L.A. To Require Contractors To Disclose Any Ties To NRA

(AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)

The National Rifle Association might as well change its name to “The Boogieman.” After all, that’s what the organization is to anti-gunners who will stop at nothing to destroy the nation’s oldest civil rights organization. They act like the NRA is the monster under their beds.

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The latest example of their unreasonable fear comes from the city of Los Angeles. It seems they want to know if any contractors bidding on jobs with the city have ties to the NRA.

The Los Angeles City Council passed a motion for a new ordinance that would require all city contractors to disclose any connections they may have to the National Rifle Association.

While the ordinance would not directly prohibit contractors from working for the city if they have a connection to the NRA, it does mandate the disclosure of such connections, CBS Los Angeles reported Wednesday. The disclosure will likely be used to avoid conducting business with such contractors.

The council passed the motion in a vote of 10-0. It orders the city attorney to create an ordinance that will detail the new rules requiring the disclosure. Once the ordinance is drafted, the City Council will vote on it.

“For the sake of transparency, the city’s residents and stakeholders deserve to know how the city’s public funds are being spent, and whether taxpayer funds are being spent on contractors that have contractual or sponsorship ties with the NRA,” the motion says.

Executive Director of Gun Owners of California, Sam Paredes, said the ordinance is a politically-driven legal method of discrimination. “There’s no other justification for anything like this,” he said. “Who or what a contractor supports has no bearing on the quality of work they do to provide a particular service.”

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Of course, claims of transparency are blatant equine excrement. We all know it. If it were about actual transparency, they wouldn’t be singling out the NRA. After all, there are tons of controversial organizations out there that some would prefer their tax dollars not go toward, even indirectly. Yet groups like Black Lives Matter and Planned Parenthood, groups which are equally as controversial as the NRA, aren’t of concern to the city of Los Angeles.

No, this is nothing more than an attempt to cut off support for the National Rifle Association. The idea is that others will follow L.A.’s lead and also introduce such measures in their communities, thus leading to companies being fearful of supporting the NRA out of concerns they won’t get contracts with various cities.

And it will probably work.

However, two can play that game, and that’s where things start to get ugly. After all, I’d prefer my community not help fund the ACLU, even if they’re only doing it indirectly. Does this mean I can push my community to enact such a rule? Believe me, I’m considering it after this.

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What anti-gunners like this never consider is that two can play that game. While large cities are generally liberal politically, a large chunk of the nation’s population lives in more conservative rural communities. Sure, they lack the individual punch of a Los Angeles, but collectively, they can do a lot more.

It might be time to do just that.

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