This message was self-deleted by its author

[sfwriter]

11. No, the NRA has fetishized guns.

A gun would not have been a toy 40 years ago. The NRA has helped promote that culture of irresponsibility. The days of them being a gun safety organization ended when they hired lobbyists and hitched their wagon to a single political party.

Opposing safe storage laws:
https://www.nraila.org/articles/20161014/safe-storage-media-blitz-ignores-historic-trend-of-firearm-safety

Promoting guns as father's day gifts:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3639983/NRA-breaks-silence-aftermath-Orlando-massacre-promote-gun-themed-Father-s-Day-gifts-post-link-article-slams-Hillary-Obama-s-call-gun-control.html

examples go on and on...

I grew up in Tennessee and I know of no one who received a gun for graduation 40 years ago. Guns were tools, not trophies.

I noticed this trend in 1999 when a slew of politicians held raffles for firearms... all Republican candidates. Then came Columbine, and I realized that traditional gun safety won't protect anyone if little Timmy decides to deploy grandpa's arsenal.

I also found out they had suppressed the gathering of statistics on gun death around then.

http://www.businessinsider.com/nra-gun-research-cdc-statistics-2013-1

We don't know how dangerous guns are. We understand death by cancer better than gun deaths. The NRA has had a hand in that. They have promoted the gun as a symbol of freedom. They have let manufacturers treat firearms like toys. The days of the NRA as neutral arbiters of safety are a distant memory except as PR for the NRA itself.

Try this as an example. Write them and request gun safety information and then track the marketing you begin receiving. How many safety messages do you get compared to every other PR message fetishizing guns in one way or another.

That's my take on it.