We in Gun Control Australia believe that it is profoundly unwise to be associated with organizations that preach the possibility of insurrection against an elected government. We are worried, therefore, that some shooter groups in Australia remain associated with such extremist American groups. We introduced our concern about this matter in our 3 January 2010 website entry.
The Washington based ‘Violence Policy Center’ examined the dangers of gun extremism in an April 2010 report titled:
Lessons Unlearned – The Gun Lobby and the Siren song of Anti-Government Rhetoric
This 21 page report can be downloaded from the Violence Policy Center’s website, www.vpc.org
In the interest of community education, we reprint portions of the Introduction to this report.
Introduction
On April 19, 1995, former National Rifle Association (NRA) member Timothy McVeigh blew up the Alfred P.Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168, including 19 children at a daycare center in the building. Until the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Oklahoma City bombing stood as the worst terrorist attack to ever occur on U.S. soil. It remains the most deadly attack in our nation by domestic terrorists.
McVeigh had been an NRA member for at least four years prior to the bombing, an unprecedented period in the organization’s history during which it began catering to increasing anti-government sentiment.(1) This animus was evidenced by a growing militia movement spurred by the election of President Bill Clinton, the subsequent passage of federal gun control laws such as the Brady Bill and Federal assault weapons ban, and lethal high-profile confrontations between civilians and federal law enforcement at Waco, Texas, and Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
During this period, the NRA adopted the anti-government language of the militias and other components of the “Patriot movement,” a loose coalition whose adherents are “animated by a view of the federal government as the primary enemy, along with a fondness for antigovernment conspiracy theories.”(2) Offering a soft embrace to many of the conspiracy theories that drove the anger and fear of the Patriot movement, the NRA declared in its official publications that “The Final War Has Begun,” equated Federal Bureau of Investigation agents with goose-stepping Nazis, labeled other federal agents “jack-booted government thugs” in its direct mail, and repeatedly warned of conspiracies—allegedly concocted by forces ranging from the Clinton administration to the United Nations—to disarm American gun owners. Presumably undertaken initially to engage and activate its membership while opening the door to a new strata of potential supporters, the NRA’s shift in rhetoric and action—as seen in the organization’s magazines, public statements, and nascent on-line efforts during this period—had the ancillary effect of validating the most paranoid fears of the most extreme elements of American gun owner. Eventually, the NRA found itself exploring potential partnerships with militia leaders.
After the Oklahoma City bombing and stung by widespread public criticism including the resignation of Life Member President George H.W. Bush, the NRA acted quickly to make its public face appear more moderate. The anti-government “Final War” trumpeted in the NRA’s publications prior to the bombing metamorphosed into the values-based “culture war” as articulated by eventual NRA President Charlton Heston. Through this rhetorical shift, the NRA sought to maintain its ability to tap into the same societal and anti-government anger that often drove the political engagement of many of those concerned with gun rights while appearing to distance itself from attacks on government itself.
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Now, 15 years after the Oklahoma City bombing, it appears that the National Rifle Association and other members of the gun lobby are once again enticed by the grassroots potential represented by anti-government sentiment spurred by the economic collapse of 2008, the election of Barack Obama, and the perceived threat of a Congress controlled by the Democratic party. The gun lobby is once again embracing—and, equally important, validating—the anti-government rhetoric being offered by activists that range from Tea Party members, through pro-gun advocates, to members of the militia movement.
And as was the case with Timothy McVeigh, the risk lies not so much with the organized members of these groups, but with the “lone wolves” who not only embrace their rhetoric, but are willing to act on it with violence.
1. “NRA becomes militia’s beacon: Gun lobby seen as nexus for paramilitarists, hate groups,” The Boston Globe, August 13, 1995, P.1.
2. Southern Poverty Law Center, Intelligence Report. Spring 2010, Issue Number: 137,