Add new comment

I'm not as sure as you are that the explanation of wanting to sell more guns and ammunition is so simplistic as to be discounted. While there are most likely other reasons--and I find your column excellent at laying out one of them--making money off of gun sales surely must be part of the equation. There are at least two parts to this. One relates to what happened in Virginia with the striking down of the law limiting gun purchases to only one per month and to the NRA-led resistance around the country to laws requiring the reporting of the loss or theft of a gun or guns within a specified period of time. These are blatant encouragement to what can only be called gun running to states with stricter laws or getting guns to people who could not qualify under their own states laws. The second is that by ginning up an atmosphere of fear there is a not-so-subtle encouragement to have people believe that they, too, need a gun for self-protection. How many people have purchased guns on exactly that basis, who, say ten or twenty years ago, would never have considered doing so? Further, by working to strike down laws that make purchasing a gun something of a chore--even if not very much of one--some people who might choose not to go through the hassle will end up making a purchase when it is a much more casual matter.