NRA is a lobbyist for one industry and a political animal that tries to destroy politicians based on one issue. Would Amazon carry the Nancy Polosi channel, or the Paul Ryan channel? But if Amazon folks want feedback, OK. Suggest they watch those videos – Loesch the fool, Chadwick the survivor. – Paul A Metairie Indivisible
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