NRA Akin to Terrorists, Prostitutes Sneer Unhinged Ed Schultz Guests

Central liberal tenet -- in lieu of a solid argument, resort to rhetorical hyperventilation.

As you'd expected given the host's default toward bellicosity, two guests on Ed Schultz's radio show yesterday climbed over the top in shabby attempts to smear the National Rifle Association for the thought crime of defending a constitutional right. (audio clips after page break)

First, here is attorney and "Ring of Fire" radio show co-host Mike Papantonio (at left in photo), struggling for coherence in this anti-NRA rant (audio) --

The NRA's been a cash cow for the armament industry, Ed. Most people think of, when they think of the NRA, they think of the mass of people who just believe everything that the NRA believes, but really, all the NRA is, it's, you can almost equate it to, the industry, think in terms of the street and their, a street pimp and their working girl. I mean, the working girl is the NRA, the pimp is the industry that has people like Wayne LaPierre and the NRA and their talking heads out pimping for, really, out working the streets for 'em.

Setting aside the adolescent hyperbole, along with Papantonio getting LaPierre's name wrong (mispronouncing it "LaPerry") -- the man who calls himself "Pap" refers to gun makers as the "armament industry," a term I haven't heard since bull sessions in college more than 20 years ago, and not because it's been shortened to "arms industry."

I turn to my trusty Random House Dictionary of the English Language, second edition, unabridged, for clarification --

ar-ma-ment 1) the arms and equipment with which a military unit or military apparatus is supplied. 2) a land, sea, or air force equipped for war. 3) armor (def. 5) 4) usually, armaments. military strength collectively: the armaments race; a country without armaments. 5) the process of equipping or arming for war. [1690-1700; < L armamenta fittings, eqiv. to arma(re) to fit out + -menta (pl.)

In other words, not handguns and hunting rifles but the entire range of weaponry in the military, everything from bayonets (yes, still used) to aircraft carriers and ICBMs. When I hear "armaments," the gun shop down the road from the public library closest to my home is not what comes to mind. Instead, I see tanks, artillery and rocket launchers.

Not to be outdone, another Schultz guest yesterday, John Rosenthal, co-founder of the Stop Handgun Violence advocacy group (along with the late Michael Kennedy), had this to say (audio) --

I mean, these kids and those teachers (alluding to the victims at Sandy Hook) are more courageous than our members of Congress. Look, our Congress members don't have a gun to their head like those kids do, but guess what? They knowingly and voluntarily are held hostage by the NRA, which in my mind is a terrorist organization as far as I'm concerned, in order to continue receiving tens of millions of dollars from gun industry campaign contributions.

This was mild and cliched compared to the toxicity to come from Rosenthal, describing his weekend visit to a gun show (audio) --

And Ed, do you want to know what the hottest item was at this gun show in New Hampshire? There was, at 9:30 in the morning, there was an hour and a half wait to get in. By 11 it was a four-hour wait to get in. The hottest item is the Bushmaster .223-caliber and a 30-round clip because the guys that are afraid the government's going to take their guns away want the same weapon that killed those babies at Newtown for some kind of yucks and giggles and that is sickening.

The most pathetic remark I've heard in the month since the Sandy Hook massacre. Rosenthal is either too dumb or dishonest to acknowledge that increased sales of the Bushmaster are being driven by fear that it will be banned by the government.

Rosenthal prefaced his conversation with Schultz by pointing out that he is a gun owner. Which begs the question -- what pathology prompted him to become one?