The National Rifle Association is an international organization persuading people around the world to buy guns. In other countries they can con people into buying more guns by saying more guns the safer they are. Do the slogans they use in the other countries sound familiar? “Guns are our guarantee of freedom.” and “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

When I was a member about sixty years ago, the NRA taught me how to load, fire, and unload without shooting anyone. Then they rented an office and wore off-the-rack suits. Now they have a skyscraper and multi-thousand dollar suits.

What changed? Lots and lots of money provided mostly by entities other than American membership. The third of a billion dollars, which they got in 2016 and 2017, comes from others including the gun manufacturers. The purpose of their financial support is for the NRA to push the sale of guns around the world.

According to Bloomberg’s January 7 issue our laws for donations have been skirted. During 2017 we imported over 760,000 Taurus guns from Brazil. In lieu of direct donations they gave a NRA membership to each buyer. At $35 per membership, that’s over 25 million dollars in 2017. The American sales office for a Belgium manufacturer legally gave $200,000 in 2013, CEO Ugo Gussalli Beretta pledged a million in 2008. Glock’s VP Josh Dorsey gave over a million in 2017 alone.

Americans own over 390 million guns and the NRA is pushing us to buy more for safety. Oddly, the more guns we buy the more people are killed. The last full year’s numbers for 196 nations shows the number of deaths in the top six countries are: Brazil’s 43.2K, United States’ 37.2K, Mexico’s 15.4K, Columbia’s 13.3K, Venezuela’s 12.8K, and Guatemala’s 5.1K. Notice all six are rife with gangs, guns, and drugs. The three go together in high death rate countries.

The United Kingdom is a regulated low ownership, low murder rate nation. Australia tightened its regulations and lowered its deaths in a few years. States with the most regulated gun controls have fewer murders. European countries have fewer guns and fewer deaths than we do. The more lobbying in a nation’s political system will lead to more deregulation and guns.

Here the NRA has gotten millions to believe everyone should have many guns. Their lobbying efforts and their membership have scared many of our local, state, and federal lawmakers into doing what the manufacturers want. The NRA moves the goal posts deeper into anarchy every year. I remember went they pushed for gun safety devices only to turn against Smith and Wesson when they developed one.

A dream would be for sanity to return to Americans and for the NRA to return to their roots.