Charles Laffiteau's Bigger Picture
In the American legal system, when prosecutors need people involved in a criminal conspiracy to testify against others, or if they lack the evidence they need to convict them, the people or entities associated with those actually charged with the crime are referred to as ‘unindicted co-conspirators’. It’s a prosecutor’s way of letting the public know that these people or groups helped facilitate the commission of a crime.
While it appears that the accused Colorado movie theatre shooter James Holmes acted alone, I still believe the National Rifle Association (NRA) should be named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the shooting spree that left 12 dead and injured another 59 innocent people. I say this because for the past 40 years the NRA has fought every single attempt made by local, state or federal authorities to regulate or restrict the sales of guns and ammunition in the United States.
Despite the NRA’s claims that it is the ‘oldest civil rights organisation in the US’, fighting attempts to regulate the sale and ownership of guns was not the reason why the NRA was started. General Ambrose Burnside first organized the association in 1871 because he believed the US Army’s marksmanship training had fallen behind that of European armies. In an effort to address this, the NRA organised rifle clubs in every state to help raise funds for building modern shooting ranges and to develop marksmanship training programmes for state National Guard units.
In 1874, in response to a challenge by the Irish rifle team who had just won the British Empire rifle championship, the NRA organised a team of American rifleman to compete in a transatlantic rifle shooting challenge. That 1874 team served as the forerunner for later American teams that competed for medals when the modern Olympic Games began in 1896. Furthermore, the NRA sponsored a variety of gun safety programmes designed to teach both children and adults how to use firearms in a safe and responsible way.
Another fact many of the NRA’s four million current supporters seem unaware of is that the NRA was once a strong supporter of gun control. The 1934 National Firearms Act and 1938 Federal Firearms Act led to the creation of America’s first system to license gun dealers, and also imposed very high taxes on private individuals who also owned automatic weapons such as ‘Tommy guns’ and machine guns.
But in the wake of the 1950’s anti-communist McCarthy-era hysteria, the NRA began a slow metamorphosis into a more reactionary anti-government, anti-regulation and anti-gun control political lobbying organisation. Unfortunately for the vast majority of the American people, the only marksmanship practiced by the NRA of today is keeping legislators who dare to advocate for tougher gun control laws in the crosshairs of its legislative lobbyists’ gun sights. They have been remarkably successful in this regard, since most members of Congress regard the NRA as the single most powerful lobbying organisation in Washington and in the states they represent.
According to the NRA, James Holmes was merely exercising his civil right to own guns and was thus behaving normally when he bought a Remington shotgun, two Glock automatic pistols and an AR-15 rifle at three Colorado gun shops just weeks before the shootings. Holmes was also acting in a normal and legal manner when he purchased a full set of body armour, a gas mask and more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition over the internet during the weeks leading up to the shooting.
In light of this, how can anyone regard the fact that Holmes was able to buy all of this weaponry without arousing the suspicion of the police or other authorities as anything but a testimony to the success of the NRA’s unrelenting anti-regulation and anti-gun control lobbying efforts?
The shootings at the Cinemark Movie Theater in Denver, Colorado on 20 July 2012 took place just 15 miles away and exactly 13 years and 3 months after the Columbine High School massacre. And sadly, much like that tragic event, it won’t have any real effect in terms of challenging the lobbying of influence of Holmes’ ‘unindicted co-conspirators’.
Charles Laffiteau is a US Republican from Dallas, Texas who is pursuing a PhD in Public Policy and Political Economy. He previously lectured on Contemporary US Business & Society at DCU from 2009-2011.
