Shot In The Dark

I respect the NRA for what it does, but frankly there's a problem when four out of five NRA members believe Obama will try to ban all gun sales in the US.

79 percent of NRA members believe Obama will definitely or probably try to outlaw gun sales, according to a poll released Thursday that was conducted by GOP pollster Frank Luntz and commissioned by Mayors Against Illegal Guns. 18 percent of NRA members saw it as unlikely for Obama to ban firearms sales.

Gunowners unaffiliated with the NRA still saw it as likely for Obama to outlaw gun sales, though by a lesser margin. 57 percent of non-NRA members said the president would definitely or probably try to ban gun sales, whereas 30 percent said Obama likely wouldn't try to criminalize gun sales.

In other words, NRA owners are far more likely to believe the President is going to outlaw gun sales in America than non-NRA gunowners.  Granted, Frank Luntz is very much a Republican pollster running out of Michael Steele's outfit, but the numbers are scary.

If four of five NRA members believe Obama will ban all gun sales, what are they willing to do to prevent that from happening?  What lengths are they willing to go to?  Why is the NRA trying to promote the view that Obama will ban all gun sales?  The clear answer is to promote gun sales, because that's what the NRA advocates.  But paranoia and firearms are not a very safe combination.  I've talked about this before at length and taken a lot of heat for it.  But it's as true today as it was six months ago, if even more so.

Using paranoia about the President to advocate gun sales isn't just irresponsible, it's damn dangerous.