Why I like guns but hate the NRA

The gun-rights lobby shamelessly continues to peddle piles and piles of big fat lies

The author at a local shooting range.
(Image credit: Courtesy of Paul Brandus)

As someone who supports the Second Amendment — and enjoys shooting firearms — I was struck by something President Obama said at Monday's Connecticut event on reducing gun violence. He spoke of how the National Rifle Association and its lapdogs in Congress have turned guns into a wedge issue to divide Americans, and make us think we have to choose between the Constitution and public safety.

"Surely, we can reconcile those two things," the president said. "Surely, America doesn't have to be divided between rural and urban, and Democrat and Republican when it comes to something like this."

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Paul Brandus

An award-winning member of the White House press corps, Paul Brandus founded WestWingReports.com (@WestWingReport) and provides reports for media outlets around the United States and overseas. His career spans network television, Wall Street, and several years as a foreign correspondent based in Moscow, where he covered the collapse of the Soviet Union for NBC Radio and the award-winning business and economics program Marketplace. He has traveled to 53 countries on five continents and has reported from, among other places, Iraq, Chechnya, China, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.