The NRA has won the battle but lost the war. The best thing that happened to gun control is its defeat in Congress. Today's losers (Obama, Democrats, the 90 percent of Americans who support sane legislation) will be tomorrow's winners. Today's winners (NRA and its corporate backers and Republican puppets) will be tomorrow's losers.
Losers: The NRA. Heady with victory, no doubt Wayne LaPierre and his colleagues were belly-laughing, high-fiving, and guzzling down bottles of Dom Perignon to celebrate. After all, they showed the President of the United States who's boss — or so they think. Surely, for a "job well done," LaPierre will ask for — and receive — a raise on his $1 million salary.
If the NRA had the smarts to think strategically, it would have thrown its critics a bone and supported background checks; after all, on that issue the proposed bill was just an expansion of existing law. That way, it would have appeared rational and disarmed many of its fiercest critics — at least temporarily.
Instead, drunk with power, the NRA stupidly opposed any and all restrictions on gun sales — and violated the first lesson of "war": Don't humiliate your defeated enemy. Thinking/knowing that it "owns" Congress, it wouldn't give an inch. By its hubris and intransigence, it has inflamed its opposition.
So, the next time there is a murderous rampage the NRA will be blamed. And the backlash against it will be unrelenting, fierce — and successful. Congress will cave in to overwhelming public pressure, and we'll finally get sweeping gun-control legislation, beyond anything that might have passed recently.
Makes sense to me. Basically this is what Jon Stewart said. I think it'll go just like that.
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