More powerful than ever

The NRA is getting heat not just from gun control groups, but also from some of its own members for its series of robocalls to thousands of homes in the Northeast – including homes in Newtown Connecticut, the scene of the Sandy Hook school massacre.

“Anti-gun legislators are aggressively pursuing numerous proposals that are designed to disarm and punish law abiding gun owners and sportsmen,” says the call.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg called it shameless. And so did a few NRA supporters on the conservative Free Republic website – to quote Matt 04:

“The NRA also needs to rethink spamming its own members. I joined this year and wish I had used a fake e-mail address. They have spammed me with everything from insurance sales pitches to ads for hearing aids.”

One poster speculated that the calls might actually be a plant to discredit the NRA. Nice try, but the NRA knows exactly what it’s doing and is unapologetic.

“The National Rifle Association has members, contributors, and supporters in Connecticut who expect us to do our jobs,” said the official statement.

It’s all about results, and this is how they get them. In fact, while the robocalls were covering the Northeast, across the country the NRA successfully killed a background check bill in the Washington state legislature with a leaflet campaign against the bill’s Republican sponsor.

After being flooded with a thousand calls and e-mails, her “yes” quickly became a “no.”

And as long as the debate is about controlling weapons instead of bad guys, that’s probably the way it’ll go.