Writing in Politico, Rich Lowry, Editor of National Review, writes of NRA as a model organization:
By the standards usually set for our politics, the NRA is a model organization. We say we want people more involved in the process. The NRA’s more than 4 million members are highly engaged. The organization’s recent national conference in St. Louis attracted 73,000 people — one of the largest conventions ever held in the city.
We say there’s too much partisanship. Single-mindedly committed to its cause, the NRA endorsed about 60 House Democrats in 2010.
And we say that we value the Constitution. Gun-control advocates, nonetheless, treat the Second Amendment like an “ink blot†(to borrow Robert Bork’s famous phrase for the Ninth Amendment). They consider it an anachronism, an unfortunate lapse by James Madison, a forlorn leftover from the 18th century.
To be fair, they don’t really claim that it was an unfortunate lapse by James Madison, they suggest that James Madison would have agreed with their position, and that his only concern was the preservation of the militia system, which since has fallen into disuse and disrepair, making any right of the people a complete non-barrier to anything they wish to accomplish, up to and including draconian gun bans. I think it’s important that we on the right get the exact crazy precise, but regardless of that, Mr. Lowry has done an excellent job with this article.