Democracy Now! reports on how the gun lobby, the NRA, is outspending the gun control advocates by 10 to 1 on Capitol Hill. And Lisa Graves explains that ALEC isn’t just trying to destroy unions or spread disinformation about climate change, it is also behind legislation to keep military weapons in civilian hands.
This is the blurb for the show:
Since Friday’s mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that left 27 dead — 20 children and seven adults — the National Rifle Association has been silent. The powerful lobbying organization has long pressured lawmakers to maintain easy access to firearms in the United States, prompting many to say the NRA is standing in the way of reform. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the NRA has spent more than $2.2 million lobbying Congress this year alone. By comparison, the gun control lobby spent just $180,000. We’re joined by Lisa Graves, who has extensively tracked how the NRA’s power and wealth has long thwarted gun control proposals. Graves documents how one of the key avenues used to exert its influence is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the secretive group helps corporate America propose and draft legislation for states across the country. Graves formerly served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Clinton administration’s Justice Department, where she handled national gun policy. [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]
So the question is, are those ALEC scum simply acting as a cynical industry lobby, as when they push obviously profit-driven legislation, or is there a deeper agenda, as I believe is the case with ALEC’s role in pushing prison slave labor.
You create a profitable class of convict slaves, then you need a segment of the public that views themselves as deserving to be the masters.
The test case, as I’ve always said, would be what would happen if a group outside the right-wing white-dominated patriarchy were to organize a gun culture as pervasive as that of American right-wingers – in other words, a rival armed militia. If ALEC just represents greedy gun makers, it should welcome the arms race. If it views a restoration of white supremacy as the way to complete its vision of returning America to the 19th century, then these interlopers will be denounced as terrorists and gun laws will be written to discriminate against them.