L.A. City Councilman Wants City To Cut Ties With Companies Tied To NRA

Ever since Parkland, the anti-gun left has been on a rampage, trying its best to demonize the National Rifle Association. They’ve called the organization and its members domestic terrorists and routinely blame them for the massacre, all while seemingly ignoring the myriad of law enforcement failures that led up to the attack.

Advertisement

Now, a virtue signaling city councilman in Los Angeles wants the city to sever all ties with companies affiliated with the NRA.

City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell introduced a proposal Wednesday asking city staffers to provide a list of all businesses and groups that have a “formal relationship” with the NRA and lay out options for boycotting them.

“It’s important that we send a message as a city with an annual budget approaching $9 billion,” O’Farrell said, invoking mass shootings in Newtown, Conn.; Orlando, Fla.; Las Vegas; and Parkland, Fla.; as well as gun violence that happens regularly across the country.

“It’s time to speak with one voice and call attention to the assault weapon epidemic,” the councilman said.

The NRA did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment. Last month, the group issued a statement denouncing “a shameful display of political and civic cowardice” from corporations that severed ties with the NRA after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

“The law-abiding members of the NRA had nothing at all to do with the failure of that school’s security preparedness, the failure of America’s mental health system, the failure of the National Instant Check System or the cruel failures of both federal and local law enforcement,” the group said.

The California Rifle & Pistol Assn., which is affiliated with the NRA but has its own board, is “proud to be fighting for the right to choose to own a firearm for sport or self-defense, and we refuse to be stigmatized or demonized by this campaign of shame,” its president, Chuck Michel, said Wednesday.

O’Farrell said he also had asked the City Council to hold off on approving an agreement between FedEx and the Harbor Department to operate a warehouse and office space. FedEx has faced pressure from gun control advocates to stop providing discounted shipping for members of the NRA.

Advertisement

Don’t you just love that turn of phrase? “Assault weapon epidemic?”

In 2016, the most recent year we have statistics for, we had a total of 374 murders attributed to rifles, according to the FBI. More people were murdered with someone’s bare hands than rifles of any kind, much less so-called assault rifles.

Now, with that bit out of the way, let’s delve into the meat here.

The city of Los Angeles, if it were to sever all ties with companies in a formal relationship with the NRA, may soon find itself hosed. Sure, some companies will cut ties in order to land the lucrative deal that I’m sure the City of Los Angeles represents, but there are potential problems that might not have been considered.

And that doesn’t even touch on the firearm industry itself.

One of the anti-gun left’s favorite talking points is that the NRA doesn’t represent its members’ interest, that it really only represents the gun industry these days.

Advertisement

If that’s true, then the LAPD will be hosed if this plan goes through. After all, where else will they get guns if not from the very gun manufacturers they decry?

Whoops.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member