NRA ad militaristic, self-shaming

The National Rifle Association is making itself an easy target.

A month after the Newtown, Conn., shooting, the gun rights organization’s latest campaign involves attacking President Barack Obama as an “elitist hypocrite.”

The attack ad was released a few days ago, along with an iPad and iPhone application that lets users 4-and-up practice firing guns at coffin-shaped targets.

Come on, NRA.

According to the video, the president is hypocritical for allowing armed guards to protect his daughters Sasha and Malia, while criticizing the idea of armed guards in public schools.

This seems like a no-brainer, but the Secret Service protecting political targets is different from gun-wielding civilians protecting schools.

The video is a self-parody fit for “SNL” and The Onion. A gravelly voice strings together an argument that somehow manages to ramble in just 36 seconds.

“Mr. Obama demands the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes. But he is just another elitist hypocrite when it comes to a fair share of security.”

Seriously?

My favorite moment shows Obama’s glaring visage obscured by a pile of spinning, computer-generated $100 bills.

Then an Avengers-style team of elitist hypocrites and Democrat higher-ups is shown defended by military black ops soldiers.

The video seems like an unfocused effort by the NRA to once again align Obama with anti-gun, anti-American sentiment.

But, the conversation about gun rights shouldn’t be about Obama or the deep rift in American partisan politics.

I don’t want to pick on the NRA here for being militaristic lunatics caught up in the nationalist violence of abstract masculinity. I want to pick on the NRA for making a video that diverts attention from what guns can do.

Still, an angry video this bizarre makes sense in the wake of violence.

It was disarming to see the all-too-familiar sight of crying parents and cop cars outside a school. The sense of impending political fallout is maybe even more familiar.

So, we get attack ads. We get desperate defenses of gun rights.

I just wonder if we can conceive of this conversation outside of party lines. It seems obvious to me that guns won’t reduce gun violence, sacrosanct Constitutional freedoms be damned.

Funnily enough, gun advocates might have gotten worked up about nothing.

Obama’s not even doing that much. He abused his executive power by acting like the president to pass legislation that calls for states to better share background check information, provides incentives for public schools to hire police officers and begins a nationwide campaign about gun safety.

The proposed congressional actions seem just as dubious — reducing the number of rounds allowed per magazine, reinstating a ban on assault weapons and deploying more police officers on the ground.

The muted response of gun advocates to this legislation seems a fitting counterpoint to the perfect mockery the NRA made of the situation.

Maybe it’s a sign this step in the right direction was a little more like standing still.

­— ptbeane@indiana.edu