The following article originally appeared on National Review.com.by Scott Atran – January 20, 2019The best thing about the National Review is that it’s always telling you what to expect.
It’s also a place where you can have a lot of fun reading things that are written by other people who also happen to be right-wing, anti-immigrant, and other nonsense.
A few weeks ago, the National Rifle Association sent a mailer to gun owners informing them of an upcoming attack on a Walmart, a store that, along with the National Hockey League’s New Jersey Devils, is an NRA-supported sponsor.
In a way, it was just a fun joke: the NRA is a powerful lobbying force in Washington, DC, where, by law, it must submit its membership to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), a lobbying organization that receives money from gun manufacturers and other gun-related interests.
The NRA, for its part, has long argued that its members, like all Americans, should be able to defend themselves and their families.
But the NRA and the NSSF are not the only ones who get a free pass in Washington.
The Washington Post reports that the NCSF is also funding the National Guard to protect gun shops in the District of Columbia from a possible assault by a black man who reportedly is armed with a rifle.
The Post also reported that the NRA spent $20 million on ads in 2012 and 2013 targeting gun owners in Washington and Maryland.
The ads depicted a “gangster” who “tried to rob a gun store.”
The NRA has also spent millions of dollars lobbying Congress to restrict access to gun ownership for people with mental illness, and has funded advocacy groups that have worked to oppose gun control laws.
But there is a dark side to the NRA’s support of gun shops.
In fact, the NRA has long been a staunch supporter of organized crime.
In 2015, the gun lobby spent nearly $1.2 million on mailers that included claims that the Obama administration was waging war on gun manufacturers, and that there was “no evidence” that the Justice Department was targeting gun manufacturers with federal hate crimes laws.
The NRA’s political arm, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, also spent $5 million on television ads to encourage support for gun violence prevention, including one in which a masked man dressed in military gear threatened the President, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with an AR-15.”
The NRA has used its money to fund other organizations that push for policies that undermine gun rights and the rights of law-abiding gun owners, including the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR), which has been described as “the largest and most aggressive gun control advocacy organization in the country.”
NAGR has also been credited with influencing lawmakers to vote to support the NRA-funded assault weapons ban in 1996.
Despite the NRA, the NAGA and the other gun groups’ efforts to advance gun rights, Washington gun shops are still a target for thieves.
“The average store has about a dozen security cameras, and you can see guns coming in and out of the store,” said Chris Thompson, owner of the Redneck’s Den, a Washington, D.C., shop that was burglarized in February.
“I’ve seen thieves trying to steal guns.
I’ve seen guys try to get away with taking things out of bags, guns.”
Thompson said he’s also had several people steal his guns, including a few that were never even in the shop.
When Thompson tried to return his gun, the thief took off with a laptop computer, which he later turned over to police.
“He was trying to use the laptop to try and hack into my computer,” Thompson said.
“That’s one of the reasons I got into this business.”
Thompson’s experience is not unique: thieves, when confronted with security cameras and the like, usually try to take the guns that they’ve stolen instead.
Even the owners of gun-friendly gun shops have faced thieves.
After the New Jersey Devil’s store was burgled, one of its owners, Jim Cone, had to buy a new handgun because his store’s security cameras were out.
Cone said the incident happened shortly after he was robbed in December, when a man entered his store with a knife and demanded money.
Cone had purchased the new gun that night, but when he got home, it had been stolen.
“There were about four or five of us that night that had to go out and buy it,” he said.
The man eventually fled the store and called police.
Cone said he has since been working to keep the new guns out of his store, but he said that the theft of his old gun was the biggest threat.
Thompson is not the first to report being the victim of a robbery by a gun shop, and he said he
