Update
That was quick. The NSSF walked back its support for universal background checks.
Ninety-one percent of the country believes that there should be universal background checks for all gun sales. Indeed, there are more Americans who believe they have personally seen a UFO than agree with the National Rifle Association’s opposition to universal background checks. Even the nation’s top trade group for gun makers does not agree with the NRA:
The trade group for the nation’s leading firearm manufacturers said it will not actively oppose the expansion of background checks, which are designed to prevent guns from reaching criminals or the seriously mentally ill.
“That’s more the NRA’s issue,” Steve Sanetti, president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), said in an interview. “From the commercial side, we’re already there, and we’ve been there, and we were the ones that have been the strongest proponents of an effective, complete background check.”
It is not surprising that other firearms-related groups are uncomfortable with the NRA’s positions. Indeed, the NRA’s stance on background checks is so far on the fringe that more Americans support communism and the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez:
NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre recently published an apocalyptic op-ed claiming that we all need to arm ourselves because civilization is on the verge of collapse and also we are endangered by violent Latino gangs, so the gun group’s fringe beliefs is hardly limited to opposing universal background checks.
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