A piece on CNN.com mangled history in an attempt to prove that the NRA will eventually “lose”; not on any specific piece of policy, but eventually just cease to exist. As evidence, the writer cited the Cuban-American resistance to the Castro regime, the tobacco settlement and Congress’ failure to override the Iran nuclear deal. But the most bizarre comparison was to the Anti-Saloon League (ASL), an organization that CNN credits with singlehandedly bringing us the Prohibition era.
However, Prohibition was repealed in 1933 because it banned a consumer product that had been demonized by a vocal, well-funded minority; it was as unpopular as it was unenforceable. It gave rise to unintended consequences such as organized crime and widespread civil disobedience—which makes ASL sound far more like Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown and similar anti-gun organizations who wish to ban popular firearms and eliminate constitutionally guaranteed liberties, and not at all like NRA, who represents lawful gun owners opposed to efforts to take them.
