NRA Just Keeps On Getting NRA-ier

So you are a Republican city councilman in Tucson, where your Congresswoman, a judge, some kids, and some folks got shot in their brains to varying degrees of death. And even though you are a Republican, you coordinate a gun buyback from people who are like "eh maybe I don't really need these any more, since I am not planning to murder anyone." It's totally voluntary. There isn't a single jackbooted thug pounding down NRA members' doors and seizing all their weapons for miles. Non-story, right, except for maybe a little feel-good piece by whichever media outlets actually do feel-good pieces, gross? WELL NOT SO FAST MISTER! The NRA is gonna sue the fuck out of you for destroying the weapons instead of putting them back on the streets, which would a little bit defeat the purpose of a gun buyback. Also: threatening emails, phone calls, and lawsuits, because there is nothing the NRA loves more than judges and stuff.

Todd Rathner, an Arizona lobbyist and a national board member of the NRA, may sue. He has no problem with the gun buyback, but he does have a problem with the fate of the guns once police take possession of them.

"We do believe that it is illegal for them to destroy those guns," he says.

Rathner says Arizona state law forces local governments to sell seized or abandoned property to the highest bidder.

Wait, wait, let us guess: and no background check neither!

That's right, a program to get guns off the street should instead be replaced with the government becoming a gun dealer!

"If property has been abandoned to the police, then they are required by ARS 12-945 to sell it to a federally licensed firearms dealer, and that's exactly what they should do," he says.

That way, Rathner says, the guns can be put back in circulation or given away.

The Tucson city attorney calls that a misreading of the law.

Haha, nuh uh! It is right there in the Constitution that the government has to give everyone guns because "rights," and also in the Bible: beat your plowshares into guns, that the lamb may fuck up the lion, all "what up BITCH!"

Councilman Kozachik says the guns aren't being abandoned; they're being turned in voluntarily.

"This is about giving somebody the chance to say, 'Look I'm not comfortable having this weapon, here's an opportunity for me to just get rid of it in a proper manner,' " Kozachik says.

[Blah blah blah lawsuit.]

At the gun buyback, gun-rights advocates held signs reading "Cash For Guns" and "Pay Double for Your Guns." As cars pulled into the parking lot, they asked drivers if they wanted to sell their guns privately rather than turn them in. There were few takers.

Doug Deahn couldn't understand it: "Can't figure they'd rather line up and give them away. Can't figure that out."

Sue them too, Sweaty Doug, for not following the law that you must always sell your private property to the highest bidder!

Fuckin' fascists.

[ NPR , via Wonkville miner Natl_Redacted_Commander]