The National Rifle Association … is opposed to virtually every form of gun control, including restrictions on owning assault weapons, background checks for gun owners, and registration of firearms. NRA’s influence is felt not only through campaign contributions, but through millions of dollars in off-the-books spending on issue ads and the like… Between 2001 and 2010, the NRA spent between $1.5 million and $2.7 million on federal-level lobbying efforts. During the 2010 election cycle, the NRA spent more than $7.2 million on independent expenditures at the federal level — messages that advocate for or against political candidates. These messages primarily supported Republican candidates or opposed Democratic candidates.

“National Rifle Association,” OpenSecretsBlog

On the American Family Association’s radio program AFA Today, the hosts wasted no time lining up a far-right Evangelical minister, Jerry Newcombe of Truth in Action Ministries, to tell the audience that among the dead in the theater only those who were true Christians have gone to heaven. The rest, he suggested, are already consigned to hell.

“Religious Right Just Can’t Resist Exploiting Aurora Tragedy for Political Gain,” Clay Farris Naff, Huffington Post

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said Friday that the shootings that took place in an Aurora, Colo. movie theater hours earlier were a result of “ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs” and questioned why nobody else in the theater had a gun to take down the shooter.

“Louie Gohmert: Aurora Shootings Result Of ‘Ongoing Attacks On Judeo-Christian Beliefs‘”Jennifer Bendery, Huffington Post

Once the first scare of another gun massacre, is over, lots of us wonder why we (in the U.S.) allow guns, especially automatic weapons , to be so widely available. The answer, in the end, is that we have a permanent scare system in place, led and financed by the National Rifle Association, and reinforced by the Christian right, that responds to disrupt any attempt at creating reasonable gun control by repeating a familiar narrative.

“They are coming to get our guns” is another version of Reagan’s “government is the problem” story and its close cousin, “the Democrats and that Black Foreign President are plotting to take away your freedom.”  It seems impossible that anyone would believe this story but I think is has an impact in the same way as all advertising.  We all think we are immune but if ads didn’t work no one would pay for them.  Think Pet Rock.

What happens when Chicken Little is right? I think that might be the issue of the coming decade as the banking industry, here and around the world, long described as deeply corrupt, begins dropping bits of our blue heaven on our heads.  It’s being called “the largest consumer (or market) fraud in history.”  Usually you have to take the hyperbole with some salt, but this really is the biggest market and consumer fraud in history. Madoff”s 30 (or 50) billion  is nothing compared to these guys.

The financial sector first brought down the U.S. economy, and then Europe (Iceland led the way, oddly) and in doing so they gave the right-wing an invaluable tool (the so-called debt or deficit crisis) to try to reverse a century of political progress in everything from health care to education to police forces. Only a few of the financial criminals have been prosecuted and the few punishments that were doled out were paid by institutions and not people. The people left with their pockets full.

Now, things seem to be shifting, or so we can hope, as the next shoe drops and more evidence emerges of the sheer, breathtaking scale of the corruption (“U.S. Is Building Criminal Cases in Rate-Fixing“). Globalization  and deregulation really made crime pay.  The  London interbank offered rate scandal (aka LIBOR) is, according to reports, only the tip of the iceberg. Here’s the interesting thing : is this a problem finally big enough to spur anti-capitalist debate in time for the election? Papa Mitt hopes not.