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Column: The NRA’s current financial troubles show that karma can indeed be a B-word

By Mark Saal standard-Examiner - | Aug 5, 2018

”For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

– Galatians 6:7

If the apostle Paul had been writing to the Galatians in 2018, the above well-known biblical passage might have turned out a bit more colorful: ”For verily, ye knoweth what they say about karma, right? She doth be a B-word.”

Of course, if such quotes are a bit too religious for all you scientific atheist-types, there’s always Sir Isaac Newton’s little-known Fourth Law of Motion: “What goes around, comes around.”

However you choose to express it, the National Rifle Association would appear to be getting a heaping helping of comeuppance right now. Because according to my #fakenews sources, the NRA is currently facing a serious financial crisis that, in its own words, might make it “unable to exist.”

Which, frankly, couldn’t happen to a nicer organization.

Now, before you go all locked-and-loaded on me, let me state for the record that I have no problem with law-abiding gun owners. I don’t begrudge any responsible Americans their Second Amendment right.

Rather, my beef is with the NRA, which mutated into an extremist political organization long ago.

Or, to put it another way for all of you God-fearing Christian gun-owners out there: You’ve heard the old saying, “Love the sinner, hate the sin,” right? Well, I subscribe to a similar “Love the gun-owner, hate the NRA” philosophy.

Indeed, I see the NRA as the yin to the ban-all-guns camp’s yang. And all I can hope is that maybe if one of these extremist groups were to suddenly go away, the other would quickly disappear as well and the rest of us could finally get down to finding some practical middle ground where responsible people are still able to own firearms AND we have reasonable safety restrictions that reflect the new reality of changing firearms technology.

So, what’s this NRA implosion all about? According to a story just published by Rolling Stone magazine, in late July the NRA filed an amended complaint in U.S. District Court. The new complaint claims the NRA can’t access financial services essential to its operations because of the actions of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Department of Financial Services.

The original lawsuit was in response to actions taken by state regulators to stop the sale of “Carry Guard,” an illegal, NRA-branded insurance policy. Rolling Stone says the NRA’s insurance partners agreed to stop selling the policies and pay a $7 million fine.

However, the NRA says New York is now going after a wide range of its financial service providers, causing it undue stress. (Not sure why the NRA can’t just 3D-print a few replacement financial service providers, but whatever …)

As a result of these recent developments, the NRA claims its video streaming service and magazines may soon be forced to shut down. The NRA has said there is a “substantial risk” that NRATV will go away.

Wait. What?

No more condescending videos featuring scare tactics from angry NRA spokespeeps like Dana Loesch, telling us the liberal media — which she claims “loves” mass shootings — is leading a sinister plot to ban all firearms?

At the risk of being accused of a little mansplaining here …

Well, which is it there, missy? Am I, as a member of the liberal media, trying to end mass shootings forever by taking away your Second Amendment right, or do I absolutely LOVE mass shootings because, in your words, “Crying white mothers are ratings gold”?

A world without that kind of logic? We’ll pause here a moment while we all try to imagine what it would be like to lose video content that makes Fox News and MSNBC look positively sane by comparison.

Ah, but the absolute most delicious irony in all of this — and here’s where karma rears her unforgiving head — has been the public response to the NRA’s cries that it is in very real financial peril.

America’s response? Thoughts and prayers.

You remember “thoughts and prayers,” right? The same stuff extremist gun owners send out after each mass shooting, in lieu of any concrete action that might actually reduce gun violence?

With the NRA facing such financial woes, I suppose we could all lobby our politicians to offer the organization some sort of federal bailout. After all, they paid for many of them.

But then again, if we’re to believe the National Rifle Association’s own propaganda, what turns out to be much more effective than actual legislation is — wait for it — thoughts and prayers.

Or, as a modern-day Marie Antoinette might say about the NRA’s current troubles:

“Let them B-words be eatin’ cake an’ stuff.”