NRA keeps spotlight and accountability off the gun industry

>> that add was paid for how over reluctantly by the tobacco industry . the famous add was part of the legal settlement by companies paid out from harm done over those product.

>> they tried and failed to stay out of the debate over those products. they made up a fake group with talkshow host morton downey , junior a talkshow host . their heat shield failed to shield them. and they were forced to change. so it didn't work for them. trying that at a strategy makes some sense. if your profits depend on the continued and increased sales on something that kills americans the strategy of having someone else stand up for you is not dumb. that can work and here is what it looks like when it works.

>> wayne lapierre of the national rifle association testifying after the shootings of sandy hook massacre. it is the same strategy, it is the same tactic. the modern national rifle association is the tool to take the heat so that the companies themselves don't have to. consider the names like berretta and winchester and on and on. the nra represents itself as a grass roots group standing up for gun owner's rights. funded by the industry that makes gun owners rights to be argued by somebody other than themselves. they put them up there so that they don't have to be the source of the argument so that gun sales don't have to be restrict restricted in anyway. and they are put out there to take the attention so that the industry doesn't have to. since december 14th , the shootings at sandy hook elementary school the industry that makes those guns has been in visible. but they are out there by design. their strategy is working. it is the same that was used by the tobacco industry then.

>> the alliance existed for one purpose to defend the freedoms of 50 adult americans who choose to smoke.

>> it is on behalf of those millions of descent hard working law-abiding citizens that i'm here to give voice to how it works. we will not be demonized.

>> 50 million individual citizens and taxpayers whose relationship with the tobacco industry consists of purchasing a legal product.

>> the in curses on their rights have gone far enough.

>> leave the law abiding people alone.

>> the new taxes on cigarettes.

>> we are going to have a regulation on that. what they are serious about is banning, taxing and taking what they want. we have over a million members. we are nearly five million strong

>> one of the comments i hear most commonly is i don't smoke but i think it has gone far enough and i'm very concerned about this trend and i think that smokers have rights.

>> the vastmajority don't have the right to take that right away.

>> what the industry tried and failed is the same thing that the gun industry is doing to us right now. only now the industry is succeed succeeding. as congress moves forward with what they believe can be done or can be considered, what is on that list? making gun trafficking a federal offense that passed today in the senate. also funding schools to up grade the school measures and universal background checks and a ban on some specific military style weapons. that is the agenda right? one of the ways you know that the strategy is working, one of the ways you know that is working is that what is not on congress's rather modest list is how to reform gun laws is anything at all about the companies that sell guns. cigarettes kill people right? the toebacco companies god sgot sued and them lying about it. the products got regulated and the companies paid big time and those companies are focused on how many chinese people they can get smoking because it is a harder sell here.

>> the gun companies cannot be sued for that. congress in 2005 passed a specific law to give gun companies immunity for lawsuits for how they're products get used. that is not on the agenda to get discussed? however he talks about protecting your family at the end of the world the fight against gun reform is about the gun makers fun the s fund the mra. it is all about protecting the gun makers from becoming the foe k cus themselves. the court is very important. the nominee is named caitlin halligan and is widely seen as qualified for the job. this is why they blocked the nomination. quoting senate republicans, in new york versus sterman ruger miz halligan argued to uses of hand gun used in the tate. attempting to hold gun manufacturers liable. they will not be held liable for the products they sell and they will not argue that publicly. they have the nra to do it for them and they stay in the shadows. at bottom this is them protecting themselves. it is heat shield politics and they got held accountable and the country changed because of it. and more americans are alive because of it. and they are not being held accountable so far. but maybe that can change. now it is time for the last boa word with lawrence