The National Rifle Association is well-known for its belief in the 2nd Amendment, which it has sold rather successfully--if not really accurately--as guaranteeing a right of gun ownership.
But the NRA's real powerbase lies in its exploitation of the 1st Amendment. There is probably no cause in America with adherents who are as willing to speak out over and over again.
Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Tom Ferrick emailed me and other legislators today to ask how we had voted in the straw vote the Pennsylvania House had in the Committee of the Whole on the one gun a month proposal to curb gun trafficking. I emailed Ferrick back that I had voted for it, although it had lost 2 to 1, largely on the votes of Pennsylvania's many rural legislators.
I have an A+ rating from the Brady Center and a failing or near-failing rating from the National Rifle Association. Their world of happy go lucky hunters is radically different from the urban world of daily murders with handguns that I live in.
If I had a lot of money, I would be tempted to run ads with the following theme: Remember the constitutional amendment providing criminal penalties for Bush opponents who contacted their legislators? IT NEVER PASSED. Let your elected officials know what you think!
Of course, there is no such thing as a proposed amendment banning Bush opponents from contacting their legislators. But, judging from the mail and phone calls going to legislative offices, there might as well have been. Decade after decade, in constituency after constituency, the right wing feels empowered to express its views while the vast majority of people do not.
The blogosphere is helping change all this, but not fast enough for my tastes. The social movement that the Daily Kos represents has to increase the sense of personal efficacy among its members if progressives are going to win on a lot of issues.
The Pennsylvania legislature is typical of many legislative bodies around the country. Any cause that organizes its members to contact us has at the very least a genuine fighting chance of winning.
Because of a few thousand liquor store clerks and managers with unparalleled networking skills, Pennsylvania has successfully resisted corporate and media pressure to scrap its state liquor stores.
Because gay community leaders have discovered that Pennsylvania legislators pay attention to people who pay attention to them, Pennsylvania has not constitutionally banned gay marriage.
Because union and minimum wage activists started organizing in districts where powerful legislators initially opposed minimum wage increases, the Pennsylvania legislature accepted my goal of a $7.15 minimum wage in 2007--a figure 39% higher than the previously effectove federal figure.
It is possible to resist right-wing pressure and achieve progressive goals. Those of us in the Daily Kos community know that. Hopefully, more and more of our allies will come to see that as well in the future.
The National Rifle Association does not really speak for Pennsylvania. But it speaks loudly in a vacuum. When that vacuum is ultimately filled, Pennsylvania will be able to join other states in passing sensible gun safety legislation. Until then, the Tony Auth cartoon in the October 5, 2006 Inquirer--featuring a legislator hiding under desk yelling "duck and cover" when shots ring out--has some relationship to reality. The cartoon is titled "Shots Ring Out...Harrisburg takes action."
(Afterword: the theme of the above diary is that supporters of anti-gun trafficking legislation are a lot quieter than opponents, and the law will not change until the ratio of public involvement changes. Both the comments and the responses to the poll question below demonstrate the truth of these observations, as NRA backers here--just as in Pennsylvania--dominated the discussion. NRA members clearly believe the first amendment applies them; until their opponents do also, the NRA will triumph in state after state and in the federal government.)