The NRA BACKS DONALD TRUMP

In exchange, he panders and offers his victim's litany of bitches!

Word arrived just the other day that the National Rifle Association has endorsed Donald Trump for President.

 He addressed the group’s convention, which amounted to a Dallas gun show and gripe session where the NRA waged its war of words against anyone with any positive thing to say about gun control.

I was a member a long time ago when I was a reporter for The Chicago Tribune. I joined while I was writing a story about the organization. I wanted to find out what it was up to. Lots of pro-gun propaganda, for one thing. It was also impossible to get off the NRA mailing list. I still get passionate emails about my gun rights.

Note: I don’t have a gun. I used to. Fired hundreds of rounds and got proficient then got rid of my rifles when it seemed people had grown less shy about using them on other people.

The NRA was founded after the Civil War when it was discovered most Union infantrymen could not hit the side of a barn with a musket shot at 50 yards. Not much distant shooting in that conflict, which was essentially a head-to-head kind of war.

So, with the help of the NRA, the nation learned to shoot straight.

It had some grand presidents, Ulysses S. Grant, who knew all about shooting, for one. The movie star Charlton Heston, not so much, back when it was trying to be cool and thought the handsome guy who played Moses would look good with a rifle.

Lots of politicians got into the mix, too.

In the 1970s it decided to get into politics in a big way. It had something like 5 million members and a flush treasury for political contributions. It grew very close to the Republican Party, where it remains to this day.

The message has always been simple at the political level. “Don’t even think about touching the Second Amendment!’ and “Send money now,” and you can get a snazzy NRA back pack or a spunky pocket knife.

Now, anyone who wants to can learn to hit a barn door with a rifle. So, the NRA succeeded.

Or, regrettably, a classroom full of kids with a military grade automatic weapon. Or people at a night club. Or merry makers in a Los Vegas parking lot.

In fact, it can happen just about anywhere! Highland Park, for example, on a holiday.

The NRA has been wildly political since the 1970s, when it funded campaigns against gun control, which became more fervent as more and more people got shot to death. It spread its money and its message all around.

It also got itself into some trouble for abusing its non-profit status and allowing some of its leaders to steal money for personal effects, expensive clothing and the like.

Lots of people respond to the NRA on grounds that the government, particularly Democrats in government, want to take everyone’s guns away.

Can you imagine that?

 I can’t.

It would be political suicide in the first place and an impossible task in the second. Government can’t even manage to get the background check thing right.

As for the Trump endorsement. Holy hell, do you think that’s going to draw any new votes? Wasted breath. Preaching to the choir. Most gun owners are already on board.

Trump, of course, pandered at the NRA convention and repeated his litany of dubious charges and claims. I wasn’t there, but I suspect people cheered.

Undoubtedly, some of them will be packing when election day rolls around. So watch out for yourself, because the NRA certainly won’t.

Charlie Madigan was a reporter and editor for four decades for United Press International and the Chicago Tribune. He lives in Evanston, Ill. His website is at Charlesmadigan.com.