“NRA”

Yesterday, I received a call from a nice young man who introduced himself as being from “the NRA,” and who asked for the use of a few minutes of my valuable time (his words). I said “National Rifle Association? Sure. You guys do some good stuff, what’s up?”

He shared that he was calling because of the “immediate crisis” and “threat to the 2nd amendment” posed by the United Nations. Apparently, the UN is planning to take away our guns. “Not just Uzi’s, but shotguns too,” he said. Had I heard of this? No, I had not. He hyped it a bit more, and I finally told him that I get out regularly, I read the news from several sources, and I consider myself pretty well informed about national and world news. I had heard nothing of this. What the hell was he talking about.

He told me that the UN had already succeeded in banning guns in several countries, including Australia, and that they were coming for our guns next. He said that he had a recording by a senior VP for action (or something similar) that he would like to play for me, and get my reaction afterwords. “Why not?” says I.

The recording was a fast talking huckster whose name I missed. He said that the United Nations was pushing to take guns away from citizens, following the “failed experiment of gun control in Europe and Japan.” The proposal meant, according to him that “monitors from countries like Cuba and North Korea would be ensuring compliance right here in the US.” and that “Our founding fathers didn’t need the UN’s permission when they wrote the 2nd amendment, and we don’t need it now.”

Then the recording ended and the nice young man came back on. He asked my reaction. I laughed in his ear. I told him that it was excellent theatre. I asked to hear more recordings by that guy, because he was funny. Then I clarified: The US helped start the UN this century, so no, it wasn’t around in the 1700’s. North Korea and Cuba aren’t exactly contributing international monitors these days. The “experiment” of gun control in England is working out nicely, thanks. More to the point, while the recording was on, I had googled around, and I couldn’t find anything like this. What did the UN call this measure, so I could read it and decide for myself.

I think they’re talking about This, though I can’t be sure.
Here’s the hysterical version from the Free Republic.

Then came the really funny part. He asked me if I would be willing to make an “emergency donation” of $100 to help out the fight.

“You poor man, you’re on your script and there’s nothing we can do to stop this until you’re done, is there?” I asked.

“If $100 is too much , would $50 be better for you?”

I laughed him all the way down to the end of his script. I’m impressed that he didn’t hang up on me.

The thing that makes me furious is that these people extract a lot of money from folks who aren’t as up to date on the news and as critical of their information sources. The NRA is a fine organization when it sticks to safety and organization. For it to sully its name with this carnival huckster junk is a real shame.