title:  The NRA Just Got Caught In A Lie That Shatters EVERYTHING They Stand For
text: Who can forget how emotional Wayne LaPierre was after Sandy Hook. As he stood at the podium with the NRA logo and raised his voice in disgust and demanded we put more guns outside first-grade classrooms. An armed security guard for every hallway! Never mind that schools in many states have resource officers from their local police or sheriff s department on hand, LaPierre needed to allow the pure anger to come through. Where were all the guns when those kids needed saving?That s the NRA s sole purpose for existing now: To make sure everyone has a gun, possibly 2. The 4.5 million-member organization is a powerhouse on Capitol Hill, spending $3.6 million lobbying in 2015 and nearly another million in campaign contributions, primarily to Republicans. They only care about one thing: a complete lack of gun control laws and regulations. They d like to see the Smiths with a battery of surface to air missiles in their side yard to compliment the Wilsons  anti-aircraft cannon. Stingers for all the kids this Fourth of July! They want everyone with a couple hundred bucks to be able to walk in and purchase a gun, no questions asked because that s what the gun manufacturers pay them to want.One of their most successful strategies has been to build up the  bad guy  theory. How often do you hear some meathead say  it would be better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have one.  Well, as it turns out, even with 300 million guns floating around the country, very few are used to thwart a crime or in an actual act of self-defense. Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center released a study about the use of firearms in self-defense and other  justified  shootings by private citizens with some scathing remarks for the lies perpetrated by the NRA: The [National Rifle Association] has staked its entire agenda on the claim that guns are necessary for self-defense, but this gun industry propaganda has no basis in fact. Guns are far more likely to be used in a homicide than in a justifiable homicide by a private citizen. In fact, a gun is far more likely to be stolen than used in self-defense. Purchasing a gun may help enrich the firearms industry, but the facts show it is unlikely to increase your personal safety. In fact, in a nation of more than 300 million firearms, it is striking how rarely guns are used in self-defense. It s not really that striking. The study found that just one in 32 gun deaths involving a criminal were the result of a self-defense scenario. That s when someone is armed and threatening another person. Those people whose toddlers kill each other after finding a gun in a nightstand because their parents need to feel  safe  from intruders were the victims of 0.1 percent of crimes involving guns.Basically, the NRA is full of sh*t. There is no cavalry of good guys with guns out there ready to stop criminals in the street. There are no packs of trained defense experts hanging out in school libraries waiting to thwart the next shooting. The people we need to really be afraid of are the mentally ill people, the felons and the domestic abusers. More often than not when you re the victim of a crime it s someone you know. You shot at something in your kitchen in the pitch black and then you were surprised to find your teenager came home late? Oops.They re selling fear and lies. ISIS is coming to get you. Burglars want to rape and kill your family and steal your flat screen. The feds are coming to take your guns and toss you in FEMA s famed  re-education  camps. That s good stuff right there.Featured image from Ethan Miller/Getty Images