The Evolution of the NRA

     From Alternet: The Surprising Unknown History of the NRA

     One simple thing I want to highlight from this--the complete text of Amendment II reads "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed" (archives.gov). 

     Does keeping the "right to bear arms" battle cry in context (both historical and textual) present a clear and easy solution to our current question of gun violence and what to do about it? Of course not. However, maybe it will remind us that these sorts of debates and the positions they produce occur on a continuum. 

     For those of us born long after the advent of the NRA, and especially we who only know it in its arming-school-teachers-is-the-best-answer form, it behooves us to learn about the organization itself and its history, especially since it has and will continue to have a heavy hand in the drafting and enacting of legislation.

So as not to be "We the Sheeple,"
--CQ