Get a gun in his hand!

Yesterday, Tim Kaine, in support of his "Sportsman for Kaine" did a little skeet shooting in Franklin County (hitting 14 of 25 clays, not too bad I must say) Of course, as you can see from the article the NRA was quick to point out that Kaine's attempt to "hug a shotgun" is nothing more than a machination, and if elected Kaine will personally be going door to door to collect uncle Billy Bob's beloved 20 guage shotgun. Nothing against Billy Bob, it's just all in the name of public safety.

Look I grew up in rural Virginia, I"ll talk guns all day with you. But the NRA is nothing more than an extention of the radical right element of the republican party. Unless a democratic canidate is willing to go down to the local elementary shcool and hand out Teck-9s to the kids, the best any non-republican can hope to achieve is for the NRA not to endorse a candiate - as in the case of Mark Warner vs. Mark Early in Virginia's 2001 gubernatorial race. Of course rebluplicans and democrats view a non-endorsement by the NRA as a de facto endorsement for the democratic candidate...confused yet?

Now I know Kaine as Mayor of the City of Richmond implemented Project Exile. As I understand Exile works somethng like this: if a convicted felon is caught with a illegal gun (since it is illegal for convicted felons to own guns) he/she receives a 5-year mandatory federal prison sentence. Seems fair enought to me, since gun rights advocates are always saying they are "law abiding gun owners" (which the overwhelming majority are), then they surely don't have a problem with Exile, since it's targeted towards "non law abiding gun owners". Yea, right, wouldn't it be nice if it were that easy. That would be too practical, and as in the case of the NRA politics trump practicality, or as in the case of project Exile public safety. (Note: I'm having a difficult time finding the NRA's offical stance on Project Exile, but it is accurate to suggest that a significant number of NRA members are opposed to Exile)

An even better recent example of the NRA putting polictics above practicality was the NRA's snub of Ohio congressional canidate Paul Hackett. The U.S Marine Corps officer Hackett, is a "card carrying member" of the NRA, an even has a concealed weapons permit in Ohio. Whereas his oppenent had niether, but according to the NRA had a "proven track record as a sate legislator for gun rights" - ok, fair enough - so I guess this too would be a situation for a "non endorsement", right? Wrong. Of course Hackett's lemming for an opponent received the endorsement. Who knows if this endorsement really translated into many votes for Hackett's opponent. What it does show me is that the NRA is more intersted in republican politics, with rare exceptions, then they are gun rights.

Here's an idea - how about we let Kaine and Kilgore "shoot it out" for the NRA endorsement?