We continue to block reasonable gun restrictions because domestic terrorism has powerful lobbyists

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The primary reason the United States does not have common-sense laws seeking to prevent would-be domestic terrorists from obtaining the weapons of mass murder is because the domestic terrorism lobby remains one of the most powerful forces in American politics.

Attention is being thrust back on the gun lobby as lawmakers give gun control measures a fresh look in the wake of the Las Vegas mass shooting – the deadliest in modern U.S. history. Gun rights groups overwhelmingly support GOP candidates, contributing $5.9 million into Republican campaigns in the 2016 election cycle, compared with $106,000 to those of Democrats. It’s also the most money gun lobbyists have given in a campaign year since at least 1990.

The Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan think tank that tracks money in politics, found that in 2016 more than half of the members of the House of Representatives — or 232 of the 435 — received money from gun rights groups like the National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of America. That money went disproportionately to Republicans. Only nine Democrats received campaign contributions from these groups.

The National Rifle Association, in their magazines and videos and in the speeches of their primary spokescreatures, is not shy about the reasons they believe their members need guns. It is not for sport or for hunting: it is because on some particular future day, their members may need to murder other human beings and the nation needs to provide them the necessary tools when that day comes. It may be due to a "societal collapse", in which members of the "inner cities" come to good, wholesome neighborhoods to loot or pillage and you need to murder them. It may be because ISIS may appear at any moment in your hometown, and in such numbers that the federal government cannot muster a response but Joe and Bob from down the street, who have stocked tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition between them, will push back the terrorist group and reclaim the cul-de-sac.

from Daily Kos http://ift.tt/2gb0y53