Who can forget the climactic courtroom scene in a “A Few Good Men,” where Jack Nicholson’s character, Col. Nathan Jessup, responds to a demand for the truth from a cross-examining Tom Cruise with the classic line, “You can’t handle the truth”? It came immediately to mind when I read about the NRA’s new crusade against the Department of Veterans Affairs for trying to protect the well-being of veterans suffering from dementia.

The Veterans Health Administration launched a public awareness campaign about gun access by dementia patients after an 83-year-old veteran pulled a pistol from his pocket in August 2000 and shot a doctor in a V.A. hospital emergency room in Salisbury, N.C. The agency later found that 40 percent of veterans with mild to moderate dementia had a gun in their homes.

In response, the VA’s Office of the Medical Inspector issued an invaluable publication, “Firearms and Dementia,” explaining the risks of firearms in the home. Although the focus is on the lethal mix of guns and persons suffering from dementia, the VA underscores the risk to others as well. According to the VA, “[t]he presence of firearms in households has been linked to increased risk of injury or death for everyone in or around the home, usually as an impulsive act during some disagreement,” noting that “[t]his danger is increased when one of the persons in the household has dementia.”

The pamphlet takes special note of the often-ignored problem of firearm suicide:
“Firearms in the home can increase the possibility of completing suicide. Coping with painful life events such as the death of a loved one, physical or mental illness, social isolation and loneliness can lead to suicidal wishes. The availability of a firearm offers a highly lethal means of completing suicide. The risk for suicide is also increased in people suffering from depression which is very common in persons with dementia.” Again, although the focus is on individuals with dementia, the VA makes it clear that guns in the home increase the risk of suicide for others as well.

The VA concludes with the “simple steps that can save someone you love,” in which it advises that “[t]he best way to reduce gun risks is to remove the gun from your home.” If you decide to keep guns, the VA suggests that they be stored “in a sturdy locked cabinet,” unloaded, with trigger guards on each of the guns, with ammunition “in a locked fireproof safe in a separate place from the guns.” But it reiterates that “[t]he safest action is to get rid of the guns.”

Of course, this is enough to drive the NRA around the bend. In a statement entitled “Veterans Administration Overdoses on Anti-Gun Prescription,” the gun lobby decries the VA pamphlet as “what the taxpayers get when people who know nothing about firearms issues take their cues from people who lie about firearms issues . . . .” Then, intending to inflict on the VA the unkindest cut of all, the NRA suggests “that if one of its pamphleteers isn’t related to the Brady Campaign’s Dennis Henigan, he or she ought to be.” I would be proud to be related to the authors of the VA’s publication but, to my knowledge, I am not.

The VA’s public education campaign is threatening to the NRA precisely because it is was not initiated by gun control advocates, but rather arises from a desire by medical professionals at the VA to take common sense steps against entirely preventable deaths and injuries to veterans from guns kept in the home. The VA has done nothing more than give sound advice based on the best medical and public health knowledge about the risks of guns. For doing so, it now faces the wrath of the gun lobby.

This is not the first time the NRA has sought to prevent military families from knowing the truth about guns. Our armed forces face an epidemic of suicide, with a service member committing suicide every 36 hours and a veteran committing suicide every 80 minutes. Although almost 50% of military suicides are committed with privately-owned guns, the gun lobby’s Congressional allies have succeeded in amending the National Defense Authorization Act to restrict the freedom of base commanders to talk to service members about guns in the home. Army General Peter Chiarelli has pointed out, “suicide in most cases is a spontaneous event” and “if you can separate the individual from the weapon, you can lower the incidences of suicide.” But, he complained, “I am not allowed to ask a soldier who lives off post whether that soldier has a privately owned weapon.”

The NRA loves to wrap itself in the flag, but its leadership doesn’t care a whit about the health and well-being of the veterans and active-duty personnel who do the real work to maintain our freedoms. The gun lobby is more than willing to sacrifice the lives of our brave soldiers if necessary to suppress the truth about the dangers of guns in the home – not only to military personnel and their families, but to all Americans and their families.

The NRA can’t handle the truth.

Dennis Henigan is Vice President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the author of Lethal Logic: Exploding the Myths That Paralyze American Gun Policy(Potomac Books 2009).

When the National Rifle Association’s Wayne LaPierre finally spoke out about the Trayvon Martin shooting, it was to decry the media’s coverage of the tragedy as “sensational reporting from Florida.” It’s understandable that the NRA would be uncomfortable with the intense media attention to this particular shooting tragedy.

For one thing, the shooting has thrown a spotlight on the real-world impact of the “Shoot First, Ask Questions Later” (aka “Stand Your Ground”) laws the NRA has pushed in Florida and other states across the country that are allowing dangerous individuals to literally “get away with murder.” But the NRA’s discomfort has even deeper roots. In a real sense, Trayvon Martin’s death at the hands of George Zimmerman exposes the mythology of the NRA’s core narrative about guns and self-defense.

The NRA has a wonderfully simple story to tell. In the NRA’s world, people are neatly divided into two readily identifiable groups: good guys and bad guys. In this imaginary world, we know that legal carriers of guns must be good guys and that good guys use their guns only in legitimate self-defense – that’s what makes them good guys in the first place. The Trayvon Martin tragedy reveals the real world to be far more complicated.

The gun lobby often cites surveys purporting to establish that good guys defend themselves with guns millions of times every year. One survey repeatedly cited by the NRA asked “have you yourself, or another member of your household used a gun, even if it was not fired, for self-protection”? Of course, after he shot Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman, a legal concealed carrier under Florida’s weak gun laws, would have answered this question, “Yes”.

The survey would not have revealed that Zimmerman could have avoided any risk of confrontation with Trayvon Martin had he followed the suggestion of a police dispatcher to stop following Martin and instead left it to the police to investigate Zimmerman’s report of a “suspicious” person. It would not have revealed that Zimmerman armed himself for his neighborhood watch duties in violation of the neighborhood watch guidelines that members “shall not carry weapons.” Nor would it have revealed that Trayvon Martin was armed only with a bag of Skittles and a can of iced tea at the time Zimmerman shot him dead. The Trayvon Martin shooting demonstrates that relying on a person’s claim of self-defense is folly, in part because the person’s own aggressive behavior may have caused the confrontation in the first place. Indeed, in prison surveys, over 60% of convicted felons who have fired a gun claim to have done so in self-defense.

Some years ago, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health designed, conducted and analyzed two telephone surveys asking about defensive uses of guns. Instead of simply accepting the respondents’ claims of legitimate self-defense, the researchers asked extensive follow-up questions. Summaries of the incidents were then submitted to a panel of criminal court judges who were asked to give their opinions as to the legality of the claimed self-defense use of the gun.

Even though the only “evidence” submitted was the self-serving accounts of the shooters, of the incidents in which descriptions of the incident were provided, over half were rated as probably illegal by a majority of the judges. The Harvard researchers also found over two thirds of the self-defense gun incidents were reported by only six respondents, with three respondents claiming fifty, twenty and fifteen self-defense uses of guns each within the previous five years. Clearly there were more than a few “make my day” defensive gun uses being counted. Somewhat understating the matter, the Harvard research team observed that “many reported self defense gun uses from a respondent creates a suspicion that the uses may be aggressive rather than defensive.”

There also is a body of research showing that people who carry guns with them are disproportionately likely to be aggressive. A Harvard study of Arizona drivers found that, compared to other Arizona drivers, drivers who carried a gun in their car were three times as likely to have engaged in rude, hostile and illegal driving. Indeed, the more often a driver carried a gun, the greater the likelihood that the driver would engage in such “road rage” conduct as making obscene gestures, cursing, tailgating or blocking other drivers. Yet another study, done at the national level, similarly found that “riding with a firearm in the vehicle appears to be a marker for aggressive and dangerous driver behavior.” Gun owners who drive or ride in cars with loaded guns also are four times as likely to drink and drive as were people who did not own guns.

Nor does having a gun make someone safer; in fact just the opposite appears to be true. A study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania showed that individuals in possession of a gun were 4-5 times more likely to be shot in an assault than those not in possession of a gun. The researchers suggest several possible reasons for this result, including the fact that “a gun may falsely empower its possessor to overreact and instigate conflicts” or to increase their risk of assault by entering dangerous environments that could have been avoided.

This is not to deny that some gun carriers take their responsibilities seriously. Nor is it to deny that guns can be used successfully in self-defense. But, according to the FBI, of the approximately 11,000 gun homicides every year, on average less than 300 are justifiable self-defense killings. The research tells us that what is happening in the real world bears no resemblance to the NRA’s imaginary world. In the real world, far too many gun toters are prone to be aggressive, are “looking for trouble,” and claim to have used their guns in self-defense, when in fact they have irresponsibly used their guns in public places.

The research tells us, in short, that there are far too many George Zimmermans on our streets, posing a risk to others and themselves. This is a direct result of our nation’s gun laws which, at the behest of the gun lobby, make it easy for dangerous people to legally carry guns in public, make it legal for them to carry guns virtually everywhere, and then protect them when they misuse their guns under the guise of self-defense.

As compelling as the research is, the Trayvon Martin shooting makes far more real the danger of continuing to allow the NRA to foist its imaginary world on the rest of us. For most Americans, George Zimmerman has become the face of concealed carry. And, for most Americans, the NRA’s “guns everywhere” vision of America has become, more plainly than ever, a nightmare.

Dennis Henigan is Vice President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the author of Lethal Logic: Exploding the Myths That Paralyze American Gun Policy(Potomac Books 2009).

In the weeks since George Zimmerman’s killing of Trayvon Martin, corporate America has been force fed a crash survey of public opinion on gun policy. Some of America’s most popular –and message-savvy — companies announced their swift verdict when they, and then ALEC, withdrew support for the National Rifle Association’s paranoid, violent agenda.

Their conclusion should be heeded by politicians of both parties.

The message from ALEC’s decision is clear. When exposed to the light, the NRA’s agenda becomes toxic. And Americans want nothing to do with those who conspire to bring about the gun lobby’s dangerous “guns everywhere” vision they saw played out that February night in Sanford, Florida.

For those unschooled in Beltway acronyms, ALEC is the American Legislative Exchange Council, a behind-the-scenes conglomeration of corporate money that plays puppeteer to compliant legislatures across the country who enact their bills.

ALEC’s abrupt abandonment of the conservative agenda’s gun plank wasn’t caused by sympathy for Trayvon or the 32 killed by gunfire each day in America. ALEC’s corporate sponsors are a bottom line bunch, and for years were happy to push for NRA laws to force guns on college campuses, deprive cities of the authority to reasonably regulate guns, and, most notably, Stand Your Ground or “Shoot First, Ask Questions Later” laws that embolden and immunize killers.

But then the public noticed.

You see, the NRA and its political minions like to work in the shadows. They cannot credibly explain to voters why they support loopholes that allow criminals to buy guns without background checks, or allow terrorists to buy all the AK-47s they desire. Secrecy and cynicism are their greatest allies.

But the media did not just focus on Zimmerman’s culpability for Trayvon’s death. They also shone a spotlight on other fingerprints found at the crime scene: the NRA’s, and the politicians who do its bidding. Americans learned that NRA laws (supported by ALEC) entitled a vigilante with an arrest record and a violent past to carry loaded hidden handguns anywhere, and almost prevented him from even being charged with a crime after he shot an unarmed teenager.

Far more than other high-profile shootings, the Trayvon Martin tragedy has shown the American people the complicity of the NRA, and its political lackies, in our shameful epidemic of gun violence. The people can now easily “connect the dots” between the gun lobby and mayhem on our streets.

Under the spotlight of America’s scrutiny, so glaring was the culpability of ALEC in implementing the gun lobby’s dark vision, that Coke and Pepsi, McDonald’s and Wendy’s, Kraft and Mars, Blue Cross and Bill Gates all reached the same conclusion: Association with the NRA’s extremist agenda was toxic.

And once corporate America fled the gun lobby cause, ALEC jettisoned the NRA in order to save its financial lifeblood, and terminated its “Public Safety and Elections” task force.

Gun violence prevention has powerful salience to a broad swath of Americans. Common Cause, Color of Change, the Center for Media and Democracy and other progressive groups valiantly exposed ALEC’s support of voter suppression efforts, and deserve great credit for pressuring its members to withdraw support. But their campaign only prevailed when they exposed ALEC’s work with the NRA to enact laws that put a gun in the hands of a dangerous man, and issued him a license to kill an unarmed teen.

While Michael Jordan refused to speak on public issues because “Republicans buy shoes too,” LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Amar’e Stoudemire donned hoodies for Trayvon. Bill Cosby, a beloved icon and longtime spokesperson for some of our favorite brands, recently pointed to “that gun” as a key cause of Trayvon’s killing. The tide is turning.

The Trayvon Martin tragedy has illuminated the dark vision of the gun lobby and created an indignant voice that is holding accountable those who do the gun lobby’s bidding. That voice has already forced ALEC to change. Now we need to hold our elected officials accountable and demand that they change too.

Don’t get me wrong, I blame George Zimmerman for shooting Trayvon Martin.  But I also blame the NRA and the politicians who do their bidding for putting the gun in his hands.

George Zimmerman had an arrest record and a history of violence.  Yet he was allowed to carry a loaded, hidden handgun in the state of Florida.  This was the way the NRA wanted it, and this was the policy that the Florida State legislature created on the gun lobby’s behalf.

Make no mistake, the gun lobby wanted George Zimmerman to have a gun, and to be carrying his gun the night he shot Trayvon Martin.  They worked very hard to make it so.  It is all part of the NRA’s ultimate vision – a vision they proudly admit – of guns just about everywhere, in just about everyone’s hands.  George Zimmerman is the creation of the gun lobby.

George Zimmerman is the NRA.
Don’t look for logic or science to support the gun lobby’s arguments.  It relies  on highly discredited research and questionable anecdotes, tinged with just the right amount of racism, to create the fear and paranoia it uses to justify why everyone should carry around guns, everywhere.

The NRA glibly says “an armed society is a polite society.”  Tell that to Trayvon Martin’s parents.  Tell that to the families of the thousands of others killed unnecessarily every year because of the guns that the gun lobby and, worse, our elected representatives have put on the streets and in the hands of dangerous people.

The NRA wants an America where conflicts – however petty or imagined – are “resolved” at the barrel of a gun, as they were that February night in Sanford, Florida.  It  wants an America where people like George Zimmerman are armed with the mentality of taking the law into their own hands and the guns to make that mentality lethal.

That is not the America most of us want to live in.

The gun lobby says it is fighting for a right to bear arms, or self-defense.  But  it is not.

The gun lobby is just that, a lobby.  It fights for an industry whose goal simply is to sell more guns – and they don’t care who buys the guns, or how they are used.  It reflects the perspective of a small group of political extremists, not even the average NRA member.

I would imagine that most Americans don’t even realize that today, a convicted felon can walk into a gun show in most states and buy a gun without a background check.  So can a convicted domestic abuser or a terrorist.  And virtually anyone, including those same people can also arrange a private sale over the internet and legally buy guns, also without any background check.

As a result, thousands of Americans are injured or killed, every year.  That is the work the gun lobby is doing and it is the America that the gun lobby wants.  They claim they are protecting your rights or helping you defend yourself.  Those are lies.  They are selling more guns.  And they are killing our citizens.

Even, worse, perhaps, are the politicians who do the gun lobby’s bidding.  These are people who put the agenda of the gun lobby ahead of the lives of the citizens they have been elected to represent.  I have talked with many of them. They know the difference between right and wrong.  Yet they make decisions that they know are going to cost lives, and they do it out of political expediency.

Too bad we can’t arrest people for that!

What we can do, however, is to hold our elected leaders accountable for the lives that are lost as a result of their support for the gun lobby  – lives like Trayvon Martin.  We can ask our elected officials simple questions like, “Do you believe a convicted felon, domestic abuser, or terrorist should be able to legally buy a gun anywhere in our country?”

And if their answer is not to your satisfaction, and they will not commit to stop willingly arming dangerous people, you may not be able to arrest them, but you can vote them the heck out of office.

A number of years ago, with the election of George W. Bush the gun lobby said, “…we’ll have a President where we work out of their office.” Around that time, in their unchecked euphoria, they launched a big budget advertising campaign with the slogan, “I am the NRA.”  The ads featured spokespeople like Tom Selleck and Nolan Ryan with the intent of making the NRA appear folksier, more in touch with the average American.  They provided the perfect disguise for their real agenda of opposing strong, sensible gun laws and, ultimately, went on the offensive to pass laws that actually promote and create more violence.

The gun lobby has made it clear that they consider Florida one of their great success stories since the introduction of that campaign — the realization of their vision of just about anyone being able to get a gun and carry it just about anywhere, emboldened by a “shoot first, ask questions later mentality.”

The shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman is a heartbreaking tragedy.  But make no mistake, it is not a surprise that it happened in Florida, the NRA’s closest thing to an armed utopia.   In fact, much more so than any of the shills they had promoting their agenda in their big budget propaganda campaign, George Zimmerman is the embodiment of the gun lobby and its vision for America.

George Zimmerman is the NRA.

And now the NRA has made it abundantly clear that their vision is of an America that looks just like Florida, a nation where it’s easy for criminals and dangerous people to get, carry and use guns — a nation without any gun laws, where just about anybody can get a gun and use it anywhere.  Their spokespeople use fear, bordering on paranoia to justify flooding our streets with armed and violent people, and the result is more tragedies like Trayvon Martin’s.

The NRA is literally working to promote “George Zimmermans” to carry and use their guns in virtually every state across our nation.

Just days after the Trayvon Martin tragedy, the NRA was working on Capitol Hill to nationalize Florida’s vigilante mentality. The gun lobby has gotten U.S. senators to introduce a bill that will force states like New York with strong gun laws to follow Florida’s model of arming criminals and killers. Led by Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), they call S.B. 2188 the National Reciprocity Act.

We call it the George Zimmerman Armed Vigilante Act.

S.B. 2188, which is a companion to H.B. 822, would allow the tens of thousands of concealed carry permit holders, such as those with violent backgrounds similar to Zimmerman’s, to take their guns and their “shoot first, ask questions later” mentality into Times Square, downtown Los Angeles, Main Street in, Des Moines, Iowa, or to your community.

If your state has tougher, more sensible laws, that might prevent someone like George Zimmerman – who had an arrest record – from getting a concealed carry permit, tough luck.  This new bill would force your state to honor concealed carry permits of other states, even states like Florida, with abhorrently low standards.

In fact, you can get a Florida permit to carry loaded, hidden guns in public through the mail or online.  This means, if the NRA has its way in Congress, a George Zimmerman in your state can get a Florida permit without leaving his couch and walk your streets, armed and dangerous, and there is nothing you or your local law enforcement can do about it.

It is time that the American people stand up and flatly reject the gun lobby’s vision of America.  It is time we replace it with our own vision of a nation where young people can go out to buy a pack of Skittles and a soda in safety.

As the citizens’ lobby, as the voice of the overwhelming majority of Americans who support this vision, we will work tirelessly to bring that voice to bear – to hold accountable any politician who puts the agenda of the gun lobby ahead of the safety of the people they have been elected to represent.  We will force the gun lobby and the politicians who work against the agenda of the American people to face the real consequences of their actions – consequences like the Trayvon Martin tragedy and the tens of thousands of other preventable deaths that occur every year.

George Zimmerman is the NRA.  We need to stop the George Zimmermans.  We can begin by making our voices heard to defeat the George Zimmerman Armed Vigilante Act.