Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy slams NRA, Wayne LaPierre: "reminds me of clowns at the circus."

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, fresh off signing the nation's toughest gun restrictions into law, was on CNN yesterday advocating for gun control and taking on the NRA and its main mouthpiece, Wayne LaPierre: "Wayne reminds me of the clowns at the circus. They get the most attention." He continued:

This guy is so out of whack, it's unbelievable. 92% of the american people want universal background checks. I can't get on a plane as the governor of the State of Connecticut without somebody running a background check on me. Why should you be able to buy a gun? Or buy armor-piercing munitions? It doesn't make any sense. He doesn't make any sense. Thus my reference to the circus...

Bring it back to reality. Why are they against universal background checks when 92% of the American public is in favor of them? If they can't answer that question — and they can't, Candy — What this is about is the ability of the gun industry to sell as many guns to as many people as possible even if they're deranged, even if they're mentally ill, evening if they have a criminal background, they don't care. They want to sell guns.

The clown/circus quip is amusing but also putting it lightly. Otherwise, though, Malloy's explanation of the NRA's priorities is right on. It's not just that the NRA is insanely pro-gun (and insane in its general gun nuttery), it's that it's the chief lobbyist for the gun industry. It will stop at nothing to stop anything that might limit the gun industry's ability to make enormous profits, and that means the sale of assault weapons that serve no other (non-military) purpose than mass killing (and the fetishism of enthusiasts, if you can call them that), as well as armor-piercing bullets, and so on.

LaPierre is indeed a clown, of sorts, but he's a very dangerous one given the power and influence of his vile organization.

(I would also note that LaPierre made what has become a key conservative argument against any and all gun control: Criminals won't abide by gun laws, so why bother? But this is basically an argument against all criminal law. Why have laws against murder, or rape, or breaking and entering, or fraud? Like I said, these gun nuts are insane.)