KPFA reported on the 99% Spring in Orinda, CA, which sounds very much like the Democratic Party operation that Counterpunch reported in "Yes, the 99% Spring is a Fraud," http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/13/yes-the-99-spring-is-a-fraud/
The Tri-Valley Democratic Club organized in Orinda. They say they're gonna go out and do some good, create some change. Really? They don't say what kind, but they say "There's a carpet in the White House that says the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice," and they want to nudge it just a bit further.
At least the reporter asked one of the organizers whether Orinda residents could really be expected to sympathize with the 99%. http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/79698 Story at 18 minutes, 45 seconds. The city's property values are very high.
The next Orinda 99% Spring nonviolent direct action will be outside a post office to thank Americans for paying their share of taxes. I wonder who they imagine is going to arrest them for that.
You are, at least in my eyes, absolutely correct! I've seen what happens when idiots with a gun fire, miss their mark, and hit innocents.
Bravery is what you chose to do!
I'm not as sure as you are that the explanation of wanting to sell more guns and ammunition is so simplistic as to be discounted. While there are most likely other reasons--and I find your column excellent at laying out one of them--making money off of gun sales surely must be part of the equation. There are at least two parts to this. One relates to what happened in Virginia with the striking down of the law limiting gun purchases to only one per month and to the NRA-led resistance around the country to laws requiring the reporting of the loss or theft of a gun or guns within a specified period of time. These are blatant encouragement to what can only be called gun running to states with stricter laws or getting guns to people who could not qualify under their own states laws. The second is that by ginning up an atmosphere of fear there is a not-so-subtle encouragement to have people believe that they, too, need a gun for self-protection. How many people have purchased guns on exactly that basis, who, say ten or twenty years ago, would never have considered doing so? Further, by working to strike down laws that make purchasing a gun something of a chore--even if not very much of one--some people who might choose not to go through the hassle will end up making a purchase when it is a much more casual matter.
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