Several news sources have written articles recently about the role the N.R.A. is playing in the passage of the D.C. Voting Rights Act. These articles all describe the amazing influence that the N.R.A. has as an interest group on Congressional action. Read the articles and then comment below, are the N.R.A.'s actions fair and what do you think motivates the N.R.A.? There's no right or wrong answer to the question, but I'm curious to hear your views.There will be a little extra credit for any comments posted before 10pm today.
9 comments:
It is really amazing how an interest group can be so powerful that they can hold the United States Congress hostage. When people look back on our time 100 years from now they probably would have guessed that the Republican party would have opposed the DC Voting Act, but when actaully it was an interest group with really no obvious connections to the proposal.
Charlie Vitale
3rd Period
When you think about a bill going through the House and Senate, you don't really think of an interest group interjecting their views on the matter. The fact that it wasn't the Republican's that disapproved of the bill but an interest group that focuses on something quite different but still has an affect on the final decision, it's a shock to most people.
I personally don't think the NRA should be getting involved with the Voting Rights Bill. They should stick to their core lobbying tactics and get their own bills out on gun control, not try to tack it onto this bill. But I think it's interesting that they have been able to get the House and the Senate to see their views on the subject.
Holly Parker
3rd Period
The NRA has no business in getting involved in this bill. I believe that they have been feeling the effect of the bad economy like everyone else and are in need of some media attention. This may be benificial for the NRA because they are recieving media attention and are voicing their opinion but it is taking away from the attention that the poor economy needs. The NRA needs to stick to gun laws and let other people deal with laws not pretaining to guns.
Daniel Browning
5th period
For me, I was interested in the fact that the issue really does not have a simple solution. The DC Voting Rights Act was approved by many legislators, but depending on whether the ammendment was added or not, the bill would lose half of its' supporters. This article shows that the issue is gun control laws is quickly becoming a more contreversial issue as it is dividing the Congress. Also, it is interesting that the NRA can have such a large impact on the Congess.
Lindsey Treweek
5th Period
I found it very interesting that interest groups that would seem completely irrelevant to the bill at hand can have so much influence in Congress. My personal opinion is that these interest groups should not be allowed to have so much leverage unless it is directly pertaining to the bill at hand. In this case, the NRA should not be involved in the DC Voting Rights Bill.
“I would have concerns about any group who would tell us how to run our House.”
-Rep. Dennis Cardoza
As Cardoza said, I think the NRA should lay off. Not only are they interrupting the decision of the house and senate, they are also interfering with a cause that is irrelevant to what they stand for. The final decision should rest in the hands of the house and the senate in congress, not an interest group.
Faris Sanjakdar
4th period
I personally think that the NRA should not be this involved in the House’s voting of the D.C. Voting Rights bill. It was the House’s intention to pass the bill clean, and have the Conference committee work out the gun amendment. The Rules committee was under no circumstances going to pass a waver allowing the House to vote on a bill with this nongermane amendment. The members were in no way supposed to be concerning themselves with the gun amendment; hence the NRA should not have announced the scoring of this vote. They cannot take a bill solely focused on voting rights and influence the public into thinking that those voting for it were anti-gun. The NRA is doing too much twisting and bending of words. What they are claiming cannot be considered legit, although to some people it is. I would have accepted their involvement only if the Rules committee had decided to pass a waver. But they did not. So they NRA should not have gotten involved.
Sandra McCartin
3rd Period
After reading the articles, it's surprising to see how much power the NRA has. I can't help but wonder if the NRA had not gotten involved in this particular bill at all, then the bill would have passed quickly without question. But after the NRA pointed out that giving DC the voting right would also limit gun control, it seems like a lot of the Republicans in Congress just hopped on the bandwagon. If the NRA hadn't pointed that out, would the Republican party have even noticed?
I think that the NRA getting involved was a bad thing, but I can't blame them for standing up for what they believe in. They may be pushing it too far, and need to back off, but this just proves that they are very passionate about the bill and what it will to do American gun-loving citizens.
Megan Gottfried
4th period
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