Gigantic Case of Dumbass

Cracked Dot Com (no link) has an article about how we should no longer take the NRA seriously.

#1 Because the NRA has 4.5 million members and there are 50 million gun owners.

Actually, there's more like 80 million gun owners.  That seems to make your point better.

4.5 million people is still 1.5% of the total population.  50 million people are almost 17%.  Most gun owner objection to the NRA seems to center around the NRA not being hard-core enough.

Shall we look at some other "minorities"?

The latest Gallup numbers suggest that 20% of America is gay (similar to the number of gun owners).  Show me an LGBT organization that's got 4.5 million members.

There are close to 39 million black people in the USA.  The NAACP has about 300,000 members.  Shall we stop taking the rights of black people seriously or just the NAACP?

#2 Because many NRA members are just joining to become a member of a gun club.

Really?  REALLY?  Got a source to substantiate that claim?  They link to a Yahoo! article written by Andy Sullivan (no relation to Andrew).  It talks about ONE gun club's experience and...

There's another change as well: One year ago, the private club required all 300 of its members to join the National Rifle Association, the nation's largest gun-rights group. Some club members objected, and a dozen or so quit. But most had their NRAcards already, and the rest signed up.

Um, most were already members...  Doesn't sound like they signed up just for the gun range. Cart is in front of the horse here, I think.

Shall we compare this to having to join a union just to keep a job?  Wanna bet Cracked never writes an article about how we shouldn't take the UAW seriously?

And since anecdote is interchangeable for data at Cracked.  I have never been required to join the NRA to join a gun club.

#3 The NRA doesn't represent its members, it represents the gun manufacturers.

Link to the Violence Policy Center about it.  Couldn't find a neutral source to cite?  Link to a The Nation article making the same claim, without substantiation.

It's gossip.  I heard that...  What's next, "Save Ferris" on the bill board?

They link to a Slate article where they take a talking point from Wayne LaPierre all out of context.  Double out of context, actually.  Slate is frothing about how Wayne said that the cops aren't going to be there should a hurricane flatten the neighborhood (and they won't be, just ask anyone who lived through Andrew).  Cracked is linking to Slate in support of the gun industry secretly running the NRA?

I'll bet you assumed that nobody would actually read that link, didn't you?

They make the connection that the gun makers are running the NRA because the same lawyers are often representing both gun owners and gun makers in court.  Ever think that might be because it's a specialty field?  Like medicine.  Many of the same lawyers who represent doctors also represent pharmaceutical makers.  Many of the same lawyers who represent reporters also represent publishers.  It's because they know that corner of their specialty better than someone who isn't a specialist.

There's an allusion to gun makers being immune from product liability.  Once again a "reporter" misses what that immunity was.  It's qualified immunity from being held responsible for the MISUSE of the firearm.  They are not immune from shoddy manufacturing or quality control causing an injury.  The reason for this immunity is that a gun is designed to propel a projectile and if it's working correctly, it can cause injury and death.  It is also out of the gun maker's control at that point.  This immunity puts the responsibility and liability where it belongs, on the person who pulled the trigger.

ADDENDUM: See this by Sebastian, and follow the links.

UPDATE: Remington was recently in hot water over allegations that their Model 700 rifle could fire merely by closing the bolt and there were injuries involved.  They went to court just like the makers of cribs and cars.

But!  BUT!  Even if the gun industry is running the NRA, there are still 4.5 million members who vote.  And many of those members (lifetime and longtime) are allowed to vote in the NRA's board of directors, if they object to how the place is being run, they sure don't do anything about it so they must be happy with it.