NRA

Without doubt, the gun rights lobby is a formidable force. It is backed by a truly grass-roots network of committed and well-organized supporters who are willing to make calls to legislators and turn out in even low-turnout elections to back pro-gun candidates. This “intensity gap” bedevils gun-control groups, which, however well some of their proposals poll, have trouble getting voters to agitate and to prioritize the gun issue the way that gun-rights defenders do.

Sad (ironic?) LOL of the week: An "open carry" gun enthusiast has his gun stolen by gunpoint by a man who saw and "liked" his pistol.

Aurora, Colorado, was the setting two summers ago of the horrific movie theater that made national headlines. It is also home to high-level everyday gun violence. Aurora has a 4 percent higher murder rate than does the country at large. Yet, its stance on gun rights and restrictions is nuanced (and often confused). Just don't tell that to the NRA, which is blanketing the city with Mike Coffman for Congress mailers.

​After the passage of gun safety bills in the Colorado legislature last year, Republicans and their gun lobby allies predicted, we'd even go as far as say hoped for, a crippling boycott of the state's vital tourism industry. This prediction quickly proved unfounded, as the most likely indicator of a boycott by pro-gun tourists — a reduction in hunting licenses — didn't take place. That isn't the only set of numbers showing an explosion in the state's tourism.

How do conservatives get the number of school shooting down from 74 to just 15? It's all elementary math, whether bullets are flying around the classroom or not. So what happened to the other 59 additional shootings that were previously reported? Only an honor student killing himself in front of a class or a principal getting murdered by her an ex-husband. Gang violence or drug-related shootings don't count either.

Christopher Michael-Martinez was one of the 7 killed by Elliot Rodger, the UCSB student who went on a mass-murdering rampage this past week. Richard Martinez has made a heartfelt call for something to be done...

Cliff Schecter joins "The Majority Report" to talk his visit to the NRA convention, why crazy new gun laws in Georgia empowers crazy people, a mass shooting in a "must carry" town in Georgia, crime keeps going down in contrast to NRA fear mongering, the horrifying arsenals on sale at the NRA convention, a Maryland gun dealer gets death threats for trying to sell a "smart" gun, and why the gun companies want criminals to have access to guns.

A Georgia man terrifies a Little League game with a gun and it's all legal thanks to Georgia's new insane gun law. What's wrong with bringing guns into bars, churches or public parks?

Federal funding for research on gun violence has been restricted for nearly two decades. President Obama urged Congress to allocate $10 million for new research after the Newtown school shooting. But House Republicans say they won't approve it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's budget still lists zero dollars for research on gun violence prevention. One of the researchers who lost funding in the political battle over studying firearms was Dr. Garen Wintemute, one of only a dozen researchers across the country who have continued to focus full-time on firearms violence.

Democratic worries about this November's elections, a lack of Senate votes and House opposition are forcing congressional gun-control supporters to significantly winnow their 2014 agenda, a year after lawmakers scuttled President Barack Obama's effort to pass new curbs on firearms. But with Reid wary of exposing Democratic senators facing tight re-election contests in some conservative and Western states to politically risky votes people aren't holding their breath waiting for proposed gun restrictions to reach the Senate floor before Election Day.