Wednesday 16 January 2013

Grotesque NRA advert

http://nrastandandfight.com/

This may be the most tedious piece of agitprop I've ever seen. At the risk of having my words twisted and mis-represented like the straw men 'gun control' opponents in this video, I don't think I've ever seen a more brazen display of manipulative opinion formation.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21049942

Reading the BBC coverage I thought that the author might be being a bit sneaky in his claim that the NRA were saying that they had gained 100,000 members since the Newtown massacre. "Maybe", I thought, "They have been asked a leading question by a hostile journalist and then had their response quoted in a slightly misleading manner. Surely they can't really be trumpeting growing membership in the weeks after shootings."

But no, the 'stand and fight' advert actually has an NRA membership count scrolling up in the corner. Maybe the promoters should try taking a look at some real indicators of what guns mean for America. A graph showing the yearly numbers of victims killed in schools, when compared to countries with more sensible gun control laws, might convince them to adopt some less moronic stances.

I'd recommend watching this video just to see how low the NRA have sunk but, no doubt, they will use the viewing figures as evidence for the global popularity of their cause at some point in the near future.

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