As Americans reel from the recent elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two adults were killed, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) tore into the National Rifle Association (NRA), which he referred to as a “grifting scam” during an appearance on ABC’s This Week on Sunday. Kinzinger also criticized certain open carry policies that allow (among other things) openly carrying firearms into the Michigan state Capitol (and elsewhere) without legal consequences.
“Open carry, especially with ARs, is one of the more insane things,” as Kinzinger put it. “Maybe out West it works fine; I’m not going to go after it there. But to walk into the state Capitol of Michigan with a gun because it makes you feel tough?” He also said those in that corner of the gun policy area “are doing no favors to defend that Second Amendment in the next generation.” Meanwhile, the NRA has faced a renewed surge of criticism in the wake of the Uvalde shooting over the gun lobby’s widely perceived role in fostering circumstances that helped allow for the tragedy. As Kinzinger remarked:
‘The only thing the NRA cares about is raising money on your back. They don’t really give a lot of money to people. They can get people upset. And they’re competing with another group called Gun Owners of America… And now NRA has to compete with this group for crazy because that’s where they get their money from… [The NRA has] gone from defending rights of gun owners. It has become a grifting scam. And all you have to do is look at the last few years of the grifting scam of the NRA to know that that’s true.’
Check out his comments below:
Adam Kinzinger on ABC calls open carry of AR-15s in states like Michigan "one of the more insane things" and adds that it does "no favors" to Second Amendment supporters. He goes on to call the NRA a "grifting scam." pic.twitter.com/I4qpxSZsKP
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 29, 2022
Thousands of demonstrators demanding action on gun policy turned out in Houston last week as a convention of the NRA began. Beto O’Rourke, a former Democratic Congressman from Texas, was among those present. “If you have done anything good, it is the fact that you have brought us here together and we’re committing ourselves. We will defeat you and we will overcome this,” O’Rourke said, addressing leaders at the NRA and the politicians to whom the group has donated. Ideas from Republicans have been ridiculous — Texas state Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, has promoted the prospect of arming teachers, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has talked up the supposed possibility of limiting the numbers of doors at schools to lessen opportunities for attackers to enter the building. (What about windows?) Having additional guns around doesn’t automatically mean success in swiftly stopping horrifying attacks — police were apparently at the Uvalde school for over an hour before the attacker was killed.
