Got an Easy Answer II

Suspecting this is a rhetorical question:

Time and time again, I hear about this mass of reasonable gun owners who are dismayed by events like the one in Wisconsin this Sunday. I hear, endlessly, about the "responsible" gun owners of this country. I have no doubt that they exist. I know a great many of them, some of them friends of mine from Wisconsin itself. They are people of good will with whom I disagree. My question is: Where in the hell are all the "responsible" people today? Where were they two weeks ago? Make no mistake. Without them, this profound problem cannot be solved. If they are the majority---and god knows, I hope that's the case---then why don't they wrest control of their side of the issue, and of the NRA itself, from the crazy mountebanks who are only in it for the buck? I am quite sincere about this, and I'd like any gun owners who read this blog, and especially any members of the NRA, to provide me with an answer. Where are you people?

Answer: You'll be waiting a long time, because "responsible gun owners" don't exist. If you don't believe me, read the comments thread. This is one of the more rationally argued posts:

I am a gun owner and NRA member. Understand that despite machinations by people who hate guns that NRA is somehow a shill for the firearms manufacturers (who have their own trade group, NSSF), it is, in fact a membership driven organization. Those of us who are life members, or who have been yearly dues paying members for five years or longer, are eligible to vote in NRA elections. We select the Board of Directors, who hire Wayne LaPierre and the other NRA leadership. We do not need to "wrest control" of the NRA. We already control it. The reason NRA believes what it does is because we agree with their overall strategy for protecting the Second Amendment.

The fact of the matter is we're one vote on the Supreme Court away from having the Second Amendment redacted from the Bill of Rights.

---Vitelius