Last Friday the NRA came out opposing gun rights activists taking assault rifles into fast food restaurants going as far as to call it stupid.
Activists, most notably those with a group called Open Carry Texas, have drawn attention to themselves recently for their attempts to get served at chain restaurants while carrying high-powered semiautomatic rifles. In response, several chains, including Chipotle, were compelled to ask customers to not bring guns to their restaurants. The backlash was such that the groups themselves felt compelled to issue a statement late last month asking their members to avoid carrying long arms into private businesses during demonstrations.
But in its statement Friday, the NRA’s lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action, went further, publicly denouncing the tactics employed by Open Carry Texas and other groups as “weird” and even “scary.”
Well the real crazies in the gun rights movement are not pleased with the NRA.
In response to the NRA’s statement on Friday criticizing Texas activists’ recent tactics, members of the pro-gun group Open Carry Texas have been cutting up their NRA membership cards, and the group has issued a statement demanding a retraction of the NRA’s “disgusting and disrespectful comments.” Or else.
“The more the NRA continues to divide its members by attacking some aspects of gun rights instead of supporting all gun rights, the more support it will lose,” Open Carry Texas said in astatement published Monday on its Facebook page.
In its statement last week, the NRA said that activists in Texas had recently “crossed the line from enthusiasm to downright foolishness” with their attempts to bring semi-automatic rifles into fast food restaurants. Open Carry Texas — the most prominent group involved in the Texas demonstrations — responded Monday by saying it was “unfortunate that an organization that claims to be dedicated to the preservation of gun rights would attack another organization fighting so hard for those rights in Texas.”
This is similar to what we have seen happen in the Republican Party, the crazies hijacked the party. Like the Republican Party the NRA depended on a base of people who believed in conspiracy theories but the NRA lost control. They suddenly recognized this might not benefit their messaging. Circular firing squad anyone?