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Rep. Jordan: 'Double Standard' With Andrew McCabe 'Drives Americans Crazy'
Retired NFL kicker Jay Feely sparked outrage after he tweeted a photo of himself armed with a gun between his daughter and her prom date.

The tweet read, "Wishing my beautiful daughter and her date a great time at prom #BadBoys."

Wishing my beautiful daughter and her date a great time at prom #BadBoys pic.twitter.com/T5JRZQYq9e

- Jay Feely (@jayfeely) April 22, 2018

The photo received backlash online, with many people saying that Feely supported gun violence.

"I think people are reacting to this in a way that is overly sensitive and they just need to relax," Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich said on Sunday.

Feely lives in Arizona, a state whose laws allow anyone over the age of 21 to openly carry a weapon without a license.

"It's a joke. He's not using the gun inappropriately, his finger is out of the trigger well," Pavlich said. "Dads have been making this joke for centuries."

Feely on Sunday tweeted that he "did not intend" for the photo "to be insensitive" and that he takes gun safety seriously.

The prom picture I posted was obviously intended to be a joke. My Daughter has dated her boyfriend for over a year and they knew I was joking.
I take gun safety seriously (the gun was not loaded and had no clip in) and I did not intend to be insensitive to that important issue

- Jay Feely (@jayfeely) April 22, 2018

Feely played for a number of team during his NFL career, including the Atlanta Falcons, New York Giants, Miami Dolphins, New York Jets, Arizona Cardinals and Chicago Bears.
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'Intended to Be a Joke': Ex-NFL Kicker Sparks Outrage After Holding Gun in Daughter's Prom Photo

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Rep. Jordan: 'Double Standard' With Andrew McCabe 'Drives Americans Crazy' Retired NFL kicker Jay Feely sparked outrage after he tweeted a photo of himself armed with a gun between his daughter and her prom date. The tweet read, "Wishing my beautiful daughter and her date a great time at prom #BadBoys."

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In some respects, the Rolling Stone article proved to be correct: A 2004 study published by Cambridge University Press suggested that the NRA had only minimal endorsement influence over the 1996 election cycle, despite record spending for that period. None of the organization's 10 "must go" incumbents ultimately ended up losing that November. Articles from 1997 in The Spokesman Review and The New York Times further clarify the organization's diminishing influence and an overall decline in its membership.

This period helped further cement the development of the NRA we know today, however. As the NRA increased its spending and focused on political campaigns, more-moderate members left the organization. Former NRA board member David Edmondson is quoted in a 1997 Spokesman article as saying, "As the NRA has become more and more militant, more and more moderates are saying they're no longer represented by the NRA and dropping out." By that point, more than 500,000 members, including former president George H. W. Bush, had resigned membership, citing extremist views and objections to the leadership.

This builds the understanding that the NRA's membership is not as widespread as the wall-to-wall media coverage of recent years might lead us to believe. Recent estimates put NRA membership at approximately 3 million to 5 million people, only a fraction of Americans who own guns. With an overwhelming percentage of those non-NRA members willing to accept tighter gun control measures, arguments like the one Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) has been making about gun control being "a position well outside the mainstream" should be viewed as not matching up with the realities of these numbers.

History and additional context also allow us to better understand why the NRA might feel like an overwhelming force, with the capacity to shape gun legislation, too.

Since the radicalized base started taking over the NRA, in the late 1970s, the organization has become a self-perpetuating cycle of far-right members attracting other far-right members. These are the types of members who typically seek to join the NRA in the aftermath of a mass shooting, for fear their Second Amendment rights are "under threat." They are, as The Washington Post described them in 2013, "absolutist in their interpretation of the Second Amendment. The NRA [has] learned that controversy isn't a problem but rather, in many cases, a solution, a motivator, a recruitment tool, an inspiration."

In other words, these new members are so single-minded in their focus and so determined in their mobilization efforts that it often makes the organization feel more like a monolith than it actually is. There is no place where this is better evidenced than in the organization's role when it comes to campaign contributions.

After each mass shooting, media outlets and social media activists have a tendency to point to campaign contributions as being the single reason that many Republican politicians are influenced by the NRA and will not vote in favor of gun legislation. However, recent studies, according to Vox and The Washington Post, have pointed out that this is only a partial truth. Yes, the NRA does donate to political candidates. But direct donations to candidates play only a small part in campaign spending, and independent expenditures, or the money being funneled to political action committees (PACs), could use more attention.

An example of this would be the 2016 election cycle, when incumbent Arizona GOP senator John McCain spent approximately $14,374,564 to retain his seat. (His campaign spending was tracked by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit that tracks the effects of money and lobbying on elections and public policy.) According to a database updated in February 2018 by The Washington Post, the NRA did not contribute to that $14 million total. Its previous direct donations to McCain were made in 1998 and 2010, respectively, for a total of $17,350.

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In some respects, the Rolling Stone article proved to be correct: A 2004 study published by Cambridge University Press suggested that the NRA had only minimal endorsement influence over the 1996 election cycle, despite record spending for that period. None of the organization's 10 "must go" incumbents ultimately ended up losing that November.

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Tuerie de Floride : la colère d'une lycéenne rescapée contre Donald Trump

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Guns Have Feelings Too Says the Gun Lobby

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Guns Have Feelings Too Says the Gun Lobby

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Many have observed that in defending "gun rights," the gun lobby helps the very bad guys it says it is against. Exhibit A is blocking private sale background checks so criminals can buy guns at gun shows-and do. Exhibit B is the 2004 Tiahrt amendments which block ATF from requiring yearly dealer inventory despite the tens of thousands of "lost" or "stolen" guns that become crime guns.

Of course the NRA obstructionism is because universal background checks will lead to "government confiscation" but arming criminals also sells guns to "good guys" because, well, the criminals have guns!

Exhibit C is laws, written by the "bill mill" ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) and passed in a growing number of states making it illegal t o destroy guns that police seize, often from crime scenes. Yes, the NRA wants to save guns on "death row" because they are "valuable property."

The NRA says fears that guns will go back to criminals is "absurd" and if police resold seized guns at a discount it would help lower-income Americans in high-crime areas. But guns resold by police are used in crimes including crimes in which law enforcers are shot says CNNMoney.

The new "Don't Destroy" laws send police out to "face the same guns they risked their lives to get off the street," says Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher. Hennepin County, MN Sheriff Richard Stanek agrees.

NRA spokesperson Jennifer Baker says seized guns are sold to "law-abiding citizens," not criminals. But the Charleston, Chattanooga, Chapel Hill, Roanoke, Lafayette, Umpqua, Navy Yard, Fort Hood, Santa Barbara, Tucson, Aurora, and Virginia Tech shooters were all legal gun owners as are most mass shooters. Feel better? Baker also says the reason for destruction of seized guns is that anti-gun violence groups want to "want to get rid of all guns."

It is hard to believe the Constitution-focused, "patriotic" gun lobby is so unabashedly pro-criminal and anti-law enforcement. In addition to releasing crime guns back to the street, it has pushed laws that ban gun buy-backs, a modest but effective way for family members to remove household guns. To demonstrate its contempt for law enforcement, gun victims and gun regulation, Guns Save Life in Champaign IL vowed to sabotage a Chicago buy-back this week by turning in inoperable and rusty guns. "We will be delighted to transact business once more with do-gooders in Chicago," said its executive director.

With lethal shootings in church, schools, on US highways and even during newscasts, the public space is no longer safe. We have asked President Obama to declare a state of emergency as he did in 2009 when the swine flu became a daily, public health threat.

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Guns Have Feelings Too Says the Gun Lobby - National Gun Victims Action Council

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Many have observed that in defending "gun rights," the gun lobby helps the very bad guys it says it is against. Exhibit A is blocking private sale background checks so criminals can buy guns at gun shows-and do. Exhibit B is the 2004 Tiahrt amendments which block ATF from requiring yearly dealer inventory despite ...

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Pro-Gun Vs. Anti-Gun: Is There Middle Ground? | Middle Ground

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Sheryl Crow - The Dreaming Kind (Official Music Video)