Keith Olbermann Calls the NRA 'a Terrorist Organization'

Keith Olbermann, probably the only person ever fired from MSNBC for being too radical, cited former Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger and claimed that the Second Amendment doesn’t guarantee people’s right to own guns. He actually argued that, based in part on the amendment’s “militia” language, the Framers had intended for it to be a gun-control measure. He said it was meant to limit our access to firearms, not enable it. “The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed…”

He says the Framers didn’t know that there would be a firearm capable of attacking so many people when they authored the amendment. But they also didn’t envision Keith Olbermann spouting nonsense on a thing called the internet when they wrote the First Amendment. Because he can reach more people with his partisan dialogue, does that mean it should be banned now too? The entire Bill of Rights was designed to guarantee our God-given inherent rights. That means the Framers thought they would remain inherent for perpetuity. It shouldn’t matter how the tools evolve, the rights stay the same.

But Olbermann didn’t even stop there. He said that the National Rifle Association is “a terrorist organization.” This from a person who literally calls his video series “The Resistance.” To say the NRA is a terrorist group is to say that the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers is a pro-DUI organization. The NRA explicitly demands that no violence be perpetrated, just as the automotive industry demands that nobody drive cars while intoxicated. Olbermann still refuses to stop blaming the tool, rather than the individual.

Do I think we could have a national discussion about gun safety? Sure. Do I think it might even be sensible to make some restrictions on gun ownership? Maybe. But Olbermann doesn’t get to appoint himself as the arbitrator of what rights are actually guaranteed by the Constitution, and he doesn’t get to lambast a free-thinking organization as terrorists. I do agree with him on one point though, that people like the Las Vegas shooter should be classified as terrorists. Whether or not he had a political motive in mind, I still think he was a domestic terrorist. Killing people with the sole purpose of slaughtering them is terrorism. Period. The NRA doesn’t do that, sir.