Samantha Bee compares the NRA to Scientology, hunts for converts

Sam Bee takes on the NRA
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Full Frontal)

When it comes to gun legislation, Congress is "proving to be as tone deaf as a guy who owns all of Mike Huckabee's albums," Samantha Bee said on Wednesday's Full Frontal. "Pundits think they know the real reason we can't have not-riddled-with-bullethole things" — lawmakers are bought and owned by the NRA — and "they're not completely wrong: Politicians are bought, and they're pretty cheap," Bee said. "But tracking how the NRA actually influences lawmakers is a little more complicated than buy and sell."

She started with advertising. "Guns don't kill political careers, the NRA does, and lawmakers are scared stiff of attack ads" from the group — because they often work, Bee said. "Most of us know the NRA as a lobbying group for gun manufacturers, but to its hard-core members, it is more than that. ... Yes, the NRA is like a religion — specifically, the best religion, Scientology."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.