The National Rifle Association (NRA) needs to run away from negative messaging.

I used to be an NRA member until Ted Nugent (board member of the NRA) started to

(Above) NRA message embraces ‘bitterness’

make hostile remarks against our President of the United States, and his political opposites.  As a result of the NRA turning a blind eye to the Nuge — I quit being a member.   Whether you voted for Obama or not and whether or not you stand on the other side of the political aisle — one should not wish death upon fellow Americans and certainly not our elected officials and especially our President! To my knowledge, the NRA has not yet removed Nugent from their board.

During 2012, Nugent said:

“If the coyote’s in your living room, pissing on your couch, it’s not the coyote’s fault. It’s your fault for not shooting him…” 

I am a believer in freedom of speech but how far do we take that?  God help Nugent if anything happens to our President.  I have already asserted my concerns here and my growing discomfort with the NRA.  You would think the NRA would have already learnt a lesson when Lee Harvey Oswald had purchased his rifle, a Mannticher-Carcano, through an ad placed in the NRA’s American Rifleman magazine later used on November 22, 1963, with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Now, before we go any further, I do believe in protecting our 2nd amendment rights, but I also believe that we should re-evaluate automatic assault rifles and our mental illness programs. How is it that we have trillion$ to spend in bombing the shit out of other countries and war yet we slash budgets that support the mentally ill here in our own Homeland?

I DO NOT BELIEVE WE SHOULD BAN ALL GUNS.   [I'm confident Mexican-Americans who revere Pancho Villa and Emilio Zapata have somewhat similar views, too. So I'm told.]

That said, I do believe it is dangerous for the NRA to embrace a negative message while tying it into the 2nd amendment agenda.  What may have been meant for good with regard to the NRA is now backfiring.  Why is it important for the NRA to run from embracing the negative message of bitterness?  Don’t they know that they are shooting themselves in the foot?  Don’t they know that subliminal messages can be taken very wrong?

How can the NRA rebrand itself before it’s too late?

They can begin with taking Nugent off their board.  They can also stop pushing such negative energy via ‘bitterness messaging’ and simply push the fact that owning guns is a 2nd amendment right under the United States Constitution.  They can also address the mental illness situation that seems to be choking our Nation.  There is no need to turn a blind eye to these realities.  It is a reality that our Arizona Congressman via Gabby Giffords was shot in the head by a madman.  Why should we run away from that reality?

We know what is going on here …  the mainstream media has gone from immigrant scares to gun scares and the gun issue is now dominating the airwaves.  Talk of banning guns is causing American citizens to purchase more weaponry for grandfather law purposes.

Extremists on both sides still have not figured out that they can start by figuring out what they do agree on so that they can build healthy discussions and move our Country forward to a better place.

The solution?  Both sides ought to find out what they can agree on and build from there.

smdh