Though various corporate partners have cut ties with the NRA, the nation’s gun lobby promises it will find new businesses to fill their shoes. (Photo: NRA)
The National Rifle Association responded Saturday to the news that a host of its corporate partners were jumping ship following the mass killing in Parkland, Flordia.
The nation’s gun lobby said that this mass exodus was in an “effort to punish our members” in what is a “shameful display of political and civic cowardice.”
Partners who have severed ties include First National Bank of Omaha, Delta, United, Hertz, Enterprise, Symantec, among others.
“In time, these brands will be replaced by others who recognize that patriotism and determined commitment to Constitutional freedoms are characteristics of a marketplace they very much want to serve,” said the NRA in a press release.
“Let it be absolutely clear. The loss of a discount will neither scare nor distract one single NRA member from our mission to stand and defend the individual freedoms that have always made America the greatest nation in the world,” the organization concluded.
SEE ALSO: The NRA is Not an Enemy, They’re Just Moderately Pro-Gun
Meanwhile, Everytown for Gun Safety was leading the charge for businesses to boycott NRA. Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, applauded that Omaha bank for cutting ties.
“Working with the NRA is bad for business. The school shooting in Parkland, Florida, has caused Americans across the country to question our current gun laws – and NRA’s role in putting us in danger,” said Watts in a press release.
“We applaud First National Bank of Omaha for listening to consumers and putting public safety ahead of profits,” she continued. “It’s up to every other corporation that works with the NRA to follow suit and cut dies with this dangerous organization.”
Customer feedback has caused us to review our relationship with the NRA. As a result, First National Bank of Omaha will not renew its contract with the National Rifle Association to issue the NRA Visa Card.
— First National Bank (@FNBOmaha) February 22, 2018
The strength of the NRA has and always be its members. Five million strong, the NRA shouldn’t have a problem finding new corporations to replace the old ones. And if existing companies don’t step in, new ones will take their place.
Ever hear of Black Rifle Coffee Company? Great example. It is a veteran-owned company that butters its bread by selling cups of Joe to 2A enthusiasts. Who would’ve thought that that was a viable market? To sell non-gun related products to us? I sure as heck didn’t. Now, after the fact, it makes perfect sense. Could the same principle be applied to money lending? Or car rentals? Possibly.
One thing’s for certain, we’re a very loyal and engaged bunch. We’re happy to go out of our way to vote with our wallet, particularly when a business shares our values. Plus, we have money to spend. Most of us are gainfully employed, responsible adults. Not sure the same could be said for many of the folks blaming the NRA and its members for Parkland.
My guess is Delta and Enterprise and Hertz et al.’s loss will be someone from the 2A community’s gain. Big time. And the NRA will be none worse for the wear.
Boycotts work! When Dick’s Sporting goods challenged gun owners we boycotted them. There sales are down. We can do the same thing to airlines and banks. We will get fellow sportsmen who do no use firearms involved in our cause. Remember , WE have the money, not the millenial Trolls. We are on the side of law and order, and easy enough get them incarcerated.
Thanks for update will add them to list of looser companies that won’t be getting my business, canceling credit cards today!
KB-You are a troll. You are trying to stir the wrong pot. The people here get their info the old fashioned way-through their own research and experience. You obviously follow the Network news plus CNN, the single most corrupt news agency. How many times do they have to retract a story, or admit it was false before you catch on? They are leading you by your nose, and like most of the sheeple out there, you are swallowing it all…Hook, line, and sinker. I’ll give you some friendly advice. Go to whatever department store you shop at, and go to the toy section. By yourself the game of “Clue”. It’s the only one you’ll ever have.
Guess nobody saw me, It’s ok. How can the idiots help me when I get raped and attack because they take my guns away? Oh wait you know it all. Then Good luck.
The NRA needs to publish a list of these companies so we know who to boycott with our “bitter clinger” dollars. Lets see how long they keep this up when the 30 MILLION gun owners of America stop using their services / products instead of just the 5 million NRA members. My Wife and Daughter may not be card-carrying NRA members, but they won’t be shopping at these companies either.
I agree completely. I want to see a list so I know exactly who to boycott. I’m willing to bet that most of these SJWs threatening boycott of NRA-affiliated companies are not even customers of those companies anyway. All they’re doing is alienating existing customers & preventing those of us supporting the 2A from ever becoming customers. Fuck ‘em.
She said it in the video. It’s all about business and not about gun violence. Squeaky political wheel gets the grease. MONEY MONEY MONEY.
I have a mental debate in my mind right now. I love to shoot my AR-15. When I would go to the range, however, my wife would hog the gun, so I bought her one for herself. So far, so good.
So the other night, wifey said she was worried. I asked why, and she said she had no use for a machine gun. I told her we didn’t have one, and she said the news anchors on TV kept saying the AR was one. I explained the differences, but she can’t figure out why they don’t call a semi-auto by its correct name. Again, I explained that this is part of a political movement to demonize guns. She has not said anything more about this, but the news people have left me angry. They lie, then compound it.
This to me is just political justification. Why are they not talking about the guy who cut off students heads when I moved to FL. I had to move from NY because I could not stand any more of the drive by shootings. Yet I didn’t qualify for one but did they care when I was raped at gunpoint. No they didn’t. I moved somewhere else that I can feel peaceful and I have a permit and I will be damned if they take my arm from me so I can get raped again in my own house. I don’t think so. Guns don’t kill people. Only people do, and a lot of them kids get all kinds of crap off the internet. Just saying.
I am tired of these people who don’t know anything about gun laws. There are more gun laws on the books than any other subjects. The problem is, they are not unforced. The first thing to come out of the DEMOCRATIC politics is blame the NRA. Does the NRA sell guns? No. Was the person involved a member of the NRA? No It’s all political.
NRA should drop Hertz because they dont do background checks on people that rent vehicles to go out and run people over.
I really am having a tough time figuring out how we have come this far as a nation only to self destruct because of the horrible decisions and misguidance of our government. See all the time also how lousy parenting and so many other situations as well of lack of education is making us fat and weak as a collective nation. I fear for the future of our nation.
I am a gun owner, but never have been (nor will I ever be) a member of the NRA.
I’m a moderate, and I know moderation and rational discourse aren’t really en vogue right now… but here’s my 2 cents.
The NRA does have a lobbying arm. That is fact. Citing a “critical need” to defend Second Amendment rights from politicians, the NRA started the Institute for Legislative Action, or ILA, in 1975. The ILA lobbies the government to protect Second Amendment rights. If you’re about to argue that the ILA isn’t a part of the NRA, it is- just as your arm is part of your body. It can move independently, but it’s all controlled by the same brain.
Also, (and I know this is not the majority opinion on this board), I do not think that more guns makes us more safe- which seems to be the central tenet of the NRA’s philosophy.
More guns don’t make us more safe, but neither does less guns. Guns in the right HANDS make us safe.
People on mind altering psyche drugs make us less safe. Gun free (soft target rich environment) zones make us less safe. Thinking that restricting the rights of law abiding citizens will prevent criminals from having guns makes us less safe. Thinking that guns kill people and that purely evil people are not responsible for what is going on in the world today is making us less safe. Allowing your kids to play 1st person shooter games where criminal actions are rewarded is making us less safe. Rewarding mediocrity and making everyone feel special for doing nothing (trophies for everyone, passing grades for everyone, free passes on life for people that contribute nothing) is making us less safe.
Guns haven’t really changed over the years – society has changed. Let’s focus on fixing that.
In light of your post and rationale I’m glad you’re not with us. Fence sitters get rocks thrown at them from both sides no matter how “moderate and rational” they think they are. If you’re not smart enough to join with those of us who recognize the NRA helps protect YOUR 2A rights then we’re better off without you. Signed, NRA Lifer.
It really doesn’t matter if you “think” that more guns makes us more safe…the facts have shown that it’s the truth. Even the CDC under a liberal president made the statement that guns are used between fifty thousand and three million times a year to stop crime!! I’m sorry that you don’t think that’s enough but I tend to believe that you’re not as pro-gun as you would have us believe.
I have been using Symantec’s Norton Internet suite’s for years, but after hearing that they are blaming the NRA for the murderous actions of a lone deranged lunatic, I have decided to discontinue my automatic renewal of any and all Norton or Symantec products on my computers at home and in the office. Not only don’t they (Symantec) have any clue as to what the NRA stands for and what services they provide to promote gun safety, but they have failed to recognize the failures of the Mental Health System, Local and Federal Law Enforcement that I believe share a more significant part of the blame in the Parkland, Florida tragedy. Norton isn’t the only Internet Security Software out there. There are other excellent Internet Security products including Kaspersky, Bitdefender, McAfee, Trend Micro, Webroot, F-Secure, ESET Smart Security, and Panda Global among others that are definitely worth considering.
I will not do business with those companies cutting ties with the NRA, simple as that.
I’d like to have a list of said business so we all can walk away from them!
I would love to have a list of these turncoats with their mailing addresses and emails. I have already contacted Wyndham and told them that I would no longer stay at any of their motels-hotels since they don’t think that I’m worthy of a discount as a Life Member of the NRA.
The National Rifle Association (of which I am a Life Member) has been around for well over 100 years, far longer than ANY of these companies that cut ties with us. We do NOT need their patronage or business. Goodbye and good riddance.
The NRA is nothing short of a Civil Rights organization, and this corporate chastisement is the worst form of civic cowardice.
I’ll not support any of these companies again less because they withdrew support to the NRA specifically and more because their spinelessness makes me sick — and every time I walk past a brick an mortar of any of them I’ll spit on the glass door.
“Partners who have severed ties include First National Bank of Omaha, Delta, United, Hertz, Enterprise, Symantec, among others.”
These companies didn’t end and discounts for NRA members, we would all get the same silly discounts using our AAA cards, AARP cards or a host of other ways. What they did do though is show us they are aligned with others against us excercising and defending our constitutional rights. Therefore neither I, nor my family will be supporting any of them any longer with our business. Much like the Georgia State Legislature did to Delta Airlines yesterday extending a multi million dollar waiver on sales tax for jet fuel… I say fuck em! Hats off to you Georgia Republicans!!!
Kroger brands were targeted by these same anti gun groups. Politely told them to piss off. The statement as I recall was, ” all Kroger branded stores will continue to abide by federal and state laws regarding firearms”. That’s how the largest grocery chain in America handled it. Guess where I shop.
Starbucks took the same tack under social pressure – we are here to sell the coffee experience and comply with local laws. Please desist on the ranting. Good for them!
To be quite frank about i,t all the discounts offered are quite fake. I have never gotten a price on a rental car, motel, new car or any other promotion that I couldn’t get the product for the same price with out the discount .
They are not giving us anything except fake savings and it isn’t going to cost them a penny to rescind the discount other than monies lost from us withdrawing our support.
I try not to utilize companies that take a stand against me.
Anyone here reading this that isn’t an NRA member SHAME ON YOU!
Amen brother. Thanks for telling it like it is.
The blame game is becoming a real game changer! Change is a coming! You can only tell lies so long until they catch up to you!
KB, for the first time in my life, I’m speechless. I don’t think I have ever read any liberal blather more child-like, hateful, and confused. You need to try to calm down. The guns aren’t going anywhere, neither is the NRA or President Trump. You’ve got a long hard road ahead of you. Relax, enjoy the ride.
Have to agree that the NRA is not a gun lobby. They represent the members and are not funded by some millionaire (read Michael Bloomberg) to help us maintain our constitutional rights, which by the way are under constant attack requiring their existence. I am appalled by the pitiful membership numbers they have though. There are over 100 million gun owners in this country. We need to have our voices heard. Join the NRA or GOA or any organization of your choice. We have to stop being the silent majority or we will be silenced forever.
I just joined the NRA for that very reason. Whatever the relationship was between the NRA and those “cut and run” businesses will not be missed.
joefoam, you said it best!
The twisting, and careful manipulation, of words that are easily distributed to a national audience- that has become lazy and complacent- that is the real enemy.
If one of the teachers had a gun, that boys reign of terror would have been short. Maybe we should make a gun SAFETY course mandatory in our schools. We also need a mandatory parenting course. ‘Course the lib asshats are to afraid.
I live in Indiana, our local school system has the hunter education course as part of the health curriculum for the 8th graders and within that is gun safety.
Why are you referring to the NRA as “the nation’s gun lobby”??? The phrase “gun lobby” was invented by journalists to scare the public into thinking that the NRA lobbies for guns. Journalists don’t want to portray the NRA as lobbying for “rights” because it sounds better than lobbying for guns. But the NRA does not lobby for guns. It lobbies to protect the civil right guaranteed by the 2nd Amendment of the Bill of Rights. If you really need a shorthand, the NRA lobbies for “gun ownership rights” or, “gun rights.” (This same issue-framing with words is used in the abortion debate by journalists. Pro-abortion groups are always called “pro-choice” while pro-life groups are called “anti-abortion.” It is a propaganda technique.)
You beat me to the punch. Spot on, NRA Members are neither guns nor gun manufacturers. They ARE people who believe the 2Amendment is protecting a God given right, and take it at it’s literal and intended purpose: to protect a right FROM government infringement. One of the most straightforward amendments, but warped by evil doers.
Which by the way “Planned Parenthood” has corporate ties with Bank of America, Well Fargo et cetera.
I wonder if PP ever helped anyone plan a birth? Doubt it but know they terminated tens of millions.
Billions of us look forward to the day when all of the members of the NRA are dead and gone and the NRA no longer exists!
Wishing for the death of NRA members (or anyone for that matter) is why we need firearms. To protect us against people like you! WOW! Listen, I don’t agree with everything the NRA does as well but I do see a purpose for them. All you hear is about the political side of them but not about the countless training they provide for others. Please don’t wish for the death of anyone! Regardless of how much you hate their political views. Really?
WAKE UP AND SMELL THE ROSES,NO GUNS WAS USED ON 911.OR OK BOMBING.GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS
Thank you, why are NRA members being targeted. Everyone wants to talk about politics. Well in Politics since it is part of the Declaration of Independence We Have The Right To Bear Arms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Did nobody go to school? 2nd Amendment.
Thank you!!!
Wow, You are a REAL Fool my friend.
Have you ever really thought about how IRONIC your statement is?
Spoken like a progressive Marxist who wants to play God in other people’s lives. Liberty or death.
You are a despicable person.
Wow, that sounds like “reasonable gun control” solution?!?!?!?? Love the tolerance from the Left!
It won’t be in your lifetime.
Your wish is called a ‘Police State’. There is already a number of them in South America, Africa, Asia, take your choice they will welcome you.
And fools like you are equally eager to live under the bootheels of monsters like Soros, the wannabe emperors of the DNC, and other Stalinists who can’t wait to make you their slaves, and make no bones about it. You mush-for-brains liberals have this notion that freedom is simply parroting the lines you’ve been fed and doing exactly as your masters dictate, all marching in lockstep to the same tune. Odd, don’t you think, that in the world where your one-note sameness has been tried, people have yearned to break free and have risked their lives – so often losing them in the process – to get away from this mind-numbing slavery, to get somewhere where they could experience true freedom of thought, expression, exchanges of different ideas (it used to be the United States, but that will change as you robots eliminate our freedoms one by one)? Yet this is what you and your ilk despise more than anything. Well, I’ll defend my right to say what I want with the means I have, and if you don’t like it, show up at my door with your snowflake friends, and I’ll demonstrate why the Founding Fathers placed the 2nd Amendment squarely next to the 1st.
Any fool who doesn’t appreciate his freedoms sure doesn’t deserve them. Your circle fits that description completely.
In your thought process you are wishing for non felon citizens not to own weapons and only criminals, the authorities and the military to be armed. Criminals do not care about laws. They will always have weapons. Historical events do repeat. Do some research on your view of a better world and see how it coincides with the rise of NAZI Germany. Only criminals, the authorities and the military had weapons. I am just curios if you know how that worked out. Why don’t you invite all of this populous to invade your community – give them shelter. Just the criminal element would suffice for me. Start your own country.
Hey Blake Todd,,you just keep showing everybody what a clueless fuck you are,the NRA will ALWAYS,be here,and GUNS will always be here,it\’s simply IMPOSSIBLE to get rid of them,and with today\’s technology,they are EXTREMELY easy to build at home,,LOL.so your little LIBTARD dream of dissarming the people will NEVER happen,no matter what stupid law anti-gun retards like you write,and funny how the NRA membership is going through the roof right now,,thanks to uneducated dumb twits like you ,,1000\’s per day are joining the NRA,,so the more plausible situation is clueless LIBTARDS like you are the ones on the way out,and the planet will be so much better for it,your Democreep party is near extinction,and you\’ll loose what little you have left soon,Trump destroyed your criminal twat Clinton,and turned the country to 90% republican red,,LOL..how do you like that ,,SNOWFLAKE,,
Thank you, Patriot. You are spot on. Couldn’t have said it better!
Your comment is very offensive, coward! Came on and try to accomplish your wish on my territory and you’ll see what a life time and proud member could do against thugs like you
Guys, this fellow is a troll; he’s entered the same screed across several stories.
Don’t feed the troll.
Blake… I seriously doubt that you brain-dead, hyperbolic Liberals number in the Billions here in America. Although, world-wide, the contention that 1-out-of-every-7 human beings is box-of-rocks stupid (of which, your post is a shining example)… is out of the realm of possibility.
You believe that you have an idealistic and magnificent goal, there (of removing all honest, law-abiding, responsible, firearms-owning citizens from the face of the planet). But you closed-mindedly ignore the fact that actually pursuing your goal will absolutely result in another outright civil war – a fact that even the Dept of Homeland Security has openly admitted for almost two years now.
But, if you were sane, you would ask yourself a serious question. In order to actually accomplish your goal, just what are you unpatriotic, gun-hating, brainless socialist-Liberal cowards going to bring… to the gunfight? That’s if you were sane, of course.
Billions? You’re not so great with numbers, eh? Unless you’re referring to the population of the entire world, in which case it’s pretty comical that you think the people living in India, China, etc. know or care what the NRA even is.
What a clown.
That’s a good laugh- all you unarmed sheep will be herded to slaughter by the emerging tyrannical power mad humanist/Marxist OneWorlders who have long stated to eliminate 95% of the world population.
So you billions of sheople will all be in mass graves or deep sixed.
While WE sheepdogs will see it all unfold from OUR well armed nation on FOX news because all the commies news networks will have moved out to the E.U. prison kingdom run by Arab Muslimes by then.
Ave a nice day maroon…
Billions? To use a phrase that is very, very old: what the hell have you been smoking?
Just another group of companies that I will NEVER do business with again. Boycott all of these idiots. If they don’t want our money, fine, lets see them get along without it.
When all the ‘fake news’ blame is done stinking, the proud Sheep Dogs will still take care of our American family. The ‘Gun Free’ mentality must come to an end. Emotion has yet to be a good governance. Our loss is unmeasurable. But, legal gun owners are whom we must rely
I couldn`t care less about discounts from these companies. I care about ( The right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed ). That`s why I support the NRA. Anyway it`s good to know what companies I should avoid from now on.
Well, I guess all the foreign owned corporations have spoken!!!! 1st nat. bank, thanks for all the help after we lost our home in the High Park fire in Colorado, oh wait a minute, your loan officer, mocked and laughed at me when I called about a construction loan, even though I qualified. What is it they say about pay back? it doesn’t matter, what ever it is it isn’t enough for these elitist snot corporations, you cannot hide bad management by attacking others.
I would ‘a ran in that school and taken that shooter out with my tiny bare hands….Where’s my NRA check??? The one from Putin…I want it now!!!
Blannelbarry you don’t have the hair on your ass to post this you freaky little coward…Maybe your 5 fingered girlfriend can post it for you??
You sir, have zero class. I have seen Blannelbarry’s girlfriend and she is a world class beauty.
Have fun with your bag of Cheetos and your orange di**.
Yo Bro, don’t mix the alcohol with your medicine. It definitely causing cognitive problems for ya.
Now, now. There is no need for personal attacks. We have humanity and righteousness on our side and can win in the arena of ideas without getting ugly towards the author. Let’s keep this civil, after all. Join me – join us – in a free and open exchange of ideas about how best to approach solutions to gun violence, not angry name-calling.
As much as I disagree with the way Bone Spurs worded the above post, He touches on some very valid & troubling points…Donnie Drumphf (aka Cadet Bone Spurs) is probably the most corrupt person ever elected President. From domestic abuse charges of rape and violence perpetrated on his first wife, to probable conspiracy with a foreign government to rig the election, He stands alone…Bob Mueller will answer these questions in time. I have a feeling that this Country is going to have make some difficult decisions about what to do with Donald Trump in the not very distant future…None of the options are good… And it’s not like the people that voted for him weren’t warned. They simply didn’t care. He claims he would have entered that school without a firearm. This from the Man that chose to evade being drafted into the army for Viet Nam with no less than FIVE deferments with false documents claiming he had magically self healing bone spurs is enough by itself for Me to vote against him. That’s the very definition of a Coward… The fact that he brags about sitting out the war by banging models and avoiding the clap, claiming it as his “own personal Viet Nam” exposes him for the scumbag rich boy he is… Whether it was from hatred of Billary or a misplaced twisted sense of what constitutes a decent human being, some how the POS was elected President. The Devil is in the “some how”. There are troubling rumors spinning around that the NRA is being investigated by the Justice Department over funneling illegal Russian money into the campaigns of candidates that align with their agenda. The fact that the NRA has a “dark arm” of unaccounted for unexplained money does not help their case. The NRA has repeatedly refused to allow anyone to see their books…Ask yourself why?…Then ask yourself why Trump refuses to let anyone see his Tax Reports…I have a sinking persistent feeling that the reasons are the same for Trump & the NRA…Russian Money…Lots of it…. The NRA has lied to the American public for decades in the interests of pumping up sales of weapons that serve no other purpose than to inflict violence upon it’s own in order to receive kickbacks from the very Companies getting rich off the shedding American Blood..Blood shed by our fellow Americans. The very people the NRA claims to be protecting….Something stinks…And it stinks like Fascism….La Pierre’s annual salary has been estimated to be anywhere from $900,000 to 1.5 million…Most of it being supplied by the Gun Industry….Anyone that considers themselves a Patriot needs to start asking themselves some serious questions about the NRA, it’s Dark Money and it’s true agenda….
“Bob Mueller” you guys good buds? Call him Bob and not Robert, talk and text more than people know…?
Goofball.
Why don’t Cadet Bone Spooge and KB get their own room so they can better enjoy their circle jerk in a personal echo chamber? Not only to stop the spread of the worst venereal disease know as liberalism, but also because no one here gives a flying fuck about what you two have to say. I didn’t even read more than two lines of drivel from the each of you libtards.
Hey, KB.
You sound like a logical person….NOT
Take off the blinders.
The system failed this. The system that would have ID’ED the time bomb ticking before the last election. I’m mad too but have it placed where it belongs (mental health and gun free zones)
…wow, you’re drinking WAY too much CNN kool-aid. Try pulling your head outta your ass and think for yourself and stop being a sheep.
You are the liar, you make claims you have no evidence for. Typical left bs. Honor, look it up.
She was quite the looker in the Avengers and Goldfinger but today Honor Blackman is over 90 and is probably a bit dated as a reference and looking her up would not be relevant today.
Damn, hoss………man, you are staying up late at night in your mom’s basement to keep putting out all this paranoid, factless, hate filled drivel. Trump was elected by us…..you know…..the folks you think are mentally deranged, trailer dwellers, rednecks…but you offer up zero, nada, absolutely nothing in the way of facts to support your accusations of money being to the NRA in the form of “kickbacks”. Where is the smoking gun to support your contention? Where are the facts? Oh……you haven’t any. Well, I’m not surprised. But you keep beating off thinking about Mueller getting some worthwhile dirt on Trump. While you’re creaming your jeans I’m heading to the range and burn up some ammo and hang with my gun toting, redneck, NRA homies. ESAD!!!
Blue Dog, if you really mean that, begin here…
Stop deceptively calling it a “gun” problem. It is a “violence” problem… violence committed by human beings. Firearms are merely chunks of metal and plastic… inanimate objects, which are non-sentient and have NO factor of evil (which cannot be said for the aforementioned humans). At least use honest language.
Every law-abiding, honest, responsible firearms owner absolutely does indeed share the caring sense of “humanity” that abhors offensive violence, so stop acting like WE are the mad-dog, slavering killers. You and your socialistic ilk have not cornered the market on caring for your fellow man, so drop the “high and mighty” haughty attitude. Now.
When a wolf threatens a flock of sheep, is the farmer’s best option to de-fang his guard dogs and then lock those guard dogs outside the sheep pen? Socialists believe that it is! I – and every other legal firearms owner – disagree with that contention. Violence cannot be legislated out of the human psyche… it will always exist. The focus on problem-solving must be aimed at the distinction between offensive and defensive USE of violence. [HG Wells said, “The first person to raise a fist in anger… is the first to have stopped thinking!”] Defensive use of violence must ALWAYS be legal, and freely available to all responsible citizens.
When you Liberals get to the point of agreement on those specific points… THEN we can openly and honestly talk about the “issues.” Not until then…