OPINION | Chris McCarthy: Your Neighbor is the NRA

When people call the National Rifle Association “murderers” they are calling law-abiding American citizens across our country child killers.

The truth is coming out about the failures of the FBI and the Broward County Sheriff to prevent the latest school shooting. The Superintendent of Schools in Broward County is also at fault because he left the children vulnerable to attack when he decided not to put a common sense protection system in place.

The sheriff and the superintendent were calling for gun control and blaming the federal government for the massacre while the dead children were still at the morgue. They zeroed in on the NRA as the reason for the children they were paid weekly to protect were dead.

The NRA is one of America’s oldest civil rights organizations. The National Rifle Association has done more to protect children with their firearms education program than any of the politicians now calling them “killers” have ever done. The NRA is a volunteer organization of Americans who believe in freedom and understand the unique history of our Republic.

The listening audience of WBSM radio in southeastern Massachusetts is a great example of the broad support the National Rifle Association has in our country. The number of individuals with a gun license in Massachusetts communities is not public information. However, a review of the number of firearm clubs and ranges in the area demonstrates the NRA is in fact composed of our friends and neighbors.

Not all firearm owners regularly practice shooting their weapon. But most of those gun owners who do enjoy regular target shooting must do so at a licensed gun range in Massachusetts. It takes a significant number of members to keep a gun range operating given the costs of insurance and maintaining the facilities.

Bristol County has 10 NRA affiliated gun ranges. Barnstable County also has 10 gun clubs affiliated with them. Plymouth County also has 10 gun clubs with a connection to the NRA. The statistics I used are from the Gun Owners Action League of Massachusetts.

There are 30 gun ranges in southeastern Massachusetts. All of these clubs are supported by the members who can only belong because they have passed a background check and are in high standing with their chief of police and therefore have a license to own a firearm. These gun owners are some of our best Americans and they don’t deserve to be blamed for the failures of the Broward County school system and the related sheriff.

If Massachusetts has so many NRA members and gun owners image what the states that don’t elect the likes of Edward Kennedy, Elizabeth Warren and Maureen Healey have for supporters. The NRA is America and the NRA is your neighbor. Do you think your neighbor is a supporter of murder?

Editor’s Note: Chris McCarthy is the host of The Chris McCarthy Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard weekdays from 10 a.m.-Noon. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.