Why Does Marion Hate Appalachian-Americans?

You probably have read in the past former NRA President Marion Hammer’s warning about the “enemies within” and how they are going to destroy the NRA.

I always assumed she meant those of us who opposed her gravy train and board candidates or members who would not toe the party line.

Evidently I was wrong.

Thanks to a secret tape recording obtained by NPR of NRA officials talking about a response to the Columbine murders, Marion actually meant Appalachian-Americans. The more colloquial term for us – and I consider myself one – is “hillbilly”.

From the story:

“You know, the other problem is holding a member meeting without an exhibit hall. The people you are most likely to get in that member meeting without an exhibit hall are the nuts,” says LaPierre.

“Made that point earlier. I agree,” says Makris. “The fruitcakes are going to show up.”

Says Hammer: “If you pull down the exhibit hall, that’s not going to leave anything for the media except the members meeting, and you’re going to have the wackos … with all kinds of crazy resolutions, with all kinds of, of dressing like a bunch of hillbillies and idiots. And, and it’s gonna, it’s gonna be the worst thing you can imagine.”

So Wayne thinks those attending the Meeting of Members are “the nuts”, his former-BFF Tony Makris thinks they are “fruitcakes”, and dear old Marion refers to these dedicated members as “wackos”, “hillbillies”, and “idiots”.

Listen for yourself:

It is discouraging to know that the powers that be at the NRA think so little of their own members. If only more voting members would come to this understanding and actually vote, we might be rid of these parasites. In the meantime, it sucks that we have to put our hopes in the Attorney General of New York having some limited success in her lawsuit.

Bloomberg’s Pet “Gun Violence” Researcher

You may have heard of Daniel Webster of Johns Hopkins University. He is the Bloomberg Professor of American Health and heads Johns Hopkin’s Center for Gun Violence Prevention and Policy. It is a research center within the Bloomberg School of Public Health. The name Bloomberg in all of this is because Michael Bloomberg has donated big time and continues to donate big time to the school and Webster’s research.

As you would suspect, Webster is no friend of gun owners, constitutional carry, or the Second Amendment.

The Complementary Spouse caught a story on NPR regarding the passage of permitless carry in Texas this past Wednesday. What caught her ear on the All Things Considered story was a comment by Webster that said, in essence, before violent armed criminals committed their acts of violence, most had been legal gun owners at one time. He blamed the loosening of gun laws for prodding them

Listen for yourself. The intro to Webster’s comments begin at the 1:15 mark in this short clip and it goes on from there.

By Webster’s reasoning, every criminal was a good kid at one time and every porn star was a virgin. If only those pesky gun rights advocates hadn’t convinced the evil Republicans into loosening the law then those formerly law abiding gun owners probably would not have committed their acts of violence.

That this argument is given any public forum makes me shake my head.

This NPR Poll Shows Hope For America

52% of Americans say they are against the county becoming more politically correct. By contrast, only 1/3 want us to be more politically correct and more sensitive in what we say. This is according to a NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist poll conducted at the beginning of December.

There is a divide between those who want the country to be more politically correct and those of us that don’t.

There are huge partisan, racial and gender divides on the question of sensitivity. The only groups in which majorities said they were in favor of people being more sensitive were Democrats, adults under 30, African-Americans and small city/suburban women…


Majorities of whites, Latinos, Americans over 30 and small city/suburban men, though, said the opposite. Just 1 in 7 Republicans and a third of independents said they like the country becoming more politically correct and people being sensitive in their comments.


There’s also a big gender divide by place and education. Women who live in small cities or the suburbs say people need to be more sensitive, 52 percent vs. 37 percent. But just a quarter of men who live in the same place say so (27 to 57 percent), making for what have to be some very divided dinner tables.


White women with college degrees are split, but slightly more of them than not say people should be sensitive (46 to 43 percent). Nearly two-thirds of white men with college degrees, however, say the country is becoming too politically correct. (Roughly the same percentage of white men without a college degree feel the same way.)

 The story goes on to note that this poll should be a big warning to progressive Democrats because a majority of independents are against moving to be more politically correct. Given the propensity of Democrats to play to their base, this could be a big turn off in 2020.

You can listen to the story below:

So in conclusion, I’ll just say Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah, build the wall, and if my guns offend you, tough.

NPR Interviews “A NRA Member”

NPR covered the Leadership Forum at the NRA Annual Meeting today. In addition to the speeches by the various politicians, they sought out individual NRA members.. My friend and roommate at the NRA Annual Meeting Liston Matthews agreed to be interviewed. Liston gave what I think was a great, reasoned interview even though there were some “gotcha” questions by Mary Louise Kelly.

You can hear the whole interview embedded below.

Kudos to Liston for doing such a good job.

“Guns Kill. Diseases Kill. It’s A Public Health Issue” – John Hockenberry

John Hockenberry, host of NPR’s The Takeaway, interviewed Tom Gresham of Gun Talk last Thursday. The interview was polite if a bit contentious. The contentiousness came due to the closed mind of Hockenberry who, by the way, had interviewed Piers Morgan about guns the day before. Tom was asked to be on the show because he has the largest, nationally syndicated radio show devoted to guns in America.

Tom discussed his interview on Sunday’s Gun Talk. He noted that he spoke with Hockenberry for approximately a half hour while what was aired was less than eight minutes.

During the interview the topic of the funding of “gun violence” (sic) research at the Centers for Disease Control came up. Tom said he wasn’t opposed to funding research at the CDC if it wasn’t done with a preconceived outcome. That is when Hockenberry equated guns with ebola. Tom responded, somewhat incredulously, “You are equating guns with ebola?” Hockenberry responded, “Guns kill. Diseases kill. It’s a public health issue.”

You can listen to the whole interview below:

It is interesting to note that some of Hockenberry’s liberal listeners were not impressed with how Hockenberry handled things. There was this comment by “Jenny from Connecticut”:

This is the most disappointing segment of this show I’ve ever heard, and it’s one that will forever change how I feel about The Takeaway and John Hockenberry. He wasn’t interested in having a real conversation with his guest; he treated Mr. Gresham like some ignorant bloodthirsty redneck and refused to engage in a conversation. (By the way. Mr. Hockenberry, studying ebola is NOT just like studying gun violence. Ebola is most definitely deadly and likely to result in one’s death. Guns are not 100% guaranteed deadly; they have to be misused by a person to kill. Comparing gun violence to a highly virulent disease is just plain ignorant. You were so hell-bent on showing how superior you are to Mr. Gresham that you clearly couldn’t think straight.)

I say all this by way of disappointment. I am a good, anti-gun liberal (who also grew up with people who used guns safely and sanely, and I do believe that is possible) but more and more I hear commentary like this: “Oh, I’m such a smart liberal who knows guns kill and you are some dumb hillbilly I can condescend to.” It cheapens the debate and will never get us to a place of safety.

Another listener, “James from Philly” had this to say:

Really sounded like Mr. Hockenberry let too much of Piers “Musket” Morgan rub off on him before interviewing Mr. Gresham. That was an incredibly unprofessional interview on Hockenberry’s part and rather than discuss the points Tom Gresham was making (and he was stating facts) he devolved into some strange passive-aggressive theme where he anthropomorphized firearms and mischaracterized Tom’s statements, demonstrating the Mr. Hockenberry was more interested in peddling gun control laws for their own sake rather than weighing the real merits and seeing why such laws do nothing that they are promised to do. Journalistic integrity is becoming a rarity, even on NPR.

Hockenberry did have his supporters:

Tom LI: How can anyone seriously argue that the presence of a gun doesn’t embolden certain personalities to use the device suddenly and emotionally..?


Mary from Nor Cal: THANK YOU!!!!! You are one of the only honest, forthright and outspoken journalists out there. Thank you for your show! Regarding guns – handguns need to be banned. We are the only covalized county that allows gun ownership and it is long past time to change that.

Moving beyond the show to Hockenberry himself, I find it interesting that for someone confined to a wheelchair since 1976 that he is so anti-gun and anti-self defense. I wonder what he would say to my friend Kurt Hofmann who, like Hockenberry, is a paraplegic confined to wheelchair. Kurt, gun blogger, the former St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner and current S.W.A.T. Magazine columnist, came to gun rights when he found that Illinois would not let him defend himself with a firearm outside the home. That would be an interesting conversation to say the least!

Balanced Report On Open Carry In Texas….From NPR?

When the Complementary Spouse got home from work yesterday, she told she had just listened to a report on open carry in Texas that was rather balanced. The report was on NPR’s All Things Considered afternoon news show.

After I listened to it, I agreed. The report by John Burnett interviewed Cory Watkins of Open Carry Tarrant County, C.J. Grisham of OCT, Stephanie Lundy of Everytown Moms for Illegal Mayors, and Alice Tripp of the Texas State Rifle Association.

Alice Tripp made the point that open carry of ARs and AKs in restaurants was not helping get open carry of handguns passed in the Texas legislature. She is quoted as saying, “It’s not helpful. It’s not good manners. It’s not thoughtful. It’s not conducive to facilitating the legislative process.”

The report was balanced enough to note that both Republican Greg Abbott and Democrat Wendy Davis were in support of allowing Texans to open carry handguns. Coming from NPR, who woulda thunk it?

You can listen to the whole report at this link. I had tried to embed it but it just wouldn’t work.

Public Radio Discovers The Ammo Shortage

American Public Media’s Marketplace which plays on many NPR stations has discovered that there is an ammo shortage. I mean, who knew? That is other than just about every gun owner, new or old, every gun store owner, and nearly every clerk in a Walmart store.

This is the lead-in to a rather decent story about shooters reloading their own ammo and even casting their own bullets. Even more remarkable than the story is the fact that it isn’t filled with anti-gun mythology. David Gura who reported on this story played it straight and should be congratulated for that.

Pastor Kenn On NPR’s Tell Me More

Pastor Kenn Blanchard, author, podcaster, media mogul, and all around nice guy, was interviewed by Michel Martin for National Public Radio’s Tell Me More program. This program’s goal is to:

Capturing the headlines, issues and pleasures relevant to multicultural
life in America, the daily one-hour series is hosted by award-winning
journalist Michel Martin. Tell Me More
marks Martin’s first role in hosting a daily program. She views it as
an opportunity to focus on the stories, experiences, ideas and people
important in contemporary life but often not heard.

Kenn gave a great interview in which he discussed his history with firearms, the role that firearms have played within the African-American community, his interest in the history of firearms in that community, and, to be frank, the uneasy relationship he has with his congregation over his views on firearms and firearm rights.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again – we are very fortunate to have someone like Pastor Kenn on our side of the gun rights issue. An articulate spokesman of whatever color or race is always an asset.